Home » October, 2007
You are currently browsing entries posted in: October, 2007
Fifteen weeks after her co-chair submitted his report, tonight we understand that Merlene Bailey Martinez will hand deliver her set of findings from the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation to Prime Minister Said Musa tomorrow morning. According to Martinez, “a great weight lifted” when she finally completed her report. And while we […]
Written on October 29, 2007 | Posted in
Social Issues |
Comments Off on Second D.F.C. report goes to P.M. Tuesday
In the aftermath of the Musa administration’s announcement that it plans to de-reserve almost three thousand acres of land in the Bacalar Chico National Park, local conservationists have been pooling their resources to launch a coordinated campaign to reverse the decision. This afternoon, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations and the Belize Tourism Industry […]
Written on October 29, 2007 | Posted in
Environment |
Comments Off on Conservation groups criticise de-reservation of park
As we’ve often pointed out in this newscast, many of the country’s rural schools are badly in need of assistance to improve and expand their facilities. In June 2005, News Five visited Santa Martha village in the Orange Walk district and found the primary school in dire need of new classrooms. Tonight we are pleased […]
Written on October 29, 2007 | Posted in
Education |
Comments Off on Japan helps primary school in Santa Martha
James Adderley Good evening, I’m James Adderley and we welcome you to this fresh dish of Sports Monday. We decided to take a closer look at the newly formed Super League of Belize, so we zoomed in on Saturday night’s face off between Benque Viejo D.C. United and the home team Roots F.C. inside the […]
Written on October 29, 2007 | Posted in
Sports |
Comments Off on Benque and Roots draw in Super League football
Following the embarrassing collapse of the murder trial against Belize City businessman Ben Bou-Nahra because investigating officers could not identify the accused, today two of the three cops in question have been relieved of duty. According to police high command, the actions of the trio will be scrutinised by internal affairs to determine if disciplinary […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Three cops in Bou-Nahra case interdicted
Tonight police are investigating the murder of a Corozal carpenter. According to authorities, this morning the body of fifty-five year old Ernesto Riverol was discovered in the living room of his Third Street home with serious injuries to the back of his head. Investigators believe the victim was killed sometime between late Thursday evening and […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Corozal carpenter killed with blunt object
Meanwhile, separate murder cases in the Belize City Supreme Court have ended with very different verdicts. More than a year after he was accused of killing Mango Creek villager Reynato Logan, this afternoon twenty-two year old Harrison Smith was acquitted of the crime. According to court sources, the case against Smith fell apart because the […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Trials |
Comments Off on Security guard cleared of murder …
Meanwhile, two brothers who were found guilty of Murder earlier this month have been given life sentences. According to court reports, this morning Justice Adolph Lucas ordered that twenty-three year old Maurice Felix and twenty-one year old Emory Felix be jailed for life for the murder of Belize City mechanic Mitchum Heredia. In April 2006, […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Trials |
Comments Off on … While Felix brothers sentenced to life
Tonight eighteen tourists and four local crew members are lucky to be alive following an explosion aboard a dive boat on Thursday afternoon. According to three Canadian divers on “Miss Mel” at the time of the incident, the vessel was just moving off to another site off Long Caye near Lighthouse Reef when they heard […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Disasters |
Comments Off on Dive boat explodes/sinks off Long Caye
A hit and run accident in the Belize district has left one man dead. According to investigators, thirty-two year old Herbert Gillett, better known as “Peacemaker,” was riding his bike home around ten on Wednesday night when he was knocked down between miles twenty-seven and twenty-eight on the Northern Highway. The Biscayne villager suffered serious […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Family of hit and run victim beg for justice
While the collapse of the Ben Bou-Nahra case has taken the headlines this week, today News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin has the details of another legal matter that police investigators appear to have bungled. Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting Today one of the three men arrested and charged in connection with the hold up and armed robbery at […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Trials |
Comments Off on Accused robbers cleared of Cayo resort robbery
The Musa administration’s announcement this week that it is considering to de-reserve a portion of the Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve, with the idea of selling it to interested investors have caught local conservation groups off-guard. According to the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations, which represents eighteen environmental groups working in Belize, Bacalar Chico is […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Economy |
Comments Off on Conservationists object to G.O.B. plans for marine reserve
