During the debut book launch on Sunday, June 18, 2023, accomplished Ghanaian actress and movie producer Yvonne Nelson unveiled her first memoir, which bears the intriguing title “I Am Not Yvonne Nelson.” One notable aspect that has generated significant discussion revolves around her candid disclosure within the memoir that she made the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy involving rapper Sarkodie back in 2010, following his refusal to accept responsibility for the situation.
The rapper’s immediate reaction to the news about the pregnancy according to her was an obvious heart palpitation and a faltering voice, as he rejected the pregnancy in favor of his budding career.
However, the actress reveals that she later found out that Sarkodie had a girlfriend who was studying at a university outside the country.
“I called him on the phone and said we needed to talk. He still lived with his mother, and this was not the kind of news to break in the house. I called him out of the house when I got to Tema, and we sat in my Toyota Rav4. (He drove a Toyota Matrix at the time if my memory serves me right). I sensed the intensity of his emotions when I broke the news to him. I could hear his heart pounding, and when he finally found his voice, he faltered. His message was, however, unambiguous. He didn’t want the pregnancy. That would damage him and his career. The only option was to get rid of it. Whether or not his career and the uncertainty of life were the real reasons he could not afford to let me keep the pregnancy, I cannot tell. I later discovered that he had a girlfriend who was attending a university outside the country,” she wrote.
Describing the situation as dangerously complicated, Yvonne Nelson, in Chapter 8 of her book, said she was compelled to make the hard choice of terminating the pregnancy under the circumstances.
“It was in her absence that he got involved with me, and things got dangerously complicated. Whatever it was, his stance was clear. And I was left to evaluate my own options. The first thing that hit me when he said no to keeping the pregnancy was my own life. I had grown up without a father in my life. I had often been reminded of how I had been born by mistake. I was still wondering if the man whose name I bore was my father. How was I going to bring another human being into this world to live like me, someone whose father would reject him or her as Mr. Nelson had rejected me? If there was a way to spare someone else the trauma I was contending with, why would I reject that option, especially when I was not psychologically and emotionally prepared to be a mother?” she stated.
Currently one of Ghana and Africa’s most decorated rapper, Sarkodie, who released his debut album “Makye” in 2009, had always been private about his relationship and love life until his marriage in 2018.
The rapper married his longtime girlfriend, Tracey Owusu Addo, in 2018. Tracey had lived most of her life and studied outside Ghana.
About Yvonne Nelson’s book
“I Am Not Yvonne Nelson” is an explosive and riveting account of a young woman who sets out to discover herself but finds out that she has been living with a false identity.
The drama and the twists and turns of this moving story have all the markings of a spellbinding movie script, except that the protagonist, who is an actor, is contending with a reality that intermittently soaks her pillow with tears.
Uncharacteristic of an autobiography, the author comes to her audience stark naked. The book opens the door widely into the life of the author and exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly sides, not only of her life but also of the make-believe world of celebrities.
The launch was graced by many industry stalwarts, businessmen, and politicians, including John Dumelo, Adjetey Anang, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, and Becca. Also present were media personalities, including Manasseh Azure Awuni and Sammy Forson.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, has said that illicit mining could be easily stopped if fathers intervened and counseled their children about the dangers of galamsey.
He stated that fathers have a responsibility to guide and encourage their families in doing the right thing, and hence their role in combating illegal mining cannot be overstated.
Speaking to journalists at an Anaq Foundation event commemorating World Father’s Day at Kokofu in the Bekwai Municipality, he remarked that fathers play an important role in society and should be acknowledged.
Unlike in the past, the Minister said that fathers now assist their wives in performing roles that were previously only performed by women.
“If my wife is there or not, I can just get up and start cooking, some responsibilities which were previously dedicated to women are now being performed by men,” he said.
He also mentioned that fathers bear enormous duties, such as providing for their families, but because the money is generally directed through the wife, the children always believe it is their mother’s labor.
Mr. Mensah went on to say that men who are irresponsible and left their families for drinking spots and other activities do not deserve to be praised.
Meanwhile, Dr Samuel Amanamah, Consultant Urologist at Kumasi South Hospital, added fathers must take their prostate health seriously because more men now die of the disease each year.
He stated that, while proper research has not been undertaken, preliminary data shows that the condition is increasing exponentially among men aged 40 and up.
Dr. Amanamah noted that processed foods, particularly red meat and fat, have been identified as highly harmful risk factors, and that men should limit their consumption.
