SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: As the Dominican Republic presidential election to be held on May 16 gets closer, the political parties are in full swing looking for the required number of votes to secure the presidency. Various polls held in recent weeks still indicate that the incumbent Leonel Fernandez would win. read more...

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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AFP): Leaders and representatives of several South and Central American nations prepared to meet here to discuss a regional strategy to avert the food crisis affecting poor nations around the world, officials said Tuesday. The meeting Wednesday was hosted by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. read more...

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ROAD TOWN, BVI: Minister for Natural Resources and Labour in the British Virgin Islands Omar Hodge is leading a delegation that left Wednesday for the Dominican Republic to investigate greenhouse technologies. Hodge is accompanied by two members from the House of Assembly. read more...

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NEW YORK, USA (Reuters): The Dominican Republic is seeking some $1 billion in external financing to boost food production and increase exports to neighbouring Caribbean countries that are struggling with high prices of agricultural commodities. A sharp rise in the price of grains has increased inflation globally. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: As the hotly contested presidential election in the Dominican Republic, to be held on May 16, continues with marches, demonstrations and fiestas, there are growing concerns that enthusiasm will overflow during the period leading up to the voting day. read more...

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KEY WEST, USA (Reuters): Drug smugglers are flying with impunity into the Dominican Republic and have turned it into a far more important transshipment point for South American cocaine than its largely lawless and impoverished neighbor, Haiti, US officials said on Thursday. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Bloomberg): The Dominican Republic's economic growth slowed to 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2008, President Leonel Fernandez said. Fernandez said the country's gross domestic product kept expanding because of a stable exchange rate. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: As the world shortage of oil increases, with ever-increasing fuel costs, Melaneo Aquino, the Dominican Republic's hydrocarbons exploration director, is reviewing proposals from companies interested in conducting exploration activities to search for oil and other fuels. read more...

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EDINBURGH (AFP): Scottish boxer Alex Arthur's WBO World Super-Featherweight title clash against Joan Guzman of the Dominican Republic has been postponed because of a visa problem. Arthur, the interim champion, was scheduled to meet full title-holder Guzman on May 3 at the Meadowbank Stadium. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Bloomberg): Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez lost ground to his closest rival less than a month before the country's presidential election, according to a poll published by newspaper Hoy. Fernandez's support was little changed at 51.7 percent points, read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: After staging their third strike of the year on Thursday, doctors belonging to the Dominican Doctors Guild (CMD) are threatening a nationwide strike this Friday to continue to push their demands for a wage increase and other grievances. read more...

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SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters): Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) said on Friday it has signed an agreement to build and operate a coal power plant in the Dominican Republic worth $500 million. The 240,000 kilowatts coal plant will replace a fuel oil power plant currently in operation. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: As threatened, approximately 14,000 doctors in the Dominican Republic, members of the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS), who service public hospitals, staged their third walkout this year, to demand wage increases and attention to other grievances. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: It is expected that things will be tense in the capital Santo Domingo this week as the lead up to the Dominican Republic’s presidential election on May 16 becomes more hotly contested between the candidates and their respective parties. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Recent polls in the Dominican Republic’s upcoming presidential election on May 16 continue to show that current President Leonel Fernandez would win the election in the first ballot.  The latest poll showed Fernandez with 54 percent of the votes. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Bloomberg): The Dominican Republic's central bank raised interest rates for certificates of deposit in an effort to slow consumer price increases after inflation accelerated last month. The bank will now pay annual interest rates as high as 16 percent for 3-year certificates of deposit. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: South Korea’s ambassador Lin Byung Taik has reported that trade between South Korea and the Dominican Republic has started to grow and amounted to more than US$250 million in the last year. The ambassador stated that it is South Korea's aim to continue to increase trade. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: President Leonel Fernandez, the incumbent and presidential candidate of the Dominican Liberation Party, has according to certain polls increased his lead over his closest rival Miguel Vargas of Dominican Revolutionary Party, five weeks before the Dominican Republic presidential election. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Trilogy International Partners, an American holding company which invests in wireless tele-communication operations outside the United States, on Thursday announced the launch of its new telecommunications company in the Dominican Republic, VIVA. read more...

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NEW YORK, USA (Reuters): Players born outside the United States made up 28 percent of Major League Baseball's opening day rosters. MLB announced on Tuesday there were 239 foreign-born players listed on the opening day rosters of the 30 teams, The Dominican Republic made up the largest group with 88. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Public Health minister Bautista Rojas stated that he will not meet with the leaders of the Dominican Republic doctors’ union (CMD) as the doctors continued their second day of strike action and said that no talks can be forthcoming until the intermittent strikes end. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: The senior leader of the Dominican Republic’s ruling PLD party, Temistocles Montas, after a meeting in Washington with Thomas Shannon, the US State Department’s undersecretary for Inter-American Affairs, has stated that an agreement has been reached... read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Bloomberg): Dominican Republic gasoline stations were given the go-ahead by the government to sell gas mixed with ethanol for the first time, a step the government said will cut the country's fuel bill by at least 30 percent. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters): The Dominican Republic's government is ringing alarm bells over rising oil prices, saying the cost of energy may force it to "tighten its belt" and could send electricity subsidies soaring. Subsidies to the electricity sector could climb to $1.2 billion. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Industry and Commerce minister Melanio Paredes signed the agreement Thursday that will allow truck drivers and taxi drivers in the Dominican Republic to receive one million gallons of diesel fuel with a 32 peso government-subsidy, to assist them with ever-increasing fuel costs. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Bloomberg): Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez has widened the lead over his closest political opponent two months before scheduled presidential elections, according to a new poll commissioned by newspaper Diario Libre. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters): The insults grew so intense at a showdown among Latin American presidents after a weeklong crisis that Argentina's female president teased her male counterparts for suffering mood swings. But all it took was a handshake at a Dominican Republic summit. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: After the government rejected a salary increase requested by doctors, stating the lack of available funds at the present time, Dominican Republic doctors who are part of the CMD Union commenced a 48-hour strike in hospitals as of 6am Wednesday morning. read more...

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OTTAWA, Canada (AFP): An Air Transat flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada was redirected Wednesday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, overnight after several passengers fell ill, a spokesman said Wednesday. After a four-hour stopover, the vacation charter Flight 477 from Punta Cana then continued on to Edmonton. read more...

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Mexico considers the Dominican Republic to be its major business partner in the Caribbean area and is the second largest receiver of Mexican goods and its Latin American investments after Brazil, with estimated trade of over US$3 billion. read more...

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