With the aim of filling the gap on the internet of historical information and patriotic topics about the Dominican Republic, The Dominican Telecom Institute (Indotel) and the EDUCARTE Foundation have signed an agreement to create the "Juan Pablo Duarte Virtual Library" in honour of this founding father of the Dominican Republic. It will strive to place quality historical information about the founders of the nation and other patriotic topics.

The agreement calls for Indotel to supply funding and technical equipment, while EDUCARTE compiles the data and sources.

A march of protest to demand equal employment opportunities, "50-50" and an end to domestic violence and other barriers to women's development was held yesterday to mark this year's International Day of the Woman.

The group, some 500 women and several dozen men strong, included civil society groups, community groups, feminist organizations, schools and individuals. Carryings signs and marching through streets in the Santo Domingo East district the group caused traffics jams and prompted cheering by other women watching along the route.

An event honouring immortalized Dominican women including the Mirabal sisters, Salomé Ureña, Juana Saltitopa and Abigail Mejía as well as other patriots, regardless of gender, who fought for equal rights was held at the end of the march.

Also marking the occasion was the decoration fo 30 outstanding women by President Leonel Fernandez in the National Palace.

The United Nations World Tourism Day, held every year on September 27, will be hosted this year by Sri Lanka. The theme this year is "Tourism opens doors for women" and in the context of UNWTO's Global Code of Ethics for Tourism they intend to join forces with UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) to further enhance the role of women in tourism.

UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) will also join with the Sustainable Tourism Research Centre in Australia to launch a new dedicated website (www.tourismgender.com) to focus attention on the role of gender in tourism an dhow to enhance it, addressing women as agents of change in and for sustainable tourism.

A photo contest will be launched to show women playing leadership roles at all levels within the sector in order to increase public awareness of the interrelation of tourism and its beneficial role for women. The 12 selected winners will be exhibited during the UNWTO General Assembly in Cartagena de Indias, Columbia, in November.

The promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women and the elimination of gender disparity in education is the third UN Millenium Development Goal to which the UNWTO is committed.

"With Sri Lanka as the Host Country and planned celebrations around the world, UNWTO is launching this new initiative to show the achievements, opportunities and challenges for women in tourism," UNWTO's Francesco Frangialli announced, "By working closely with our sister agency UNIFEM and using our Global Code of Ethics for Tourism as a framework, we believe we can help this industry make even greater contribution to the Millenium Development Goals."

The Dominican Telecom Institute (Indotel) released statistics today showing unprecedented growth in internet access during 2006. The figures show a 37% increase in growth. This is the highest since 2001, in fact, the number of users has increased 10 times since 2001.  Internet accounts grew to 183,876, up from 134,545 in 2006.

In general the telecommunications sector showed robust growth for 2006 with mobile phone lines increasing to 4,558,351 this year up from 3,542,927 in 2005 and total lines reaching 5,502,685 in 2006 indicating a coverage of 61% of the population.

But the internet was at the forefront of the telephony sub-sector's growth. In 2001 there was a modest 128,764 registered users. This exploded to an estimated 1.4 million people with access to the internet in 2006.