Following the highly embarrassing arrest of its security chief, the Kolbe Foundation has moved quickly to exercise some damage control. On Thursday, it announced that disgraced employee Oscar Puga had been fired and procedural measures at Hattieville Prison had been tightened. And as News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports, come Monday morning, a familiar face will […]
For months now, oil has been a hot topic around local discussion tables. How much is really down there? How much revenue will the industry pay out to Government? And more importantly, how will the ordinary Belizean benefit from the discovery? In an attempt to answer those burning questions and put a couple conspiracy theories […]
Many Belizeans are breathing a little easier tonight as November thirtieth officially marks the close of hurricane season 2007. While this year wasn’t as active as originally predicted, the rare event of two category five storms developing in the Western Caribbean significantly impacted Belize. On August twenty-first, Hurricane Dean barrelled into northern Belize packing winds […]
A head on collision on the Northern Highway has cost a Corozal teenager his life. According to police reports, shortly before ten on Thursday night, an Isuzu Trooper and a Dodge Dakota collided on the curve between miles eighty-two and eighty-three. As a result, eighteen year old Elber Guerra, his cousin, twenty-two year old Elgir […]
In Belize City, investigators are tonight looking for two men who held up a delivery truck driver in the middle of the afternoon. According to Western Diaries employee Clarence Young, he and his two side men were in front of the Ah Wing Restaurant on Mahogany Street around three on Wednesday afternoon when two men […]
In court news, the prosecution has closed its case against accused murderer Louis “Louie Ganzie” Gentle. As part of her submissions, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lynn Branker-Tait called seven witnesses including the victim’s grandmother, Gilda Johnson. Johnson testified that around four a.m. on January third, she heard her granddaughter Takeisha Sutherland cry out […]
Meanwhile, it appears an accused drug dealer escaped going to jail because of his weight. This morning when police raided the Castle Street home of twenty-nine year old Llewellyn “Bigga” Meighan, they found three grams of crack cocaine and two bags of weed. Because of the find, police slapped Meighan with a drug trafficking charge […]
If you are looking for an easy way to earn some cash and do some good at the same time, we’ve got just the thing. In anticipation of International Children’s Day of Broadcasting on December ninth, the National Committee for Families and Children is sponsoring an art competition entitled, “The World as We See It.” […]
With the Christmas season upon us, parents are already on the prowl for presents. One toy on the market this year is an old school truck. According to creator Joel “Dara” Robinson, his all terrain vehicle comes complete with a custom paint job, power steering, and natural air conditioning. Robinson says he decided to use […]
As part of our continuing coverage of the activities leading up to World AIDS Day on December first, today our crews travelled across the city to highlight the various events. We’ll begin at the Belize City Council where this morning, elected officials held the public signing of a document that HIV experts feel is an […]
After three weeks of north winds and hard rains, perfect weather has finally returned to Belize…and while last week’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is the traditional start of Belize’s tourist season, the warm sunshine and streets crowded with visitors made today feel like the real beginning of big business. But as News Five’s Janelle Chanona discovered, […]
The embarrassing arrest of a senior prison official over the weekend has cost him his job. According to Chairman of the Kolbe Foundation John Woods, on Wednesday morning thirty-two year old Oscar Puga showed up at Hattieville Prison where he was paid off and terminated as the facility’s Deputy Chief of Security. Over the weekend, […]
News from Geneva is that Ambassador and former Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay has been elected to a high post in the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. In elections held today Courtenay was one of five delegates selected for the organisation’s Standing Commission. The others represent the United States, Mali, Italy and Jordan. Courtenay has been […]
Separate cases of theft this week have been keeping investigators busy. In the first incident, joy riders appear to be the culprits behind the disappearance of a Nissan Pathfinder on Wednesday night. According to owner Melissa Gonzalez, between six and six-thirty she parked her SUV at the corner of Queen Street and New Road. But […]
Tonight two accused rapists are out on bail while a third has yet to be detained. Reports out of Magistrates’ Court are that this morning twenty-year old Roman Petzold and twenty-six year old Francis Lopez were formally charged with rape in connection to an incident on April thirteenth 2005. It was on that day the […]
There’s no doubt that the Belize Carnival Association runs a great series of events each September…but today the Association was in the news, not because they are jumping up, but because they are making a donation. That gift took the form of a 150 cc motorcycle for the police Prosecution Branch. It was presented to […]
Williams also reported that efforts are already underway to beef up the department’s anti-crime activities during the Christmas season. Sr. Supt. Chester Williams, Deputy O.C., Eastern Division “We will be intensifying our police presence within the commercial areas and without losing focus in the other areas where we know the other types of crimes have […]
Tonight we regret to bring news of the death of Elvira “Bea” Searle. Mrs. Searle, co-founder of Belize Global Travel Services and the wife of well known businessman Johnny Searle, succumbed to a long bout with cancer this morning in Brownsville, Texas. Details of funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
The period between Garifuna Settlement Day and Christmas is a hectic one in Belize as our thoughts turn to celebration, gift giving, and, not insignificantly, finding the funds to pay for all that fun. But increasingly the days of late November and early December are being devoted to a pair of issues that represent a […]
We begin our news coverage tonight with a look at some new initiatives against the HIV epidemic. And while they happen to coincide with World AIDS Day on Saturday, the need for coherent action is both real and urgent. Janelle Chanona has our first report from Belmopan. Janelle Chanona, Reporting According to the latest national […]
Children were not the only focus of activists today as an event in Belize City highlighted the impact of AIDS on the world of work. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story. Marion Ali, Reporting Today personnel from the Ministry of Labour held an open day in conjunction with World AIDS Week. The event was […]
While the Deputy Chief of Security at Hattieville Prison, Oscar Puga, awaits his day in court, public indignation mounts over his personal escorting of three inmates for a night out in Belize City. With the Kolbe Foundation under pressure to put Puga under manners, the focus now turns to who else may have been involved […]
A man found guilty of assaulting his girlfriend has been fined a thousand dollars. Justice Adolph Lucas today ordered twenty-six year old George Matthews to pay after a jury of five men and four women found him guilty on Tuesday by an eight to one majority. Matthews had originally been charged with Kidnapping but that […]
Being a police officer is a dangerous job anywhere in the world and Belize is no exception. With cops increasingly on the wrong end of deadly violence the department is trying to offer at least some kind of relief to grieving families. News Five’s Marion Ali reports that while the money may be small, at […]
Pardon the pun, but there is no hotter topic in the world today than the issue of climate change, better known as global warming. This year, in the launching of its annual Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Program has chosen climate change as its theme. The relationship between development and a warming planet […]
