Where is Alison MacKenzie? The forty-three-year-old tourist from the United States remains missing tonight after she vanished during an overnight tour on Rendezvous Caye. What should have been a short, fun trip, has turned into heartache for her Arizona family. Search efforts today for MacKenzie have all proved futile. At news time, what we do […]
Illegal dredging activities are threatening the coral reefs of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve which lies between San Pedro and Caye Caulker. News Five has received a number of documents that the illegal activities have continued unimpeded and that in a number of instances, the go ahead has not been approved by the relevant authority, […]
In another illegal activity, the Belize Fisheries Department and Police carried out a joint operation in Dangriga that led to a bust of over four hundred pounds of out-of-season Nassau Grouper. The illegal products were found in ice boxes on a property in that southern municipality, but no one was found in the area. The […]
In the past, as recent as last year, we’ve reported on the Nassau Grouper and why Belize has taken steps to protect this species. The fish is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Nassau Grouper as a critically endangered species in the region. […]
It was not unusual for sixty-seven-year-old Keith Swift to call in and participate in the Wake Up Belize Morning Vibes on Krem Radio. On Monday morning, the Mosul Street resident did just that and was in the middle of a phone discussion about the two unnamed government ministers who reportedly accepted bribes from Lev Dermen […]
Twenty-five-year-old Darell Duran was targeted by a lone gunman on Monday night as he walked along Arlington Drive in Belize City. Sometime before eight o’clock, police were called to the K.H.M.H. where they saw Duran suffering from a gunshot wound to the left upper hand. It is not clear what led to the armed assault; […]
There is another jump in the prices of fuel. At midnight, the price per gallon of premium fuel will sell at ten dollars and ninety-nine cents, just under the eleven dollar mark going up by as much as twenty-seven cents. . The price for regular remains at ten dollars twenty-eight cents, diesel at ten dollars […]
As much as half a million dollars was found to be embezzled at the National Sports Council between April first, 2015 to March thirty-first, 2016. A report by the Auditor General reveals massive fraud that took place in the one-year period. One of the glaring examples of where things went awfully wrong involved former U.D.P. […]
The Julian Cho Technical High School also finds itself in is a quagmire as the secondary institution continues to operate without a principal. To make matters worse, former principal Dr. Simeon Coc and several other members of staff have been named in the Auditor General’s Report, following a review of the financial accounts of the […]
According to Requeña, a teacher was awarded a contract for one point three million dollars to build classrooms at Julian Cho. The quality of work, he says, was well below standard and yet that teacher was awarded another contract. Oscar Requeña, Area Representative, Toledo West “The community, Mr. Speaker, is concerned about the many […]
Julian Murillo is the new liquidator for Choice Bank Limited beginning today and remains as the liquidator of Atlantic International Bank Limited. The announcement was made by the Central Bank via a press release dated January fifteenth. Murillo takes over from Kareem Michael who had resigned from his post at Central Bank as Deputy Governor […]
Public consultations have taken place countrywide on the controversial Equal Opportunities Bill. This morning, the media gathered at the Radisson Fort George in Belize City, at the invitation of the National AIDS Commission, the Office of the Special Envoy for Women and Children, the Attorney General’s Ministry and the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation […]
While the Bill makes reference to the LGBT community, it is only one of nineteen vulnerable groups identified in the proposed anti-discrimination law. The Bill speaks to four categories: conduct, protected characteristics, areas of public life and exceptions and exemptions. Consultant and Legal Drafts Person Rasha Brathwaite breaks down why it is necessary to remove […]
But what does the bill contemplate about cases of political victimization or discrimination? According to section thirty-eight of the proposed legislation, (Quote) “discrimination on the basis of political opinion shall not be unlawful unless if where the political opinion is the basis on which a person may be employed in, or appointed to, a particular […]
The proposed legislation also deals with HIV prevention and care. The 2018 statistics from the Ministry of Health show that there were two hundred and fifty-four new infected persons with HIV/AIDS. On a yearly average, one hundred and five persons die from complications associated with the disease and twice the number of women than men […]
The Ministry of Health here in Belize is monitoring the outbreak of new Chinese corona virus. The virus has infected hundreds since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December. A cousin of the SARS virus, the corona virus has killed six people in Asia. The virus has been detected in Seattle, U.S. Corona virus […]
The Nursing Task Force says that no agreement was reached on critical issues during a meeting with Ministry of Health officials on Monday. Health Minister Pablo Marin, along with C.E.O. George Gough and Director of Health Services, Dr. Marvin Manzanero, met with representatives of the Task Force to forge a path forward. The Nursing Task […]
In a matter that has regional importance, the prime ministers of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are not participating in a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo arrived this evening in Kingston, Jamaica. The meeting has caused a rift in CARICOM because not all leaders were invited and discussions are expected […]
Turning to Monday’s senate sitting; aside from debate on the new Contractor General and the Caracol road expansion, two resolutions were passed. The first authorizes the accession by Belize to the Caribbean Agriculture Health and Food Safety Agency. The purpose is to establish an effective regime of sanitary and phytosanitary measures in line with the […]
The second resolution that was passed dealt with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The Senate ratified the agreement establishing the Caribbean Community Accreditation Agency for Education and Training. The Agency is to promote and develop an efficient tertiary education and training system in the country. Through the widening of access to quality tertiary […]
The national screening tour for Tecuani and Duende, Belize’s first animated movie comes to the Mexican Cultural Institute in Belize City tonight. It is one of the last stops for the tour after the first episode of the film has been across the length and breadth of the country. The film won at the Belize […]
An American woman is missing in Belize and her family is desperately trying to find her. Tourist Alison MacKenzie has been in Belize since December and on Friday she and her boyfriend headed out to Rendezvous Caye – a small island some forty minutes away from Belize City. MacKenzie was onboard an overnight tour with […]
Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte says he met the infamous fraudster, Lev Dermen, through former P.U.P. Minister Ralph Fonseca. Dermen’s name has appeared in all major headlines last week, causing the Barrow administration a searing migraine. A criminal case in the U.S. is threatening to rock the U.D.P. government, as a former business partner of Dermen […]
So who was the cabinet minister who received twenty-five thousand dollars monthly? Fingers are being pointed to one specific senior U.D.P. minister and according to the Prime Minister his ministers have denied taking the bribe including the two who are set to contest the upcoming leadership convention. Both John Saldivar and Patrick Faber have denied […]
Sparks flew inside the National Assembly today, forcing President Darrell Bradley to bring order in the Senate. The debate got heated as senators spoke on the ten million U.S. dollar loan motion for Phase Two of the upgrading of the Caracol Road. The multimillion-dollar loan has attracted both support and condemnation. One of the concerns that […]
