2004 – Page 136

Colonel Pascual Cruz Mendez, the director of operations at the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET), told El Caribe newspaper that they are finishing up road signage in the area of Independence Park to facilitate pedestrian crossings and reduce accidents. The streets that border the park and Conde Gate were adequately painted to indicate to those on …

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Behind the Metropolitan Transport Authority?s campaign to remove junk vehicles from city streets is a contract with the Spanish company Prada Dominicana. AMET is picking up the junk and depositing it at the former dog race track, Canodromo, where it is being compacted for export to Spain and transhipment to Japan, Korea and China. German …

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Greenpeace Spain is asking Globalia, the owner of Air Europa, Travelplan, Halcon Viajes and Viajes Ecuador ? all leading travel companies in Spain ? to reconsider the construction of a resort on land within the National Park of the East. President Hipolito Mejia authorized the construction of the property by decree, but environmentalists, tourism industry …

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El Caribe newspaper focuses today on the struggle of the Centro de Investigacion del Nordeste (Ciden) regarding the installation of a private shipyard named Megayacht Marina, to repair ships in the Punta Presidente area of Manzanillo Bay (province of Monte Cristi on the country?s Northwestern Coast). Guarionex Luperon, the executive director of Ciden, has requested …

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International news reports are saying that controversial US boxer Mike Tyson has a Dominican girlfriend. El Nacional newspaper?s online edition reported that he traveled with an unnamed Dominican woman to Honolulu, Hawaii to celebrate his 38th birthday. The newspaper speculates that she may have a calming effect on the boxer, and by serving him ?mangu? …

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An update in the Norwich Bulletin out of Connecticut says that Utopia Studios may go ahead with their proposed Connecticut investment and another for the DR that was reported in DR1 daily news yesterday. Company chief executive Joseph Gentile had met with President-elect Leonel Fernandez to discuss building a movie studio and resort complex in …

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President-elect Leonel Fernandez during his first term in government (1996-2000) oversaw the privatization of the operations of the leading government-owned airports to spare the government from having to fund the needed expansion of these. Only the small Herrera airport located inside Santo Domingo was not privatized. But then, nearing the end of his administration, in …

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Given the difficulties in offering minimal care to patients attending the 23 hospitals of the Dominican Social Security Institute, medics announced they are indefinitely suspending their services at these centers. The physicians, nurses, lab technicians, psychologists, dentists and even administrative staff said that the public hospitals are in a state of emergency for lack of …

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The transitory laws that instated an additional 2% on imports and a 5% tax on exports expire today, 1 July. The taxes were to be in effect for six months. The taxes are estimated to have produced RD$30 billion for the government over the first six months of the year. Hoy newspaper says that several …

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Political commentator Orlando Gil of the Listin Diario says that President Hipolito Mejia has already begun to violate the agreements made during the PUCMM summit sponsored by visiting Spanish politician Felipe Gonzalez and Monsignor Agripino Nunez. He mentions that while the government has given lip service to supporting the change of hands in government, in …

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