Following Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s presentation and spin of the Arbitration Award for B.T.L. on Wednesday, the Opposition issued a release entitled the Cost of Barrow’s Arrogance. Government will be coughing up close to half of a billion dollars when all is paid to Dunkeld International and Sunshine Holdings. As you can well imagine, the […]
And while he claims things are going downhill at the utility company, Briceño says it’s going to get much worse since apparently B.T.L. will be made to take on the ninety-seven million dollar BCB Holdings settlement, or at least a significant portion of it. On Wednesday, P.M. Barrow admitted that the liability is for the […]
In our previous newscast, we brought you the basics of the Arbitration Award presented by Government – as a victory and as vindication. To recap – the total award, including share value and interest, was a little over four hundred and fifty million dollars. Subtract the sixty-five million paid by G.O.B. in 2015 when the […]
The assertion by government that payment of at least the first two hundred million due in days will be pretty much a piece of cake is no consolation to P.U.P. Deputy Leader Julius Espat – far from it. Julius Espat, P.U.P. Deputy Leader, West “I was doing some calculations this morning and if the […]
B.T.L. was appropriated in 2009, and the approximately two hundred million dollars in interest alone is the result of there being no settlement of the matter until the arbitration panel’s decision days ago. But was it really necessary for the matter to be dragged out seven years? Could there have been some sort of settlement […]
Briceño disagrees, vehemently, stating that only the previous owners and the Barrows have benefitted from the appropriation of B.T.L. and from the PM dragging the matter out for seven long years. John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader “I can vividly recall these words that the Prime Minister so eloquently spoke at his press conference of September […]
Another youth has lost his life in the urban gang warfare that has erupted once more in the Old Capital. At about eight-thirty on Wednesday night, Kieran Morrison and his friend, eighteen year old Kent Brooks Junior were targeted on La Croix Boulevard where they were hanging out. Morrison was shot multiple times and died […]
As we told you Tuesday night, after years of legal battles, the long anticipated figures for the 2009 nationalization of Belize Telemedia Limited are in and they are staggering. According to our quick tally when we looked at the hundred and thirty-nine page judgment from the Permanent Court of Arbitration, we’d thrown out an estimate […]
In case you missed it, Government, for the acquisition of B.T.L., must pay approximately four hundred million to the previous owners of B.T.L., give or take a million or two. That means that by the eighth of July, a two hundred million payment will be due. Within a year, another payment of two hundred million […]
It’s not quite as simple as that. The settlement agreement, agreed to in 2015 between Prime Minister Barrow and Lord Michael Ashcroft, does indeed stipulate that the Accommodation Agreement portion of the award, sixty percent, is to be paid in Belize dollars. But our understanding is that the money will still be under the control […]
To round off his sales pitch, the P.M. then launched into a costs-benefits analysis which he maintains is complete vindication of G.O.B.’s seven years of effort and fighting the good fight. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Under Costs to G.O.B.: shares, one hundred and twenty-eight million U.S. dollars; interest, U.S. ninety-nine million dollars; arbitration costs […]
Two hundred million in ten days, now actually nine, sounds like a big deal. But it’s not, apparently. In fact, Government says they will have absolutely no difficulty raising the money in the time given. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Under the arrangement we made, half of the totality of the Award is payable within […]
The Prime Minister appears to be deeply impressed with the four hundred million dollar arbitration award, but the P.U.P. is not. In a release issued late this evening the Party claimed that it is appalled by the final figures released which they say are worse than even they expected. According to the release, “Including the […]
A gruesome discovery was made this morning in Mahogany Heights. The body of a young woman stabbed multiple times was found in a ditch behind the village, a short distance from her house. The seventeen year old minor was apparently killed somewhere else and dumped in the ditch and no one knows by whom or […]
Thirty-one year old Yo Creek resident Larry Banner is spending his second night behind bars for aggravated burglary and maim following a crazy chopping incident in the northern village. Last Friday, Banner with a machete in hand chopped three adults and three minors. A fourteen-year old victim was severely wounded and tonight the sad news […]
On Monday evening, Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie, accompanied by Special Branch head Marco Vidal, called a press conference purportedly to brief the media on the detention of nineteen members of the Ahmad family from Hattieville last week Monday. It’s a curious case. The Muslim family was part of a major, organized sweep which targeted […]
Six homes raided in a coordinated sweep, a Muslim family detained by Police, all electronic items seized and surely scrutinized, a warrant presented based on probable cause of a Conspiracy to Damage Property and Conspiracy to Commit Murder. It all sounds like the stuff of a Tom Clancy novel. Actually, it also sounds like a […]
Neither the Commissioner nor Special Branch Commander would provide any tangible information on the investigation which prompted the detention of the Ahmad family. But they were both adamant that it was done within the parameters of the law and can hold up against any probably lawsuit brought by the Ahmad family. Marco Vidal, Head, […]
The decision of the three-member Permanent Court of Arbitration is in, and tonight we’ve got a first look at the figures contained in the hundred and thirty-nine page document. Just as very brief background – the Claimant in the matter was Dunkeld International Investments Limited, an Ashcroft company, and the respondent was the Government of […]
And tonight’s question is: If G.O.B. is broke; do you believe it will increase or introduce new taxes? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com
A massive cleanup campaign to remove a substantial amount of debris in the wake of an overnight fire in San Pedro continued this morning. The flames eviscerated eleven buildings after midnight on Sunday, leaving eighty-eight persons homeless in what is quite possibly the worst fire in the island’s history. A team of volunteers arrived at […]
As many as eighty-eight persons have been affected by the biggest fire to erupt in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. The inferno sent clouds of fire into the sky as smoke engulfed the area on Sunday night. It is not yet known what sparked the blaze on Pescador Drive in the heart of the town, destroying […]
The families displaced by the fire are looking for basic necessities following the horrible fire. They lost everything in the blink of an eye. In the island, relief efforts have started, but it will take some time to recover from the tremendous losses. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports. Isani Cayetano, Reporting In the immediate […]
There is another fire which police have classified as arson. On Friday night, the first floor of a two-storey building on East Collet Canal, Belize City went up in flames. But the blaze was fortunately contained by the Fire Department before it could spread. It is suspected that the fire was set by Alberto Rivera, […]
There was a murder on Friday night in Belize City. Thirty-eight year old Anthony Gillett was killed at his home on West Collet Canal by a man sources claim was a friend. Police acted quickly to take the suspect, Ryan Barnett, into custody and he was arraigned this morning in Belize City. So why did […]
