2007 – Page 94

The PRSC political party lost long-standing member Eduardo Estrella after he claimed irregularities in the primaries. Now word is out that Juan Luis Seliman, PRSC Secretary of International Relations, and long time PRSC member has announced that he, and his wife Sergia Elena, Organization Secretary, will be leaving the party. They say these are disappointed …

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Reckless driving by a bus driver has led to two UASD students being sent to the Dario Contreras Hospital with serious injuries. Listin Diario writes that Johanny Garcia was taken to intensive care with a pelvic fracture and a leg fracture. Awilda Cuevas was also taken to the hospital with injuries to her clavicle and …

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President Leonel Fernandez tried to help the Dominican tobacco and textile sectors yesterday warning on the damaging effects a proposed US cigar tax bill could have on DR exports and for Dominican flexibility to import textiles from Mexico. Fernandez told US Trade Representative Officer Susan Schwab that the DR needed to source textiles in Mexico …

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Haiti’s former Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has spoken out against what he called an international campaign to discredit the DR, which includes false claims about Haitian immigrants supposedly living in conditions of slavery in the DR, as reported in El Nacional. “We will not allow people with bad intentions to attempt to sabotage the excellent …

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Economy, Planning and Development Minister Temistocles Montas has told reporters that the government will decidee whether or not to continue with the IMF Stand-by arrangement later this year. According to Hoy newspaper, the government will have to analyze the “delicate international situation” before taking a decision about future relations with the IMF. Montas referred to …

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The Public Health and Industry & Commerce ministries made a ruling yesterday aimed at prohibiting the use of potassium bromate in bread made in the DR. They gave traders 30 days to stop adding the substance to bread manufactured in the country. The decision came after a heated press debate on the adverse health effects …

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The World Bank and the Dominican government have signed an agreement under which the bank will lend US$19.4 million towards securing documentation for nearly 400,000 people currently without even so much as a real birth certificate. This paperwork will allow them to access government health benefits and other social programs. The deal was signed by …

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Dominican Medical Association president Enriquillo Matos has asked the government to intervene in four of the largest private health insurance providers (ARS) in the Dominican Republic. Matos said that the companies in question, Humana, Universal, Monumental and SDS are engaging in monopolistic practices which are having an adverse effect on the government’s new Family Health …

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Business and industry leaders are questioning one of the provisos of the recently modified Electricity Law, stipulating that all entities that are granted “non-regulated consumer” status – which purchases electricity directly from the generators-will be subject to a 10% tax on the energy consumed. The basic argument by the business and industrial sector representatives is …

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The plan to establish a set of rules and regulations aimed at controlling political activities in the run-up to an election has been posted on the Central Electoral Board’s website, www.jce.do. According to Adriano Tejada, today’s Diario Libre A.M. editorialist, these are some of the regulations: No asking people not to vote. Corrections must be …

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