Father of 9 jumped from 2nd floor window at KHMH... A reportedly terminally-ill patient of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital has committed suicide by jumping out a window two stories up.

According to a police press release, at about 3:10 this morning, a police officer on duty at the San Pedro Police Station heard what sounded like several gunshots from the direction of the Police Barracks. Upon arrival in the area, he saw Corporal Gavin Sanchez bleeding from the face and feet, apparently dead, and Sergeant Paulino Reyes with a wound to the head.

IMF recommended hike in GST from 10% to 12.5% in 2009, but the PM promised relief through the removal of import duties and GST from certain foods and equipment “The upcoming fiscal year is going to be the hardest of the UDP term. ...This is going to be an extremely difficult year, and we are going to have to ask people to make sacrifices.” - Prime Minister Dean Barrow, February 11, 2010 $108.6 million increase in overall tax revenues in 2010-2011 budget

“...it’s just like when you have a piece of land, a squatter, you send that person a notice constantly: ‘Hey, come out of my land!’” Officials of Belize and Guatemala, including a representative of the surveillance group Comision de Belice, a department in the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held a high-level meeting in Belize City, Belize, on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, in the wake of flared tensions along Belize’s western and southern border with Guatemala.

“I ...received a phone call from Mr. Joe Coye, who relayed to me that he liked the plan and told me that he wanted $275,000...” - Schakron declaration... Supreme Court Justice Oswell Legall delivered a bombshell ruling this week in the lawsuit filed by former Minister of Health Joe Coye against businessman Alfred Schakron, owner of JEC & Co. Ltd., in which he was accusing Schakron of malicious prosecution when he complained to police that the former minister had allegedly gotten $275,000 in hand for a parcel of prime Belize City land — funds that the Government claims never made it into their coffers.

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.