Detective Constable Dean Yearwood was shot and killed by a fellow officer in the early hours of September eighth while pursuing a pair of robbers who attacked him, as he made his way down Central American Boulevard. The twenty-four year old was mortally wounded after being hit in the back by a single round, one […]
The sixth grant award ceremony of the Belize Nature Conservation Foundation, formerly known as the PACT Foundation, was held today at the Coastal Zone Management Training Room on Princess Margaret Drive. BNCF provides grants to registered N.G.O.s and community based groups that focus on the conservation and management for the sustainable use of Belize’s natural […]
Cabinet met today, but up to news time there is no new official information surfacing on the passport scandal involving Elvin Penner and other public officers in the Immigration Department. On Monday the department, which is supposedly in the midst of an intensive investigation, issued a lukewarm release stating that three staffers at the Immigration […]
Minister of State in the Ministry of Transport, Edmund “Clear the Land” Castro, has been accused of negligent behavior of a sexual nature. The news came out of Taiwan late last week and News Five has been able to receive verification. First, the incident… Castro was in Taiwan at the invitation of that government along […]
The scandal at the Social Investment Fund can potentially give Belize a bad rap among international lending agencies such as the World Bank and Caribbean Development Bank that provide funding for SIF projects. Four staff members were fired and the Executive Director had to resign when it came to light that SIF was not after […]
The Public Accounts Committee, sans Opposition participation, held a meeting in Belmopan on Monday. Because of the volume of news on Monday, we held back that story for today. As was promised, the session was open to the public, and there was quite a turnout from the public sector, as well as some unexpected invited […]
Complaints of the excessive use of force by officers of the Belize Police Department are regularly aired in our newscasts. Tonight, there is another allegation to add to the growing list. Kadeesh Bernard and his mother came to our studios complaining that sometime around ten p.m. on Saturday, Bernard and a group of friends were […]
Tonight, there is much more information coming out of the immigration scandal which resulted in the immediate firing of Minister of State Elvin Penner last Thursday. The catalyst for the termination seems to be the issuance of a Belizean passport to South Korean national Kim Won-Hong. That passport was processed with the speed of lightning […]
At midnight on the twentieth September, a flag raising ceremony was held at Belize’s City’s Memorial Park to usher in Independence Day. Thereafter the formal Independence Day festivities moved to Belmopan with the traditional pomp and ceremony befitting the thirty-second anniversary of independence. The Prime Minister gave a glowing report of the state of the […]
A highlight in the Prime Minister’s Independence Speech relates to a landmark case in the Supreme Court for which a decision is pending. It is the case of Caleb Orosco versus the Government of Belize in which the executive director of the United Belize Advocacy Movement, UNIBAM, is challenging Section Fifty-three of the Criminal Code. […]
For the Leader of the Opposition, Francis Fonseca, the government is reeling from one scandal to the other. Fonseca also called for less confrontation and more dialogue, less arrogance and more humility and less personal politics and more problem solving. But one of the opposition’s biggest beef was the issue of the Public Accounts Committee, […]
There was another incident in the west which fortunately ended without casualties. Nancy Marin of NM Productions, a location management company out of San Ignacio, booked a river tour at Actun Tunichil Muknal in Teakettle for an investor scouting group from Russia. The group of eight Russians and one German had a series of meetings […]
In the west, the Independence Day activities were not without its own share of controversy. In San Jose Succotz, the installation of Miss Independence is a big affair. But this year, it had a twist. The story is that Yancy Bautista was duly elected as Miss Independence, but Bautista did not want to wear the […]
On Thursday, Minister of State with Responsibility for Immigration, Elvin Penner, was fired for his alleged involvement in a scandal at that department. News Five has confirmed that the termination of Penner is related to the nationality certificate and a passport which was processed and issued to South Korean national. That person has been identified […]
Today, students of schools in every district got a jumpstart on Independence Day festivities, with displays of patriotism and pride in full effect. The students’ parade and rallies to bring in independence have become a tradition, a colorful and vibrant one. Today Mike Rudon was in San Ignacio where students showed their colors for the […]
Elvin Penner is no longer a Minister of State in the current administration. That’s because he was required to resign with immediate effect from that post by Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Wednesday evening following a meeting at the P.M.’s office at the Whitfield Tower on Coney Drive, Belize City. Penner was appointed Minister of […]
And now to the facts of the story…why was Ministry of State so summarily and brutally dismissed? Using the trail of breadcrumbs to the Immigration Department so thoughtfully provided by the Prime Minister, News Five did some digging today. Although nobody was providing any official information, we were able to get some confirmation. To start […]
Ironically, this isn’t the first time Penner has been accused of being involved in the fast-tracking of documents. In 2012, just before general elections, he came under fire when the Ministry of Immigration engaged in an unprecedented mass-nationalization of immigrants. Nobody on the government side bothered to hide the fact that it was purely a […]
The scandal involving the Dangriga Municipal Market and employees of the Social Investment Fund continues to unravel. This afternoon, former executive director Daniel Cano faced the music and held a press conference to clear up a number of allegations made against him. Cano was relieved of his duties on Tuesday in the wake of the […]
The contention is that SIF never entered into a contractual arrangement with financiers, Lyndon Bailey or Gush and Emy Ramirez; therefore, the agency is not responsible for compensating them for losses incurred as a result of the project’s failure. Notwithstanding, a written letter from Project Manager, Ernest Raymond, to Scotia Bank confirming that a payment […]
Allegations of bribery, placed squarely at Cano’s feet, are also being passionately denied. Cano says he had nothing to do with an alleged inducement of eleven thousand dollars purportedly paid to him in two installments. Despite his knowledge of the allegations against the other four men, he allowed his staff to get away with a […]
The Former Executive Director of SIF, Daniel Cano, spoke for the first time today since his resignation following the scandal of the Dangriga Municipal Market. It’s an issue that won’t go away because there are serious implications which involve international funding agencies. We asked Leader of the Opposition, Francis Fonseca, to weigh in on the […]
The referendum on whether or not to take the territorial claim to the International Court of Justice is not going to be held in October or likely at any other time in the near future. But going to the ICJ remains an emotional issue for many Belizeans. At the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts, […]
Today, Smart announced the winner of their latest big raffle – a trip for two to New York with spending money and all the bells and whistles included. By any definition that’s a prize worth winning, and today Anthony Rancharan from Pomona Valley was all smiles as he went to collect his prize. Ian Courtenay […]
The dust is yet to settle on the sandal at the Social Investment Fund which led to the resignation of Executive Director Daniel Cano and the termination of Mike Hernandez, Enrique Romero, Faustino Pineda and Lionel Jimenez. It’s a story that we have been following since last Thursday which has exposed corruption within SIF in […]
