General
Albert Vaughan, new City Administrator
Belize launches Garifuna Language in Schools Program
NATS Committee announces Farmers of the Year 2024
To – David
Mother, 20, and son, 17 months, found drowned in Hattieville pond
The circumstances surrounding the sudden drowning of a Hattieville mother, Desiree James, 20, and her infant son, Austin Young, 17 months old, whose bodies were discovered on Thursday, March 24, at an area called ?Sara Pond,? located at Miles 16 ? on the Western Highway.
According to a police report of Saturday, March 26, the body of the 17-month-old baby boy, Austin, was discovered at around 2:00 p.m. by an area resident who went to fetch water by the pond.
Musa statement ?contradicting? decision of Miami court,
Lanny J. Davis, attorney for Jeffrey Prosser and Innovative Communication Corporation (ICC) LLC and Belize Telecom, said in a statement released by ICC on Wednesday, March 23, 2005, that, ?It is clear that when the Prime Minister made his statement this afternoon, he had not been advised by his attorneys in the United States that he was contradicting the decision made today (Wednesday, March 23, 2005) by the U.S. District Court in Miami.?
GOB sells 15% of BTL to Ashcroft
A BZ$23.3 million+ cost - ??in the national interest??
Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, confirmed on Wednesday, March 23, that the Government of Belize (GOB) had sold 15% of the shares in the Belize Telecommunications Limited to Sir Michael Ashcroft?s company, E-Com Limited, for BZ$29 million (US$14.5 million).
Traced from February 2004, the shuffling of BTL?s shares from Ashcroft to GOB to Prosser to GOB and then back to Ashcroft has included sweeteners totaling at least BZ$23.3 million for Sir Michael Ashcroft-affiliated companies (See box on page 19 ? Counting the co$t).
John Augustine, 14, dies in Chetumal
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was all he needed to determine what was actually wrong with him, the reason why he suddenly collapsed three weeks ago and had become paralyzed, but it was too late for John Augustine, 14.
John, on Friday, March 18, flew out of the country via the Belize Emergency Response Team (BERT) to Merida, but died while traveling back home.
Coney Drive accident injures two
Eyewitness: ?No speed bumps ...the street is like a freeway.?
Today, two drivers are lucky to be alive after they were involved in a traffic accident, yesterday, Monday, at approximately 3:45 p.m. on Coney Drive, near its intersection with NAPA Auto Parts.
An eyewitness told Amandala, ?The green car was coming from the direction of the Northern Highway and was making a left turn into Coney Drive, while the black car was coming from the direction of Body 2000. I heard the cars brake, and there was a loud bang.?
GOB yields to Miami judge ? bad news for SpeedNet!
Unconfirmed reports to our newspaper today are that the Government of Belize has signed an agreement in secret with Sir Michael Ashcroft of Carlisle Holdings for the sale of more shares in the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) to his company, E-Com, whose recent forerunner in the negotiations was Ashcroft?s ?Pillow Talk.?
At the same time, we have received unconfirmed reports out of Miami, Florida, that the Government of Belize has agreed to comply with a recent ruling by the United States Federal Court in Miami, to return majority control of BTL to Jeffrey Prosser?s Belize Telecom.
Joan Bennett, 53, charged with manslaughter of Sebastian Ortis, 43
Today, Joan Bennett, 53, a sanitation worker, is out on a bail of $6,000, or two sureties of $3,000, after she appeared in the Belize City Magistrate?s Court on an arraignment of manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of her common-law husband, Sebastian Ortis, 43, who was a construction worker.
Delvoy Castillo, 16, succumbs to injuries; Rudolph Serrano, 23, charged
Today, funeral arrangements are being made for Delvoy Castillo, 16, who, on Friday, March 18, succumbed to injuries sustained in a traffic accident on January 8, 2005.
Castillo, who was a student of Gwen Lizarraga High School, had been in and out of a coma at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Sebastian Ortis, 43, stabbed and left to bleed to death
Tonight, the relatives of 43-year-old Sebastian Ortis are trying to piece together what happened this afternoon, a couple minutes to one o?clock, when he was stabbed and left for dead at his home, located at #23 Police Street Extension.
According to initial reports, Ortis and his common-law wife were having a dispute which took a turn for the worse when Ortis was fatally stabbed approximately three times in the left thigh.
Two Belizeans smuggling drugs in body died from overdose, said Post Mortem!
After two days of intensive investigation into the sudden death of two Belizean men, Epitacio Genardo Navarro, 28, a resident of #7 West Collet Canal, and William Usher, 46, a.k.a. ?Crush?, a resident of Hattieville, who both died on Saturday, March 12, after they both coincidentally were suffering from the same condition and died hours apart from each other, the Police Department in conjunction with the Anti- Drug Unit and Forensic Unit personnel have concluded that both men died from ?an overdose of a controlled drug? based on the result of a post-mortem conducted on both bodies.
?Tinkering? with the tax: GOB decides to ease tax load on productive sector
Belize Bank?s tax arrears ?about $12 million?
Members of Cabinet today made a bold admission that the current tax system is not working. That does not mean, though, that the Government of Belize (GOB) will accede to the request of the trade unions to further slash the environmental tax or hike the excise tax on beer even further. Instead, what Government proposes to do is to undertake a review of the entire tax system, starting with a preliminary exercise over the next three months.
PM Musa offers BTL workers 37 percent of company
The protest of hundreds of workers of the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) on Tuesday and Wednesday calmed down today when Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, sat down with them to offer them 37% ownership in the company.
The Government of Belize met this evening with representatives of Sunrise Investments Limited, a company formed by BTL executives; and with the BTL workers? representative, Paul Perriott, president of the Belize Communication Workers Union.
Back to Belmopan!
?We have passed the point of talk!?
At press time today, the various branches of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) are gathering their forces for what they say will be a massive show of protest on Independence Hill tomorrow, Friday, March 18, 2005, against the tax measures that the Government of Belize plans to implement on April 1, 2005.
Tropic pilot, 13 passengers nose dive in Caribbean
Shortly after 5:30 p.m. yesterday, Wednesday, March 9, a Tropic Air single engine Cessna Caravan (three years old) crashed into the Caribbean Sea near ?The Hangar? area with 13 passengers and its pilot, Canadian Gerry Proehl, aboard. The accident resulted in five injuries, but no deaths. The plane was headed to the island of San Pedro Ambergris Caye when it crashed moments after takeoff.
Today, the US$1.5 million plane was still lying at the crash site and was seen floating belly-up with two of its wheels up in the air.
