One of the exchanges in Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives came on the adjournment between Minister of Health Pablo Marin and Cayo Northeast area representative Orlando Habet. Habet queried for an update to the planned expansion of the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan among other health issues. That hospital, built over forty years […]
The saga of the Public Sector Workers Trust continues, following a claim filed by retired public officers Sheila Genitty, Ruth White and Darrel Gardiner as beneficiaries and representatives of the trust. The beneficiaries have been at odds with the trustees of the group for quite some time and are responding to claims made last week […]
According to Genitty, the trustees have been saying all along that they cannot ascertain the names of all the beneficiaries. She says that one call placed in the media has resulted in over five thousand names of public officers who were affected by the wage freeze during the mid-nineties. Sheila Genitty, Claimant “We made […]
Team Belize is still on the hunt for its first gold medal in the Central American Games taking place in Managua, Nicaragua. But the athletics team has been carrying the Sub Umbra Floreo so far, accounting for seven of Belize’s eight medals – the other is in men’s basketball. On Monday the relay teams took […]
The Belize City Council was sharing the Christmas spirit in the city this morning. The holiday cheer took them over to Regent Street West at the Calvary Temple Primary School where they hosted the entire student population of about one hundred and fifty students for lunch, gifts and goodie bags. We stopped in at the […]
The Belize City Council’s twelve days of charity continues across the Old Capital. Today the municipal body’s workers focused on two overlooked sectors of society – children and the homeless and impoverished. While their Christmas may not be on par with others, it was made a little brighter by the daily bread and clothing provided […]
The Michael Finnegan Market, formerly known as Queen’s Square Market, was the scene of a fire over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, a stall that was being occupied by fifty-two-year-old Pearl Usher, at the corners of Hicattee Street and West Collet Canal went up in smoke sometime after midday. Belize City police were called out […]
The overwhelming backlog of cases that have inundated Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin continues to weigh down on his ability to mete out justice in a timely manner. When the Bar Association of Belize called him out for the surfeit of pending decisions, the CJ said he would dispense with those matters by December fifteenth. That […]
On Thursday, representatives of the Public Sector Workers Trust, along with attorney Anthony Sylvester, came forward claiming a legal victory against a trio of former public officers who filed a lawsuit against the trust. That information, as it turns out, was misrepresented. Today, retired public officers Sheila Genitty, Ruth White and Darrel Gardiner convened a […]
Senior Counsel Magali Marin-Young refuted the claims made by trustees at Thursday’s press conference, laying the facts of the case before the media this evening. She says that the claims made by the defendants are furthest from the truth, that Genitty, White and Gardiner did not set out to remove any of the existing trustees […]
In the lawsuit filed by the three pensioners, the question of loans amounting to four hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars disbursed to various unions and associations was brought up. While Public Sector Workers Trust lists those monies under a line item called investment, the court has ordered that an accounting of […]
The Sea Cadets – they are the young new faces on whom the Coast Guard hopes to make an impression. After years of planning, the Coast Guard is taking fifty students under its wings. The recruits will participate in different activities organized by the Coast Guard and will receive mentorship with the help of Restore […]
On December ninth, 2016, Belize took a historic step by signing its accession to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, UNCAC. By doing so, it became the hundred and eighty-second country to become a signatory to the UN accord. In concluding Anti-Corruption Week, a symposium on corruption was held at the Biltmore earlier today. The […]
After more than three hundred thousand dollars spent in the course of twelve months and forty-plus sessions, the Senate Special Select Committee’s work, at least publicly, is done. It has been a wild ride as News Five has been there from start to finish for all the heartfelt confessions, helpful recommendations and occasional drama as […]
Friday’s final meeting of the House of Representatives for 2017 passed by with not excessive fanfare and fuss, as the parliamentarians got through a relatively light schedule around the stroke of noon. As usual on the adjournment, various issues of regional and occasional national importance were raised. For residents of Santa Cruz village in the […]
Over the past two weeks, we have been showing you the teams representing Belize at the Central American Games in Nicaragua. It took Belize a few days to get on to the medal board, but we did. So far, Belize is behind in medal count, with only four medals: two silvers and two bronzes – […]
Channel Five’s twenty-fifth anniversary as a television station came last year. But last week our longest-running program other than this newscast marked a similar anniversary too. That’s right; it has been twenty-five years since Gimme 5 first premiered on this station in 1992. And while it’s always fun to win prizes – and in our […]
It is the season for giving and the children at Stella Maris Primary School had a day of fun-filled activities complete with gifts from Santa Claus at the Radisson. The Christmas party sponsored by the Belize Bank took place today. Their excitement was contagious; aside from the gifts and games, they were all too happy […]
The last House of Representatives meeting for 2017 was more even-tempered than usual, perhaps reflecting the current season. Members debated two motions and passed four outstanding bills, including the legislation for the oil moratorium. But while it only got passing mention in this gathering, the Universal Health Services debate still hangs over the National Assembly’s […]
All this week News Five has been covering the various reactions from across the political spectrum, including from the vaunted “social partners” of the Government. They have all told the Government to do its best to pay off the money and avoid further crippling interest or even litigation. The Prime Minister reiterates that the final […]
Jamaican-American attorney Franz Parke’s brief second tenure as a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Belize came to an end earlier this week. In the days since his departure, startling allegations regarding his personal and professional conduct since moving to the U.S. in 1980 have emerged. Parke chose not to fight the court case […]
In other judicial news, the complement of the Supreme Court is to increase by two starting in January. One of the appointees is none other than attorney Marilyn Williams, a former political candidate for the ruling United Democratic Party in the Albert division in 2003. Since then Williams has ascended the ranks, being a Senator, […]
A sixty-one-year-old Belize City woman managed to get out of her burning house on Allenby Street at about midday today. A fire spread quickly and could not be contained destroying all the belongings of Thelma Ariolla. The home owner sustained a small injury, but was left pretty shaken up by the disaster and says it […]
Rowan Garel is the new Caribbean Adventure Ambassador for the region. Garel was among several other persons shortlisted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization and after a voting period, the inspiring visually impaired youth—who is currently studying at a New York university—came out on top. His name was submitted by the Belize Tourism Board following his […]
Auditor General Dorothy Bradley appears to be at war with her own colleagues in the Supreme Audit Institution. Today, News Five received reports that employees staged a “sick-out” in protest of the alleged heavy-handed ways of the top watchdog. Her office has been in the spotlight in recent weeks for its handling of audits in […]
