The family has since retained the services of attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd who told the media today that the Logans are being given the runaround by the police department and that there may be a cover-up afoot. She says that while the final recourse is the Professional Standards Bureau, the family is considering its legal options […]
Tonight, there are confirmed reports that P.U.P. Cayo North Area Representative Joseph Mahmud has thrown in the political towel. Those reports indicate that Mahmud handed in his resignation to the party’s secretariat as early as last week. It’s a significant blow to the People’s United Party going into municipal elections in less than six […]
The Ebola scare last Thursday fizzled after a Texan lab technician traveling on a Carnival cruise ship that called to port in Belize was declared free of the deadly virus. But the scare has kicked health officials and relevant authorities into overdrive. The Belize Ports Authority is one of several government agencies on the frontline […]
A weeklong conference is underway at the Best Western Plaza where representatives from thirteen CARICOM countries have converged to discuss the safety of fishing vessels. It’s one of the worst safety records of any industry, yet has largely remained below the radar of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention, a list of international safety […]
Late September, we showed you ten-year old Cleyon Marage Junior; who is afflicted with Acute Myloid Leukemia. The young student cannot get medical treatment in Belize and his mother made a public appeal for assistance to take him to Merida where he has to travel to at least once a month for eighteen months of […]
Marage Junior is in critical condition and pediatrician, Doctor Cecilio Eck, has taken on his case. His mother says that Doctor Eck does not agree with him traveling because he is a high risk case. At this time, Marage Junior is receiving antibiotics, which is all that is available locally to treat him. But United […]
The constant pillaging of Belize’s cultural and historic patrimony remains a national issue which cannot be swept under the rug. The looting of archaeological sites, including El Pilar near the Belize-Guatemala border, has raised serious concerns from the conservation community. For the past two days representatives of the U.S. State Department have been hosting a […]
There is another workshop ongoing. It involves the Directorate for Foreign Trade, the Customs and Excise Department and the World Trade Organization. The five-day workshop will determine where the country stands with the implementation of a facilitation agreement approved by W.T.O., but ratified by trade ministers back in November of 2013. One department that is […]
It has now been confirmed that a lab technician who was a passenger on the Carnival Magic cruise ship, has been cleared of the Ebola virus. Tests were done on her before the Carnival cruise ship was to arrive in Galveston, Texas. The woman and her husband arrived in Belize on Thursday and the possibility […]
Important training sessions will continue throughout the week to further sensitize frontline workers on the dangers of Ebola. Via Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Interim Head, Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health “The activities will continue this Wednesday and Thursday, we are doing training sessions with the surveillance team from across the country and we hope […]
As we reported on Friday, the U.S. State Department dissed Belize for not allowing the lab technician and her partner to be transported from the Carnival Magic to the P.G.I.A. Belize was not the only one…Mexico also turned down a request and even Texans did not want the passengers to disembark; they only did when […]
The construction of a forward operating base on Hunting Caye has been halted on the strength of a stop order from U.S. Southcom. The workers left the island on October ninth, upon receipt of that stop order, but the question of their status has remained unanswered. Minister of National Security John Saldivar stated on national […]
The Public Utilities Commission has selected eight project proposals for phase one of the Request for Proposals for Energy Generation. This comes after the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities and Belize Electricity Limited identified the need for additional sources of energy to the national grid. That is a total of sixty megawatts of firm […]
According to P.U.C. Chairman John Avery, the objective is to secure additional energy to the national grid in times of power shortage. John Avery, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission “The purpose for securing adequate supply in country is to compliment some of the supply we get from Mexico so we could become more self-reliant so […]
In September, News Five brought you the story of a proposed subdivision on Ambergris Caye, about four miles north of San Pedro Town. More than three hundred lots had been surveyed…half of them allocated to residents who paid for the survey, but the proposed subdivision was submerged. It caused somewhat of a stink when the […]
The court of appeal opened this morning in Belize City; fourteen cases will be disposed of: six are criminal and the remaining eight are civil. The president of the court of appeal is Justice Manuel Sosa; the three justices will be joined by a fourth. Justice Christopher Blackman was today sworn in as a new […]
We’re not sure exactly when it started locally, but prostitution has become a booming industry in Belize. So-called ‘happy bars’ are popping up all over the place in every district, with very friendly immigrant waitresses who take hospitality to a whole new level. There are some who’d say – where’s the harm in that…they’re not […]
A telethon was held by Friends of Conservation and Development on Saturday at the Memorial Park. The target was to raise half a million dollars to expand its Park Ranger Program from seven to twenty-four rangers. The private sector, Belizeans, the government and even Beenie Man contributed to the cause and by the end of […]
The possibility of a threat from the deadly Ebola virus placed the nation on edge on Thursday night, but tonight there is a sigh of relief. The scare started when it became known that a lab technician who may have had contact with fluids from Ebola victim, Thomas Eric Duncan, was travelling on the Carnival […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was also at this morning’s press conference to quell fears. He reiterated that if there had been any way at all that he could have assisted the U.S. without risk, he would have. And there were discussions entertained at first on getting these quarantined persons on a plane which would fly […]
Barrow says that he thought that was the end of the matter, until he was informed later in the day that the plane was in the air. But despite the unwillingness of the U.S. to accept Belize’s official position, he says the window of opportunity, if it ever existed, had slammed shut. There was one […]
A regional response to the threat of Ebola in the Caribbean earlier this week, prompted several island nations, including the government of St. Lucia and Jamaica to restrict the influx of visitors from hot zones in West Africa. On Wednesday, prime ministers Kenny Anthony and Portia Simpson-Miller embargoed the arrival of passengers from Sierra Leone, […]
The immediate implementation of those new immigration policies is one prong of G.O.B.’s preparation for the threat of Ebola. The Ministry of Health, in the face of Thursday’s wake up call, has also been forced to step up their game. The reality is that even the superpower U.S.A. has been caught off guard by Ebola, […]
The order for seven hundred and fifty hazmat kits has already been placed through the Pan American Health Organization. The order will be some time in coming, since those kits are being sold out across the world, for obvious reasons. But Belize isn’t waiting on those kits – G.O.B. is looking to set up a […]
Will there be repercussions for rejecting a U.S. request to allow the quarantined passenger to be brought on shore? The government was being assured that the lab technician was low risk for the Ebola virus, but the U.S. was persistent in the face of what the Prime Minister says was a firm refusal. So persistent, […]
