The Fire Department says that the fire that happened on Holy Emmanuel Street in Belize City seems to be a case of arson. The twelve by fourteen wooden structure was burnt out by fire on Sunday night and the family claimed it was intentionally set on flames by a relative. Benisford Matura of the Fire […]
The Central Bank of Belize launched today a new Automated Cheque Processing, which paves the way for the electronic processing of cheques. It means that clearing time will be reduced significantly, thereby accelerating the flow of money. The automated system will also result in robust business activity, according to the bank’s officials. It kicks in […]
This April’s National Cyber Security Forum, hosted by Packet Clearing House and the Public Utilities Commission, featured a host of participants working to create a National Cyber Security Strategy and Action Plan. But the work is not done, as in the same venue as the Symposium today, the P.U.C. hosted Belize’s major internet service providers, […]
Shortly, we head over to the Bliss Institute for another exciting round of competition in this summer’s hottest entertainment show, KTV the Remix. Fifteen performers took to the stage last Tuesday, and tonight that line-up is down by two as thirteen hopefuls continue to battle. If you viewed the show, you will agree on one […]
Three years ago this week, the Cervantes family of Orange Walk Town was plunged into a personal and political nightmare. Personal, because of losing their patriarch, Ramon Cervantes Senior, to an alleged plot that left him battered and dead in a shallow grave along the Honey Camp Road. Political, because the absconded chief plotter Manuel […]
Orange Walk Police were not available for comment today. Meanwhile, twenty-two-year-old Noe Gonzalez, nineteen year old Angel Cardenas and twenty-eight-year-old Mateo Pott are charged with the murders of Ramon Cervantes Senior and housewife Sonia Abac, who was similarly buried in the same area. As we told you, also accused is Manuel “El Pelon” Castillo. But […]
Thirty-one-year-old Letson Broaster was missing since last Wednesday but over the weekend his body was retrieved from the Macal River, in the area of Branch Mouth in the Cayo District. His seventy-three-year-old mother was at the police station when she was called out to do what any mother would dread. She believes that her son […]
Corozal Southeast area representative Florencio Marin Junior rose on the House adjournment on Friday after colleague Julius Espat’s urgent plea regarding crime in his Cayo South. In Marin Junior’s constituency, police shot Richard Garcia dead in Chunox following an eviction attempt, leaving villagers riled up. Marin Junior contended that it can’t hurt to give police […]
Sergeant-At-Arms Brian “Yellow Man” Audinett was back at his post during Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives, having avoided being fired after assaulting several journalists a few weeks ago during a Senate Special Select Committee public hearing. A majority of U.D.P. parliamentarians voted to spare Audinett, only reprimanding him and making him apologize to […]
There are reports that the Barrow administration is cutting a ten thousand dollar education subsidy per constituency, according to members of the Opposition People’s United Party. The matter was raised inside the National Assembly during Friday’s House Meeting in the context of the debate on the Cultural Heritage Preservation Bill by former Prime Minister Said […]
The House of Representatives also dealt with the issue of the recent pitched battle about noise and other lifestyle issues as a result of concerts and other activities in the so-called “entertainment strip.” It is a four-cornered battle between Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley, his councillors, the various business owners along the Newtown Barracks area, […]
Seven bills were brought back for second reading from the last session held on May twelfth. An eighth, the Trade Licensing Bill, was deferred to the next session. A new motion for a loan of just over a million Belize dollars to finance support for the Placencia Peninsula Wastewater Management Project was tabled and approved […]
Tonight, some villages remain under water in southern Belize. Since five o’clock on Sunday morning, NEMO Toledo was activated because several villages were flooding and portions of the highway were impassable. Due to heavy rainfall over the course of Friday and Saturday, the overflowing Temash and Moho Rivers inundated several low-lying communities. Villages like Santa […]
Around eleven a.m. on Sunday, residents gathered at the Central Park in San Pedro for the Justice for Felix March, which took the gathering through the streets of the town. The initiative was organized by friends and family of Felix Ayuso Junior, a human rights activist who worked along with the National Aids Commission on […]
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday. [Highlights of weekend sporting activities….]
The House of Representatives met in its final session before the mandated summer break and there was a lot to discuss. We’ll have all the highlights, but first, to the development bills. The Economic Development Council is now a creature of law, following an interesting debate in the House of Representatives. The Council is considered […]
Accusing the Leader of the Opposition in particular and the Opposition generally of ignorance of the role of the Council, Prime Minister Dean Barrow gave them credit for several of the bills introduced in the House earlier this year and debated today, as well as being supported internally and externally as Belize positions itself to […]
We have been covering the Cultural Heritage Bill’s passage through the House of Representatives. It is intended to present a regime for registration and maintenance of historical assets including buildings, and is a quid pro quo for the Downtown Rejuvenation Project focusing on the Commercial Center, City Hall and House of Culture/Government House. Fort George […]
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Patrick Faber hit back with a reminder that both Liberty Hall and the Supreme Court were in some disrepair years ago. He countered the allegation that the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) was all about cocktail parties and not about advancing living culture, pointing to efforts […]
News Five was able to pigeon-hole Prime Minister Dean Barrow for a quick interview following the sitting. We asked first about the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report. This year, we have been named as the worst trafficking offender in Central America, and comparable only to Haiti and Suriname in the Caribbean. The report […]
Two topics addressed on the adjournment are carrying a lot of currency at the moment. While Belize City has been mostly crime and murder-free for a few weeks, there has been a spike in murders across the Cayo District dating back to 2016. It has been largely concentrated in the villages immediately west of the […]
The Cayo South Area Representative also called out the officer commanding Belmopan, Senior Superintendent Howell Gillett. Gillett told News Five on Monday that while the search was continuing for murder victim Mark Mendez, police would actively pursue those who burned tires on the highway last Saturday for causing a disruption of traffic activity. The senior […]
As we reported on Wednesday, unemployment ticked up to nine percent year to year according to the Statistical Institute of Belize’s Labour Force Survey done twice annually. Additionally, just under seventeen percent of the force are measured to be “underemployed,” either under or over-qualified for their respective jobs. More tellingly, close to three in every […]
Five years ago, the minimum wage for working Belizeans was raised to three dollars and thirty cents. In that time, the cost of living has increased hundredfold, exacerbated by high gas prices and other shocks to the economy. Last week, there was a small protest and rally in Belize City by Belize Leaders for Social […]
Former Minister of Natural Resources and area representative of Orange Walk North, Gaspar Vega, made his long-awaited return to the House of Representatives after being absent since August. It wasn’t for long, since he left around midday without speaking to anyone including reporters. But his name came up on the adjournment, when fellow area representative […]
