Weed smokers across the country can exhale a marijuana-tinged sigh of relief tonight, following the decriminalization of ten grams of cannabis on Thursday. Governor General Sir Colville Young has assented to the passage of that piece of law after the bill was initially tabled in the House of Representatives back in August. Just last week, […]
The recent spike in violent crimes in Belize City is being attributed to an ongoing drug war among rival groups, purportedly over the sale of marijuana. With the decriminalization of that small quantity comes an insatiable appetite for various strains of the drug which will inevitably drive its demand. While the police department has made […]
The Belize Police Department, according to AG Peyrefitte, is fully onboard with the new law; however, there are officers within the agency that are averse to the idea of persons possessing any amount of weed on them. So how will that skepticism be addressed? The Attorney General says rest easy; you can’t be prosecuted if […]
Perhaps the AG’s most fiery response was reserved for the Council of Churches. When asked to give his two cents on their objection to the passage of the law, he minced no words. Peyrefitte said bluntly that the church has no moral authority to take aim at weed smokers when it does not oppose the […]
A routine trip, by attorney Audrey Matura to the Central Prison in Hattieville to visit with clients, turned ugly this morning. Around ten o’clock, Matura says she was removed from the prison compound by Kolbe personnel after she was refused visitation to one of her clients. It came as a surprise to Matura who had […]
Despite efforts made by Matura to reason with security personnel and to reach out to the C.E.O. of Kolbe, she was denied access to her client. She alleges that her client is being abused at the hands of prison management. When she pressed prison officials, Matura found out that following a court appearance on Monday, […]
Tonight, residents of Crooked Tree village are on alert. For the past several days, there has been rain in the area, and the Crooked Tree Lagoon is now in overflow. Additionally, spillover waters from the Belize River and Spanish Creek, received from the Cayo District, have confluence to cause problems for some residents of the […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced during his Independence Day address that the Crooked Tree Causeway is also to be raised and resurfaced, and the Caribbean Development Bank was to have signed the contract for that scope of works design. In addition, according to Chairman John Gillett, roads within the village which have been long neglected are soon to […]
A week ago Saturday, fifty-four-year-old Ryan Swift died after suffering a seizure at his home on Central American Boulevard. On Thursday, police confirmed that he was poisoned after consuming a toxic substance. Ryan, an exterminator by trade, and his brother sixty-one-year-old Steven Swift had been socializing early on Saturday at his residence after earlier handling […]
The National Aids Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program engaged the youth population in dialog and program development given the HIV/Aids statistics in the country. Today at the Biltmore Plaza, thirty youth leaders from different organizations and schools participated in the forum, which is expected to foster awareness within communities among members […]
Acting president of the National Youth Council of Belize, Dominique Noralez, also participated in the forum. Despite the fact that Noralez sits as the youth rep on the Commission, in her presentation today, she says that it is one of the Sustainable Development Goals that will be addressed at the upcoming World Youth Conference. The […]
While Birds Isle reverberated with drumming, over at the Saint John’s College gymnasium the pounding was on the basketball court. Teams from around the country were on hand for the national championships of the junior basketball competition. In the end, Belize District teams Saint Joseph R.C. School and Saint Martin De Porres won as overall […]
The Belize City Council led the charge toward online payments for property taxes a few years ago, and much of the government apparatus at national and local level are rushing to follow suit. One of Belize’s richest statutory bodies, the Belize Tourism Board, joined the charge with the launch of a new online portal on […]
For some time, the government has been locking horns with the Belize National Teachers Union. The eleven-day strike last October took them to the brink and while tensions appeared to have eased, the Minister of Education, Patrick Faber today launched an attack on the B.N.T.U. Faber says the leadership of the union is neglecting its […]
This evening, News Five spoke to B.N.T.U. National President Elena Smith for a response on that charge as well as other related issues. Essentially, her response is ‘bring it on!’ Smith believes that this unexpected move from the Education Minister to target the Union is as simple as wanting a fight – a fight, she […]
The minister responded to a letter from PAC Chairman and P.U.P. Deputy Leader, Julius Espat, saying that cabinet ministers did not boycott a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee last Wednesday. Two of the four ministers on the committee contracted conjunctivitis and a third the flu, ruling them out of the meeting in which Auditor […]
In regards to the Teaching Services Commission, Smith told us that it was the Ministry that brought the issue to their attention and only one meeting has been missed as a result. A replacement for Smith – Union secretary Ruth Shoman – has been named and will be attending the November meeting. But the bigger […]
Earlier this year, Belize was ranked in Tier Three by the U.S. State Department as one of the worst offenders in the region for trafficking persons. Considering that Belize was previously in tier two as late as four years ago, it was a long hard fall fueled by persistent reports of high-level complicity in the […]
Since last week, photos began surfacing on social media of a heavily tinted, white van without license plate spotted in several communities in the city and the west. It caused a frenzy among parents and residents because of an allegation that the driver of the van was abducting students. Earlier this week, Assistant Commissioner of […]
The driver of a delivery vehicle that fatally knocked down Melissa Andrews, as she rode on a motorcycle along with her husband from Sittee River to Silk Grass Village last Saturday, has been arrested in Belmopan. Julio Choc faces multiple charges stemming from the hit and run incident and police informed the media earlier today […]
Since an outbreak of pink eye almost two months ago, schools, as well as workplaces, have seen a considerable decrease in the population of students and employees. While missing classes due to sickness comes at the detriment of the student, workers with infected pupils need to be compensated by the Social Security Board. Today, S.S.B. […]
The third annual ‘Father Marion Ganey Quiz Competition’ finals took place in Belize City today. Winners from the six districts competed to answer questions about finance and credit union knowledge. Four students went on to the reserve round and at the end of the competition, Xander [Zander] Avelar walked away with first place. News Five’s […]
Excelsior High School launched its annual drug awareness week today in Belize City. As a part of the activities, students are participating in a number of competitions, which school officials hope will drive home the message to stay away from drugs. Celebrated under the theme, “Standing as one, together we can make this a drug […]
But despite years of drug awareness activities, Excelsior High School still struggles to reach some of its students. The school reports that there are students who attend classes while under the influence of drugs –and as a result, has recorded several dropouts. We asked Counselor Jenkins if the news of the decriminalization of small quantities […]
The Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead, known as Día de Los Muertos, is being observed today in that country and parts of northern Belize as well. It is a time to remember and honor deceased loved ones, but it is not a gloomy or morbid occasion. Rather it is a festive and colorful […]
