As an event, it’s a new kid on the cultural block, but Poets R Us at the Belize City House of Culture has breathed new life in an old art form: poetry. On Thursday night, a compilation of poetry written by Belizean high school students, in both book and recorded CD, was officially introduced to […]
Word from Miami tonight is that the long running legal nightmare called I.C.C. versus Government of Belize is about to end. Both sides in the battle for ownership of B.T.L. summed up their cases before Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages today and this evening Belize’s Attorney in Miami, Barry Davidson, told us that Judge Ungaro has […]
If you follow news from the United States of America you know that the big story of the week was the miraculous rescue of eleven year old Brennan Hawkins, found by searchers in a Utah forest some four days after he wandered away from Boy Scout Camp. While that against-the-odds outcome should bring some measure […]
It’s not often that we find newsworthy material on the pages of the Belize Times, but a story in today’s edition could not be ignored. Entitled ?Eureka!? the five-paragraph report breathlessly describes how on Tuesday the company drilling for petroleum at Spanish Lookout had finally struck oil. It depicted a ?gusher,? from which ?huge quantities […]
A man originally accused of murder, but convicted only of manslaughter, had his conviction completely overturned yesterday by the Court of Appeal. Benjamin Chulin of Orange Walk was cleared, his nine-year prison sentence wiped out, and he cannot be retried for the death of Reynaldo Roberts in 2003. His attorney, Hubert Elrington, successfully argued that […]
Two cases involving adult men having sex with children fell apart today in the Supreme Court when the teens failed to appear to testify. Defendant Mark Tucker, a police officer of West Street in Belize City, appeared before Justice Adolph Lucas, but the Crown declined to prosecute due to the disappearance of their main witness, […]
The fourth annual compilation of Belize’s environmental statistics was officially launched this morning…and major findings are signalling a dramatic increase in the amount of pollutants contaminating the country’s land, sea, and air. According to the experts: In 1980, there were just twenty-seven thousand households in Belize…in the year 2000, that figure had risen to approximately […]
Experts have long contended that many of the country’s social problems, especially the rise in violent crime, are the direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family. With that in mind, since Monday of this week, twenty social workers, recommended through the Human Services Department, have been participating in courses stressing the importance of […]
In Belize there is no law against corporal punishment for children under the age of sixteen including those in the primary education system. In fact, Section thirty-one of the Criminal Code allows force or harm if it is used to correct a child for misconduct. Section thirty-nine allows other force not exceeding a wound or […]
They say you should save the best for last and so tonight we bring you the best of the bunch… at least, according to their scores on the Primary School Examination, P.S.E., given to all standard six students countrywide. And while Hummingbird Elementary School had the highest overall class score, weighing in at an average […]
Three days after he disappeared from a ranch north of Ladyville, there is still no sign of four year old Rudy Lopez. It’s a strange case with no shortage of theories. But while police, family, and friends try to sort through a tangled mess of often conflicting clues, one thing remains certain: an innocent child […]
The Opposition United Democratic Party has written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives protesting her actions at Friday’s sitting. The letter, signed by Party Leader Dean Barrow, accuses Speaker Elizabeth Zabaneh of being overtly biased in favour of the ruling People’s United Party and called upon her to give an undertaking that she […]
The Ministry of Finance and Central Bank today issued a joint press release which offers their version of a controversial financial transaction that cost the government over three million U.S. dollars. According to the release, the proposal to convert a twenty-nine point one million U.S. dollar loan note into Japanese Yen came from Citibank of […]
The disturbing trend of sexual abuse of young girls continues, with two offenders pleading guilty in separate cases. In the Court of Magistrate Harrison Hulett, thirty-one year old Feliciano Novelo of Jane Usher Boulevard was sentenced to a year in jail for indecent assault. He had fondled a ten-year-old, unaware that his acts were being […]
Two brothers convicted of chopping and stabbing a police officer have had their convictions overturned on appeal. In April 2002, Herson and Ervin Guerra of San Estevan Village in the Orange Walk District were arrested after they burst into the village police station and attacked P.C. Reynaldo Bruhier. They went to trial in November of […]
This weekend the hardwood at the Belize City Centre will echo with the sounds of basketball action as a Belizean All-Star line up takes on a roster of international collegiate players. The match-up is the result of an invitation from the American Airlines Ruff Riders basketball team of the United States challenging our national selection. […]
Obituaries are a staple of any local newscast and to qualify you usually need to be reasonably famous or extremely old. The subject of our next story qualifies on both counts… and today I attended the wake. Rosella Robinson, Flowers Bank Resident ?This was a friend of the whole village, not only me. I know […]
Missing persons are reported to the police and media every day. Most are teenage runaways who soon return home or people with mental problems who are eventually reunited with loved ones. But tonight at a ranch north of Ladyville, the family of a missing four-year-old boy is running out of hope. It has been over […]
Two men have been arrested in the killing of taxi driver Rodrick Todd. Twenty-three year old Roland Small of Pelican Street and twenty-one year old Michael Young of a West Canal address were today taken to Magistrate’s Court where they were charged with the crime of murder. Todd’s body, suffering from gunshot wounds, was found […]
Charges against a police officer accused of killing a suspect in San Pedro have been upgraded from manslaughter to murder. Constable Burton Caliz appeared today before Justice Michelle Arana to offer a plea to the original manslaughter charge arising from the death of Leroy Pilgrim, but was informed by the prosecution that the charge had […]
While one police officer will be heading to jail, five other defendants charged with murder are about to be set free. Today prosecutor Marjorie Moyston dropped a bombshell on the court of Justice Adolph Lucas when she revealed that the D.P.P.’s office has requested that murder charges be dropped against five people accused in the […]
A traffic accident that took three lives on the third of June has now claimed a fourth victim. He is Belize Defence Force private Eduardo Cus. Cus, who was a passenger in a B.D.F. truck that collided with a motorcycle on the Western Highway, was flown to Mexico City for treatment on June seventh. According […]
The consultant hired to review the Public Utilities Commission’s initial decision on electricity rates has submitted his report… and it looks like consumers will be feeling the pinch. Dennis Colenutt, having considered submissions by the P.U.C. and Belize Electricity Limited, has recommended a mean electricity rate of thirty-nine point three cents per kilowatt-hour. This figure […]
Higher education: it’s a goal to which more Belizeans than ever before are aspiring. But will our institutions of advanced learning be ready? One school is outlining some bold plans for the future. Janelle Chanona, Reporting This month Saint John?s College officially released its plans to dramatically expand the educational institution?s main campus. The new […]
The kids are nearly out of school, the weather is hot, and the rivers are beginning to rise. It’s a combination that in the news business means a summer of stories on tragic drownings. But, as I learned this afternoon, it’s a forecast that does not have to come true. Janelle Chanona, Reporting For the […]