He recommended fathers to acquire the habit of voluntary screening in order to discover cancer early and treat it.
Mrs. Ama Nyarko Attafuah Quainoo, President of the Anaq Foundation, stated that there is a need for dads to be acknowledged, which is why she annually arranges the event in various villages to recognize their contributions to society.
Oberima Offe Okoguyeasuo II, Chief of Kokofu
She stated that, in addition to honoring the fathers in the community, their health was taken seriously, as they were receiving free Sickle cell, eye, breast cancer, and prostate cancer screenings.
Mrs. Quainoo recommended fathers to prioritize their families’ health.
Oberima Offe Okoguyeasuo II, Chief of Kokofu, commended the Anaq Foundation and its partners for bringing the event to his town this year.
He advised fathers to take some responsibility by ensuring that their families’ needs are satisfied.
Acclaimed actress and film producer Yvonne Nelson has asserted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, despite the promising image he projected during his time in opposition, ultimately proved to be a letdown.
The actress in her memoir said, Nana Akufo-Addo, who was presented as an incorruptible leader and the antidote to corruption in the public sector and political space, has fallen short of expectations. “He was said to be incorruptible, and Ghanaians thought he was going to be the antidote to mass stealing at the highest level, which is euphemized as corruption. Unfortunately for Ghana and those who trusted in him, he has turned out to be a monumental disappointment whose government’s unbridled borrowing, corruption, and reckless spending plunged the nation into economic dumsor,” she wrote in her book dubbed “I Am Not Yvonne Nelson.”
Yvonne Nelson’s activism is deemed by many political critics as very important in President Akufo-Addo’s eventual first-term election in 2016 after he had failed on two consecutive occasions.
The actress and movie producer, aside from being critical of the then National Democratic Congress government led by John Dramani Mahama, was a lead organizer of the famous ‘Dumsor Vigil’ on May 16, 2015.
The event was a public protest led mainly by people in the entertainment and arts industry with the aim of putting pressure on the government to end the energy crisis that was confronting the nation at the time.
However, since the election of the NPP into power in 2016 and their re-election in 2020, Yvonne Nelson, whose activities were deemed crucial to the NDC being voted out of office, has become critical of President Akufo-Addo’s government.
In her newly released book, Yvonne Nelson, among other disclosures, revealed that she was contacted by a person close to the president to become the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party for the Ayawso West Wuogon Constituency in the 2020 general elections.
While some critics have sought to associate her with the president and the NPP, the actress, in her book, while noting her disappointment in Akufo-Addo’s governance, emphasized that she “certainly does not wish to associate with a politician who is projected as one thing but becomes the polar opposite of that when elected into office.”
About the book
“I Am Not Yvonne Nelson” is an explosive and riveting account of a young woman who sets out to discover herself but finds out that she has been living with a false identity.
The drama and twists and turns of this moving story have all the markings of a spellbinding movie script, except that the protagonist, who is an actor, is contending with a reality that intermittently soaks her pillow with tears.
Uncharacteristic of an autobiography, the author comes to her audience stark naked. The book opens the door widely into the life of the author and exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly sides, not only of her life but also of the make-believe world of celebrities.
The launch was graced by many industry stalwarts, businessmen, and politicians, including John Dumelo, Adjetey Anang, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, and Becca. Also present were media personalities, including Manasseh Azure Awuni, Sammy Forson, and GhanaWeb Entertainment Editor Abrantepa Benefo Buabeng.
The book titled “I Am Not Yvonne Nelson,” authored by renowned Ghanaian actress and movie producer Yvonne Nelson, swiftly garnered significant interest and captivated the attention of the nation within a remarkably short span of less than 24 hours following its highly anticipated release.
In a chapter mainly about masculinity and female marginalization dubbed “A Man’s World,” the actress revealed how Joel Duncan-Williams, the son of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, approached her with a marriage proposal in a rather dramatic way that ended before it even started.
“In 2009, while I was on set shooting The Prince’s, I received a visitor. He was not my visitor, as he had come to see someone else. However, by the end of his visit, I turned out to matter more to him than the person he had come to see. This visitor, if I should call him that because of the retinue of security guards he moved with, derived his influence from the surname he carried. His name is Joel Duncan-Williams, the son of the founder and leader of Action Faith Chapel International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams. Until that day, I hadn’t known or heard about him, but I couldn’t fail to notice his imposing presence when he showed up. Before he left the movie set, he said he had fallen in love with me,” she wrote.
