General
Judge allows into evidence dying declaration of murder victim Egbert Baldwin
Police welcome record-breaking number of new recruits
The Museum of Belizean Art opens doors
PWLB officially launched
Shooting victim Stanley Coleman, 28, dies in hospital
From deathbed: ?My shooting was a contract killing!?
Stanley George Coleman, Sr., 28, a.k.a. ?Mob,? a resident of Punta Gorda Town, will be laid to rest in his hometown tomorrow, Friday.
Coleman was never married, but had one child living in Punta Gorda, named Stanley Coleman, Jr. He is also survived by two brothers and seven sisters.
Wilford Reque?a, 68, murdered on St. Matthew?s farm
?Watchman was beaten in head with blunt object, locked in and left to die? ? Police
Belmopan police are trying to ascertain the motive for the gruesome murder of a Belizean watchman, Wilford Reque?a, 68, whose lifeless and bloody body was discovered by police and his employer at about 1:45 p.m. yesterday, Wednesday, February 9, locked inside a storeroom in the Frank Eddy?s Layout of St. Matthew?s, a village located at Mile 38 on the Western Highway.
Latest information from Belmopan police today is that they have detained three Hispanic men of the village - two Guatemalans and a Salvadoran, but no one has been charged yet for the caretaker?s death.
The BTL mouth organ ? Jeff, Mike and GOB quarrel to play!
King Solomon of the Old Testament is revered as a sage for the manner in which he settled the claims of two women over a baby boy in the book of 1stKings. There were two mothers who both had sons. While the two women were together and alone, one of their sons had died.
Both women claimed the living boy. One woman claimed that the other had switched her living son with his dead son. The dispute was taken to Solomon for judgment.
Execution on Ebony!
The family of mechanic Lloyd ?Pappy? Bodden, Jr., also known as ?Sheep,? 37, of #29 Ebony Street, is today mourning his death. That Bodden was gunned down in a drain while trying to escape from his executioner has saddened the family, said his sister, Elizabeth Parkinson.
Police reported that sometime around 10:30 this morning, they were called to Ebony Street, where they were told a shooting incident had taken place.
Landlord shot while collecting rent!
Today, Marconi Leal, 41, a landlord and tour guide, is at home recovering from a gunshot wound he sustained when a bullet missed his heart by inches and then exited his body. The shooting occurred around 11:00 p.m. on Monday, January 31.
Leal, who is the landlord of two adjacent two-story concrete buildings located on Cemetery Road (building #108 houses the International Church of Christ downstairs and a tenant upstairs, and building #110 houses Auto Zone), told Amandala that he was shot while he was trying to collect rent.
Police bullets scare Gibnut and Welch Street residents!
Stanley Coleman critical after gunman?s attack
This afternoon, sometime around 2:00 p.m., police responded to a shooting reported on the Southside of Belize City, which left one man in a critical condition and another man, now under police guard at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, with a wounded leg.
Police said they visited the area of Gibnut and Welch Streets, where they saw Stanley Coleman, whose particulars are still unknown, lying on the ground and suffering from a gunshot wound to the left side of his neck.
Marlon Fisher, 25, loses lung; has 50/50 chance of survival
Marlon Fisher, 25, a resident of #12 Berkeley Street, who was shot once in the left side of his chest at about 11:00 this morning, at the corner of Prince Street and West Street, was able to run and get help from police at the Mesopotamia Police Station before he collapsed due to his injury.
A police officer at the Mesopotamia Police Station told Amandala that Fisher gripped his chest as he bled profusely and begged for help when he arrived at the station. Soon after, he collapsed, and was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).
Belize?s foreign debt servicing almost BZ$2 billion between 2005 and 2013
According to a confidential placement memorandum issued by Belize last week to secure US$65.4 million in new bond financing on the U.S. and European markets, the country?s total foreign debt repayments due between 2005 and 2013 (2005 inclusive) total almost BZ$2 billion.
This means that average payments for foreign debt for the next 9 years would be roughly BZ$215 million. According to Government data, external (foreign) debt service payments averaged roughly BZ$54 million between 1998 and 2003.
GOB?s desperate concessions divide teachers!
The new Government of Belize negotiators - Minister of National Development, Senator Assad Shoman, and Financial Secretary, Dr. Carla Barnett, this morning offered the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (NTUCB) the full salary increases (8% for junior officers and 5% for the seniors) for public officers and teachers on April 1, 2005, and a suspension for one month of the higher taxes introduced on Tuesday, February 1. The concessions were desperate, GOB no doubt believing that a congregation/demonstration in Belize City of union protestors from all six districts scheduled for tomorrow morning, may have disastrous results for the administration. The desperate, but generous, proposals, divided the teachers who have been carrying the torch of protest, but the NTUCB, the umbrella organization for eight trade unions, essentially has decided to reject the GOB offer.
2 men chopped on heads with machete Nelson Acosta, 21, charged
Today, two men are lying in the Northern Regional Hospital receiving medical treatment after a robber took their money and chopped them across their heads.
Moses Hall, 35, a self-employed resident of Gardenia Village and Edgar Martinez, 17, a construction worker of Corozal, reported to police that around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 29, they left a disco at Cactus Plaza, and were walking on 7thAvenue, just two streets away from the plaza, when they were approached by a man, who asked them for money.
PSU to strike Friday!
?We need more reforms put in place,? said Public Service Union president, Dylan Reneau, in an interview with Amandala this afternoon. He said that the political, constitutional, and financial reforms that were tabled and agreed to in yesterday?s negotiations were not enough.
?We now want the government to commit to public service reforms as well,? Reneau said.
Amara/Mex Avenue shooting leaves two hospitalized
Hangout buddies Chester Norales, 23, and Reynold Michael, 17, had to run for their lives tonight as two men riding on bicycles opened fired on them shortly before 9:00 p.m., while they stood talking at the corner of Amara and Mex Avenues.
Norales was shot in his upper right thigh, while Michael was grazed on the left side of his neck.
Missing girl, 10, found murdered in creek
Today, the Dangriga community is in a state of shock after the tragic news that Claudia Ramirez, a 10-year-old Guatemalan student of Epworth Methodist School, was found dead.
Claudia?s stepfather, Tulio Mancias, 30, found her body floating in a nearby creek around 6:30 this morning, approximately 150 yards from where they have lived on Stanley Drive for only a year.
?Makaa,? 44, dies after being set on fire with kerosene!
A man nicknamed ?Makaa,? who left his home to sleep on the streets, was reportedly set ablaze with his own fuel on Wednesday morning, while he slept in front of a grocery store in Belize City.
Two weeks ago, the man, whose real name is Michael Anthony McDonald, 44, began sleeping on the pavement in front of Ruachio, a Chinese Grocery Store, located at the corner of #6 Kraal Road and Neal Pen Road.
