2006 – Page 52

President Leonel Fernandez, members of the constitutional reform team, and experts on constitutional reform met in San Cristobal on 6 November, Constitution Day, to discuss the topic in depth. The President highlighted the need to reform the Magna Carta in order to adapt it to today’s world. Fernandez said that the country has an unprecedented …

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The Dominican Republic is doing its bit to help the environment by reporting a 49% decrease in the importation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a gas that contributes to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. Environment Minister Max Puig said that there has been a 13% reduction in the importation of damaging chemicals in 2006 thanks …

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Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Ligia Amada Melo has said that because of the stoppages at the state UASD University the semester might have to be extended to compensate for the loss of school hours, as reported in the Listin Diario. The UASD’s administration and professors have been caught in a battle lasting almost …

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Gradual reductions in taxes approved earlier this year when the tax levels were raised from 25 to 30%, and the tax on financial transactions, pegged at 0.15%, will not be removed or changed as had been planned, Diario Libre reports in an advance on the new fiscal reform that will be presented to President Fernandez …

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Eighteen people, including the director, deputy director, and head of information technology at the Ministry of Finance’s Pensions Department have been dismissed for their involvement in a pension theft scheme worth over RD$50 million. The mafia stole pensions that were being paid to dead people, people who didn’t claim their pensions, or people who had …

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In her opinion column in today’s Diario Libre, award-winning journalist Ines Aizpun writes: “El Nacional newspaper calls them ‘the owners of the country’ and the rest, at last, have stopped referring to them as union members. They are the transport entrepreneurs, a powerful group that subjects their users to the most degrading of situations. And …

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Between January and October this year 328 entry visas to the US and Europe were found in the hands of Dominican and Haitians who tried to fly to the British Virgin Islands on Liat and Air Caribe airlines. The Virgin Islands has become a jump off point for people trying to reach the European continent …

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The proposed renegotiation of the energy contracts would only decrease the cost of energy by 2 (US) cents per kilowatt/hour, and that cost reduction would only continue for the first few years of the new contracts. The report by the Energy Cabinet, “Integrated Plan for the Energy Sector,” points out that the best option for …

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The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), launched on Monday, 6 November by Transparency International (TI), ranks the DR as 19th out of 28 Latin American states and 99th of 163 countries. The report reveals that the perception of corruption in the country has increased over 2005 (85th) and 2004 (87th). The index results point to …

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Police in Bonao are investigating an attack in which two young Taiwanese citizens were killed and four others injured at a farm on the 79th kilometer of the Duarte Highway. Twelve people have been detained in connection with the murders as police have searched in the surrounding towns for the suspected assailants. The bodies of …

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