While she remained unsure about his proposal, the son of the archbishop went to great lengths to prove the seriousness of his love by bringing her lunch on set accompanied by his heavy security escort in a mini-convoy.
“While I was still unsure of what to tell him, his plans for marriage were far advanced. But something abruptly ended our friendship before it had the slimmest probability of developing further. He paid me a visit one evening with the usual princely entourage that I had only seen in movies featuring non-state officials. When the howling of his motorcade’s siren had adequately announced to the neighborhood that an important somebody had arrived at my household, he came in and announced his plans. He said that before the marriage could proceed, I had to go to his father to be prayed for. The purpose of that prayer was to ensure that any demons or evil spirits present in me or my family line would be cast out,” she narrated.
Seemingly incensed by the condition precedent set out by the archbishop’s son for a marriage proposal, Yvonne Nelson, while describing her household as a spiritual one, said his sense of entitlement ended her interest in any such possible relationship.
“In my head, I asked whether he didn’t think my mother also needed to pray to cast out any potential bad spirits in him. Being the son of Archbishop Duncan-Williams didn’t necessarily mean he was inhabited by the Holy Spirit and guarded by angels. And who told him that being an actress meant that I was a harbinger of malevolent spirits? At least, those who lived in our area would testify that the Manovia household used to be one of the most religious households around.
“My mother’s sense of spirituality heightened after a motor accident she was involved in, and it was rare to miss morning devotion in our house. Those were the times, in my teenage years, I used to interrupt prayer sessions with revelations from God. When I started my acting career, I made it a point to always pray before I started any movie role I was given.
“I am not one of those who wear their religion on their sleeves, but I believe in God and believe in prayers. I have seen the hand of God in my affairs many times, and I have no doubt He comes through for me when I call on Him. I don’t believe in just big pastors or men of God, some of whom are nothing short of entrepreneurs. Therefore, I found it funny that someone who was interested in marrying me and hadn’t secured my consent thought I needed to be spiritually cleansed even before he proceeded. He didn’t see the need for that cleansing to be mutual,” she said.
About Yvonne Nelson’s book
“I Am Not Yvonne Nelson” is an explosive and riveting account of a young woman who sets out to discover herself but finds out that she has been living with a false identity.
The drama and the twists and turns of this moving story have all the markings of a spellbinding movie script, except that the protagonist, who is an actor, is contending with a reality that intermittently soaks her pillow with tears.
Uncharacteristic of an autobiography, the author comes to her audience stark naked. The book opens the door widely into the life of the author and exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly sides, not only of her life but also of the make-believe world of celebrities.
The launch was graced by many industry stalwarts, businessmen, and politicians, including John Dumelo, Adjetey Anang, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, and Becca. Also present were media personalities, including Manasseh Azure Awuni and Sammy Forson
Geoffrey Obuobi, a resident of Nima, has been presented with three charges, including theft and causing unlawful damage. As a consequence, he has been temporarily detained by an Accra Circuit Court under the jurisdiction of Judge Bright Samuel Acquah.
The suspect was arrested on June 13, 2023, by some residents of Nima with 1×185 copper cables valued at approximately GH¢1,900.00 in his possession as he attempted to escape.
According to the prosecution, his arrest followed the rampant stealing of ECG copper cables from an ECG transformer in Nima, which often resulted in power outages in the community, prompting the service provider to replace the cables.
After his arrest, Obuobi was handed over to the Nima police and later referred to ECG for investigation.
“The complainant, Francis Quansah, is a staff member of the Electricity Company of Ghana Roman Ridge District, while the accused person, Geoffrey Obuobi, is an unemployed resident of Nima. The Accra East District of ECG has been experiencing rampant stealing of electrical cables from their transformers in Nima and its environs. On June 9, 2023, some copper cables were stolen from an ECG transformer at Nima, and they were replaced to restore electric power to their customers.
“On Tuesday, June 13, 2023, the complainant and a team of technicians went to work on the same ECG transformer. After they left the site, the accused person approached the transformer with a cutter and started cutting the core cable, 1 × 185 copper. An alarm was raised, and the accused person was apprehended by people in the neighborhood with the ECG core cable, 1 × 185 copper, valued at GH¢1,900.00 in his possession as he attempted to flee,” stated the facts of the case as shared by the prosecution.
In his caution statement, Obuobi denied the offense and was arraigned before the court on Monday, June 19, 2023.
During the court proceedings on Monday, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and explained that he is a scrap dealer who happened to come across the copper cables while passing by.
