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Wednesday’s press briefing, hosted by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, lasted three hours and covered much ground. One of the issues which came up is the controversy surrounding SATIIM, drilling by US Capital and a decision by the Supreme Court which all parties are interpreting for their own purposes. We use the word controversy, but for […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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On Wednesday, Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley announced that he would be running for a second term of municipal office. He took time to laud the team he’s worked with which includes Councillor Eric Chang. Now Eric Chang’s name came up in the Won Hong Kim passport scandal. Chang had left the country for an […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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Who can ever forget the pictures of Minister of Investment Erwin Contreras and Minister of Tourism Manuel Heredia hobnobbing with the rich and famous in Cannes? They were the guests of the movers and shakers in the Puerto Azul project, dubbed a citadel of luxury. While the ministers and their family members who went along […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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In the wake of the prime minister’s pronouncement on the proposed Puerto Azul development project, the coalition of environmental organizations, including Oceana, APAMO and the Belize Audubon Society, has written to the chair of the Ministerial Investment Sub-committee, Godwin Hulse. The release says, “In the spirit of the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to transparency of […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
Environment,
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At the end of May, the Statistical Institute of Belize reported that the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2014. It wasn’t a huge contraction – just zero point four percent, but where the economy is concerned, any contraction is a cause for worry. Not really…says Prime Minister Dean Barrow. He’s disappointed of course, […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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Red Cross Volunteer, Torbjorn Pedersen, who also goes by the name Thor, has been making the headlines in many countries for his mission to travel the world. The thirty-five-year-old resident of Denmark, in the northern part of Europe, is on a “saga,” the Viking word for traveling and adventure. Pedersen is traveling to one hundred […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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The Prime Minister’s son, Shyne, is Belize’s music ambassador, and has been since April 2010. It was officially announced in a ceremony where Shyne was placed as head of the music program at NICH. That never went anywhere, and Shyne left for Israel shortly after. He’s now going by the name Moshe Levi Ben-David, but […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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This morning, the alleged mastermind in an immigration scam, Marleny Castellanos, was slapped with twenty more charges for illegally aiding at least thirty persons to obtain Belizean nationality documents. Castellanos was in good spirits when she was brought to court. The forty-five-year-old housewife was arraigned before Magistrate Dale Cayetano and she pleaded not guilty to […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
Trials |
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We have reported on a rash of shootings, all gang related, in which nine persons were injured. It all happened in Belize City between Saturday and Tuesday. As investigations continue, police have made one arrest in respect of Tuesday’s shooting on Victoria Street where fortunately no one was injured. An eighteen-year-old former student from Wesley […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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An award ceremony was held today for two hundred and ten students who were successful in the popular GREAT program of the Police Department. It was a happy occasion for the students from south side schools who took part and learned to generally make good decisions in the critical issues they confront. News Five’s Duane […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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Comments Off on More primary school students complete the GREAT Program
This June is a special awareness month for a disease you’ve probably never heard about. It’s called Myasthenia Gravis (MG), a very rare auto-immune disease causing muscle weakness which affects all ethnic groups and both genders. It can occur at any age but is most common in young adult women and older men. While little […]
Written on June 12, 2014 | Posted in
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Prime Minister Dean Barrow hosted a press conference this afternoon, his first in at least six months. So you can understand that there were many questions. In fact, the session went on for more than three hours. The first segment was dedicated to Belize City Council news, and we’ll get to that in due course. […]
While the PM took his initial jab at ROC, he pulled no punches when it comes to the unions who are behind ROC, and claims that the agitation of the Unions at this time is self-serving. A salary increase should kick in on July first and the PM says that while government has committed to […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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PM Barrow says that the IMF is actually telling the government to retrench public officers, as is being done all over the region. And it’s more than that. Teachers and public servants have made additional demands, including health insurance and payments for so-called lost increments. The PM says those demands are irrational and will not […]
Then the PM turned from the unions to the group which organized the rally on Saturday. BGYEA wants to plant corn on about sixty acres of buffer zone at Harmonyville and government immediately slapped them with an injunction. So BGYEA took centre stage at the ‘Plant di Corn’ rally. PM Barrow says they can plant […]
The Auditor-General’s report on corruption in Immigration surrounding the Won Hong Kim/Elvin Penner passport scandal was handed over on March twenty-first to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Immigration. Since then there has been no word on the findings from official circles and there wasn’t any either today. COLA has requested a copy of […]
And that brings us to the man at the centre of the scandal, former Minister of State Elvin Penner. According to PM Barrow, any suggestion that there is a cover-up is simply not true. In fact, he says, the ball is in the D.P.P.’s court and any decision to prosecute or not lies with her. […]
Gang rivalry was at the root of a spate of shootings that started over the weekend and continued through Tuesday. As many as nine persons were shot and injured including Rafael Cruz, who is clinging to life at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after he was ambushed on Tuesday morning. Then on Sunday, five persons […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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Alfredo Ortega has been the face of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association for years. First as Chairman and now as Vice Chairman, he has been at the fore of negotiations between the BSFCA and the Belize Sugar Industries on payment for bagasse. But tonight, the well-known outspoken cane farmer is in trouble with the […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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A Valley of Peace resident is tonight admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Western Regional Hospital following a stabbing incident on Tuesday afternoon. Sometime around two p.m., forty-three year old Luis Guevara, was stabbed with a machete to the right side of the chest at his home at Santos Amaya’s farm located four […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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Minister of State Mark King came under fire recently for comments he made, claiming that they represented the policy of his government. King claimed that the government looks after, “U.D.P.s first, Belizeans second and P.U.P.s last.” Leader of the Opposition Francis Fonseca immediately demanded an apology from U.D.P. leader Dean Barrow on behalf of King, […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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In the same interview in which those comments were aired, Minister of State Mark King stated that he is lobbying Norwegian Cruise Lines on behalf of a security company he owns. King wants to provide security for the cruise tourism destination down south at Harvest Caye. PM Barrow has no problem with that. He says […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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Ministry of Health C.E.O. Peter Allen has come under serious and sustained fire recently. There have been public allegations made against him by parties in the Ministry of Health who claim that he is an incompetent and manipulative manager. He’s also been written up in audit reports on the misappropriation and misallocation of public funds […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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You heard earlier about Prime Minister Barrow’s comments on Health C.E.O. Peter Allen. He also touched on the comprehensive audits at the Southern Regional Hospital and the Central Region. But there are reports that other audits in other areas are also highlighting financial irregularities. Barrow says that where audits are concerned it’s damned if you […]
The reappointment of Justice Samuel Awich has been opposed by the Opposition and the Bar Association which went as far as to issue a resolution saying it did not support the reappointment of the justice. His contract matured on May fifteenth, on the day he delivered a significant ruling of the cases involving the nationalization […]
Written on June 11, 2014 | Posted in
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