It’s the new telecommunications company, with competitive rates and cutting edge technology, offering exciting services to thousands of new customers. No, we’re not talking about INTELCO, although the business plan pitched to the press this morning sounds eerily close to the rhetoric uttered barely two years ago by the now defunct company. It’s the latest […]
And in related news, there may be serious implications for the local telecom scene following an administrative ruling in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It seems that BTL owner Jeffrey Prosser is no better at avoiding controversy than his predecessor, Michael Ashcroft. The latest news from St. Thomas is that the Virgin Islands Public Services Commission […]
And while the government of Belize will have to take whatever heat may result from any guarantees offered to Prosser, a late release just received from Cabinet outlines that body’s plan to make good on the Prime Minister’s various pledges of greater accountability and transparency in the management of the nation’s finances. I will read […]
By all accounts it’s doing the kind of high quality reasonably priced printing that customers have always wanted…but that hasn’t stopped Print Belize’s vocal competitors from crying foul over the way in which the former government printery was privatised. Today the Belmopan based company raised its profile by opening a branch in Belize City and […]
Today there was another important addition to the body of Belizean scholarship as this afternoon, the third edition of Readings in Belizean History was released. The collection of essays was expanded and updated after months of painstaking work. According to Froyla Salam of the Institute of Social and Cultural Research, the essays contained in the […]
Not very long ago the drive out of Belize City along the Western Highway featured little more than a parade of eyesores stretching from the garbage dump to the Burdon Canal Bridge. And while today the low lying area can hardly be called scenic, there is a renaissance of sorts featuring new houses, new businesses, […]
For the last several weeks the Belizean political cauldron has been bubbling at a full boil while, perhaps coincidentally, the wave of criminal violence that threatened to overwhelm the nation seemed to subside in response. This weekend it returned, however, and as activists prepared to hit the streets of the old capital, a hand gun […]
The three homicides in Belize City were not the only murders over the weekend. One man was killed on Friday in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, after a fight ended in a stabbing. Twenty-three year old Holberto Crawford died at the KHMH while receiving treatment for a knife wound to the chest. Around ten thirty he […]
Another man who has been charged with murder is Francisco Arquijo. The twenty-two year old Honduran resident of Belize City had already been charged with robbery in connection with Thursday’s bank heist in Pomona. In the course of that robbery taxi driver Carlos Quintero was shot dead, apparently by one of the three robbers, when […]
It was billed as a massive protest march that, although organised by the Opposition United Democratic Party, called upon all Belizeans to register their anger over alleged mismanagement of government finances. And while politicians may argue over the partisan affiliations of the marchers, there is no doubt that Saturday’s demonstration was large and its participants […]
For Opposition Leader Dean Barrow the question arises, even after a successful demonstration, “where do we go from here?” On Friday he was asked by News 5’s Stewart Krohn how any future UDP government would handle the nation’s finances. Dean Barrow, Leader of Opposition “Quite honestly there are several possibilities. I could take it on […]
In related news, Government has announced that it has formally abandoned its plans to float a two hundred and twenty-five million US dollar bond on the international market. According to a release, the engagement agreement with Morgan Stanley expired on August seventeenth and no further efforts will be made to raise the funds, over ninety […]
A traffic accident early this morning on the Western Highway has claimed the life of one person and left several others injured. According to police, a Mitsubishi pickup truck and an Isuzu Rodeo travelling in opposite directions collided head on, between miles thirty-one and thirty-two. Driver of the Rodeo, twenty-six year old Austin Castro of […]
It took five months of planning and preparation, not to mention a generous helping of volunteer work from people all over the country. And on Saturday artists from all over took the stage to raise funds to help care for people infected and affected by AIDS. Coordinator of the “The Living with Hope” project, Dolores […]
He is popularly known as “man at work” and his labours have taken him to streets and lanes at home and abroad. For the next few weeks art fans can walk those routes with artist Terryl Godoy at his latest exhibition. Patrick Jones, Reporting If pictures tell a thousand words, then tireless painter Terryl Godoy […]
Good evening, I’m James Adderley with a brand new package of Sports Monday. The semi-pro basketball competition arrived at the post season Friday night as the number one seed BTL Nets and the number four seed Belmopan Blue Devils touched off the four-team playoffs inside the City Centre. In both regular season meetings, the Nets […]
You could say that it?s the first major event of the United Democratic Party?s 2008 election campaign…a mass protest march and rally seeking to capitalize on widespread public distrust of government?s financial management, aided and abetted by a simmering civil war in the ruling PUP cabinet. For UDP leader Dean Barrow it?s a scenario made […]
Ralph Fonseca said he had a mortgage of seven hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars and the following night Wilfred Elrington appeared on News 5 to deny it, saying that the amount of his loan from St. James National Building Society was under two hundred and seventy-five thousand. So who got it wrong? No one, actually. […]
The political rally is not the only big event happening Saturday in Belize City. At the same time that protesters begin their march, a large number of the nation’s broadcasters will join together to solve a problem that no politician anywhere in the world can ignore. Patrick Jones reports on Living with Hope. Patrick Jones, […]
Police have charged the man detained in Thursday’s robbery of the Alliance Bank in Pomona. He is twenty-two year old Francisco Ruben Arguijon, a citizen of Honduras. Arguijon has at this time only been charged with robbery, but it is possible that charges may be lodged in the future for the murder of taxi driver […]
You may have seen them making the rounds in Belize City but lest you think Dalila Vanzie, Miss Belize World and Jade Fulford, Miss Jamaica World, are in the country promoting yet another pageant, you will be surprised to know that these two young women have been working for a more meaningful cause. The project […]
2004 will not be remembered as a great year by Marion Jones. Under investigation for drug violations by the U.S. anti doping agency, the Belizean-American today failed twice to win medals in the Athens Olympics. In the long jump Marion finished fifth, fouling on two attempts and reaching a best distance of six point eight […]
Late August and September is traditionally the time that Belizean musicians release their latest recordings, just in time for the celebrations. This year, one local artist has put a new twist on an old practice. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting “Belizean Products” the latest music video to hit the local scene. The song, produced by the Kungo […]
It is with great regret that we note the passing last night of Mary Valdes. Valdes spent the better part of her ninety years as a tireless promoter of the arts–particularly classical dance. In 1995, I had the privilege of reporting a story on the occasion of her receiving a special award from the Belize […]
The Social Security scandal stayed hot today, as the unions pointed fingers, and the S.S.B.’s General Manager bobbed and weaved. But long after the financial foibles, real and imagined, have been forgotten, the problem of violent crime will remain with us. And that’s where we begin tonight…with a bank robbery in the Stann Creek District […]
