2011 – Page 83

Italy has eliminated the DR Youth Volleyball’s chances of making the semi-finals again. In 2009, the DR team reached the final against Germany. The DR team lost to Italy 25-19, 25-22, 20-25 and 25-20 last night in Peru. www.fivb.org/EN/Volleyball/Competitions/Junior/Women/2011/viewPressRelease.asp?No=30769&Language=en

The capital city’s Merengue Festival is scheduled this year for Friday 29 July to Sunday 31 July at the Plaza Juan Baron Fajardo on the Malecon in Santo Domingo. This year the festival will be a tribute to the renowned merengue bandleaders of the 1980s, with the participation of leading merengue legends. The event is …

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President Leonel Fernandez has instructed government departments to expedite the issue of permits to natural gas-vending stations to encourage more vehicle owners to invest in converting their vehicles to the clean, efficient and lower-costing fuel. At a meeting at the Ministry of Environment yesterday, President Fernandez instructed Environment Minister Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal and Industry …

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The Ministry of Foreign Relations has recognized the work carried out to strengthen trade and friendship relations by the ambassadors of Germany (Christian Germann), Spain (Diego Bermejo Romero de Terreros) and France (Roland Dubertrand) during their posts in the Dominican Republic. The ambassadors received the decoration of the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and …

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Customs (DGA) director Rafael Camilo announced record collections for the government department in the first half of the year, as reported in Hoy. He said collections were up more than RD$3 billion in the first half of the year. While the estimate for collections was RD$32 billion, revenues have reached RD$35 billion. Camilo attributed the …

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The Department of Taxes (DGII) announced that revenues for the first five months of the year are up 10.8% compared to the same period last year. Revenues were RD$113.3 billion for the period, compared to RD$102.30 billion for last year.

First Lady Margarita Cedeno inaugurated the country’s first breast milk bank at the Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital yesterday. The hospital is the largest of its kind in the country. The new center will collect and store breast milk from human donors. The milk will be pasteurized and refrigerated for future use. First …

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A First Educational Monitoring Study released by the Socio-Educational Forum indicates that the Dominican government has cut short the education sector through 2011 by RD$312 billion. In 1999, Congress passed a bill ruling that 4% of GDP had to be allocated to the education sector. The study established that in the past 20 years, the …

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A study on cargo transport in Santo Domingo proposes that trucking operations should be limited to the evenings. The study for the National District City Government (ADN) by architect Pedro Mena and engineer Jhael Isa says that the critical situation of traffic in the city affects workers, students and those seeking leisure alike. As reported …

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The president of the National Hotel & Tourism Association (Asonahores) is attributing the decline in the pace of tourist arrivals to the Dominican Republic to a reduced promotional budget by the Ministry of Tourism and to rising aviation fuel prices at local airports. Llibre said that tourism is growing 3.5% a year in the DR …

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