News World

The Alternative Social Forum (FSA) will hold a parallel summit to the government’s with an expected 100 social organizations in attendance. The PRD, which is expected to attend the ‘alternative summit, has yet to decide whether it will take part in the government summit and says that it will announce its decision at 4pm. Amparo Chantada, spokesperson for the alternative summit said that nine topics would be discussed, including social investment, the constitutional reform, corruption, crime, energy, impunity, hydrocarbons and natural resources. Chantada also announced that a series of short-term resolutions would be presented on 27 February and that long-term resolutions would be presented on 28 April 2009, in parallel to the governmental summit timetable. Fidel Santana, Foro coordinator, said the separate talks will be held to pressure the government into action.

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

The Chamber of Deputies has passed, after a first reading, the bill that proposes the launch of discussions on the constitutional reform bill presented by President Leonel Fernandez. Of the 126 Deputies present 97 voted in favor while 22 abstained. The PRD block voted against the bill after the six-hour session. Spokesman for PRD Deputies Rudy Gonzalez asked for the bill to be sent to a special commission, but his request was denied. PRSC spokesman Ramon Rogelio Genao said that PRSC Deputies had been instructed to vote in favor of the bill. A second reading now needs to take place. The Senate gave it the go ahead earlier this month. The PLD holds the majority in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and has formed alliances with the PRSC and other minority parties to make up the votes needed to pass the reform.
br
El Caribe newspaper columnist Miguel [...]

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

Journalist Victor Grimaldi has been appointed as Dominican Ambassador to the Holy See through decree 44-09. Grimaldi was a close aide of the founder of the ruling PLD, Juan Bosch for many years. Grimaldi was appointed Comptroller General during the last Joaquin Balaguer administration in 1996. He went on to serve as the DR’s representative at the Organization of American States during the first Fernandez administration. He has published several books on historical topics, is a frequent contributor to Listin Diario, and was producing a TV program at the time of his appointment. He began his journalistic career writing for El Nacional de Ahora in 1969, coincidentally covering the activities of the Catholic Church in the DR.

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

Regional Migration deputy director Juan Isidro Perez says that the government is only issuing identification cards to Haitian farm workers. Perez denied reports that the Migration Department is also giving out work permit cards to construction workers. Perez said the permits are valid for six months and are being issued as a way of determining the number of foreigners working in the DR. Perez says that the Migration department is issuing the permits because the owners of the large farms have been made responsible for their workers.
br
Hoy reports that the idea of documenting Haitian farm workers came after an incident earlier this month when 800 Haitians, mainly laborers, locked themselves in a church for 24 hours because they were not being allowed to get back to their jobs and would be deported back to Haitian. Local parish priest Father Regino Martinez claimed the Haitians were victims of a [...]

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

The multi-sector conference convened by President Leonel Fernandez to discuss national issues in the light of the present global economic crisis begins today amidst a range of expectations and frustrations with previous all-talk and no-action events organized by the government. The Summit for National Unity Facing the World Crisis, also dubbed the Summit of the Live Forces will begin at 9am at the Santo Domingo Hilton.
br
The coordinating committee has announced that the summit would take place in two stages. Seven topics are on the agenda for discussion, including the economy and productivity, social policies and employment, citizen safety, institutional policies, municipal management and the environment, immigration and the border and energy and hydrocarbons. For the formal discussions there are seven designated work groups that will include a representative from each sector and a high-ranking government representative in the corresponding field.
br
The first phase of the summit begins [...]

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

Former presidential candidate Danilo Medina has expressed confidence that President Leonel Fernandez will be forced to adhere to the results of this summit because a failure to do so would mean that the summit had been held to waste time. Medina, who has mostly stayed out of the public eye since 2007 when he moved aside after accusing Fernandez of using government money to buy the party’s primary, stated that the public has a legitimate right to demand that the government implement the results of the summit. Medina, speaking on the radio show El Gobierno de la Manana, and quoted in El Caribe, said that this was a great opportunity to reach a consensus on national problems and that we should make the most of it.

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

Although the Summit organized by the President has received a great deal of media attention in recent weeks, it has emerged that many members of the public have limited knowledge of the summit, its intended goals and many of the summit’s more important details. El Caribe held an unofficial public survey, questioning students, housewives, taxi drivers and vendors in order to assess basic awareness of the summit. The results were surprising. According to housewife Inocencia Salazar La Cumbre (Spanish for summit) is a place between Villa Altagracia and Bonao. Aside from an impromptu geography lesson Salazar said that, this country is full of problems. Student Juan Reyes described the summit as a meeting of many presidents, implying that everyone was a leader and nothing would get done. El Caribe reports that many of the people interviewed asked the journalists to inform them about the conference. Universidad Dominicana student Altagracia Marte [...]

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

The effort to delay next month’s scheduled death of analog television suffered a setback in Congress on Wednesday, despite warnings that millions of American homes will not be able to see broadcast shows in three weeks.div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=tFKvSQL6″img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=vJ80G7mH”img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=50″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=INGEotpf”img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=INGEotpf” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=JWBsEIYF”img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=52″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=BwQp4Hu7″img src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=BwQp4Hu7″ border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~4/DL0rBJiP108″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board surprised no one Wednesday by leaving its short-term interest rate at zero in the central bank’s latest rate decision.

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import

The global economy will stop growing in 2009 and drag Canada’s financial fortunes down as well for the next two years, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

Original post by WP-AutoBlog Import