The revocation of the Sarstoon Prohibition SI comes only four days after it was challenged in Court by the People’s United Party, and three days after the P.U.P. planned an educational trip to the Sarstoon to protest the SI on the ground, so to speak. The expedition was cancelled at the eleventh hour, and today […]
The P.U.P. may not be showing much enthusiasm just yet, but for Ministry of National Security C.E.O. George Lovell the agreement is a welcome one. We’ve all seen the footage where Guatemalan forces descended on the B.D.F.’s Forward Operating Base, and it wasn’t to borrow sugar from a good neighbor. We’ve also seen footage of […]
The father of P.U.P. leader John Briceño passed away at midnight on Saturday after a long illness. Elijio Joe Briceño was a former Minister of Government, and as such will be laid to rest on Wednesday with all the pomp and ceremony of an official funeral. Today, Deputy Leader Hyde told News Five that he […]
In a matter of a couple weeks, the arbitration panel will be delivering its final, tabulated award on B.T.L. share value assessment, reliably reported to be close to half a billion dollars. That includes interest and costs. According to the terms of an agreement made between Lord Ashcroft and Prime Minister Dean Barrow, half that […]
Last Wednesday, the C.E.O.s of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Security spoke out for the first time on an allegation made by Belizean Roger Plett. Plett claimed that the week before he and another man, Rudy Friesen, were forced into Guatemalan territory by civilians and military who commandeered a tractor and bulldozer as […]
The Second Annual Diabetic Run and Wellness Expo was held over the weekend in the west. Wellness Ambassadors in collaboration with the Belize Diabetic Association Belmopan Branch and Marathon runner Emil Pulido lead a twenty-three-mile run from Belmopan to the Palacio Farm on the Hummingbird Highway in an effort to bring awareness to the deadly […]
On Saturday at midday, Belizeans across the country joined hands on beaches, along sea walls and other public areas to stand in unity against offshore oil development in Belize’s sea spaces. Activists and ocean-lovers congregate annually to host Hands Across the Sands events around the world to, quote, draw a line in the sand, and […]
It started as the annual Cacao Festival, but over the weekend, the tenth edition of the event surrounding chocolate was held in the southernmost town of Punta Gorda. The three-day event is organized by the Toledo Chapter of the Belize Tourism Industry Association and the Toledo Cacao Growers Association and was officially opened last Friday […]
The Police United Football Club, winners of the 2016 Premier League tournament, will represent Belize in the upcoming CONCACAF Champions League series. It is a momentous occasion since the Belize Police Department is the first law enforcement organization anywhere to field a team in the annual competition. The management of the club is heading to […]
The team has put together a budget for expenses related to the tournament; however, it needs another one hundred thousand dollars to meet its overheads. Supt. Andres Makin Sr., Manager, Police United F.C. “We have set a budget, we have already put a budget in place because we’ve done our inquiries and so forth. […]
Music powerhouse Bad Boy Records took a journey down memory lane this weekend. An audience of twenty thousand gathered at the Barclays Center in New York City to experience the nostalgia that is the hit-laced catalog of the record label during its heyday. While fans were treated to classics from a range of Bad Boy […]
The Sarstoon River is currently a study in confusion and controversy. Here’s why. We’ve always owned half of the southernmost waterway. Guatemala has a claim, but we own it. Things are different now. Guatemala appears to own it, while we have a claim. The river is monitored by GAF who insist that the B.D.F. must […]
The P.U.P. heads to the Sarstoon on Saturday, with its leadership scheduled to depart P.G. at ten for the Guatemalan controlled waterway. But with all that said, will the P.U.P. even see the Sarstoon River. As we told you Thursday night, there is unofficial indication from official sources that the members of the group won’t […]
Speaker of the House of Representatives Michael Peyrefitte, while attending the Eighteenth Extraordinary Meeting of FOPREL in Nicaragua, met with Mario Taracena Diaz-Sol. He is the Speaker of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala. That meeting resulted in the signing of an agreement between the member countries of FOPREL in the framework of strengthening […]
“Healthy Me, Healthy You, A Gateway to a Healthy Life” – that was the theme of a community health fair held today at the Gateway Youth Center on Daker’s Street in south side Belize City. The event provided a space for the community to learn more about health and to get free screening and testing […]
Very high level delegations from Belize and Guatemala will be meeting in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday to discuss the Sarstoon. That’s the venue slated for the talks surrounding what has become a key factor in the bi-lateral road ahead. Tensions in the Sarstoon are at an all-time high – actually to the point where even […]
The talks are critical for another more local, political reason. The unpopular and controversial SI passed by G.O.B. prohibiting civilians from entering the Sarstoon expires six days from Saturday. Prime Minister Barrow has indicated that he will not extend it. So the ideal scenario would be that on Saturday there is some ironclad agreement which […]
All eyes may be to the South and West as the Belize/Guatemala issue percolates. But there’s a financial storm brewing – with wind gusts of just over half of a billion, with a B. We’re talking about the arbitration award which comes due very soon, likely within a couple weeks. The Prime Minister was asked […]
Earlier, Briceño spoke about Guatemala using its unfounded claim to distract from the crises affecting its people. But here’s the thing – he says that to some extent that’s the same thing happening in Belize. According to the Opposition Leader, while everyone’s focus has been on Guatemala and related issues, Belize continues to experience serious […]
Since the start of this week News Five has been bringing you the remarkable story of an alleged cross-border kidnapping, albeit a short-lived one. We’ve spoken at length with Roger Plett, one of the men who claimed that he was taken across the border by Guatemalan military and civilians, and tied up. On Wednesday night […]
That investigation is the focal point of the allegation, and any official diplomatic action which may or may not occur as a result of it. Officialdom weighed in on Wednesday in the persons of C.E.O.s George Lovell and Lawrence Sylvester, representing the Ministries of National Security and Foreign Affairs respectively. There was a suggestion from […]
As we reported on Thursday, Government has been forced to do a complete about-turn on a local refugee program which has come under intense and sustained scrutiny. Help for Progress, an N.G.O. working under the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, has literally received applications from hundreds of immigrants seeking refugee status. From […]
There is a first confirmed case of Zika in Belize and it involves a woman in the north side of City. The Ministry of Health is carrying out surveillance in all neighborhoods of the City to avoid additional cases. Tonight, the message is to protect yourself from being bitten by any mosquito, especially the aedes […]
The Ministry of Education, through the Quality Assurance Development Service, is rolling out a new program to assist primary school children at the beginner level with reading. This morning, QUADS introduced My BZ Phonics, a locally flavored book which builds on the reading method involving letter recognition. According to Acting Director John Newport, the idea […]
The ushering in of the new program and accompanying textbook should see a more interactive approach to reading inside the classroom. Newport says the objective is to engage children in the reading lessons being taught. John Newport, Acting Director, QUADS “It introduces these sounds in a way which is systematic and it’s systematic based […]
