He has been on the run for more than six months, but tonight wanted man Vildo Westby is in police custody. Westby was the prime suspect in the murder of HIV/Aids activist Felix Ayuso Junior, stabbed to death inside his home in San Pedro in February of this year. Police had issued a wanted poster […]
A sixty-one-year-old Belize City woman managed to get out of her burning house on Allenby Street at about midday today. A fire spread quickly and could not be contained destroying all the belongings of Thelma Ariolla. The home owner sustained a small injury, but was left pretty shaken up by the disaster and says it […]
Rowan Garel is the new Caribbean Adventure Ambassador for the region. Garel was among several other persons shortlisted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization and after a voting period, the inspiring visually impaired youth—who is currently studying at a New York university—came out on top. His name was submitted by the Belize Tourism Board following his […]
Auditor General Dorothy Bradley appears to be at war with her own colleagues in the Supreme Audit Institution. Today, News Five received reports that employees staged a “sick-out” in protest of the alleged heavy-handed ways of the top watchdog. Her office has been in the spotlight in recent weeks for its handling of audits in […]
Seven years of work has resulted in an overturn of the status quo ante regarding offshore petroleum operations in Belize’s marine territory. With little debate and bipartisan support, the National Assembly passed the Petroleum Operations (Offshore Zone Moratorium) Bill, 2017 this morning. Opposition Leader John Briceño made note of the importance of the reef to […]
The eagerly-awaited motion on Universal Health Services was not tabled today, but another money-related motion was. A forty-million U.S. dollar motion for a loan from the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was tabled in the House. The loan is to be disbursed in four equal annual instalments between 2017 and 2020, while […]
The Government also introduced the third General Revenue Appropriation Supplementary Bill of 2017, concerning the last of the Petrocaribe funds spent by Government. After several years of riding high on the funds obtained through Venezuela to spend on everything from sports stadia to tacos and pibil, the funds slowed to a trickle and the program […]
On the adjournment, a variety of topics were raised, usually about outstanding current issues. One is the ongoing battle between police and citizens, exemplified in the recent death of Edwin Antonio Baires Hernandez on Sunday afternoon in Teakettle Village. Police pursued the twenty-year-old Salvadoran national, following a suspected robbery and shot him in the right […]
Our last story from the House of Representatives is a positive one, and may even be anticipated in some quarters. There were wishes of goodwill from both sides of the lower house in anticipation of the Christmas season. And to make that season a little brighter, Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced that even with the […]
The Special Olympics games culminated Disabilities Week today. Over three hundred athletes converged at the Marion Jones Stadium in the city; the largest contingent came from Orange Walk, and the top performers will advance to the World Games in 2019 in Abu Dhabi. News Five’s Duane Moody reports. Duane Moody, Reporting Disabilities Week concluded […]
The Government of Belize and COCESNA have invested roughly thirteen million dollars for better management and security for the airspaces within Belize. Today the Department of Civil Aviation officially opened the Approach Control Center at the Phillip Goldson International Airport. The state-of-the-art equipment features an upgraded radar head, which provides information on aircrafts flying over […]
The Sixth CARICOM Cuba Summit took place in Antigua and Barbuda, where Belize is being represented by Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber. The top-level diplomatic conference is held triennially and assesses cooperation between Cuba and the CARICOM member states. Since its establishment fifteen years ago, the summit is taking particular focus on two regional projects, […]
The first graduate’s program was launched at the University of Belize this past Thursday, opening new opportunities for Belizean students to pursue higher education here at home. The first program is for a master’s in business administration; it is being hailed as major accomplishment for the national university. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports. Isani […]
Raising children with disabilities is a challenge for any family. Tonight, through the National Resource Center for Inclusive Education of the Ministry of Education, we go inside the home of a single mother who raised not one, but two children with disabilities. Despite enduring a slew of struggles, the brothers are growing up to accomplish […]
It’s Christmas time and the bells are ringing – that’s the salvation army kettle bells. If you are going about the city, you are bound to see the season’s symbolic red kettles used to collect monies for charity projects throughout the year. Salvation Army’s District Commander, Major Joliker Leandre, told us that the collections are […]
A team of Belizean bodybuilding and fitness athletes is getting ready for the Central American Games. After three rounds of vetting, Mister Belize Clayton Greenidge, and four other well-known bodybuilding competitors were selected to represent the country in Nicaragua on the eleventh and twelfth of this month. The team departs Belize on Saturday, but we […]
Five young artists used their talents to create works of art to show why HIV/AIDS patients have a right to medical access. On Thursday, the National AIDS Commission donated the paintings to five partner organizations: UNDP, UNICEF, B.C.C.I., Digicell and the Special Envoy for Women and Children. News Five’s Andrea Polanco tells us more about […]
Former Justice of Appeal Franz Parke has left a cloud of suspicion and scandal in the wake of his departure from the Court of Appeal, announced this week. The Jamaican-American attorney faced serious questions about his fitness to serve as a Judge on the Belize Court of Appeal, but it is concerns about his personal […]
Acting for the Belize Bank Limited, the Courtenay Coye LLP firm has written Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte regarding enforcement of the November twenty-second order of the Caribbean Court of Justice to repay the ninety million dollar judgment, principal and interest, in respect of a Government-guaranteed loan to Universal Health Services. First, the letter states that […]
As promised last week, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry has responded in stinging fashion to Prime Minister Dean Barrow on the matter of the Universal Health Services fiasco. It repeats its insistence that Belize’s laws and political system need to be strengthened to prevent any administration from running roughshod over Belize’s finances. But […]
Is the Belize City Council behind in almost one million dollars in payment to the Belize Waste Control? Mayor Darrell Bradley responded to that report to say that the arrear is normal at this time of year because of the payment cycle, as per the contract with the company. While the mayor didn’t have the […]
And with those payments lingering, will your garbage be picked up? Mayor Bradley says that the trucks will remain on regular service, collecting garbage on all scheduled days. Today, he dispels the report that the north side garbage collection will be cut back because the Belize Waste Control has a cash flow problem. We reached […]
You heard the Mayor say that the City Council will come into some monies through revenue collection in the next few weeks – that is when the Belize Waste Control will start to get their monies for their services. But, overall, the City Council is not broke; in fact, he says they are doing quite […]
Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives, the last for 2017, is expected to be chock-full of news. Hanging over the gathering like a specter is the UHS debt motion, which the Government is not expected to introduce until notice has been received from the Belize Bank or payment is agreed on and made as […]
Thirty-six-year-old Elroy Grinage, a driver with the Forest Department in Belmopan, is accused of ordering and orchestrating the stabbing death and decapitation of Hilton Wade. On December first, the Cotton Tree resident was arraigned after being charged for the criminal offenses of abetment and conspiracy to commit murder. His so-called accomplice, Rafael Mencias, has been […]
