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.

There is more exciting news from Cancun tonight, as Team Belize is gearing up to play for the gold in the finals of the Central American Basketball Confederation (COCABA) Championship for Men Friday, after storming their way to a four-game winning streak—its latest victory, 99 to 75, being against Costa Rica this evening in the semifinal round.

Even as formal opening ceremonies were being held inside Gimnasio Polifuncional in Cancun, Mexico, tonight for the Central American Basketball Confederation (COCABA) Championship for Men, and Belize was celebrating the 31-point margin of victory it had clinched this afternoon in its basketball match-up against Nicaragua, the controversy over the nationality of seven Belizean-American players on Team Belize remains unresolved.

Foreign nurses assist in fatal road traffic accident, but ambulance was bare - nothing inside to help the victims.... Another Belizean has died, and once again, the adequacy of Belize’s medical system has come into question.

Belmopan taxi operator’s body dumped in Teakettle; police suspect robbery as motive... Reliable reports to Amandala as we go to press tonight are that police have detained three suspects in the murder of taxi operator James “Jimmy” Young, 82, whose body was discovered over the weekend after he had gone missing for 72 hours.

X-Tra House owner says he owns Krooman Lagoon land sold to him by the PUP... Lands Commissioner, Mario Rodriguez, told Amandala tonight that businessman Jitendra Chawla (also known as Jack Charles), owner of X-Tra House in Belize City, was served this evening with a written stop order, declaring that he should not proceed with any further development at Krooman Lagoon, on the 9 acres for which he had paid Government roughly $60,000 in June.

His Excellency, Oscar Ayuso, Jr., Belize’s ambassador to the Vatican and the Honorary Consul of Sweden to Belize, died last Friday evening at his home in the Bella Vista area of Belize City. Ayuso was a businessman. He was first appointed to the Senate in February 1999. Prior to the United Democratic Party’s (UDP) rise to power in the February 7, 2008, General Elections, he was the First Deputy Leader of the UDP, from 1999 to 2006.

“Yet another attack on the trade union movement”: NTUCB prez, Dylan Reneau... Trade union representatives are angered by a surprise bill that the Barrow administration plans to table in the House of Representatives tomorrow, Friday, which they conclude has been designed to hamstring them from exercising meaningful power in bringing obstinate negotiators to the table—this without any forewarning to the unions.

The million-dollar dispute over the University Heights land transactions involving two former People’s United Party ministers, ex-Minister of Health Joe Coye and ex-Minister of Natural Resources Florence Marin, Sr., had dropped off the radar since January, but the dispute has been resurrected inside the courtroom of the Chief Justice, Dr. Abdulai Conteh, who is pondering whether he should proceed to full trial or dismiss the Government’s case altogether.

First KHMH, then CitCo, Border Mangement and Treasury! The enormity of the scam that has been perpetrated at the Treasury Department is just beginning to come into focus, and it will put the Government back by over $100,000. When the news broke earlier this week that an elaborate scam had been discovered at the Treasury, there was no official information of how much money was involved; there was only speculation, wild speculation going to as high as half a million dollars.

Amidst allegation of missing monies, City Hall does damage control; but criminal investigation continues... Prime Minister Barrow dropped a bombshell on City Hall on Friday afternoon at a press conference at the Radisson Fort George Hotel, when he told the media that it had been reported to him that there were financial irregularities at the Belize City Council, and that tens of thousands of dollars had gone unaccounted for.

Judgment of $420,000 against Maya King banana farm for illegally terminating 6 workers organizing drive for Christian Workers Union... One of Belize’s leading banana farms, the prominent Maya King Ltd. in south Stann Creek, owned by John Zabaneh, was slapped with a hefty and unprecedented $420,000 judgment today, when Supreme Court Judge Sam Lungole Awich ruled that the enterprise illegally terminated six laborers back in June 2001, because they were leading a recruitment drive for the Christian Workers Union.