For almost three months, Channel Five’s Ultimate KTV has come to dominate the local entertainment scene. Each contestant has their own following of faithful fans who will be feverishly texting their votes until the midnight deadline on Sunday. But before the winner is announced next week, News Five’s Janelle Chanona decided to follow the finalists […]
Written on October 26, 2007 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on K.T.V. finalists make last sales pitch to fans
Over the last few years we have dutifully reported as members of the Belize Police Force increasingly engage in acts of criminal behaviour including homicide, rape, theft, extortion, smuggling and assorted brutalities far too numerous to mention. But on Wednesday when four police officers swore under oath that they could not identify Ben Bou-Nahra, the […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Pressure mounts for perjury charges against 4 cops
Cops are not the only uniformed personnel under pressure tonight. A release from the U.S. Embassy reports that a B.D.F. soldier has been busted for running a visa scam. The man, identified only as Corporal Paul Adolphus, fraudulently helped eighteen Belizeans obtain U.S. visas by falsely affirming that they were members of the B.D.F. going […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on B.D.F. corporal jailed for U.S. visa scam
Yesterday we showed you a section of Tribuce Street that had been neglected for months and how it literally turned into a pond. As we reported, the Belize City Council, headed by its Works Councilor Anthony Michael, carried out immediate road and drainage repairs after we jumped on the story. The councilor promised that by […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Repairs almost complete on Tribuce Street
In 1990, Belize signed on to the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Executive Director of Belize’s Women’s Issues Network, Carolyn Reynolds, says based on the little that has been done, we have not lived up to our commitments. Today WIN-Belize came together with its fifteen member organisations, government representatives, and […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Women’s group says more must be done
The Belize Medical and Dental Association is holding its twenty-fifth congress at the Radisson. This year, along with the usual seminars and pitches by pharmaceutical companies, the doctors are looking at some controversial issues. Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting It may have been in the works for five years but finally medical doctors practicing in Belize will […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Health |
1 comment
They call themselves “Palha de Milho”—corn straw in English—and they hail from Brazil. The quartet, here for two concerts, play that country’s varied music, creating sounds that Belizeans should find new and exciting. Fernando Bittencourt, Band member, Palha de Milho “We have been playing together for more or less fifteen years this kind of regional […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Uncategorized |
Comments Off on Brazilian musicians schedule two performances
The organisers of virtually every pageant held in Belize insist that theirs is not a “beauty” contest, but instead involves some other special quality like talent, brains or personality. While we can’t speak to those claims, one thing we can say is that the annual Miss Garifuna pageant is different. News Five’s Marion Ali reports. […]
Written on October 25, 2007 | Posted in
Miscellaneous |
Comments Off on Who will be Miss Garifuna Belize City?
Following Cabinet’s decision to rescind the highly favourable terms of two oil concessions granted to two local companies, today Minister of Natural Resources Florencio Marin went on record defending Belmopan’s motives. The interview with News Five’s Janelle Chanona took place in the minister’s Belmopan office with Inspector of Petroleum Andre Cho and Chief Executive Officer […]
Written on October 24, 2007 | Posted in
Economy |
Comments Off on Oil minister defends government policies
While the big news out of Cabinet this week was the cancellation of two lopsided oil contracts, that body did manage to make some other significant decisions. According to a press release, a ten percent increase in the minimum pension for retired public officers has been approved. Cabinet has also been advised that the Social […]
Written on October 24, 2007 | Posted in
Politics |
Comments Off on Cabinet moves against tinted windshields
The long running Manslaughter case against Ben Bou-nahra ended in shambles today when the four police officers who originally visited the scene said they could not identify the accused. Without that basic evidence the prosecution could not even begin to make its case and an acquittal verdict was directed by Justice Adolph Lucas. The testimony […]
Written on October 24, 2007 | Posted in
Trials |
Comments Off on Case against Bou-nahra folds when cops get amnesia
Belize City police believe it was jealousy that caused one childhood friend to shoot another. The drama unfolded around ten-thirty on Tuesday morning outside the home of Elizabeth Martinez. Police investigations reveal that Martinez was sitting in her yard talking with twenty-eight year old Eric Jones when twenty-seven year old Norris Martinez, no relation to […]
Written on October 24, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on Two shootings, no fatalities…
Belize City Police are not saying what kind of a mission they believe three suspects may have been on when their vehicle was intercepted by a police mobile patrol but what the officers found inside the car may have caught them by surprise. Authorities say around eight-thirty on Tuesday night they observed a grey Pontiac […]
Written on October 24, 2007 | Posted in
Crime |
Comments Off on …but a loaded AK47 would have been lethal
