The disturbing incidence of big men taking advantage of innocent children is again in the news, and this time it is a case of alleged incest. A fourteen year old girl from San Marcus village in the Toledo district is accusing her own father of having sexual intercourse with her. The child, accompanied by her mother, went to the police station in Punta Gorda to tell authorities that her father had sex with her in late August of last year. A medical doctor has since certified that the child has been carnally known. Police are now looking for the alleged incestuous father for questioning.

Meanwhile police in the Cayo and Belize districts are investigating separate reports of unlawful carnal knowledge. In the first incidence, a twenty year old Cayo man is in police custody accused of having sex with a fifteen year old girl. The girl claims that the man is her boyfriend, and in the presence of her mother, told police that on January second, the twenty year old had sexual intercourse with her. The second reported case involves a twelve year old girl. And this time she is accusing her step father of the evil deed. The incident is reported to have happened in March of last year. The little girl told police on Tuesday night that she had gone to visit her mother for the Easter holidays last year. She said that while she was asleep, her stepfather entered the room and had sex with her. Police have since detained the step father.

Seven suspects have been detained by police following the discovery of a firearm and ammunition. Officers say that on Tuesday they conducted a search at the home of Julian Tesecum, a resident of San Pedro Columbia village in the Toledo District. Authorities say that while nothing was found inside the house, a subsequent search of the yard led to the discovery of a nine millimeter pistol and a magazine containing seventeen live rounds of matching ammunition. Another bag that was in the vicinity of the firearm was found to have contained thirteen additional live rounds. All seven people that were in the area at the time have been detained for questioning.

Police and other search parties continue to scour the Mopan River following reports of an apparent drowning on Tuesday morning. Harrington grey told police that he was awaken by two young men who had apparently accompanied his son, 23 year old Darwin Grey, to Melchor on Monday evening. The men told Grey that they along with Darwin had gone to Melchor on Monday evening and was returning to Belize, swimming across the Mopan River when Darwin went under and never resurfaced. Police reports are that a search and dive team have been scouring the river since but so far have not been able to locate the missing person.

A post mortem examination conducted on the body of 7 year old Adan Kay revealed that the child died from Pulmonary Oedemia due to Organophefame Intoxication or food poisoning. Adan Kay Senior reported to police that the child was suffering from severe vomiting and diarrhea over the weekend and was taken to a clinic in Chetumal for medical attention. The child was treated and released from the clinic the same day but began suffering from the same symptoms later that night. He was rushed to the Northern Medical Clinic in Orange Walk Town but slipped into a coma and died around 2:30 on Monday morning.

The Itzamna Society has produced two promotional DVD’s that aims to showcase the attractions at one of the sites that the society co-manages. Maria Garcia, Chairperson of the society stopped by our studio to tell us more about the Itzamna Society and what we can expect to see on these mini documentaries.

The DVDs are titled "The Inspired Mayan Slate Sculpture of The Garcia Sisters" and "Elijio Panti National Park." Garcia says they are planning to make a full documentary on the Garcia Sisters.

“Coming to the Garcia Sisters that is a documentary that we have already started; it is a draft one and we are planning on producing a full documentary shortly. It is about our culture and our slate carving because we believe as Maya Yucatecas that we need to preserve our culture and I think that it is something we want to past on to our future generation and the only way we can do that is by leaving something for them and that is why we are doing this documentary. We have been doing sculpturing on slate stone for more than 24 years and also in that DVD you will see how we do our collection of slate. The area where we collect our material it is a very sacred area and we pick our material we can see the images in them and that is how we create our sculpturing.”

Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of any of the documentaries can contact Maria Garcia at phone number 669-4023 or you can e-mail her at itzamnasociety@yahoo.com.

Turning now to weather news: A cold front that is crossing the country will keep our weather wet for the next few days. The forecast is for mostly cloudy skies. A few showers and period of light to moderate rain will occur over most parts of the country. Winds over the open seas and along the coast will be northerly to northeasterly at 10 to 20 knots with higher gust. The sea state will be moderate to rough. A small craft caution is in effect for coastal waters of Belize. Low temperatures tonight will range from sixty eight degrees Fahrenheit along the coast, to sixty four degrees Fahrenheit inland. Up in the hills, the temperature will level out at sixty one degrees Fahrenheit.  High temperatures on Thursday will be around eighty one degrees Fahrenheit along the coast, eighty four degrees Fahrenheit inland, and sixty eight degrees Fahrenheit up at the higher elevations of the Mountain Pine Ridge.  The tides:  there will be a low tide at six thirty nine this evening. This will be followed by a high tide at twelve thirty eight tomorrow morning. The sun will rise at six twenty six tomorrow morning; it will set at five thirty eight tomorrow evening. The extended forecast valid through to Friday afternoon is for cloudy and cool and windy weather along with a few showers and periods of rain developing mainly over the sea and coastal areas... And that's a look at the weather with information provided by forecaster Frank Tench at the Belize Weather Bureau.