2006 – Page 302

A group of 78 Dominican ex-convicts, including physician Pedro Rafael Gonzalez Pantaleon, arrived in Santo Domingo yesterday after they were deported from the US. They flew in on a DC-9 aircraft rented by the US Department of Justice. Gonzalez Pantaleon had been sentenced to five years and six months under Medicare fraud charges. He said …

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The nominees for the 2006 Casandra Awards have just been released. The Casandra Awards honor the best in the performing arts and show business during the year. The winners are selected by voting members of the Asociacion de Cronistas de Arte, the local arts reviewers circle. The event will be held at the National Theater …

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President Leonel Frnandez inaugurated last night the Police computer system that will support the Democratic Security Program in providing safer environments in the heavily populated barrios of Santo Domingo and Santiago. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez blessed the RD$80 million peso project. The program will connect 26 SUVs, 13 cars and more than 20 …

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Emirates Power DR, S.A. was granted the tender to construct the two coal-fired generators that are supposed to produce 1,200 megawatts for the Dominican Republic, and put an end to the continuous blackouts. The CDEEE made the announcement after a 20-hour meeting that started Monday and ended just yesterday. The long and complicated process was …

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Labor Minister Ramon (Monchy) Fadul said yesterday that it has been agreed that only Haitian cane cutters under contract will be allowed this year. The contract will be in Spanish and Creole, and will establish the salary, living and other conditions guaranteed to the worker. The contract also stipulates that once the harvest is over, …

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Finance Minister Vicente Bengoa told reporters that the congressional roadblock that was stalling the approval of the 2006 budget plan was hurting everyone, including the legislature. Bengoa also said that the stalling could also bring problems for the Dominican Republic in its dealings with the International Monetary Fund, because the Letter of Intentions stipulates that …

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After three months of in-fighting, firings, resignations and stagnation, the Central Electoral Board finally was able to restructure the Santiago Election Board by naming well-known television commentator Haime Thomas Frias Carela to the presidency of the board, and businessman Pedro Nicasio, first substitute. Luis Arias, the chief magistrate for the JCE, made the announcement, backed …

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Two Police sergeants assigned to the Department of Criminal Investigation were ambushed and killed while they were on patrol in the La Gloria barrio at Kilometer 18 of the old Duarte Highway. Sergeants Alifonso Moreno and Ramon Antonio Abreu were killed at 8:45 last evening in a dark, isolated area of La Gloria. The crime …

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The case of the stowaways found in St. Maarten, in the Dutch West Indies, is growing more sad by the day. More deaths are suspected among the group that hid beneath a huge load of over one million concrete blocks that were being barged to St. Maarten from Barahona. The rough seas caused the make-shift …

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The communities along the road from La Vega to Moca have decided to make their mark in the mindset of government that has continued to ignore their plight for the main road to be repaired. The community called for 48-hour protests that have turned violent with the downing of electricity poles and burning of tires …

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