On Thursday, Mayor Khalid Belisle launched the Belmopan City Council’s municipal bond for six point five million dollars – a venture he hopes will help to cement his place in the Capital City, especially as the Municipal Elections approach in 2018. Belisle also answered questions about his party’s purported involvement in corruption – particularly as […]
The first round of the National Tertiary Debate sponsored by the Social Security Board kicked off this morning in Belmopan at the George Price Center. In the morning session, Independence Junior College squared off with San Pedro Junior College, taking the first of four slots available in the semi-final round. News Five was on hand […]
The National Pre-School storytelling competition got underway at the Bliss today in Belize City. The event, which has been taking place for more than ten years, saw the participation of two finalists from each district today. The Bliss came alive with teachers and students participating in creative ways of story-telling- from using props to a […]
Horizon Academy went global today – right on their school grounds. Students transformed themselves and their spaces into countries as far as Egypt, Japan and India. Today’s efforts are a part of celebrating culture day at the school and so for their annual open house they decided to showcase cultures outside of Belize. News Five […]
Are you scratching your head about the many twists and turns in the Senate Special Select Committee’s public hearings over the last month or so with regard to eight visa foils that disappeared in December of 2012? We are, too even though the missing foils pale to the illegal issuance of nationalities and passports. The […]
If you are interested in cell-phone repairs and want to learn how to do it, Ahmadiyya Jama’at Belize is inviting you to their free two-week course that will be taking place in Belize City and Belmopan. The course starts on March seventh in Belize City at the Ahmadiyya offices. According to the organizers, the aim […]
Ahmadiyya Jama’at Belize teamed up with the City Council for an ongoing basketball league and they want your support. Ten teams and a hundred young people are participating in league here in the City. Tonight they are hosting an all-star game but the league continues with games every Sunday morning. Naveed Mangla explains why it […]
Belizeans are bracing for the 2017-2018 Budget, which is expected to be presented to the House of Representatives on March thirteenth, and to take effect April first. The presentation to the House is later than past budgets, because G.O.B. is looking everywhere to come up with revenue. Financial Secretary Joseph Waight has said that higher […]
Two disturbing videos of recruits training for the B.D.F. have been obtained by News Five. The first, in its entirety, captures the rigorous and extreme training program, including tear gassing for those aspiring to join the force. The second video contains the images of a young man being shoved into a trench even as he […]
Did the Immigration Department try to sweep the visa foils affair under the rug and turn on the man who instigated an investigation of the matter? Immigration Officer Mark Tench said as much at Wednesday’s public hearings of the Special Senate Select Committee, where he accused the Department of attempting to make him a scapegoat […]
Tench continued to enumerate his version of events at the Public Service Commission hearing for the Senators on Wednesday. He emphasized that the former C.E.O. had nothing to do with the process of argument against his continued employment with the Department and that the Commission agreed that further investigation of the matter should have been […]
In the afternoon, there was further discussion of the visa foil issue. As one of the senior men at the border during the incident, one would have expected that Vernon Leslie would have personally informed the then-Director of Immigration after being unable to gain a satisfactory response from immediate boss Edgar Cano, but no one […]
As noted, a decision was taken, later endorsed by Cano, to basically pretend as if the visas had never gone missing. It involved receiving payment from legitimate travellers seeking a visa. They were issued the numbers corresponding to the missing visas and the money went into the Government Treasury with none the wiser. Vernon Leslie’s […]
Manuel Estuardo Roldan Barillas, Guatemala’s ambassador to Belize, has quietly returned to the country, eleven months after he was recalled for “consultations” with his bosses. It is not clear under what circumstances he has returned, but it could signal a return to normalcy. But we do know that Guatemala has asked the Organization of American […]
A verdict has been handed down in the Southern Session of the Supreme Court in Dangriga in relation to a highly-publicized police-involved shooting three years ago. Eighteen year old Rasheed Elijio was attempting to escape from police custody in Punta Gorda along with one Brian Garcia in May of 2013. He was hit with a […]
The Senate Special Select Committee has been actively poring through a single incident reported in the Auditor General’s Special Report on Immigration for weeks now. The more important issues of nationalities and passport granted to persons who did not meet the requirements has taken the back seat eight visa foils that somehow went missing from […]
Mark Tench also confirmed that he printed the passport for pickup to be delivered to Won Hong Kim in August of 2013 after being transferred from the Western Border office. Kim certainly did not meet the requirements and never set foot in Belize but was facilitated all the way. That illegal passport is now being […]
Tench said to the Committee that there were ways to “game” the system if one was really in desperate need of a visa. He gave an example of his time in Belize City, where he dealt with Nigerian and Ghanaian residents aiming to try to get relatives and friends to the Jewel to ultimately become […]
The Public Utilities Commission has announced that Belize will be hosting its first National Cyber Security Symposium from April twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh. The primary activities include special forums for a range of stakeholders, including, business persons, law enforcement, public sector officials, academia, the judiciary, network operators and the general public. It is expected that […]
Wooding was speaking to News Five at the official launch of the Forum this afternoon. It is expected to attract high-profile officials and experts, including heads of local, regional and international organizations, government Ministers, federal officers and chief executives. The expected outcome of the Symposium will be the development of a National Cyber-Security Framework and […]
The Belmopan City Council is looking for investors for its six-point-five million dollar municipal bond. They are hoping to do some major works and upgrades in the Capital – but need business owners and residents to buy into the bond. The start interest rate is one of the best – better than lending institutions. And […]
B.N.E. confirmed today that there was a leak at one of well sites in Spanish Lookout on Wednesday. Reports reaching our newsroom say that the leak happened at Mike Usher ONE well site. Since the leak, B.N.E. has been doing work to recover the oil and clean up the affected area. In an email today, […]
In Punta Gorda this morning, cultural icon Leela Vernon was laid to rest with all the trappings of an official funeral. Vernon passed away on February nineteenth. She had been ailing for some time and was hospitalized at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where she passed away. Her death has had a tremendous impact on […]
World Kidney is celebrated on March ninth every year. Across the globe, the campaigns focus on highlighting the importance of our kidneys as well as to draw attention to prevention and early detection of kidney disease. The Kidney Association of Belize is at the forefront of the three main activities, including fund raising to assist those […]
Immigration Officer of eighteen years’ experience, Mark Tench, appeared before the Senate Special Select Committee this morning as one of two witnesses in the inquiry on the Immigration Department. His name appears as one of the investigators into the eight missing visa foils from the Western Border office that disappeared sometime between Christmas and Boxing […]
