On the prime tourism island of San Pedro, residents in the area of San Mateo escaped grave injuries when a high explosive fragmentation grenade was thrown beneath the house of Amancia Martinez. It’s the first attack using a hand-thrown bomb to be recorded on the island, and many in the popular tourist destination are tonight […]
Commander Jones says the fragmentation grenade sent shrapnel flying across a fifteen meter radius, shaking a number of houses in the immediate area of the blast. Brig. Gen. David Jones, B.D.F. Bomb Expert “I went out to the area afterwards where when I visited the area, I saw the crater at the bottom of […]
Chief Justice of Belize Kenneth Benjamin has set a timeline to clear up the backlog of close to thirty overdue judgments on his desk. Reports to News Five are that the first two of those judgments were handed down today, with two more due on Friday and at the rate of two per week, the […]
But what is behind the situation? Is it simply that the Chief Justice, contending with a court operating on a slender thread of resources and facing an increasingly litigious society, has become overworked? The Bar says it allowed for that and it is now up to him to lessen that work with the schedule he […]
Tonight, the Petrocaribe initiative remains in limbo following an announcement of the immediate suspension of the program. A meeting between two officials representing the Venezuelan government and Petroleos de Venezuela Caribe S.A. respectively with Prime Minister Dean Barrow was cancelled this afternoon. However, the officials are expected to arrive in Belize next week. The Government […]
Meanwhile, APBEL General Manager John Mencias has told News Five that the problems with shipments have been ongoing for months now and provoked much complaint from the Government to both APBEL and Puma. There were some concerns at times that as PDV-Caribe failed to come through with oil shipments, Belize could run out of regular […]
The Social Security Board – it’s the safety net for Belizeans in time of need, whether through sickness, pregnancy, injury or even death. In recent times S.S.B. funds have been used to prop up Government interests, including but not limited to the National Bank; shares in Belize Telemedia Limited, Belize Electricity Limited and Belize Water […]
Briceño described the Government’s treatment of the S.S.B. as a piñata, always available for ready cash on demand. But with calls for increased contributions from workers, what, if anything, can be done to fix the Board’s position? While the party is still discussing its plans, Briceño outlined four areas of importance, which includes reducing expenses […]
The spectacle that was the simultaneous coronation of Aaliyah Ysaguirre and Esmeralda Cal as Queen of the Bay 2017 endures as the topic of choice in just about every forum. Just about everyone has weighed in on the embarrassment that unfolded during the official ceremony on the Tenth of September when National Coordinator Zenaida Moya […]
The humiliation playing out onstage at the Fort George Memorial Park on Sunday ended in Moya’s immediate termination on live television, though she says she cannot be fired. Today, Faber says that his office as chair of the September Celebrations Commission had nothing to do with Moya’s dismissal. Patrick Faber, Chairman, September Celebrations Commission […]
Information reaching News Five is that Prime Minister Dean Barrow has formally advised Governor General Sir Colville Young to appoint Franz Parke as a Justice of Appeal, although the appointment is not confirmed. Both the Bar Association of Belize and Leader of the Opposition John Briceño, with whom the Prime Minister is required to consult, […]
A release issued late this evening dropped a bombshell – Petrocaribe has stopped rolling, for now and quite possibly forever. The decision comes on the heels of an announcement by the Government just a week ago that it plans to raise fuel prices, which it blamed on damage to oil refineries in Houston, Texas, due […]
The body of a John Doe retrieved from the Macal River on Tuesday has now been identified as twenty-year-old Dean Bennett. Bennett was last seen alive on Sunday night in the area of Hode’s in San Ignacio. His mother was watching the news on this station on Wednesday night when she heard the police list […]
There was a deadly fire in the city this morning in which a watchman perished. The fire started at around nine a.m. in a two-storey wooden building at the rear of Martin Lemos’ property on Gordon Street in the Saint Martin De Porres area. The blaze spread to another structure before watchman Santiago Gonzalez could […]
Police circled the area of Saint Martin’s school in Belize City since six this morning. Parents kept most of the seven hundred students away from the school since it is better to be safe than sorry. Since Wednesday night, there was alarm over a post on social media that threatened that the school would be […]
News Five has received further information of land grabbing, allegedly by members of the Vega family and their supporters. This time, it concerns lands on the coast in the village of Gales Point Manatee. A survey map authenticated by surveyor H.A. Fairweather and assistant Dean Williams shows eleven parcels in a straight line next to […]
The U.S. President, Donald Trump, has placed Belize on a list of Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2018. The presidential determination was made earlier this week. Also included in the list are Caribbean countries such as the Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti as well as all of Central America […]
Tonight, we have more from the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings with Director of Immigration Diana Locke on Wednesday. The Auditor General’s Report cited multiple instances where fees for visas were waived or not collected at all. But unlike passport or nationality fees which are legislated, visa fees are subject to the Department’s decisions. […]
There is a second murder in less than forty-eight hours to report in the west. On September tenth, Jose Sibrian was stabbed to death following a confrontation at a bar. Police are now investigating the murder of a man whose body was found floating in the river. Sometime after two o’clock on Tuesday, the body […]
But the identity of the victim remains a mystery and police is turning to the public for assistance as well as their counterparts in Guatemala to determine who is John Doe. While the police refrained from issuing a photo due to the state in which the body was found, ASP Iche gave a description of […]
The first murder victim in the west for this month lost his life on the tenth. Police are yet to crack that case in the murder of Jose Sibrian, a Salvadoran national and his attacker, who is known to be a Guatemalan national. ASP Daniel Iche, Acting O.C., San Ignacio Police Formation “No one […]
Is there a bitter sibling rivalry brewing within the ranks of the Belize Police Department that may very well end up in the Supreme Court? Since succeeding Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams as head of Eastern Division South on July first, Senior Superintendent Marco Vidal has expressed a different approach in fighting crime. Those […]
We caught up with Senior Superintendent Vidal this evening during a Meet and Greet event on Curassow Street in Belize City and asked for a response to Williams’ Facebook post and the threat of a lawsuit. He kept his responses rather short; suffice it to say that he also has his opinions of social media. […]
A father of nine perished in a traffic accident at the intersection of Cemetery Road and East Ring Road in the nation’s capital. The accident happened on Tuesday afternoon and landed Jose Cucul in a drain on the right side of the road. Cucul was knocked down when he made a left turn on his […]
Both local airlines, Maya and Tropic Air, have announced the suspension of flights to Caye Caulker beginning this October. The airstrip at La Isla Carinosa is in terrible state with potholes and ridges which make it dangerous to maneuver the landing of aircrafts. It is projected that it will take eight months to complete repair […]
