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The Belize Police Department is serious about the safety of the populace not only during this festive season, but all year round. However, during this time, all municipalities are bustling with traffic and persons doing their last-minute shopping for the Christmas holidays. In Belize City, in particular, there are a number of crime prevention strategies […]
Written on December 23, 2022 | Posted in
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It’s another Lakers Christmas Party in the Saint Martins Community since a brief two- year disruption caused by Covid. Organizer, James Young and his family have been hosting the annual event for ten years. It’s their way of giving back to their community and each year it brings out hundreds of children and their parents […]
Written on December 23, 2022 | Posted in
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A mother is in grief tonight after her son died of wounds he sustained, allegedly at the hands of police in Independence Village, nineteen days ago. Desiree McDougall told us that cops brutalized her son after they caught him smoking marijuana, and they are claiming he was disorderly. But whatever the situation was that led […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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On Wednesday, we reported on the discovery of the body of a man in a shallow grave in Hattieville Village. While family and friends believed it to be Leroy Fuller, who also goes by the name Leroy McKoy and the alias Timba, there was still no confirmation from the Belize Police Department on the identity […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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The five dollar minimum wage is now part of Belize’s Wages Regulation. Today, the Government of Belize signed into law Statutory Instrument number one hundred and seventy of 2022 which states that the minimum wage for all categories of workers has increased to five dollars an hour, effective January first, 2023. A release from the […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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But, Prime Minister John Briceño is not buying this argument. He responded by saying that the private sector has had ample time to prepare for the increase. Here is what he told us on Wednesday. Prime Minister John Briceño “I don’t think it is overnight, because we have been telling them. It was in […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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Back in November, we told you that the Department of Environment did not grant Waterloo Investment Holdings the environmental clearance necessary to green light its Port Expansion Project at the Port of Belize Limited. The developer had twenty-one days to launch an appeal of the decision. News Five has confirmed that Waterloo has launched that […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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Prime Minister Briceño also answered questions related to the Public Sector Workers Trust. For context, the trust was established under former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel. After his administration imposed a wage and increment freeze on the public sector from 1995 to 1997, former P.M. Esquivel gave public sector workers four hundred and fifty thousand shares […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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And, reporters also pressed the prime minister further on the new policies that guide the Online Business Registry System. Those policies were written to protect the identity of business principals and shareholders through their registered agents. So, what about personalities behind companies that are engaged in legitimate business with the Government of Belize? Prime Minister […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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The Belize City Magistrate’s Court is relocating to Coney Drive, several weeks after the building it occupies was hard hit by Hurricane Lisa on November second. As it stands, the lower court is only operational on one side of the Public Building, a situation which was made worse following the collapse of the ceiling on […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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There has been a number of new businesses that popped up over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were online and focused on the use of technology. But one business in the south – although small – is finding its way into supermarkets. It’s the brainchild of Julian Fisher, who fell […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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The Protected Areas Conservation Trust is investing close to five and a half million dollars in several protected areas in Belize. PACT will be working with several non-governmental organizations in eleven protected areas for the next year. According to Nayari Perez, the Executive Director at PACT, the investment is part of their transition plan as […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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PACT also invested in the three non-traditional conservation programs as part of its extraordinary investment plan. The three entities are the National Biodiversity Office, the Association of Protected Area Management Organization and Friends for Conservation and Development. Perez told us more about PACT’s partnership with these organizations. Nayari Perez, Executive Director, PACT “Extraordinary investments […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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We also asked Perez about PACT’s future plans for investment in marine conservation in light of the establishment of the Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future (B.F.S.F.). As we have reported, B.F.S.F. was established as a result of the Blue Bond agreement. Its role as a sinking fund is to disburse funding to projects and […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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Comments Off on PACT Welcomes Conservation Investments by the Belize Fund for Sustainable Future
Today, the Belize Nature Conservation Foundation held a grant signing ceremony at the Guanacaste Park in Belmopan in which approximately eighty thousand dollars was issued to two N.G.O.’s that work in conservation efforts in the Belize and Stann Creek districts. A News Five team attended the event and reporter Duane Moody files this report. […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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Last evening, we showed you how contrabandistas smuggle illegal beers, perishables and other illegal goods across the northern boundary – the Rio Hondo. As Customs Officer Adrian Rancharan shared, they use the roughly ninety-mile stretch of the river to bring across the contraband goods via boats and small ferries that are provided by Mexican residents […]
Written on December 22, 2022 | Posted in
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A new home for Christmas is a dream that many who live in less than ideal conditions wish for. A single mother in Port Loyola was poised to receive the keys to a new starter home this morning, but miscommunication between Area Representative Gilroy Usher Senior and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing resulted […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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The snafu ended up being an entire public rift between the Port Loyola Area Rep and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing. Usher took the opportunity during his interview with the media to take aim at M.I.D.H. and chided them on a number of issues. He said his area is being discriminated against because […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Marisa Alamilla suggested that Usher was being disingenuous. She told us that only five, not fifty, applications for starter homes have been forwarded to the ministry from Port Loyola. And that all five have been approved. Marisa Alamilla, Public Relations, Publicity Mgr., M.I.D.H. “Both contractors that Mr. […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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One of the faults that Usher pointed to is that the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing is not building the homes at a fast enough pace to fulfill the pre-election promise that the P.U.P. made. Alamilla said there are reasons for that, but that they are building homes. Marisa Alamilla, Public Relations, Publicity […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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On Monday, a joint patrol led by the Belize Defense Force deployed along the Sarstoon River to investigate reports of suspected coca plantations in the farthest reaches of the country. Upon arrival, the team located and destroyed a total of three coca plantations. In total the plantations contained approximately twelve thousand plants. Earlier today, we […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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The body of a man was discovered inside a shallow grave in Hattieville Village earlier today. A resident happened upon the ghastly site several yards off the George Price Highway at the approach to the Hector Creek Bridge. Scenes of crime personnel, as well as police investigators, were at the location for several hours as […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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Last night, we told you that A.S.R./B.S.I. is proposing a two-year interim agreement with B.S.C.F.A. under the same conditions as last year’s crop. Well, Prime Minister John Briceño says B.S.I.’s two-year agreement is too lengthy a term. According to the P.M., the government will intervene to propose a one-year interim agreement. During that one-year period, […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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Comments Off on PM Briceño Says Two Years Too Much for Interim Agreement between B.S.I. and B.S.C.F.A.
Late this evening, Minister of Agriculture Jose Abelardo Mai, confirmed with News Five that mediation between A.S.R./B.S.I. and the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association has failed. He conceded that while mediation was a worthwhile effort, many expected it to fail. We asked him about the Sugar Industry Control Board’s decision to propose that the 2022/2023 […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Mediation Between A.S.R./B.S.I. and B.S.C.F.A. Failed
According to Mai, the Ministry of Agriculture has been in discussions with A.S.R./B.S.I. to have the proposed two-year interim agreement reduced to one year. But, will the sugarcane farmers yield to a one-year agreement, with only seven days left before SICB’s proposed start date for the 2022/2023 sugar crop? Minister Mai says the farmers will […]
Written on December 21, 2022 | Posted in
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Comments Off on Minister Mai: B.S.C.F.A. Leadership Willing to Accept One-Year Interim Agreement in Principle