Belize’s highways were busy this long Easter weekend as packed up vehicles of every size, shape and age hit the road to vacation spots in all parts of the country. Unfortunately for some, the holiday travelling also brought tragedy. No less than a dozen people had to be hospitalized and at least one was killed […]
The litany of highway accidents was not limited to just vehicles moving on four wheels. During the Cross Country Cycle Race on Saturday morning a motorcycle carrying two officials was knocked off the road, seriously injuring one. According to passenger Rhett Reyes, the incident happened near the Three Flags complex in the village of Unitedville, […]
Mishaps at sea are not uncommon over Easter but the only one reported this weekend occurred while a vessel was still in the river. The water taxi, “Sunrise,” had just passed the Belize Fiberglass Motors at two miles on the Northern Highway, and was on its way back, when the vessel, captained by Gregory Perry, […]
An internal investigation by the Customs Department has resulted in the arrest of one of their junior officers. According to reports reaching News Five, twenty nine year old Customs Examiner Michael Dyer was charged on April ninth with knowingly dealing with uncustomed goods. The items, which have a market value of over three hundred thousand […]
The first effort by B.T.L. to run a fiber optic cable from Belize City to Belmopan ended up with the U.S. contractor fleeing the country in the middle of the job. This time they hope things will be different. On Wednesday the telephone monopoly will sign a contract with a Mexican company, Alcatel Indetel Industria […]
The project may not be worth eight million dollars but it’s still an important one, both to the politician who’s behind it and the laborers who want to work on it. Those two parties had something of a falling out, however, and a News Five crew, which happened to be in the Lake Independence area […]
Good evening. I’m James Adderley and welcome to this Cross Country edition of Sports Monday. Without doubt the Holy Saturday Cycle Race is the biggest in this nation and the 70th edition proved to be even more exciting than was anticipated. We open to Quinton “The Baddest” Hamilton affirming his participation in this prestigious ride […]
For a while it had turned into a guessing game. Rescued from the political graveyard by a stroke of the legislative pen, Derek Aikman was back in the business of politics. But where would he run? Early word was that the U.D.P. hierarchy wanted him to keep Said Musa on his toes in Fort George, […]
In crime news Sarita Estrada has been charged with murder in the slaying of her common law husband, Stanley Gillette. Gillette was killed on Monday allegedly as he struggled with Estrada over a shotgun. He was upset over a love affair she was having with another man in Maypen Village. Estrada will reappear in court […]
In Supreme Court News, the man accused in the murder of his common-law wife last year received a long prison sentence but not for the original charge. Rudolph Neal was charged with murdering Lorna Young and burying her body in a shallow grave behind a house on Police street, sometime between December Sixteenth, 1996 and […]
In the midst of a record heat wave it is not difficult to convince any Belizean that our world is getting hotter. But the potential peril of global warming goes beyond mere comfort. For coastal countries like Belize it could take the form of rising seas and flooding caused by the melting of the polar […]
Earlier this week we brought viewers a preview of Saturday’s Cross Country Cycling Classic. Today we’re going to focus on a well known cyclist who will not be riding. Patrick Jones reports. On Holy Saturday 1995, he narrowly sprinted his way into the history books. Orlando Chavarria was on top of the world… and loving […]
There are many of us in Belize who cling to the notion that once outside the violent world of the city, life in rural Belize is as peaceful and idyllic as a nineteenth century postcard. Today there are fewer believers in that mirage as the prototypically bucolic village of Maypen on Monday became the scene […]
In other crime news, Corozal police have charged three men in connection with the murder of a boledo vendor earlier this month. Twenty four year old Victor Sanker, eighteen year old Jeremy Matura and fifteen year old, Rocky Matura, who jumped the northern border after a shootout with police, were apprehended by Mexican authorities in […]
The fireworks were supposed to come tonight, when at a U.D.P. public meeting, it will finally be revealed which constituency will be home to the politically reborn Derek Aikman. But as usual with things having to do with Derek, surprise was the order of the day, as the former City Manager just couldn’t manage to […]
Yesterday we reported that at long last the University College of Belize had finally done something worthy of a real university: that is publish a book. Today we find that U.C.B. is fulfilling yet another institutional requirement: that of hosting stimulating guest lecturers. 1992 Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu will be on campus on may […]
Last night the People’s United Party convened its second “People’s Assembly,” this time in Dangriga. Consistent with its policy of making specific proposals that it says will be implemented if the P.U.P. is elected, Party Leader Said Musa focussed on areas affecting youth. Said Musa, Leader, P.U.P. “Tonight we make the following proposal towards a […]
In recent weeks we have documented with aerial photography the effect of quarrying operations on the Sibun River. Today we traveled on land to see close up the devastating effects of such mining on one of the Sibun’s major tributaries, the Cave’s Branch. In normal times the trip would have been made by boat. Today […]
The ongoing effort by Government to build a cruise ship terminal at the old Custom’s Wharf hit another snag today as the Supreme Court granted an injunction preventing the Minister of Natural Resources from transferring several parcels of land to the Belize Port Authority. The land in question, two properties belonging to the Belize Audubon […]
Belize City Mayor Jose Coye this morning presented his council’s budget for fiscal year 1998-1999, which began on April first. In his review of the last twelve months at City Hall, the Mayor said the council’s development program budget for last year was cut by fifty percent by Central Government resulting in the reduction and […]
One of the things that universities are supposed to do, in addition to holding classes, is to conduct research and publish it in books. In the case of our own University College of Belize, it’s taken a while, but the first of what will hopefully be many books, is hot off the U.C.B. press. This […]
Today Belize joins one hundred and ninety fellow members of the World Health Organization to observe World Health Day. This year’s theme for the occasion is one with which none of us could argue: “Let’s Work Together for Safe Motherhood”. This morning I attended a forum on the subject. The birth of a newborn baby […]
In the less than flourishing world of Belizean sport it is the one event that never fails to command the public’s unstinting support. Come Saturday morning, whether you are canoeing in Cayo, swimming in San Pedro or putting down beers in Placencia, chances are you will also be listening to the radio for news of […]
The project faced a number of roadblocks, notably concerns from indigenous and environmental groups, but today another piece of the Southern Highway puzzle fell into place with a formal announcement by the government of the United Kingdom. The British have agreed to fully fund the upgrading and paving of the section from Big Creek to […]
After almost two years of lobbying, local airline interests have finally convinced the Belize Government not to grant so called “fifth freedom” rights to Mexican carriers. The announcement, in the form of a B.I.S. press release, reversed a decision made earlier which would have allowed Mexican airlines to carry passengers from Mexico into Belize and […]