The court remanded him into custody, and he is scheduled to reappear on Friday, June 30, 2023.
In the Dormaa Central Municipality of the Bono Region, a Circuit Court situated in Dormaa-Ahenkro has handed down a judgment whereby an 18-year-old tricycle rider named Hubert Osei Poku has been ordered to pay a fine consisting of 220 penalty units. This penalty is the result of his involvement in both a conspiracy to commit a crime and the act of stealing two she-goats.
Poku, who pleaded guilty to the charges would pay GhC2,640.00, an equivalent of the 220 penalty units, as a penalty unit is GhC12.00.
But, in default, convict would serve 12 months’ imprisonment and another accomplice only identified as Isaac, second accused is at large.
Police Inspector (P/Inspt.) Emmanuel Asare, the prosecutor told the Court presided by Osei Kofi Amoako that the complainant resided at Awase, a suburb of Dormaa-Ahenkro, saying about 0200 hours on Sunday, May 07, 2023, he (complainant) was driving home and at section of the road at Awase, near the Islamic Junior High School, an unregistered blue tricycle (priagya) bypassed him in high speed towards town.
P/Inspt. Asare said the complainant became suspicious because of the level of speed of the tricycle in relation to numerous thefts recorded in the locality.
He added the complainant chased and caught up with the tricycle around the Awase gas filling station and alighted his car with the view to question the occupants.
But P/Inspt. Asare stated no sooner had the complainant gone closer to the tricycle than its occupants abandoned it and fled, leaving two she-goats tied in the trunk of the tricycle with their mouths sealed with black solution tape behind.
He said the complainant therefore alerted the Dormaa-Ahenkro Police night patrol team who came to pull the tricycle to the Police Station together with the goats.
P/Inspt. Asare explained intelligence gathering led to the arrest of the initial rider of the tricycle, a witness in the case who disclosed that about 0700 hours on Saturday, May 06, 2023, convict came for the tricycle as a spare rider for taxi business.
The prosecutor said convict was later arrested from his hideout and during interrogations, he admitted the offences in his cautioned statement and mentioned the second accused as his accomplice.
The husband of a supporter of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, who tragically lost her life in an unfortunate accident while en route to participate in a campaign event preceding the Assin North by-election, passionately asserts that it is imperative for his beloved wife’s untimely demise to serve a greater purpose and not be rendered meaningless.
Yaw Safo urged all constituents in the area to vote in large numbers for James Gyakye Quayson because his wife was on her way to campaign for him.
Speaking to the media, the deceased’s husband, Yaw Sarfo, stated that his wife died painfully as a result of the NDC campaign and that they should not forget her.
He then warned all party supporters to be extra cautious during the campaign.
According to the husband, his wife was at the farm when she learned that John Dramani Mahama would be visiting Assin North Constituency for the campaign, so she quickly stopped working and went to change her clothes and put on her party shirt.
The husband, a Branch Executive, stated that his wife and four others were on a party pick-up from Assin Dansame to Assin Bereku when the car burst its tyre, killing the woman.
He was optimistic the victory of the NDC candidate would ensure that the children of the women have a brighter future.
“We were here when we heard that former President John Dramani Mahama was on his way to pay the chiefs a courtesy call. So my wife joined them. Unfortunately, I received a call informing me that my wife had died in an accident involving the car they were riding in.
I’m pleading with constituents to be cautious so that this does not happen again. I would also use this opportunity to urge voters to vote massively for the NDC candidate in order for him to win and come to my children’s aid.”
The Spokesperson for Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Gideon Boako, has dismissed claims that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will lose the Christian vote if it elects Dr. Bawumia as its Presidential candidate for the 2024 elections.
Some critics have argued that Christians will not vote for Dr. Bawumia because he is a Muslim.
But Dr Boako, who is a Christian and a Financial Economist, says it is a false assertion that Christians will not support the Vice President when the NPP chooses him to lead them into 2024 elections.
According to him, Dr Bawumia is a man of all people and has a good rapport with the Christian community.
“I’ve never seen a President or a Vice President in Ghana that Christians invite him to their programmes more than Bawumia…Currently, Christians invite Bawumia to their programmes more than any other political figure in this country,” he said on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ morning show.
He added that Dr Bawumia is a scholar who understands both the Bible and the Quran.
“He (Dr. Bawumia) understands the Bible as a scholar. He understands the Quran as a scholar,” Dr. Boako said.
The Spokesperson for Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Gideon Boako, has rejected the claims that President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government have failed Ghanaians.
