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PUP “old” and “new” guards consolidate... “...there is no old PUP or new PUP. There is one PUP ....”: Cecil “Chubby” Reneau to Channel 5, January 12, 2009... The Opposition People’s United Party’s leader Johnny Briceño made a bold move on Wednesday when he tabled proposals at a meeting of the party’s national executive to create a space on the PUP executive for former Prime Minister and ex-party leader, Said Musa, who has retained the Fort George division as his stronghold despite his party’s demise in national electoral politics.

City Hall has been under the stern watch of the Audit Department and Central Government for several months, and this week news of a damning special audit, scrutinizing transactions for April 2009, and reports that in excess of $275,000 was unaccounted for between January and April of this year, had many observers questioning whether anyone would face criminal charges.

Rusty butane tank explodes, killing employee, 25... In one of the most horrible accidents to ever happen in the butane industry, an employee held a leaking butane tank to remove it from a delivery truck, and the tank exploded, literally blowing the employee to bits, scattering his remains over the vehicle, the street and in the neighbourhood.

The family of Austin Tillett, 16, moved to Mahogany Heights to escape violence, but the effort was in vain – he was savagely murdered... He laughed off his mother’s warnings. The youth he introduced to her on Wednesday, September 2, was his “shatta,” a sworn comrade, a friend. Despite his mother’s distrust, he let the youth sleep for two nights at his house in Mahogany Heights, located around Mile 32 on the Western Highway.

Francis Fonseca: “I DID NOT in fact sign or witness or certify the [BTL] Accommodation Agreement”.. Former Attorney General and People’s United Party Freetown Area Representative, Francis Fonseca, wrote us via e-mail on Friday, August 28, 2009, saying, “I wish to point out for the record and for your own information that I DID NOT in fact sign or witness or certify the Accommodation Agreement.”

Since five weeks ago, the trade unions and the Government of Belize have been at war over what the unions deemed were offensive, surprise amendments tabled by the Barrow administration to the Disputes (Essential Services) (Amendment) Act.

When the new state-appointed board of Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) took over the company on Tuesday evening, the transition was described as seamless and smooth, but what the new board found in its preliminary assessment over the past two days confirmed reports flying around since the weekend that millions were leaving the company in anticipation of the unprecedented takeover.

GOB fed up with the greed of “The Octopus,” and takes over BTL! Prime Minister Dean Barrow this morning made a drastic move by rushing through a bill designed to take sovereign control of the country’s dominant telecommunications provider, the Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), from the grip of British billionaire Michael Ashcroft—who Barrow also revealed had acquired majority control of the only other major telecommunications company in Belize—SpeedNet Communications, owners of Smart, as of January this year.

Since the change of government last year February, dozens of young women who were hired under the People’s United Party administration to work as school wardens have been given marching orders and replaced, reportedly, with supporters of the United Democratic Party.

Two young boys, as young boys are wont to do, went to “get” coconuts from a neighbour’s yard, and when they were attacked by two rottweilers, one of them paid with his life for the adventure. On Saturday, between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., in the Hill View area of Santa Elena Town, Cayo, David Moltavan, 9, and Dualvin Salinas, 7, climbed over the chain-link part of a fence to get into the yard.