Almost three months ago, news surfaced that UDP Minister of State Elvin Penner had facilitated nationality status and a Belizean passport for Wonhong Kim. Kim had never set foot in Belize, and was actually incarcerated in Taiwan when his nationality and passport were issued. Although the documents proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Penner was […]
Garbage woes…Around the city, garbage is piling up as city hall and Belize Waste Control remain at odds. BWC cut down on garbage collections this week when City Hall again could not meet its payment. City was four months behind in payments; that is until today when they made a hundred thousand dollars deposit toward […]
There is always a spike in amount of robberies during this time of the year. Throughout the city, particularly in downtown Albert and Regent Streets, thieves behave more brazen prompting the police since the fifteenth of November to put in place a Business Watch Program to deter criminal activity. To assist with this effort, Precinct […]
News Five has been able to confirm that in the past week a number of Indian nationals entered the country through the Phillip Goldson International Airport. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Immigration scandal involving former Minister of State Elvin Penner and other highly placed government officials, the arrival raised eyebrows and speculation. But tonight […]
Businessman Yhony Rosado, proprietor of Cavetubing.com and executive member of FECTAB, was involved in a brief spat with police officers, as well as officials from the Belize Tourism Board on Wednesday morning. It came after being informed that his company’s tour guide license had been expired since September. Despite paying the two hundred and fifty […]
The world is tonight mourning the passing of former South African President Nelson Mandela, a global icon and international human rights leader, who is dead at ninety-five. The respected anti-apartheid icon led his country to democracy, becoming its first black president after spending twenty-seven years in prison. Despite his short-lived period in office, Mandela wielded […]
The Taiwanese Embassy today hosted its annual end of year Christmas luncheon with its partners in tourism to express its appreciation to the good relations with stakeholders. Although both countries are miles apart in culture, size and economy, there are some similarities in the tourism product. According to Ambassador of Taiwan to Belize, David Wu, […]
Every year the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association partners with the Belize Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism to bring cheer to needy children. About two hundred children headed up the House of Culture for the 2013 party. Santa was present and bearing gifts and by all accounts children thoroughly enjoyed this year’s event. Duane […]
The 2013 Corruption Perception Index is an annual measure of the apparent levels of public sector dishonesty in a hundred and seventy-seven countries and territories. The list scores each country on a scale from zero to a hundred, the former being highly corrupt and the latter very clean. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of all countries scored […]
Children with diverse abilities, as they are called, got a special tour of the Belize Zoo today. Even though they cannot see or hear, they captured the sounds of nature of the Zoo. The outing was held as part of the activities of World Disabilities Day. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was hand for the event. […]
Acclaimed Belizean novelist Zee Edgell, author of the perennial classic Beka Lamb, is back in the Jewel for the holidays. Her Christmas vacation, however, is not all rest and relaxation. The former professor in English will be participating in an upcoming event called Meet the Author, where book collectors and fans of Edgell’s literary works […]
Edgar Hill, like Richard Parker in the Life of Pi, is a problem cat. Prior to being held captive at the Belize Zoo, the jaguar roamed freely in the forest near Pine Hill, a Mennonite community in Toledo. What drove the big wildcat to terrorize its residents can be attributed to any number of reasons, […]
This morning, an unidentified male person called in a bomb threat to the Belize Biltmore Plaza just before midday. Normally that wouldn’t make the top of the news because they happen relatively frequently and are never real. But it is headline material today because when the call came in, Prime Minister Dean Barrow was in […]
Tonight News Five takes to the visa trail again as we continue to assemble the pieces in a massive visa scheme. Our investigation so far has revealed the involvement of various senior U.D.P. ministers who facilitated the procurement of Belizean visas for Chinese nationals on a weekly basis. This scandal broke in September with the […]
While cane farmers in the north stayed away from making deliveries to Tower Hill last week, twenty-four employees attached to the Cane Growers Project at Belize Sugar Industries Ltd. were summarily relieved of their respective duties on Friday afternoon. The mass termination came without due notice, amid ongoing negotiations between the Belize Workers Union and […]
The workers, says Gongora, were released without being given a sufficient reason. Thankfully, he says, the situation was resolved amicably. Ramiro Gongora, President, Belize Workers Union “We were not given a specific reason but they just said that their jobs had finished, you know, because these persons that were instructed that there are no […]
Last week at his press conference, the Prime Minister announced that some three million dollars will be spent on the rehabilitation of streets in the City. City Hall’s ambitious plan is to rehabilitate at least a hundred streets, but it is causing a nightmare for commuters. The incessant rains over the past month have worsened […]
A lawsuit brought against Belize Water Services Limited by five former employees, who contend that they were unlawfully terminated by the company earlier this year, will proceed in the Supreme Court. Despite a request by Justice Courtney Abel for both parties to settle the matter outside of court by the end of the month, BWSL […]
The debate on the thirteenth senator has been resurrected in recent weeks. It’s a concept which was passed into law by the U.D.P., but it never materialized. While the two matters are separate, the need for a thirteenth senator owes its resurrection to the ongoing immigration scandal. Recently, the Senate was deadlocked on a vote […]
At his press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow unveiled a multi-million dollar infrastructure program to address deteriorating streets and roads in the country. Almost three million dollars have been allocated for immediate remedial works, and approximately seventy-six million has been committed to the entire project. P.U.P. leader Francis Fonseca wasn’t impressed. He says […]
Discussions on a salary increase for teachers and public officers, so very loud earlier in the year, have apparently been muted. The unions appeared deflated in the face of government’s hard line that there is no money in the coffers. After public statements by the Prime Minister that government’s coffers are now overflowing with millions […]
There is breaking news tonight. At about five-thirty this evening, a government vehicle collided into an SUV near the entrance to the hector Silva Airstrip in Belmopan. What we have been able to ascertain is that the SUV swerved to avoid a pothole on the George Price Highway and ran head-on into the government vehicle. […]
On October fifth the People’s United Party launched a campaign to collect signatures on a petition to recall Elvin Penner. The move came just weeks after news broke of the U.D.P. Cayo Northeast Representative’s involvement in a passport scandal in which a South Korean criminal got a passport while imprisoned in Taiwan. The P.U.P. move […]
At a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow scoffed at the evidence proving that Minister of State Edmond Castro is engaged in the large-scale procuring of visas for Chinese nationals. News Five first showed you the documents on Tuesday – documents which prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Edmond Castro and […]
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow spoke on a variety of issues at a press conference in Belize City, and today P.U.P. leader, Francis Fonseca, did the same. Fonseca touched on infrastructure, immigration and everything in between. While the issues are the same, it’s no great surprise that the interpretations and positions are markedly different. […]