He said the President had not delivered on all his promises to Ghanaians, but he had done better than the previous government with his transformative policies that boosted Ghana’s economy.
“I admit that President Akufo-Addo and the NPP government haven’t done everything we promised to do and we haven’t also brought Heaven to Ghana, but we have performed far better than our political opponents,” he said on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme.
“I do not accept that false narrative that the NPP has failed . . . If the economy has failed, then we, the NPP, don’t have to even go into the elections in 2024 . . . the economy has not failed,” he stressed.
Dr Gideon Boako urged, first, NPP delegates to vote overwhelmingly for the Vice President to become their flagbearer and, second, all Ghanaian voters to elect him President of Ghana.
An 18-year-old tricycle rider, Hubert Osei Poku, has been sentenced by a Circuit Court in Dormaa-Ahenkro, Dormaa Central Municipality of the Bono Region.
He has been fined 220 penalty units for his involvement in conspiracy to commit a crime and stealing two she-goats.
Poku pleaded guilty to the charges and will be required to pay a fine of GH¢2,640.00, equivalent to 220 penalty units.
The value of each penalty unit is GH¢12.00. In the event of default, Poku will serve a 12-month prison term.
Another individual involved in the case, identified as Isaac, remains at large.
Police Inspector Emmanuel Asare, the prosecutor, presented the case before the Court presided over byJudge Osei Kofi Amoako. According to Inspector Asare, the complainant resided in Awase, a suburb of Dormaa-Ahenkro.
On Sunday, May 7, 2023, at around 2:00 a.m., while the complainant was driving home, an unregistered blue tricycle (priagya) overtook him at high speed near the Islamic Junior High School.
Inspector Asare stated that the complainant became suspicious due to the excessive speed of the tricycle, considering the numerous thefts reported in the area.
The complainant pursued and caught up with the tricycle near the Awase gas filling station. He exited his car intending to question the occupants. However, as Inspector Asare explained, the moment the complainant approached the tricycle, its occupants abandoned it and fled.
Two she-goats were discovered tied in the trunk of the tricycle with their mouths sealed using black adhesive tape.
The complainant immediately alerted the Dormaa-Ahenkro Police night patrol team, who arrived at the scene and brought the tricycle and goats to the police station.
Through intelligence gathering, the initial rider of the tricycle, a witness in the case, was identified and arrested.
The witness disclosed that on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at around 7:00 a.m., the convict had borrowed the tricycle to use as a spare rider for a taxi business.
The prosecutor further explained that the convict was later apprehended at his hideout.
During interrogations, he admitted to the offenses in his cautioned statement and implicated the second accused as his accomplice.
A 24-year-old man who posed as an evangelist has been jailed for 18 months for stealing a motorbike and raping a Senior High School(SHS) girl in the Nkwanta South Municipality in the Oti Region.
Kidisil Sampson pleaded guilty to the charges of false pretence and stealing the property of Mr Mbatim Lala, a farmer at Kpassa in the Nkwanta North district.
He also admitted to having sex with an SHS girl under the pretext of casting out an evil spirit in her.
The court, presided over by Mr Joseph Evans Annan Okropa, convicted him accordingly.
The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr Lawrence Wiafi, told the court that on June 5, Kidisil went to Mr Lala’s house at Kpassa to evangelise and convinced him that he needed deliverance from some spiritual problems.
He then asked for his motorbike to buy something from the town and never returned.
He brought the motorbike to Nkwanta town, where he met the SHS girl of Nkwanta Community Day SHTS and lured her to his lodging place for deliverance.
The girl invited two of her friends to accompany her and they waited outside while Kidisil took her inside.
ASP Wiafi said after some minutes, they heard some unusual noises from the room and the girl shouting at Kidisil to stop.
They forced the door open and saw Kidisil having sexual intercourse with their friend.
They reported the case to the Nkwanta Police and Mr Lala also lodged a complaint against Kidisil for stealing his motorbike.
The police arrested Kidisil on June 11 and after investigations, he was arraigned and sentenced.
A well-known figure in the Axim galamsey scene, Kwame Ato Asare Ani, has once again made headlines following an alleged assault on a member of his own family.
Ani, who gained notoriety after a video of him and other illegal miners assaulting a police officer went viral, was recently released on bail.
According to reports from UTV’s Western Regional Correspondent Charles Egyir, Ani allegedly visited his family to confront them about the damaging information they provided during his detention. Egyir stated that the family head, who also happens to be Ani’s uncle, testified against him during his initial arrest, accusing him of criminal activities and causing disturbances in the neighborhood. Furthermore, it is alleged that the family head accused Ani of involvement in multiple rape cases.
