General
Taxpayers in danger of eating $105mn Intelco loans!
Less than a year after it launched its services with much fanfare and excitement, Intelco is preparing to declare ?voluntary bankruptcy,? and taxpayers may end up with $105 million worth of bills to pay if ?the Godfrey group,? which had borrowed on Intelco?s behalf, continues to default on its existing loan obligations.
Minister of Finance, Hon. Ralph Fonseca, in an interview with Amandala today, said that ?Intelco will have to go through ?voluntary bankruptcy? and reorganize their business.?
Moody?s cuts Bze?s credit ratings over debt build-up
Finance Minister, Hon. Ralph Fonseca, today said that Government was ?very, very concerned? about Belize?s credit rating downgrade announced today by a leading international ratings agency.
After placing Belize on its sovereign watchlist on June 18, Moody?s Investors Services confirmed today that it had downgraded Belize?s ratings due to the country?s debt.
Confusion in paradise: Placencia in growing pains of development!
The skyline of the Placencia peninsula has begun to change. The once solitary Sand Castle no longer dominates the northern skyline. It has been joined by a multimillion-dollar real estate development project, Casa de la Siesta ?and its blue rooftops are beginning to add contrast to the skyline when viewed from the southern end.
But this upscale condominium complex by Canadian developer, Dianne Bulman, has been a catalyst for confusion?putting Bulman and her development company, Sea View Properties Limited, on a collision course with the Placencia Village Council (PVC), one of whose members pleaded guilty in Dangriga?s Magistrate?s Court to assaulting Bulman and spray-painting her golf cart with red paint, saying, ?no pier,? because he is adamantly opposed to the construction of a pier on the sea-front side of Placencia.
PM calls for media ?self-regulation?
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Aug. 4, 2004
As the heat from the media?s burner scorches the seat of Government in Belmopan, the Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, called on the Belize Broadcasting Authority (BBA) to forge ?self-regulation? in radio and television broadcasting.
Coincidentally, various media houses, including Channel 7; Opposition organs - the Guardian newspaper and Wave Radio, and the Amandala newspaper have reported and commented extensively within the past five days on information that has recently reached the media indicating that Government had used $6 million of Social Security money to pay the bills of a private businessman.
Stepson, 31, accused of chopping stepfather, 47!
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 29, 2004
Derrick Costly, 47, a construction worker of Queen?s Square, is trying to recover at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) from multiple chop wounds he sustained on Monday, July 26, sometime around 1:15 p.m., after a misunderstanding he had with his common-law wife of 18 years.
After searching for him for three days, police have arrested 31-year-old Anthony O?Connor, a resident of Cotton Tree Village, for Costly?s stabbing, and have charged him with attempted murder, the use of deadly means of harm, and dangerous harm.
Sol Gen Kaseke arrested in U.S. for ?interfering with the operation of an aircraft?
BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 28, 2004
United States federal agents arrested Belize?s Solicitor General, Elson Kaseke, on Sunday, July 25, 2004, for failure to comply with United States federal regulations.
An American Airlines? flight crew reported to their administrative personnel that Kaseke was involved in a verbal exchange with a passenger seated next to him in the business class section of the aircraft, and Kaseke insisted on changing seats.
Killer bees? attack ends in death of family dog
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 29, 2004
A frenzied attack from a swarm of bees, believed to be Africanized bees, has left a family dog dead and has injured a yard cutter in the Buttonwood Bay area of Belize City.
Ms. Julia McDonald, a resident of Second Street, Belize City, said that she screamed out when a large swarm of what appeared to be killer Africanized bees attacked her while she was in her front yard around 10:30 a.m. yesterday.
Public finances (SSB): private business (Intelco)
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 29, 2004
In 2002, when relations between the Government of Belize and Sir Michael Ashcroft took a downward turn, Lord Ashcroft publicly charged the Government of Belize with attempting to use $17 million of Social Security Board and Development Finance Corporation (DFC) funds to finance Intelco.
Ashcroft made the statements publicly at a Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) AGM, to explain his stern objection to the way the Government of Belize was introducing competition into the telecommunications market. He charged that Government was not creating a level playing field for competition, since what Government was in effect doing was creating what he called ?subsidized competition.?
Rhoda Hyde Coye, R.I.P.
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 29, 2004
Rhoda Serena Hyde Coye, 93, passed away this evening at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital from natural causes.
Her greatest attributes were her passionate belief in God, her instrumental role in the formation of the People?s United Party in 1950, and the remarkable amount of love and commitment she had for her family.
Supt. Ewart Itza wins round one!
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 29, 2004
On Monday, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Kirk Anderson, presented arguments before Magistrate Earl Jones that the interdicted Police Superintendent, Ewart Itza, has a case to answer on two counts of false imprisonment and one count of insulting words.
The DPP?s submission follows an earlier no-case submission from Itza?s defense attorneys, B.Q. A. Pitts, S.C., and Ellis Arnold, that Itza did not have a case to answer on charges of indecent words and threat of death.
