2011 – Page 216

CNN en Espanol star journalist Patricia Janiot is in Santo Domingo to promote the Innovadores de America Prize. The award seeks to recognize innovative Latin American projects that have changed the world. The focus is on social development, entrepreneurial, cultural and scientific projects that through great creativity and effort have helped make a better world. …

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Investigative journalist Alicia Ortega, who has gained recognition for her TV reports exposing corruption in government, has been named Woman of the Year 2010 in the Diario Libre Awards. Neurosurgeon Jose Joaquin Puello was named Man of the Year. Ortega directs the Noticias SIN news program and is prepares the weekly investigative news show, El …

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The Luperon Plaza branch of the large La Sirena department store had to close yesterday afternoon after a blaze at around 5pm caused significant damages at the store. 15 firefighting units worked to put out the fire. Traffic was closed off. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The Police are on the trail of Carlos David Garcia Rojas, a fugitive construction company messenger who disappeared after cashing a company check for RD$5.5 million. He had been instructed to deposit the money into the company bank account. A bank video, nevertheless, shows Garcia leaving the bank without carrying out the order. Now Police …

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World famous architect Shohei Shigematsu is in Santo Domingo for lectures and to lead a group of Columbia University architecture students who will be looking into the Sans Souci and Costa Blanca residential and touristic developments in the Province of Santo Domingo and making recommendations. Speaking at a lecture sponsored by the UNPHU School of …

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Teatro Las Mascaras presents “Let’s Do It Standing Up” (Vamos Hacerlo Parados) with Josema Rodriguez and Patricia Munoz, nominated for best actress in the Casandra Awards. The play will be staged on Thursdays at 8:30pm at the small theater house on Calle Arzobispo Portes in Santo Domingo’s Colonial City. Another play, Las Locas del Bingo …

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One of the most highly rated contemporary artists working in the DR, Fernando Varela, is showing his work in a 15-piece exhibition at Casa de Italia in Santo Domingo’s Colonial City. The exhibition is a benefit for the Fundacion Perpetuo Socorro. The exhibition, Caribes, pays homage to the region, with plays on the flora, voluptuous …

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President Leonel Fernandez reshuffled several cabinet members yesterday, and left some officers without government jobs. The changes also affected the Navy Chief of Staff, some Army posts and several National Police departments. In Decree 90-11, Fernandez appointed Josefina Pimentel as the new Minister of Education, replacing the controversial Melanio Paredes. Pimentel was the director of …

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The ruling PLD party has backed down from its position and accepted the proposal by the opposition PRD that allowed the Chamber of Deputies to pass the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court in an urgent vote, establishing the obligatory retirement of the judges at 75, same as for the Supreme Court of Justice. The …

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The government ended 2010 with a fiscal deficit of RD$9.9 billion, according to reports from the Budget Director for the period of January to December. The deficit closed at RD$53.6 billion, but the level agreed on with the International Monetary Fund was RD$43.7 billion. According to economists Bernardo Fuentes, Henri Hebrard and Bernardo Vega, there …

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