Egyir explained, “When the incident occurred, it was widely known that Kwame Ato Asare had become a wanted person, with the police actively searching for him. Reports suggested that he fled to Ivory Coast but later returned before his eventual arrest. During the two months he spent in police custody, he made several court appearances. His lawyer, Fiifi Buckman, successfully obtained bail for him, and this Thursday will mark exactly two weeks since his release on bail.”
Recalling the initial arrest, Egyir added, “During interviews conducted by some journalists in one of the neighboring towns, the family head (Abusuapanyin) testified that Kwame Ato Asare was a criminal who had been causing disturbances in the neighborhood. The man also accused him of committing numerous rapes and provided extensive information about Kwame Ato Asare.”
Upon hearing this news, Ani was reportedly displeased with the family head’s testimony. After his release on bail, Ani confronted the man and allegedly assaulted him, causing injuries.
Community members swiftly intervened, rushing the injured family head to the hospital and promptly reporting the incident to the Axim Divisional Command. Ani was subsequently re-arrested and is currently in custody at the Sekondi Headquarters, where the police are conducting further investigations.
“The community members took him to the hospital and reported the incident to the Axim Divisional Command, leading to the re-arrest of Kwame Ato Asare. Currently, he has been brought to the Sekondi Headquarters, and the police are still investigating the matter,” Egyir explained.
Ani did not act alone during the assault, as he was accompanied by a young man named Idrrisu, a well-known figure in Axim. Both individuals have been arrested for their involvement in the attack.
It should be noted that Kwame Ato Asare Ani, aged 21, was previously arrested alongside two other suspects, Williams Kwofie aged 17, and Emmanuel Kojo Bronie aged 17. The trio was apprehended at Boinso, a community near Enchi in the Western North Region.
Ani had been declared wanted after a video capturing him and other illegal miners harassing a police officer at a galamsey site, resulting in the officer kneeling down to apologize, went viral. Following the incident, Ani went into hiding, prompting the police to issue a wanted notice.
A member of the Boinso community recognized the suspects at a local drinking spot on Friday morning, April 21, 2023, and promptly informed the police, who apprehended them at the location.
Three residents of Ashaiman Lebanon Zone two have been brought before the Ashaiman District Court for allegedly assaulting Augustine Nyalali Ahiagbor, a journalist working with Angel FM/TV.
The accused individuals are Abass Mohammed, a 24-year-old national service person, Seth Kwame Baidoo, a 39-year-old civil engineer, and Samuel Yaw Baidoo, a 70-year-old pensioner.
They have pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and causing unlawful conduct, as stipulated under Section 54 and Section 152, respectively, of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
Presiding over the case, Mr. Derick Parden Eshun, granted the accused bail in the amount of GH¢10,000 each, with one surety for each accused person, subject to justification.
Furthermore, the court has referred the case for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and adjourned the proceedings to August 10, 2023.
According to the prosecution’s account, on May 25, 2023, at approximately 06:10 hours, a toilet facility at Mohammed’s father’s house collapsed, resulting in a tenant being trapped inside in Ashaiman Lebanon Zone two.
It was revealed that at around 07:10 hours, the journalist received information about the incident and went to the scene, where he encountered another journalist.
Upon the journalist’s arrival, the trapped individual had already been rescued, and some residents were attempting to transport him to the hospital for medical attention.
During this time, the complainant began recording videos and taking pictures of the collapsed toilet structure.
However, Yaw Baidoo approached him, grabbed his shirt, and demanded that he delete the recorded material while physically assaulting him.
Subsequently, approximately 10 other individuals joined in and insisted that the journalist delete the videos and pictures, subjecting him to further assault.
The accused parties allegedly engaged in a struggle with the journalist over his mobile phone, resulting in damage to the device. Additionally, they tore his shirt and singlet.
The prosecution stated that the local Assembly member, who was present at the scene and served as a witness, took possession of the complainant’s phone.
Both the Assembly member and the complainant then proceeded to the residences of Yaw Baidoo and Kwame Baidoo, intending to delete the recorded material.
However, they were unable to do so due to the phone’s damage.
Following the incident, the journalist lodged a complaint at the Lebanon Police Station, where a medical form was issued to him.
Subsequently, the accused individuals were arrested, investigated, and subsequently arraigned in court.
