A weekly international program debuting called "Viva RD" will debut this Saturday May 26 on Telemundo Boston and be transmitted to Miami, New York and Puerto Rico through Caribevision. It was first aired on Television Dominicana last Sunday on Dish Network Channel 844.

The show will highlight for the international market the local flavour of the country and inform them of everything happening including arts, culture, urban life and sports and will tour some of the Dominican Republic's most interesting tourist attractions.

Produced by Esteban Martin and hosted by Nashia Bogaert and Héctor Perez Reyes, the program intends to show the beauty that exists in the Dominican Republic and what a fascinating adventure it is. Each weekly show will depict gorgeous landscapes, beautiful beaches, food, customs, towns, cities and according to Martin "the happiest and amusing people on earth."

In recent days a purge of voters' registry has removed at least 2 deceased former Presidents and a deceased former party leader.

The cleanup of the active voters' registry by the Dominican Electoral Board (JCE) in the lead up to the 2008 elections has finally removed former PRD leader Jose Francisco Peña Gomez nine years after he passed away. Juan Bosch and Joaquin Balaguer who died in 2001 and 2002 respectively were also removed.

JCE Administrative Chamber president Robert Rosario commented that "They are honourable people but can no longer be in the registry."

While the search continues for the tainted toothpastes named Mr. Cool and Excel, so far Dominican Customs has been able to seize 110,000 tubes of the product.  The search has been made easier by the fact that the toothpaste is not regularly imported into the Dominican Republic but will be broadened to the entire country and the Haitian border zone as Haiti is known to have imported some of the contaminated product. So far the seizures have taken place in parts of Santo Domingo such as businesses in the barrios Villa Consuelo and Little Haiti, as well as th busy markets on Duarte Avenue and in colmados, warehouses, supermarkets and other businesses.

Customs is now saying that they will not proceed against the importers of the toxic toothpaste as they complied with legal import requirements and "were surprised in their good faith".

It was previously reported that the toothpaste was allegedly smuggled in as a shipment of dog food.

If you're a fan of the Latin soap opera or 'novela', then be sure to tune into Channel 7, Antena Latina for the debut of "Tropico", the first soap opera to be produced entirely in the Dominican Republic.

The soap is being financed by the Cisneros Group of Venezuela, through Venevisión International. The company spent US$4 million to film the show. Head of Cisneros, Gustavo Cisneros keeps a residence in the country and is said to be enamoured with the island.

President of Cisneros, Luis Villanueva, currently in the country for the debut, praised the Dominican Republic for its favourable atmosphere toward foreign investment, its natural beauty, excellent human and technical talent and competitive advantages for the television industry.