Twenty-thousand Strong? Not quite – but they descended on Belize City nevertheless with their call for gender parity. This year, the women rallied for change with “Nurturing the Next Generation – hashtag press for progress” theme. Women make up over fifty percent of Belize’s population but are still largely disadvantaged when compared to men. Putting […]
The outspoken folks at the Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations had been quiet for some time, but today they turned up the heat on Government, again. The organization wants to put in place an initiative that would allow only local operators to conduct tours at a well-known archeological site. FECTAB says the concept is being […]
Since the beginning of the year, gang violence and gang-related murders are on the rise with the south side of the city particularly hit. 2017 ended with the second highest record number of murders and the start of 2018 is on the same trend. Gillett says that the fight against gangs and crime cannot be […]
But will there be a return of the method of mediation with gang members as was employed by ACP Chester Williams alongside Dianne Finnegan and Nuri Mohammed? That initiative was put on hold for months, despite data indicating that the intervention worked in the reduction of violent crimes. Senior Superintendent Howell Gillett says that he’ll […]
Gwen Liz High School continues to face a series of administrative troubles, this time at its board level. News Five understands that job interviews were being held this afternoon for prospective candidates to fill a vacancy for bursar. That session, we are told, was conducted by the school’s principal, as well as former councilor Alifa […]
The Belize Agro-Productive Sector Group will meet with Prime Minister Dean Barrow and other top officials next Wednesday ahead of the Budget Debate. During the presentation on March ninth, the Prime Minister spoke of lifting of exemptions to General Sales Tax on land preparation for agriculture, harvesting, and crop dusting services as part of additional […]
Thirty-three residents at the Sister Cecilia Home for the Elderly were treated to a tea party by Unicomer Belize as the company undertook a week-long of activities in volunteerism. Over the past two weeks, the home got a fifteen-thousand-dollar facelift and the folks had every reason to celebrate today. News Five’s Duane Moody reports. […]
For two years now, a national sheep and goat-breeding center at the Central Farm has been in operation to develop this small sector and so farmers who are rearing sheep and goats will see changes in breed quality and even new markets for exportation. On Thursday, The National Sheep and Goat Breeding Center at Central […]
There was a changing of the guard today at City Hall, from the red to the blue. A new mayor and councillors for the country’s largest municipality took the oath this afternoon before a supportive crowd. The P.U.P.’s Bernard Wagner and his team of ten councillors, a week ago, won convincingly the trust of voters […]
In Belmopan, where the upper house met today, a group of students left their classrooms at the University of Belize and headed over to the national assembly building. For about an hour, they protested the spike in violence against children, which is ripping apart families and communities. From sexual abuse to the gun violence that […]
This evening, there was mass movement at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City. News Five understands that there were issues with the ceiling of the national referral hospital, necessitating urgent action. We are told that doctors and nurses had to be called back to the hospital to assist with the evacuation. Late this […]
The debate for the 2018 Budget is set for next week Thursday and Friday. One of the key points will be how the government is managing the tax base for revenue in relation to its spending. Business Senator Mark Lizarraga, a watchdog for the business community, argues in advance of that debate that if the […]
According to Lizarraga, G.O.B. in 2017 had promised austerity measures to cut back on operational expenses. In the 2018 Budget, they’ve only been able to do so by two percent, as opposed to the proposed five percent. The Senator calls for the government to more seriously pursue being efficient in curtailing expenses and managing debt. […]
When the new budget was presented to the House of Representatives last Friday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow made claims with respect to the value and cost of B.T.L. Tonight, we take a closer look at the facts, which when analyzed, appear to be quite outrageously positive, giving the appearance that the acquisition has been a […]
A loan to B.T.L. was also tabled before the Senate today. The loan from Taiwan is for of thirty-five million Belize dollars, for a commitment period of twelve years at a fixed rate of interest of five point five percent. The loan will be used to finance the installation of a state-of-the-art fiber optic network. […]
The 1968 Stores Orders Regulations were last amended in 1992. They establish ceilings under which accounting officers may purchase stores both locally and internationally without first having written approval from the Financial Secretary and with no change to the tender procedure. The argument is that the low ceilings of three thousand for individual items of […]
A new U.D.P. town council was sworn-in on Tuesday in San Pedro, amid a pending legal challenge being mounted by the People’s United Party. Mayor Daniel Guerrero won by a very slim margin and was formally returned to office for another three-year term. But the fate of his current administration will be decided in a […]
Bernard Wagner enters office with an uncertain grasp of how well off the Council is. The Municipal Bond is tied to the City’s subvention from Central Government and other sources are not considered reliable. During Friday’s House meeting, Prime Minister Dean Barrow accused Caribbean Shores area rep Kareem Musa of preparing for the Council to […]
Belize and the European Union have reached agreement on nearly twenty-nine million dollars in financing for projects in the health and public finance management sectors. The agreements were signed in Belize City today between Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the E.U.’s Ambassador to Belize, Malgorzata Wasilewska. The majority, about twenty-five-point-six million dollars, is for upgrading […]
If you have a passion for acting or just want to see if you have what it takes, then you might want to head out and audition for a part in the “Life or Death” TV series. It is a show that will be filmed in Belize later this year as a fictional political thriller […]
Fifty-thousand dollars – that’s how much Cellular Plus Belize won in a raffle. The Rotary Club of Belize Sunrise played a willy-wonka golden ticket style raffle to raise funds for its projects. At the end of the raffle, fewer than eight hundred tickets were sold, which translates to some seventy to eighty thousand dollars. After […]
A high school student is dead following a pool party at the Pickwick Club. Oluwukemi Miracle Ojo, better known as Miracle, started her Saturday at a classmate’s birthday party at the Pickwick Club Swimming Pool. The party reportedly started around eleven that morning and Miracle was last seen alive around twelve-thirty or so. But it […]
Mayor-elect Bernard Wagner and his team of ten councilors will be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon, exactly a week after their landmark victory in municipal elections on March seventh. The P.U.P. nominally won six of ten divisions and votes in the other four, knocking off the veteran United Democratic Party slate led by Dion Leslie. […]
The Council has seen two fairly high-profile departures in the days immediately following the municipal elections. Joe Bradley, former Mayor Darrell Bradley’s father, resigned from his post as a compliance officer with the Council; he also acts as a talk-show host on the U.D.P.’s Wave Radio. Shane Williams, the recently-appointed public relations officer, has also […]
Former Mayor Darrell Bradley left behind several incomplete projects and plans, most notably the Commercial Center and City Hall upgrade. In the area of streets, a considered hallmark of the past Council, contracts for nine street upgrades with RJB Construction had been signed last November. The affected streets are West Canal and East Canal; Eyre […]