The husband of a National Democratic Congress (NDC) party supporter who tragically lost her life in an accident while en route to a campaign activity ahead of the Assin North by-election, Yaw Sarfo, is calling on constituents to ensure his wife’s death is not in vain.
Speaking to the media, Yaw Sarfo urged all constituents in the area to turn out in large numbers and cast their votes for James Gyakye Quayson, as his wife was on her way to campaign for him when the accident occurred.
Expressing his grief, Yaw Sarfo emphasized that his wife’s passing was a direct consequence of her involvement in the NDC campaign and appealed to the community not to forget her sacrifice.
In light of the tragic incident, he issued a warning to all party supporters, urging them to exercise extra caution during the campaign period.
Yaw Sarfo recounted that his wife was working on their farm when she received news of former President John Dramani Mahama‘s visit to the Assin North Constituency for the campaign. She promptly halted her work, changed into her party shirt, and joined the others on a party pick-up from Assin Dansame to Assin Bereku.
Tragically, the vehicle experienced a tyre burst, resulting in the fatal accident that claimed his wife’s life.
Despite the immense loss, Yaw Sarfo remained hopeful that a victory for the NDC candidate would contribute to a brighter future for the children left behind.
“We were here when we heard that former President John Dramani Mahama was on his way to pay the chiefs a courtesy call. So my wife joined them. Unfortunately, I received a call informing me that my wife had died in an accident involving the car they were riding in. I’m pleading with constituents to be cautious so that this does not happen again. I would also use this opportunity to urge voters to vote massively for the NDC candidate in order for him to win and come to my children’s aid.”
The heartfelt plea serves as a reminder of the profound impact political activities can have on individuals and their families, underscoring the importance of safe campaign practices and the need to honour those who have sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of their political beliefs.
A police post is being constructed at Odomase-Kwatire Highway at Odomase in the Sunyani West Municipality in the Bono Region, thanks to the generosity of a philanthropist, Kofi Vinyo.
The project, which is estimated to cost GH¢60,000, was launched last Monday and is expected to be completed in two months. It will include facilities such as office and washrooms.
Mr Vinyo, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kofi Vinyo and Companies, dealers in agro processing items, also promised to equip the police post with logistics such as computers, furniture, an airconditioner and refrigerator when completed.
Mr Vinyo said he initiated the project because he noticed that police officers who were deployed to protect lives and properties on the highway had no shelter and had to sit under palm nut trees, exposing them to harsh weather conditions.
He said he had his businesses, including farms, on the highway and was aware of the challenges the police officers faced on a daily basis to provide security.
He hoped that the provision of the facility would help improve the work of the police in the area and support them to enhance their services.
He said he was investing in the facility to make the personnel at the post comfortable to perform their duties.
The Odomase District PoliceCommander, Superintendent Enoch Anaba, expressed his gratitude to Mr Vinyo for recognising the plight of police officers on the highway and providing them with a suitable police post.
He said the presence of a police post on the highway would boost security, since the area was a new site and required maximum protection.
He said the completion of the police post would also help prevent criminals from committing crimes in the area and urged the contractor to speed up work.
He said police in the region had intensified their patrol and activities to combat all forms of crimes, in order to make the region safe for residents and investors.
He said police visibility in the area had drastically reduced crime rate and assured the public of the commitment of the police to sustain the fight against crime in the area and in the region as a whole.
The Director of Agyemang Construction Limited, Kwasi Agyemang, assured that he would complete the project within the scheduled 60-days.
He appealed to the residents, especially those living around the project area, to help protect building materials and equipment from thieves and cooperate with the workers to produce quality work and meet the deadline.
GCB Bank PLC (GCB) has launched the “GCB Greens Ghana for Life” initiative last Friday, as part of its 70th anniversary celebration and its contribution to the Green Ghana Project, a government-led initiative to plant 10 million trees to combat climate change and restore the country’s green environment.
The initiative aims to plant 7,000 trees in various locations of the bank across the country, in line with the bank’s environmental agenda and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The bank’s Board of Directors and Management staff joined President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and thousands of Ghanaians at the University of Ghana for the national tree planting event, which marked the Green Ghana Day.
A director of the bank, Alhassan Yakubu, told journalists that the initiative was a key CSR contribution of the bank that aligned with the government’s Green Ghana Project.
He said the bank had been supporting Ghana’s economic development for 70 years through financing projects and responding to critical social development needs.
He said in its 70th year, the bank was happy to implement one of its anniversary heritage initiatives that would help improve the country’s chances in the fight against climate change and secure a sustainable environment.
