2011 – Page 262

The DR1 news digest will not be updated tomorrow or Monday on the occasion of the Three Kings long weekend. Three Kings Day is traditionally celebrated on 6 January, but this year the government moved the holiday to Monday, 10 January, creating a long weekend. Headline-making stories happening over the four-day break will be compiled …

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These are the best of days for deserving university students. The Ministry of Education under President Leonel Fernandez has given priority to awarding costly scholarships so that Dominicans can undergo further studies abroad. The Ministry of Higher Education (MESCyT) announced that in 2011 1,000 students would study abroad, a RD$700 million investment in their future. …

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Members of the Coalition for Dignified Education announced that every 4th of the month they would unfold the symbolic yellow umbrellas on the esplanade of the Government Offices facing the Presidential Palace as a reminder to the Presidency of its failure to comply with Law 66-97 that orders the government to allocate 4% of GDP …

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The provincial offices of senators, almost all representatives of the ruling PLD party, are busy at work collecting signatures for the request for the referendum that would be used to enable President Leonel Fernandez to override the 2010 Constitution. Art. 124 of the Constitution bans presidential re-election. As reported in Hoy, the senator for Hermananas …

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In a page 2 editorial comment today, Diario Libre editor Ines Aizpun writes about the efforts to push forward a referendum to allow President Leonel Fernandez to run again for the ruling party in the 2012 presidential election. The 2010 Constitution bans consecutive presidential election. “Two million signatures is lots of signatures. And also, if …

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In his column in today’s El Caribe, journalist Miguel Guerrero analyzes the efforts to promote President Leonel Fernandez’s aspirations to another term in government. Guerrero says that the movement that seeks to keep the President in power beyond this term that expires on 16 August “is demented, from any angle that it is looked at …

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Engineer Hiddekel Morrison, technology writer in Diario Libre, reports that an efficient 911 line system would cost well less than US$1 million. Yesterday Diario Libre reported that the Ministry of Interior & Police would be taking on a US$29.5 million loan to equip an efficient 911 service. Morrison questions the budget and says that an …

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The Ministry of Agriculture is reminding Dominicans returning to the US after the holidays about the popular products they should not pack in their luggage. These are: ham, pork sausages and other products (longaniza, chicharrones, chorizo, salchichon), so-called pasteles en hoja and patties. Likewise fruits and vegetables such as mango, guavas, passion fruit, zapotes, or …

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The Department of Prisons has fired the director of the Najayo Jail, Leoncio Made after he allowed prisoners to celebrate the New Year holiday. Online news portal ensegundos.net showed photos of Juan Jose Fernandez Ibarra, Ivanovich Smester Ginebra and Sammy Dauhajre celebrating in their cell in Najayo with New Year party hats and alcoholic drinks. …

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A clandestine shipment of fine champagne and whisky was discovered when a shipment was inspected on suspicion of containing drugs. The contraband was discovered by customs and anti-drug agents at the Caucedo Multimodal Port during the routine X-ray check, as reported in El Dia. Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo was present when the freight container …

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