Last Friday, during a police search on Mayflower Street, one of Belize’s hotspots, a thirteen year old student and her grandmother told the media that the minor was strip searched and sexually abused by a female police officer inside her home. The minor claimed that she was sleeping when the officers entered the home, undressed […]
A referendum on whether or not to take the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice takes place in 2013. In Guatemala, a public awareness campaign is ongoing but in Belize the campaign will kick off in January. Government is taking a three prong approach; it is naming a commission comprising a number of […]
After resisting the courts for years, in 2007, Guatemala, under the leadership of President Alvaro Cocom, finally agreed to start negotiating a special agreement to go to the ICJ. That agreement, known as a compromis, contains the question that will be asked in the simultaneous referenda as well as the question being taken to the […]
The last press conference by Prime Minister Dean Barrow was back in August so there were numerous matters to raise when the press descended on him on Wednesday morning. The five hundred and forty-four million US dollar superbond was top on the list of questions. The PM said that the government and bondholders are miles […]
The City Centre in Belize City has not been used for over a year because its dilapidating state would put athletes at risk. When Belize won silver in the COCABA Basketball games in 2009 in Cancun, the Prime Minister promised the athletes that rebuilding the facility would be a priority. The Mexican President Felipe Calderon […]
On Wednesday, Police and B.D.F. executed a search of a Crime Ridden area in the Lake Independence. Some residents were caught off guard while others said they cooperate fully with the police in the searches for which do not require warrants. That is only one anti-crime measure that is being undertaken; others have to do […]
The Immigration Department continues to carry out sting operations in the city; three persons were taken to court on Wednesday and two more were charged today. Jose Nelson Mejia and Zhong Yue Ruan, both bar owners, were charged in separate cases for illegally hiring immigrants. Mejia, the owner of Long Island Bar on Blue Marlin […]
Over in the courtroom of Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith, twenty-four year old Charles Marvin Leslie Junior was committed to stand trial in the January 2013 session of the Supreme Court for the Attempted Murder of twenty-one year old Woodrow Reyes. Both men were on remand for separate offences when on April twenty-third, Reyes was […]
One of the biggest cultural showdowns takes place this weekend in anticipation of Garifuna Settlement Day. But today at the House of Culture, the National Garifuna Council organized a rally for students. There was drumming, dance and poetry depicting the Garifuna culture. Duane Moody dropped by and got in the spirit of the celebrations. […]
Crime continues to be a huge challenge across the country and according to the Mental Health Association young people have become particularly susceptible to criminal activities. That’s the focus of their annual conference which opened today at the St. Catherine Academy Conference Room. The two days of presentations and discussions will address issues that impact […]
It’s common knowledge that brushing and flossing should be an important part of your daily oral care. If you or your child are neglecting that process; it not just your teeth that might be affected. Tonight on Healthy Living, we take a look at the impact of bad oral hygiene on your gums. Marleni […]
Tonight, John McAfee, the US anti-virus founder, is still on the run wanted for questioning in the murder of his neighbor, Gregory Faull, who was found dead at his San Pedro home on Sunday. His elderly father, Hart Faull, arrived in Belize today from Florida to take back his body. McAfee has been in constant […]
McAfee, his first brush with the law gained him notoriety in Belize. Back in May 2012, his house in Carmelita was searched by the Gang Suppression Unit. McAfee claimed he was held for long hours and it took the intervention of the US Embassy to get him released. In an interview he gave to News […]
Sometime around two-fifty this morning, two would-be burglars from Teakettle were shot, one died instantly. The uncle and nephew team was attempting to burglarize a container when two alert watchmen from the well known Cheers Restaurant on the George Price Highway stopped them in their tracks. Their family is stunned at the turn of events. […]
The Lake Independence area is the first to be demarcated as a crime ridden area. Since the weekend, police and B.D.F. have had a constant presence in the crime infested neighborhood and searches are being conducted without warrants. At the crack of dawn this morning, one of those searches was executed. Some residents were prepared […]
While the raid on PIV came up empty, another operation on Plues Street by the Gang Suppression Unit resulted in the discovery of a cache of ammunition. At about ten o’clock this morning, the GSU conducted a search on the roof of a derelict building, where they found a black plastic bag containing a small […]
Approximately forty employees were fired from Belize Waste Control Limited on Monday; twenty of them protested at City Hall since their termination was the result of an unpaid debt of over six hundred thousand dollars. BWC General Manager, George Lamb, says they needed to get the mayor’s attention and a second protest was planned for […]
The mending of fences between the City Hall and Waste Control is also being helped by government intervention. Prime Minister Dean Barrow was asked to give his take on the huge arrears, especially at a time when the council is trying to float a twenty million dollar bond for infrastructure works. The PM says Mayor […]
The government and Maya communities have been at odds over oil drilling and exploration in communal lands in southern Belize. In June 2010 Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh declared that thirty-three Maya communities had customary land tenure in their villages. That should have settled the perennial problem, but despite the court declaration, not much has changed […]
Hearings by the Public Accounts Committee and whether they should be held public have been hotly debated for days. Its present Chair, Area Representative for Cayo South, Julius Espat, says they should; but due to wrangling among committee members, Tuesday’s hearings were held behind closed doors and then quickly adjourned. Espat maintains that the U.D.P. […]
Under extremely tight security, a trial involving police officers accused in one of the biggest drug busts in the country is currently underway. Before Justice Denis Hanomansingh in the Dangriga courts, the case started on Monday of four police officers and two others charged for aiding in the importation of cocaine into Belize. On trial […]
Three persons were before the court for separate immigration offences today. Thirty-six year old businesswoman, Vilma Chip Coh, who is a naturalized Belizean originally from Guatemala, was charged for employing two persons without valid work permits. Chip owns Chica Picante Bar and Lounge on Mosul Street in Belize City. Allegations are that on November thirteenth, […]
The home of the Police Department’s National Youth Program Coordinator, Douglas Hyde, was burglarized in September and police have now caught up with the suspected culprit. Today twenty-four year old Robert Young, a Mason of Freetown Sibun Street, was arraigned before Magistrate Adolph Lucas Junior for a single charge of Burglary. Young pleaded not guilty […]
The Prime Minister also touched on his party’s internal politics. Minister of Education Patrick Faber will reportedly be mounting a challenge against the Deputy Prime Minister, Gaspar Vega. Faber wants to unseat Vega as deputy party leader. Under Vega’s watch, the U.D.P. stronghold in the north was severely diminished in the last general elections. Prime […]
Celebrations to mark the arrival of the Garinagu to our shores take place this weekend and into Monday, the nineteenth. It means that slew of cultural activities will accompany the re-enactment of their arrival to our shores in 1832. Aside from the drums, the huddut and the punta rock, art is another area in which […]
