It has now been confirmed that a lab technician who was a passenger on the Carnival Magic cruise ship, has been cleared of the Ebola virus. Tests were done on her before the Carnival cruise ship was to arrive in Galveston, Texas. The woman and her husband arrived in Belize on Thursday and the possibility […]
Important training sessions will continue throughout the week to further sensitize frontline workers on the dangers of Ebola. Via Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Interim Head, Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health “The activities will continue this Wednesday and Thursday, we are doing training sessions with the surveillance team from across the country and we hope […]
As we reported on Friday, the U.S. State Department dissed Belize for not allowing the lab technician and her partner to be transported from the Carnival Magic to the P.G.I.A. Belize was not the only one…Mexico also turned down a request and even Texans did not want the passengers to disembark; they only did when […]
The construction of a forward operating base on Hunting Caye has been halted on the strength of a stop order from U.S. Southcom. The workers left the island on October ninth, upon receipt of that stop order, but the question of their status has remained unanswered. Minister of National Security John Saldivar stated on national […]
The Public Utilities Commission has selected eight project proposals for phase one of the Request for Proposals for Energy Generation. This comes after the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities and Belize Electricity Limited identified the need for additional sources of energy to the national grid. That is a total of sixty megawatts of firm […]
According to P.U.C. Chairman John Avery, the objective is to secure additional energy to the national grid in times of power shortage. John Avery, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission “The purpose for securing adequate supply in country is to compliment some of the supply we get from Mexico so we could become more self-reliant so […]
On October third, the nation was shocked and outraged by news that Guatemalan villagers had confronted B.D.F. soldiers at Camp Valentin, a newly constructed conservation post. Those villagers had threatened to burn down the post, and apparently had come to make good on that threat. The volatile situation was defused by the soldiers, but it […]
In September, News Five brought you the story of a proposed subdivision on Ambergris Caye, about four miles north of San Pedro Town. More than three hundred lots had been surveyed…half of them allocated to residents who paid for the survey, but the proposed subdivision was submerged. It caused somewhat of a stink when the […]
The court of appeal opened this morning in Belize City; fourteen cases will be disposed of: six are criminal and the remaining eight are civil. The president of the court of appeal is Justice Manuel Sosa; the three justices will be joined by a fourth. Justice Christopher Blackman was today sworn in as a new […]
A man who was badly beaten back in April succumbed to his injuries in early July. Today, charges have been upgraded to murder on the suspect believed to be twenty-two year old Sherman Rodney. Rodney has been on remand since mid-April for attempted murder; today he returned to court but was sent back to prison […]
Forty-four year old William Ayala was pulled over Friday evening by Traffic Personnel after he was suspected of drunken driving. Today, he was before the court to answer to a single charge of Drove motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above the prescribed amount. The Benque Viejo driver was arraigned late this evening in the Belize […]
A Supreme Court ruling against the Belize City Council flew under the radar last Friday amid extended coverage of the Ebola scare. Belize Waste Control Limited which has remained in constant litigation with City Hall over its unpaid garbage debt has been awarded a total of five hundred and twenty-five thousand, twenty-six dollars. While arrears […]
On Friday, the Gang Suppression Unit conducted a series of searches on San Pedro. The all-day anti-drug operation led to the arrest of as many as twenty-five persons who have since been hauled to the Magistrate Court in San Pedro after they were arrested and charged for drug trafficking and possession of a controlled dug. […]
We’re not sure exactly when it started locally, but prostitution has become a booming industry in Belize. So-called ‘happy bars’ are popping up all over the place in every district, with very friendly immigrant waitresses who take hospitality to a whole new level. There are some who’d say – where’s the harm in that…they’re not […]
A telethon was held by Friends of Conservation and Development on Saturday at the Memorial Park. The target was to raise half a million dollars to expand its Park Ranger Program from seven to twenty-four rangers. The private sector, Belizeans, the government and even Beenie Man contributed to the cause and by the end of […]
Good evening I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday. The 2014 PLB Belikin Cup kicked off over the weekend, but was only able to stage 3 of the 4 scheduled matches due to inclement weather. We caught up with the monster showdown between the Belize Defense Force and FC Belize inside the People’s […]
The possibility of a threat from the deadly Ebola virus placed the nation on edge on Thursday night, but tonight there is a sigh of relief. The scare started when it became known that a lab technician who may have had contact with fluids from Ebola victim, Thomas Eric Duncan, was travelling on the Carnival […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was also at this morning’s press conference to quell fears. He reiterated that if there had been any way at all that he could have assisted the U.S. without risk, he would have. And there were discussions entertained at first on getting these quarantined persons on a plane which would fly […]
Barrow says that he thought that was the end of the matter, until he was informed later in the day that the plane was in the air. But despite the unwillingness of the U.S. to accept Belize’s official position, he says the window of opportunity, if it ever existed, had slammed shut. There was one […]
A regional response to the threat of Ebola in the Caribbean earlier this week, prompted several island nations, including the government of St. Lucia and Jamaica to restrict the influx of visitors from hot zones in West Africa. On Wednesday, prime ministers Kenny Anthony and Portia Simpson-Miller embargoed the arrival of passengers from Sierra Leone, […]
The immediate implementation of those new immigration policies is one prong of G.O.B.’s preparation for the threat of Ebola. The Ministry of Health, in the face of Thursday’s wake up call, has also been forced to step up their game. The reality is that even the superpower U.S.A. has been caught off guard by Ebola, […]
The order for seven hundred and fifty hazmat kits has already been placed through the Pan American Health Organization. The order will be some time in coming, since those kits are being sold out across the world, for obvious reasons. But Belize isn’t waiting on those kits – G.O.B. is looking to set up a […]
Will there be repercussions for rejecting a U.S. request to allow the quarantined passenger to be brought on shore? The government was being assured that the lab technician was low risk for the Ebola virus, but the U.S. was persistent in the face of what the Prime Minister says was a firm refusal. So persistent, […]
While P.M. Barrow doesn’t expect repercussions, the U.S. State Department has expressed disappointment in that decision not to have the cruise ship passengers disembarked and flown out from the P.G.I.A. Earlier this evening, during an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room, a representative of the U.S. State Department criticized the decision by saying that the matter […]
While the scare of Ebola washing up on the shores of Belize is very real, its impact on the tourism industry can be potentially devastating. The multi-agency approach notwithstanding, the Ministry of Tourism is wasting no time in addressing the issue with a view to mitigating the effect of an outbreak on the travel industry. […]
