This morning at about 11:00, police charged Lionel Peter Castillo, 33, popularly known as “Cas,” who is employed as an investigator for the office of the Ombudsman, Paul Rodriguez, with extorting $1,500 from Kelvin Reneau, 31, an ex-prisoner of the Kolbe Foundation.

Tourism Minister Godfrey Smith set the table last week with his Hugo Chavez column in THE BELIZE TIMES, and today, pretty much on cue, Prime Minister Said Musa and Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca (the ruling PUP’s national campaign manager) flew to Caracas, Venezuela, looking for a “meal.” They are expected to lobby Venezuela’s socialist leader, Hugo Chavez, for money to bolster the Belizean economy (and the ruling party?) before imminent general elections here.

Marvin “Bip” Echeverria, 17, a Santa Elena student, is dead tonight. His two brothers, Ruben and Myro, were detained at the Santa Elena Police Station, Ruben after being shot and Myro after being stabbed; Justin Gordon, 18, was stabbed; and three policemen in civilian clothing - Filiberto Pott, PC #292 Roland Augustine and Sergeant Enrique Aldana, were later shot as they were processing the scene of the violence in Santa Elena, Cayo, between the Echeverria and Galindo families.

It was the most sensational hit in the city without pity since Therese Blake, heiress to the James Blake fortune, was gunned down at Newtown Barracks the early afternoon of October 12, 2000. Richard Arthur Nigel Hoare, 34, the young-man-about-town heir to the Arthur and Marie Hoare estate, was killed with a single gunshot to the back of his head on Vasquez Avenue around 9:30 last night.

The Supreme Court case challenging a move by the Government of Belize to pay the $33.5 million debt for Universal Health Services (UHS) was put on hold for at least two months last week Friday, but the Belize Bank is moving full steam ahead to try to collect its money via an arbitration tribunal initiated earlier this month in the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).

The Christian Workers Union (CWU) has called an executive meeting for Friday, July 27, to discuss, among other things, a recent discovery that as many as 40 forged cheques valuing about $18,000 have been cashed against the CWU’s account.

United Democratic Party (UDP) City Councilor, Dean Samuels, 34, appeared in Magistrate’s Court #2 this afternoon, where he was read charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and threatening behavior. He is alleged to have threatened a former press office employee, Reese Rudon, 28, a resident of the Kings Park area, with a 9mm pistol.

Derrick Sampson, 22, and Michael Trapp, 21, showed no remorse this evening when a jury of 8 - 7 women and one man, after deliberating for about two hours unanimously found them guilty in connection with a violent crime in which a couple were robbed and the young woman, 19 at the time, was raped on the seawall near the roundabout on Marine Parade, shortly after 12:30 a.m. on May 13, 2006

Jermaine Jones, 21, a fisherman of Banak Street, is tonight listed in a critical but stable condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after being stabbed about 68 times in the body by two knife-wielding brothers who apparently lured Jones from a party he was attending.

This week is Fire Safety Week. Just this morning personnel from the Belize Fire Department were guests on the Wake up Belize Morning Vibes (WUB), educating the public about how to safeguard their homes from fire with the use of a fire extinguisher, among other safety tips that were suggested. But this afternoon a fire broke out in the highly congested Prince Street area of Belize City, and three houses were completely destroyed. One of the victims, sports reporter Gilroy “Press” Cadogan told local television stations that the firemen took 35 to 40 minutes to reach the fire scene.

Environmentalist Candy Gonzalez made a rare filing in the Supreme Court this morning when she submitted a claim asking the court to issue an injunction that would stay the construction of the $105 million Vaca dam, a third hydro-facility that the Belize Electric Company Limited (BECOL) has moved to build on the Macal River in Cayo.

Another Belize bus war is threatening to rear its ugly head on the nation’s highways, as a group of former Novelo workers who had formed their own bus cooperative say that they will fight to maintain their operations in light of a threatened takeover by their former employers.

According to police estimates, Sunday’s national convention of the People’s United Party drew a crowd of 10,000 to Corozal Town’s Civic Center—about three thousand more than the last national convention held in February 2005. The strong showing of party officials, supporters and spectators from all over the country testifies that the formidable mobilization machinery of the PUP remains alive and strong, but will the party be strong enough to bounce back from the landslide defeat in the national municipal elections of March 2006 at the next elections?

Police have detained and charged Glenda Lucrecia Montero, 22, a wife and mother, with murder after she allegedly stabbed her husband, Cornelio Montero, 23, in his heart with a kitchen knife this morning after an argument over money.