The full panel of the Supreme Court has fired a Justice of the Peace and suspended two judges for 30 days without pay for serious errors in office. They are Ennio Nicolas Diaz Lopez, the Justice of the Peace in Villa Vasquez and Miguel de Jesus Arache Urena, judge of the Third Court of Instruction of the Judicial District of Santiago.
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The judgment does not specify the errors.
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An alleged criminal is close to death after suffering burns, bullet wounds, knife wounds, blunt force trauma and stoning by a furious mob in the Las Coqueras section of San Cristobal. Local residents say that the victim was caught after entering a house and taking appliances worth thousands of pesos. The man, who is thought to be about 24 years old, has still not been identified according to reports. He is said to have shot at residents of the Canastica sector on Kilometer 2 of the Sanchez Highway and when his bullets ran out the mob tied him up with a rope, shot him, threw concrete blocks and hit him with sticks and clubs. Before he was rescued by a police patrol, the man endured the attack for three hours. His assailants even pushed his limp body around in a wheelbarrow for several blocks, prior to his being taken to [...]
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The PRD’s participation in the Summit for National Unity convened by President Leonel Fernandez and inaugurated yesterday, remains in limbo after the second postponement of the meeting where the party’s political commission was scheduled to discuss the issue. Reporters from Diario Libre said that the reasons for the suspension swing between heaven, trying to gain a consensus that defines the party’s position on the summit, according to party president, and hell with accusations of political irresponsibility from the group led by former presidential candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado.
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Ramon Alburquerque reassured reporters that the cancellation of the meeting came about due to a lack of a consensus and harmony. In a radio interview he said, We party leaders have the obligation to hold constructive meetings, when we see that there is no consensus on a sensitive issue, we postpone it as many times as necessary.
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Listin Diario reports that [...]
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The two top executives of the government electricity sector have dismissed the idea that the government is planning to take control of the Ede-Este company that distributes electricity in the eastern part of the country. Blair Thomas, CEO of EDE-Este, publicly complained about this in the press yesterday. However, the superintendent of electricity, Francisco Mendez, and the executive vice-president of the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electricity Enterprises (CDEEE) Radhames Segura, said that they were surprised by the comments made by Blair Thomas.
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In a paid advertisement published in national newspapers yesterday and addressed to President Fernandez, Ede-Este president Blair Thomas said that during an arbitration hearing initiated by Ede-Este at the International Chamber of Commerce, the lead lawyer for the Dominican government announced that the state intended to unilaterally take control of Ede-Este.
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Mendez asked Blair Thomas yesterday not to judge President Fernandez’s administration by words, but rather [...]
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Financial analyst Alejandro Fernandez Whipple makes an important point in a contribution to today’s Diario Libre on how pension plan savings by Dominicans have been invested in government securities.
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Money belonging to Dominican workers is being invested to sustain government deficits, contributing very little to the creation of value in the Dominican economy, he points out. He said that the government instead needs to reduce its spending.
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According to Fernandez, of the RD$44 billion in the accounts administered by the pension plan companies (AFPs), as of September 2008 more than half (47%) or RD$20 billion is invested in financial instruments issued by the Central Bank, the governmental Banco de Reservas and the Banco Nacional de la Vivienda. Other complementary funds add on another RD$8 billion, for RD$28 billion in the hands of government entities. He expects the figure to have increased 30% by now. In the last three [...]
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Diario Libre online carries the intriguing news that the plane that disappeared with pilot Adriano Jimenez and 11 passengers on board in December is back at Santiago’s Cibao International Airport. What is curious about the case is that the airplane returned to the Cibao International Airport and there is no news on the passengers or the pilot, says the news story. It makes the point that Santiago prosecution officer Yenny Berenice Reynoso, who is in charge of investigations into the flight that disappeared last 15 December said she could not speak to the press about the case, since it is a very complicated investigation. Pilot Adriano Jimenez Henriquez had filed a plan to fly to Mayaguana in the Bahamas but after landing in the Turks Caicos he reported an emergency, and was not heard of again. Diario Libre reports that despite rumors that the owner of the plane was [...]
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The Dominican government has launched its new tourism promotion campaign: The Dominican Republic: It Has Everything at the leading Spanish travel trade fair, Fitur. The campaign aims to make tourists aware that the DR is a complete destination with more than just beaches and sunshine, also offering adventure, ecotourism and culture. The effects of the global financial crisis are being felt at the 29th International Tourism Fair.
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News reports indicate that exhibitors have booked 13% less space and there is an 18% drop in participating businesses. Of 13,530 participants last year, there are 2,400 fewer this year.
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The DR is taking part with a 250 square meter stand decorated in tropical colors. Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia announced that the inexhaustible campaign used over the past four years was exhausted. He said that the bold new international advertising campaign seeks to let the world know that the only [...]
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The government and hundreds of business, political and social groups opened debates yesterday at the Summit for National Unity Facing the World Crisis, with renewed hope that agreements would be acted upon. The President led the inauguration of the dialogue whose full sessions should end on 17 February, with some concrete plans of action to solve the most urgent national problems and shield the country from the worst effects of the world financial and economic debacle.
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In his keynote speech, President Fernandez joined the other voices that called for the summit to avoid coming up empty as he pointed out today’s act cannot just remain as a symbolic opening ceremony, but rather it should lead to a systematic coordination until the crisis is over. With this in mind, he favored the creation of a public and private alliance to provide continuous coordination and follow up that will allow everyone [...]
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President Leonel Fernandez has announced he will compromise with business groups and other sectors that have asked Congress to put the writing of a new Constitution on hold until after the summit debates currently under way. During the opening of the summit at the Santo Domingo Hilton, Fernandez said that the chambers should meet in the Constitutional Review Assembly and give it a start. He said there is still time within the terms established by the Constitution for the approval to happen after the first phase of the talks that end on 21 February. He is adding the eight working days after the passing or veto plus 15 for publishing the bill, as reported in Diario Libre. The Chamber of Deputies has pending to pass a second reading on the bill that would open the floor to the constitutional discussions, since the Senate has already given the talks the green [...]
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Enrique V. Iglesias, former president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), said yesterday that one of the greatest challenges facing Latin America at this time is to avoid losing the advances in economic growth achieved over the past 20 years, especially when it comes to stability and social improvements, as reported in Hoy. He also encouraged the government to continue implementing pending reforms and the modernization of the state.
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Iglesias was speaking during the opening ceremony of the national summit convened by President Leonel Fernandez.
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Iglesias said that until the global financial sector stabilizes, no measure would be effective to resolve the present crisis.
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He pointed out that the financial collapse has even brought down risk assessment agencies that used to forecast market failures. He said that the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations should take on credit lines that are more flexible and entail fewer [...]
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