DJ Tiesto at the Kartodromo - The world famous dutch DJ Tiesto will be performing on Saturday 3rd February at the Don Julain Barcelo Go-Kart track near Feria Ganadera which is located along Santo Domingo's malecon or sea front.  This is the 3rd time now that DJ Tiesto has played in the Dominican Republic and he is ranked number one in the world! If you are in the capital this weekend and fancy catching his show then tickets can be bought at Tickets Express.com and also through PresidenteBeer.com and their website.

The Film "Sanky Panky" now in movie theatres - The long awaited comedy named "Sanky Panky" has now opened in movie houses in Santo Domingo.  The film starring Fausto Mata of Boca de Piano fame and Tony Pascual also co-stars Cassandra Award Winner, Aquiles Correa.  The comedy is based around the Dominican male sex workers known nationwide as Sanky Pankys.  The movie cost RD$10million to make and Jose Enrique Pintor is the executive producer.

President of the National Drugs Council the CND, Mabel Feliz has revealed in an astonishing quote to national newspaper Diario Libre that out of the considerable amount of properties which are siezed from drug traffickers including motor cars, houses, motor cycles and helicpoters, that one "is in the hands of someone which I am not going to say their name".

Mabel Feliz also continued to say that changes need to made with the Assets Laundering Committee, and that a suggestion would be that if the accused/owners are in agreement too, then their assets be sold and the money deposited in a financial "certificate" until the accused sentence is issued.

The National Drugs Control Agency has some siezed assets but alot of the time assets are just kept in the deposits of the Justice Ministry's Office of Siezed Assets.  At the moment this office has 5 helicopters.

There is a time delay problem in siezing assets and the accused coming to court, their assets being valued and sold due to courts' delays in handing down decisions. 

Mabel Feliz also said that the decision to speed the process up would also see the end of paying security guards to watch the said assets and it would also prevent their use to run "personal errands".

According to the current CND inventory there are:-

97 apartments

42 houses

51 summer houses

32 business's

15 haciendas

2 villas

12 lots of land

603 motorcycles

481 motor cars

5 jet ski's

1 boat

13 bicycles

and

5 helicopters.

The Dominican Republic is one of the countries that produces high quality and fine cacao in Latin America for their geographic location said Dr.Amores of Ecuador.

He went on to say that Central American and other Caribbean countries are known for the elevated genetic variations of cacao when they are compared to African clones.

In 2006, the Dominican Republic exported 60 million dollars of cacao and most of that went unprocessed.

Word now however is that there is talk of the possibility of a local industry taking over and producing fine chocolate which in turn will greatly add value to the exported Dominican cacao and also reduce the amount of imported chocolate to this country.

Could Willy Wonka be coming to the Dominican Republic....? 

He confirmed that RD$10 million was required just to rebuild the floor.  The work in total has been estimated to cost RD$20 million.

With the meager funds that the National Aquarium has been allocated they will attempt to do some works.

Max Puig continued to say that if the Aquarium is still standing it is due to the dedicated attitude of the entity's personnel as well as the Enviroment Ministrys commitment in maintaining this National Institution. 

The government does not have the RD$20 million needed to pay for these essential repairs and refurbishing works. 

The National Aquarium is a top attraction for Santo Domingo, the nations captital and draws in not only hundreds of foreigners a year but is also used by school children in the Dominican Republic as a learning centre for aquarian life.