18-year-old Akeem Thurton and 23-year-old Ricky Valencia both of Queen Charlotte Street in Belize City have been charged for the attempted murder of Senior Counsel Rodwell Williams.  Both men were charged with attempted murder, dangerous harm and use of deadly means of harm.  On May 31 Williams, who is the law partner of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, was shot in the abdomen.  Sometime after eight o’clock that night Williams and an unarmed security guard was walking on Albert Street West when they were approached by two male persons of dark complexion on a single bicycle. One of the men searched the security guard and then pointed a shotgun at Williams and fired a single shot at point blank range hitting him in the abdomen. Williams was transported to the Belize Healthcare Partners Limited in a critical condition where doctors fought to save his life.  After he was stabilized on June 1, Williams was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he is still undergoing medical treatment.

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Orange Walk Police are investigating an accident that claimed the life of a Trial Farm resident. Sometime around 2:30 yesterday evening Gumercindo Baeza  along with two other people were travelling in a red Mitsubishi pickup truck on the guinea grass when the vehicle suffered a front and a back wheel blow out. Baeza, lost control of the vehicle while his passenger 50 year old Daniel Cowo jumped out of the vehicle. Cowo received massive head injuries.  Cowo’s body was transported to the Northern Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

On Tuesday, Belize will join the rest of the world in observing World Oceans Day. To mark the occasion, several organizations have teamed up to present a forum on offshore drilling. Yvette Alonzo is the coordinator of the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations.

YVETTE ALONZO - COORDINATOR, APAMO

“There have been four organizations that have publicly called for a ban on offshore drilling as well as in protected areas. This group has come together to form a coalition along with several other organizations that have signed up to be a part of the coalition.  Tomorrow we will be launching the coalition to the public as well as having an educational forum where we will be making presentations on the environmental impact of offshore drilling and oil exploration within protected areas as well as looking at the economical aspects of it comparing the benefits of the petroleum industry to the fisheries and tourism industries as well as looking at the legal components of it, what our current petroleum act and other legislation that we have in place have when dealing with the oil industry.  In addition to that we will also have a survey going on and a petition as well as asking other organizations to join our efforts in  calling for a ban on offshore drilling in Belize.”

Alonzo says the groups have joined forces draw attention to the importance of the issue of oil exploration.

YVETTE ALONZO - COORDINATOR, APAMO

“We were very concerned that concessions have been granted, there are seventeen concessions that have been granted throughout the country of Belize, basically covering the entire country for oil exploration.  Of these 17, eight falls within our waters and we consider that it is extremely sensitive considering that we have the second largest Barrier Reef in the world which provide livelihood to both the people who depend on these resources, the fishing and tourism industries.  We have done some research and we recognize that oil exploration does contaminate and has impact as well as risks associated with it that can seriously affect our marine resources and so the group came together and decided to join their efforts in calling for a ban on offshore drilling."

Tomorrow’s forum is being held at the Radisson Fort George Hotel and begins at two o’clock in the afternoon.

Seventeen teachers and two parents have completed training on how to best work with and support children with physical disabilities in preschools and day care centers. The training was held under the Sister Charity of Nazareth Project. The project started in February and concluded on May 28th. Jerome Flores is the SCN Project Coordinator.

JEROME FLORES - SCN PROJECT COORDINATOR

“This project involved sensitization of the teachers and parents in the preschool and day care centers.  Our sponsors were Sister Charity of Nazareth and CARE Belize. We are working with the schools from mostly the southside. The schools that were involved with this training were Ethel Vargas Pre School, Little Cityville Day Care Center, St. Martin Preschool and Day Care Center, Kiddie’s Campus Pre School and Day care Center,.  Yesterday we had our graduation and we presented the certificate to the teachers and parents.  Those were presented by Gabriel Alpuche.  They were being trained to deal people with disabilities so when the child comes into the school they have the training how to deal with these children.  Most of the time when a child goes into a school the teachers do not have the qualification or the training to understand the child, what the child needs or how to identify the disability.  With these workshops that we had we gave them all the information that they could identify and enable how to deal with these children with whatever they need to learn.”

Flores says that participants were trained on how to best care for children presenting disabilities such as Spina Bifida, Down syndrome or Cerebral Palsy. All seventeen teachers and both participating parents were presented with a certificate of participation in a ceremony held on Sunday. Flores says that they will be visiting the four schools that participated in the training to evaluate their progress. The project was sponsored by the Sister Charity of Nazareth and CARE Belize. Flores says that they are preparing for a second training with four to five more preschools in the September, which will see the support of UNICEF.

Mainly fair, warm and mostly dry weather conditions are prevailing over our area. The general forecast for Belize and her coastal waters is for partly cloudy skies tonight. Showers will be generally isolated. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny. Winds over the open sea and along the coast will be easterly to southeasterly at ten to twenty knots. The sea state will be choppy to moderate. Low temperatures tonight will be around eighty degrees Fahrenheit along the coast; seventy four degrees Fahrenheit inland and a comfortable seventy degrees Fahrenheit up in the hills. High temperatures on Tuesday will be around ninety degrees Fahrenheit along coastal areas; ninety six degrees Fahrenheit inland and a warm eighty degrees Fahrenheit up at the exposed areas of the Mountain Pine Ridge and along the Maya Mountains in the south. The tides: there will be a high tide at ten minutes to eight o’clock tonight. This will be followed by a low tide at nine minutes past one o’clock tomorrow morning. The sun will rise at seventeen minutes past five o’clock tomorrow morning. It will set at twenty six minutes past six o’clock tomorrow evening. The extended forecast valid through to Wednesday afternoon is for partly cloudy skies with isolated showers or an isolated thunderstorm. And that is a look at the weather, with information provided by forecaster Michael Gentle at the Belize Weather Bureau.