Belize Bank’s principal shareholder and chairman, Lord Michael Ashcroft, KCMG, has been at the forefront of the news in Belize ever since the change of government on February 7, 2008. It is public information that public monies destined for the poor of Belize from Venezuela and Taiwan was diverted, via a complex series of wire transfers, to the accounts controlled by the British Lord to liquidate the private loans of UHS with public monies.

The 2008 Midshipmen Cruising and Training Squadron of the ROC Navy will visit Belize from April 29-May 1, 2008, on a goodwill tour throughout the Caribbean and Central America. The purpose of the visit of the ROC Navy’s Squadron to Belize is to strengthen the bilateral friendship between the two countries. The Squadron has visited Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Dominica and will depart for Panama after visiting Belize.

The management board of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (CIDI) of the Organization of American States (OAS ) approved the execution of almost 100 projects, to be financed by the Special Multilateral Fund (grant funds) of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development ( FEMCIDI) in 2008

PM Barrow also has tête-à-tête with heads of OAS and IDB

President Bush will welcome Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of The Bahamas, Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados, and Prime Minister Dean Barrow of Belize to the White House on March 20, 2008.

The U.S. Embassy is pleased to announce the official opening of the Women’s History Month Art Exhibit “Expressions” by Women in Belize at the George Price Centre for Peace and Development in Belmopan on Tuesday, March 11.

It has been six days since the Government of Belize issued a press statement indicating that the Government of Venezuela had written, asking for an accounting on a US$20 million grant under an agreement with the former Said Musa administration.

The Commonwealth Secretariat team of international observers who came to Belize to observe the February 7, 2008, general elections departed today, Tuesday, February 12, after completing their report.

The British High Commission has funded two delegates from Belize to enable them to participate in the Regional Child Protection Conference held in Havana, Cuba, from January 28 to February 1, 2008.

In the context of the Agreement on a Framework of Negotiation and Confidence Building Measures between Belize and Guatemala, on January 4, 2008, the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) commenced the transfer of 8 of 17 Guatemalan families from the Santa Rosa Community to a housing complex on a farm acquired for this specific purpose in Poptún, Department of Petén, Guatemala. The remaining nine families will be similarly transferred to said farm as soon as possible.

Marine Farms Belize Ltd., a subsidiary of a Norway company, Marine Farms ASA, has asked the Belize government for permission to construct a 2,225-acre Cobia farm near Lark and Bugle Cayes, located approximately 2.5 miles off the Placencia coast.

Plexar Capital LLC has asked for environmental approval for a 152-unit resort in the Luba Hati area north of The Inn at Robert’s Grove. The proposed development would include 46 hotel suites; 15 beach residences; 100 meter (328-foot) pier in the Caribbean; semi-circular boating “canal” opening into the Placencia Lagoon; 13 spa residences; 36 garden residences; 16 island residences; 26 mangrove residences; numerous reflection and plunge pools; and assorted support facilities.

Effective January 1, 2008, the application fee for a U.S. non-immigrant visa will increase worldwide from BZ$200 (US$100) to BZ$262 (US$131). This fee increase allows the U.S. Department of State to recover the costs of security and other enhancements to the non-immigrant visa application process.

In a story appearing in the New York Times National, on November 30, 2007, journalist Rebecca Cathcart reported that a California Appeals Court had ordered police in Garden Grove, California, to return marijuana it had taken from a gentleman named Felix Kha. The marijuana (about a quarter of an ounce), which was given under prescription (the young man suffers from chronic pain), was taken away from Mr. Kha in 2005. California law allows a person to have in his/her possession up to 8 ounces of marijuana, if a doctor has decreed that the person is in need of such substance.