The dispute over the Government’s guarantee for the Universal debt has taken a dramatic turn this week. That is because the Belize Bank has written Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, demanding immediate payment of the $33 million debt Government said it guaranteed for Universal Health Services in December of 2004.

Hon. Johnny Briceño, the Acting Prime Minister, went on record late this evening to say that he does not support Government’s unlimited guarantee to Universal Health Services (UHS).

Today the daunting details regarding the secret guarantee Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, gave to the Belize Bank for Universal Health Services (UHS) were disclosed. So far only a select few people, mostly parliamentarians, have seen the purported guarantee, the latest being Leader of the Opposition UDP, Hon. Dean Barrow, who today questioned the document’s very authenticity and Musa’s authority to venture into such an open-ended promise to pay UHS’s debt to the bank, a debt now standing at $33 million.

Christine Perriott’s fight with the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL) is turning out quite like the fight between David and Goliath. BTL fired her on February 27, but instead of walking always with the nearly $20,000 BTL paid to her, she launched a court battle, seeking her full reinstatement to her job. Perriott said she could not sit idly by while the court hears her case and tries to make a final ruling, so she sought interim reinstatement. When she won it, however, BTL immediately put her on indefinite special leave, and told her she would be paid no salary for 25 weeks, because that’s how much extra money she got on her termination.

Domestic worker Phillipa Longsworth, 60, is mourning the shooting death of Earl “Old Man” Figueroa, 29, her second son to die violently. Earl’s younger brother, Edward “Bones” Figueroa, 20, was stabbed to death almost 7 years ago, on July 4, 1999. The incident occurred on Curassow Street, not far from his home.

Amandala today spoke with an angry 20-year-old female resident of St. Martin De Porres who said that yesterday she went for a job interview in a room at a well-known hotel. But instead of being interviewed for the post of tour guide, as she had expected, she was interviewed for the “post” of prostitute for visiting tourists.

The Maya of Toledo made a strong showing of over 300 in Belize City this morning, as their representatives marched into the Supreme Court to file two historic class action suits – separate constitutional claims for two Toledo villages, against the Government of Belize, in which they are asking the court to order the Government and third parties to back off from exploiting lands they deem to be traditional and legal Mayan property.

Political tensions between the two opposing camps in Orange Walk Town during Sunday’s Village Council elections in Trial Farm, Orange Walk, have resulted in court charges being levied against a high profile businessman and politician, Rosendo “Chendo” Urbina, Orange Walk Central standard-bearer for the Opposition United Democratic Party.

It was a bloody weekend. The Police Department is investigating six murders which occurred over two days. Three of those six murders occurred within 5 miles outside Belize City on the Northern Highway, about 500 yards from the main road near the Haulover Bridge. In a not so populated area, three bodies were found, almost in the same area of the same road, within a four-hour span.

Already disheartened by the fact that many of their union colleagues did not show up for the National Trade Union Congress protest on Friday, March 16, 2007, in Belmopan, teachers in the public school system got more bad news on Tuesday when the Ministry of Education issued a memo, stamped “URGENT,” declaring that teachers who were absent on the day of the protest will be docked a day’s pay effective April 27, 2007.

General elections are due by March 2008—a year from now—and so both major political parties are relying on the results of the ongoing village councils as their litmus test to gauge where they will be on that fateful day. It is clear that even as round one of the Village Council Elections concluded, at least one of these parties is in denial.

If everything goes as planned for the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Belizeans will be all ears and eyes – glued to their radios and television sets - to hear just what Honorable Ralph Fonseca, “the architect of growth economics in Belize,” will have to say at today’s public hearings on the happenings of the much-debated DFC.

Today the Commission of Inquiry into the Development Finance Corporation (DFC) resumed public hearings with former DFC chief executive officer, Troy Gabb, taking the hot seat for most of the day.

Three officers - Police Constable (PC) #781 Lauren Flowers, 24, of Roaring Creek; PC #446 Allyson Muslar, 24, of #74 Eve Street in Belize City; and PC Hersel Garcia, 29, of Lords Bank – have been caught on the wrong side of the law. They appeared today in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court where they were read separate charges for human trafficking and for sexually assaulting three females who had entered the country illegally.