People throughout the Dominican Republic gazed upward Saturday night to witness a stunning total lunar eclipse. This phenomenon hasn't occurred in almost three years but it was worth the wait.

Commencing at 6:35pm Dominican time the spectacle took almost 6 hours during which time the moon first darkened and then turned red. As the eclipse progressed the moon then took on tones of grey and orange. It was visible in one form or another from all parts of the world.

A lunar eclipse happens when the earth passes between the moon and the sun. The rarity of the event is due to the fact that usually the moon is above the earth's orbit. The red appearance of the moon is due to the refraction of the sun's light through the earth's atmosphere before it reaches the moon.

Science aside, we think we now know the reason for a lot of strange behaviour in the Dominican Republic lately. Let's just hope it was a once in a 'red' moon thing!

Ismael Sanchez of La Vega's Bicicentro team won the first round of the Independence Cycle Tour narrowly beating the second place finisher. His time to cover the 114kms from Santo Domingo to La Romana was 2:30:29, only one second faster than second place Frederick Sartori of Guadeloupe who finished with a time of 2:30:30. In third place with a time of 2:31:56 was Cuban Gil Cordoves riding for the Dominican team Aro y Pedal.

The Independence Cycle Tour is an annual event being held this year in the Dominican Republic. Cyclist from eight countries are competing - Spain, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Colombia, El Salvador, the United States, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic are all represented.

The next stage of the tour will be run Sunday March 4. It will cover 135kms from San Pedro de Marcoris to Hato Mayor to Santo Domingo.

With the recent signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, minister of Industry and Commerce, Francisco Javier Garcia predicts that foreign investment will increase to a rate not seen in the last 50 years. He said that a number of large foreign companies were only waiting for the Dominican Republic to enter into Free Trade before investing and that these new investments will not only improve the economy but provide thousands of new jobs.

The minister expects the investments to begin in the next few weeks stating that they "will develop complete areas of our country seeking to use the United States as the supply center, but basically as local investments and productions."

He also expects "pleasant surprises" in terms of large investments benefitting areas throughout the country and not limited to the Dominican capital and is optimistically predicting that we will see the drop in prices of a large number of products in the near future.

At a breakfast hosted by the European Chambers of Commerce Federation, Wartsila and the Dominican-Ireland Chamber of Commerce, Markku Nurmi, head of Finland's Environment Ministry noted the incredible potential of the Dominican Republic to implement renewable energy systems. The country would have the use of clean, renewable energy and technologies, provide more accessible power to the poor, be able to combat climatic changes and contribute to the integration process of Central America by implementing these types of projects. 

"To obtain it a demonstrative pilot project must be taken into account and the removal of the legal and institutional barriers," he said.