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Pic Caption: Belize’s Attorney General, Hon. Wilfred Elrington (left) and Guatemala’s Canciller Haroldo Rodas (right) sign the compromis and joint declaration in Washington. The man in the center is OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. Despite Belize’s independence 27 years ago, the country’s western neighbor, Guatemala, has continued to maintain an archaic claim over at least half its territory and virtually all its cayes, except only the country’s first capital – St. George’s Caye. Decades of negotiations, firstly with the British and secondly with the independent Belize, have fallen apart in futility, but there is new optimism in some quarters that a special agreement - signed in the political capital of the United States today - could signal a new phase in trying to resolve this age-old conflict over The Jewel – Belize.

The Police Headquarters in Belmopan was the staging ground for the first legal salvo fired at a member of the former government (PUP). This morning, despite the threat of inclement weather, Hon. Said Wilbert Musa, the former PUP leader and former Prime Minister of Belize, surrendered himself to police, then was escorted by at least two dozen policemen who walked with him from Police Headquarters to the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court, where he was arraigned on a single charge of theft.

Family told police she was found in Cotton Tree... A strange story has unfolded tonight, concerning a 16-year-old student, Jessica Maricela Acosta, reported missing last Tuesday, November 25, by her grandmother, Audelia, after she failed to return home from the school she attends, St. Catherine Academy (SCA) in Belize City.

Chief Magistrate orders psychiatric evaluation... Today makes exactly one month since Darien Banks was arraigned on two counts of attempted murder before Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie. Today is also the date to which his case was adjourned, and prison officials brought him back to court this morning.

Division inside the Opposition People’s United Party, the oldest political organization in Belize, reached a peak in this Corozal District village on Sunday afternoon when the Marins – Florencio, Sr., and Florencio, Jr., held an unauthorized standard bearer convention for the Corozal Southeast constituency. The party’s national executive, before the fact, had declared Sunday’s proceedings “null and void” in the issue of The Belize Times published on Friday morning, November 21.

Police watch contrabander put smuggled liquor into vehicle of police brass - he says he “doesn’t know anything about it.” On Saturday, November 15, Customs officers who were in a private vehicle and dressed in civilian clothing, spotted a Corozal man they suspect is involved in the contraband smuggling business. The man, Israel Rancharan, was driving a white 1992 Jeep Cherokee in the vicinity of Coney Drive and Princess Margaret Drive in Belize City when the Customs officers decided to that they would keep him under surveillance.

On Thursday night, a man who was riding a bicycle pulled up behind the long barracks on Old Fabers Road. Five persons were standing outside talking, three young women and two men. The bicycle rider pulled out a handgun, pointed it in their direction and began squeezing the trigger. But nothing happened. The gun jammed. Quickly, the gunman got on his bicycle and rode off into the night. But it was a different story the following night, Friday, around 7:00 pm.

Scotiabank is reportedly “reviewing” its credit arrangement with BEL, but BEL says it is committed to “keeping the lights on.”... The Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has confirmed that First Caribbean International Bank, one of its major creditors, has discontinued its credit, and Scotiabank is reportedly in the process of reviewing its credit arrangement with the electricity provider, according to BEL Corporate Communications Manager, Dawn Sampson.

Public discourse over the Belize-Guatemala dispute has intensified in recent weeks, with both Cabinets in Belize and Guatemala giving their resounding stamp of approval to have the matter settled in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but the general sentiment from Maya leaders in Toledo, one of the communities that would be most impacted, suggests a rejection of their position, because of concerns that Belize would be putting much at stake in going down such an uncertain road.

Belize’s Chief Negotiator for the Belize-Guatemala talks, Ambassador Alfredo Martinez, reported this morning (in an orientation session with the media) that Guatemala’s Cabinet yesterday evening gave its unanimous approval on the compromis or special agreement that the countries intend to put to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the settlement of the territorial dispute between the two countries.