2008 – Page 298

The Central Electoral Board has sent the voting register for the 2008 elections to all the political parties. In all, 5,764,986 people are registered to vote. Listin Diario explains that 6,781 people were removed from the register because they joined the armed forces. This is up from 5,369,064 Dominicans eligble to vote as of the …

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Supreme Court chief justice, Jorge Subero Isa, has rejected a call made by the Chief of Police for life sentences to be added to the list of sentencing guidelines available to magistrates under the Code of Penal Procedures now under review in the legislature. Subero Isa told reporters from Listin Diario that life sentences were …

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While Dr. Bautista Rojas Gomez, Minister of Public Health, and Dr. Waldo Ariel Suero, the president of the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) agree that they should talk, and that they will meet wherever necessary, neither of the two has taken any steps to halt the strike called for tomorrow in public hospitals and Social Security …

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The Specialized Frontier Security Corps, Cesfront, was reinforced yesterday with units from the Hunter Battalion in Constanza, and from the Training School in San Isidro. These units will be used to strengthen patrols along the border where recent cattle rustling led to kidnappings and an increase in tension. The new units were posted to places …

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Agriculture Minister Salvador Jimenez is assuring the public that the authorities are handling the registered cases of bird flu correctly and that the DR is negotiating with Venezuela and other countries as possible new markets for Dominican chickens. Jimenez says that the DR has had an epidemiological monitoring system in place since 2005 in order …

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The Haitian ban on Dominican chicken imports and fears of bird flu has caused the price of chickens to plummet. Hoy writes that the price of a pound of chicken has dropped from RD$14.95 to RD$13.50 in the past week. Meanwhile, egg prices have gone from RD$2.50 to RD$1.50. Jose Lopez, president of the Chicken …

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Tourism Police (Politur) Officers did their jobs yesterday as they halted a robbery on a Vimenca currency exchange house in Bayahibe, near La Romana. Two robbers were caught in the act as they tried to haul away cash and other objects. The police found RD$66,820 EUR4,800 and US$160.00 on the robbers, plus a revolver and …

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The streets and avenues of Santo Domingo are becoming parking lots with traffic tie-ups becoming the norm. According to El Caribe, the causes include street repairs, a lack of working traffic lights and an increase in political activities throughout the city. All the city’s major thoroughfares are plagued with these inconveniences: Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, …

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Dominicans spend about 1.2 billion minutes on the phone each year, and they spend RD$42 billion doing it. Of course, the government is happy, since they receive RD$3.866 billion in taxes from the phone companies. In total, there are three taxes on phone calls. There is the 16% VAT (ITBIS), the 10% Selective tax, and …

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The Emergency Operations Center (COE) has issued a Green alert for small craft due to high winds and strong waves. These are being caused by two high-pressure ridges, one over the Atlantic and the other to the west of Cuba. Four to seven-foot waves and winds up to 22 knots are expected off the eastern …

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