Barry’s Cessna crashes in San Pedro - 5 dead including the Casey family of 4 band, wife and two kids... Sir Barry’s four passengers were a family, Michael Casey, 32; his wife Jillian, also 32; their 2 ½-year-old daughter Makayla; and infant son 5-month-old Bryce. They were flying from the Belize City Municipal Airstrip to the San Pedro Airstrip, a daily routine – at least for Sir Barry, who reports say has been flying airplanes for over 40 years. The party was headed for a charity fundraiser to be held that evening at the Island Academy in San Pedro Town.

Interim BTL board posts confirmed... The Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) tonight held its first annual general meeting since the government took over the company by acquisition order in August 2009. An estimated 100 shareholders of over 900 attended the meeting, along with BTL staff and guests.

Approximately 1,000 – 1,300 teachers, more than a fifth of Belize’s education corps, converged on Independence Hill outside the National Assembly in Belmopan just before 10:00 on Friday morning, loudly calling on Education Minister Patrick Faber to hold back the reforms to the education laws that would see the elimination of corporal punishment in schools, without a replacement system ready for implementation.

The BNTU will protest in Belmopan against GOB’s intention to remove corporal punishment in schools before effecting a proper replacement. The Belize National Teachers Union (BNTU) announced at a press conference at its Belize City headquarters that it plans to bring out teachers in full force on Friday, for a protest on Independence Hill against the government’s intention to remove corporal punishment in schools even before putting an effective replacement system of punishment in place.

A policeman and 2 soldiers on city patrol parked their car and slept. When they awoke, an M-16 rifle had disappeared! The Belize Defence Force only just last week confirmed the recovery of an M4 carbine stolen from its guard room at Price Barracks in January, and now, someone has stolen yet another “big gun” from the BDF, early Saturday morning from a soldier who was literally “sleeping on the job.”

It’s going to get worse! Budget deficit “about” $60 million; deficit was about the same for 2009-2010... Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow declared at his last press conference for 2009 that Belize was experiencing a recession. At his latest press conference, the first for 2010, Barrow solemnly declared that it’s going to get worse.

No money no deh, Prime Minister Dean Barrow told Amandala, in response to the unions’ demand for a salary adjustment... There will be no money in the new budget (2010-2011) to finance the cost of living adjustments for teachers and public servants, according to Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dean Barrow.

Where there is big money, there are usually huge fights over the wealth. The situation with Belize Natural Energy (BNE) is no exception, as the $600 million plus, which the company has earned in revenues since it struck oil in 2005, has been big talk lately, especially with reports of even more petroleum finds at Never Delay (Cayo) and the upward revision of the Spanish Lookout oil field prospects from 14 million barrels to 20 million.

Belize City urban war zone – Orange Street, Euphrates Avenue, Glynn Street and Central American Boulevard see seven shooting incidents, two fatal, in five days! Information is sketchy, but at press time tonight, it is plain that the city’s blood bath has continued, with two more shootings, which have produced a death and a situation where the other victim is not expected to survive.

Guatemalan villagers in Livingston claim BDF intimidation; Belize military says it’s just “mischief”... Source: Guats tried to muscle them off disputed island in November

“...something is fundamentally amiss...” Hon. Mark Espat indicts his PUP administration, and challenges the Barrow administration on BNE oil

Concepcion Alvarez shot dead by common-law husband at bar; husband on life support at KHMH after turning the gun on himself... At press time tonight, Miguel Chan, 41, is on life support at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City and his common-law wife, Concepcion Alvarez, 34, is dead in the second confirmed murder for 2010.

“Judiciary budget reduced 10%” – CJ Conteh... AG Sedi Elrington apologizes for last year’s “unhappy remarks” and “Ignorance to protocol”

BNE oil sales $500 million: GOB gets $100 million... Sweet crude has proved to be big money in Belize. Official data indicates that Belize Natural Energy (BNE), the only company producing crude in Belize, has exported more than half-a-billion dollars worth of oil since the find in Spanish Lookout, Cayo, was declared commercial back in 2005.