Santo Domingo

Spanish researchers say they've won permission to open a tomb in the Dominican Republic purported to hold the remains of Christopher Columbus, edging closer to solving a century-old mystery over whether those bones or a rival set in Spain are the real thing. A team of two high school teachers from Seville and a leading Spanish forensic geneticist has been testing 500-year-old bone slivers for more than two years to try to pinpoint the final resting place of the explorer who arrived in the New World by accident in 1492 on an expedition chartered by Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Miguel Tejada's passion for playing winter ball and his desire to make a good impression on his new fans in Baltimore entered a collision course this week. Tejada's baseball-mad homeland, the Dominican Republic, hadn't won a Caribbean World Series on its home soil since 1989, and after narrowly missing the chance to clinch the title on Thursday night, Tejada came to a painstaking decision yesterday. With the Orioles' blessing, Tejada, who hails from the Dominican city of Bani, decided to skip today's FanFest to concentrate on the rest of the Caribbean Series.

A West Baltimore couple charged with murder in July were arrested at Newark International Airport this week as they walked off a flight from Central America and attempted to re-enter the country carrying false identity documents, Baltimore police said yesterday. Jason Beau Moody, 28, and Stephanie Madariaga, 24, were met by a team of Baltimore detectives and federal agents who had assisted city police in tracking the couple's movements after the fatal shooting of Madariaga's ex-husband, Kevin Shields.

When he recorded the song "El Avion," Dominican merengue star Kinito Mendez was singing of sheer joy -- the thrill of flying home for Christmas, of saving money all year for a blissful month of food and rum, dancing and family. It's such a specific experience, so firmly etched in the Dominican consciousness, that he mentioned the most popular flight from the United States. "The plane has arrived," he sang. "Flight number 587, direct to Santo Domingo." That number is infamous now, forever linked to the American Airlines flight that crashed last Monday in New York.

NEW YORK -Last night, as rescuers sorted through crash debris in Queens, hundreds of Dominicans gathered at the opposite end of the city and tried to make sense of what had hit their community. At Club Deportivo Dominicano, in the heart of Washington Heights, residents of the country's largest Dominican enclave lighted candles, prayed and comforted one another with the easy intimacy of a close-knit community. They talked about terrorism, about whether they'd ever fly again, and whether Washington Heights would ever be the same.

Brunilda Jimenez was making coffee yesterday morning when she got a frantic call from family in the Dominican Republic - her sister, Carmen Medina, was flying to Santo Domingo and no one was certain if her plane was the one that crashed minutes after take-off from New York. As she watched the news on television, she got the call confirming her worst fears - her sister was on American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, that had departed John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Tomorrow afternoon, Mayor Martin O'Malley, Cardinal William H. Keeler, invited guests and interested citizens will gather at 610 George St. (near Paca Street) for the unveiling of a stone monument commemorating the site where in a rented house, no longer extant, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest order of black nuns in the nation, in 1829. The monument, a joint effort of the city and the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was spearheaded by Tom Saunders of the city's Community Relations Commission, who also leads tours to historic sites in Baltimore associated with black history.

On the day I visited Ash Lawn-Highlands, once the plantation home of the fifth president of the United States, my path to the front door was blocked by an iridescent blue peacock that sported a spectacular tail. The bird's opulent color and showy plumage stood out in stark contrast against the simple yellow and white frame house that is located in rolling hills a few miles south of Charlottesville, Va. James and Elizabeth Monroe called the unpretentious place their "cabin castle."Eventually the magnificent fowl slowly and majestically vacated the porch, and I was free to enter the Plain Jane farmhouse.

SANTO DOMINGO, Ecuador -- Rene Rubianes was dropping his car 8,000 feet down the Andes."I know every curve," he said on the two-lane road from Aloag to Santo Domingo.Good thing. He was sometimes one-handing it on the wheel and passing dozens of heavy trucks near curves at speeds from 5 to 55 miles an hour. Horns are on this trail.Rubianes, a Quito accountant at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), based in Baltimore, was cautious passing buses. "Better to stay friends with bus drivers. They're in the most accidents."

SANTO DOMINGO, Ecuador -- Thirty poor women in a steamy lowland suburb of washboard dirt roads have become businesswomen.That event may fall short of a miracle. But for 15 months, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) of Baltimore has helped them bring home income that does more than pay rent and buy clothes and food. In the macho world of Santa Teresita, their roles as breadwinners make the men stand up and notice.Their new status is one small result of a worldwide movement that favors lending money to poor women over men. The women have been found to be better credit risks because of their heightened sense of family responsibility and because they are better able to create small businesses for unselfish purposes.