The bank was represented at the tree planting event at the University of Ghana by a member of its Board of Directors, Daniel Kwaku Tweneboah Asirifi, and other senior staff.
Other teams led by key GCB staff carried out similar exercises at almost 100 of the bank’s 186 branches and locations in the country.
One of the teams was led by the Executive Director, Wholesale and Investment Banking, Sam Aidoo, who planted trees at the GCB Learning Centre at Nungua with other executives.
A workshop for judges and magistrates on the new Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019) held on Friday, 16th June 2023, has revealed that the percentage of inmates in remand prisons in Ghana has reduced from 33% in 2017 to 9.8% in 2023.
The workshop was organised by the Judicial Training Institute, Perfector for Sentiments (POS) Foundation, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), a non-governmental organisation.
The theme was: “the Narcotics Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019): effective implementation of the Act, and the role of judges and magistrates in handling people who use drugs”.
The workshop aimed to equip the judges and magistrates with the necessary knowledge of the changes brought by the Act, and the jurisdiction given to the trial Court by Act 1019.
Mr. Johnathan Osei Owusu, the Executive Director of the Perfector for Sentiments (POS) Foundation, implementers of the “Justice for All Programme” (JFAP), gave the information on the remand prison population.
He commended the judiciary, police, and prisons services, as well as all stakeholders, for their support of the programme and described it as a remarkable achievement that was partly due to the implementation of the JFAP.
Mr Owusu explained that the JFAP was a state-led intervention, launched in 2007 to decongest prisons, by setting up Mobile In-prison Special Courts, to adjudicate remand and pre-trial cases in prisons nationwide.
This initiative involved the collective efforts of the Judicial Service of Ghana, Office of the Attorney-General, Ghana Prisons and Police Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the POS Foundation, a civil society organisation that served as facilitators.
Mr Owusu said the judicial system in Ghana was doing better than that of other neighbouring countries like Nigeria whose remand prison population was 69 per cent, Liberia 48 per cent and Kenya 42 per cent.
Justice Patrick Bayeh, a Supervising High Court Judge in Sunyani said the workshop was important and timely, as judges and magistrates were only familiar with the old narcotic control law.
He praised the new Act 1019, saying it had introduced fairness into the judicial system in prosecuting cases related to narcotics and hoped participants would be well informed about the new law.
Justice Tanko Amadu, the Director of the Judicial Training Institute and a Justice of the Supreme Court, and Mr Yaw Akrasi-Sarpong, a former boss of the then Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) were present.
The participants were taken through topics such as Act 1019, the role of judges in its application in line with best practices and drug use and dependence as public health issues.
Other topics included ‘Ghana’s commitment to international and regional drug reform and how to effectively meet these commitments’, as well as ‘thinking outside the box’, ‘cannabis governance, the international and national perspectives.
The Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020, Act 1019 was passed on 20th March 2020, and received Presidential assent on 11th May 2020.
It came after a long period of seeking more effective responses by law enforcement authorities.
A 80-year-old woman has been shot dead by her son while trying to calm him down during a fight with his wife.
The incident happened on Thursday, June 15, 2023 at Guabulga in the North East Region’s West Mamprusi Municipality.
The woman, identified as Wuni Tuunaaba, was buried according to Islamic rites.
The son, Wuni Haruna, has been arrested by the police.
What happened?
The Assembly member of the Guabulga Electoral Area, Bugri Gabriel, confirmed the incident to Graphic Online.
He said there was a misunderstanding between Haruna and his wife around 7 pm on Thursday.
Haruna’s mother intervened to restore peace.
Haruna then went to his room and came back with a gun and shot his mother dead.
“I got a distress call from a family member that someone had shot the mother dead. The suspect said he intended to give a warning shot but unfortunately, the bullet hit the mother,” the assembly member said.
He said the suspect was picked up by the police to assist with investigation.
Contender for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer-ship, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has submitted his nomination forms at the party headquarters on Monday, June 19, 2023.
He appealed to party members to join forces to help ‘Break the 8’ in the December 2024 election.
He said the party needed unity and inclusiveness to win the election.
“You cannot break the 8 with half an egg, It has to be the full egg and everybody in this party is important in this respect, especially the delegates who have been given the constitutional powers to choose a flagbearer of this party,” he said.
He also asked the delegates to vote for him as the best candidate to lead the party to victory.
“I hope that at the end of the day, we will be given the opportunity for delegates to listen to us and make the right choice so that this party can retain power come 2024.”
Meanwhile, Dr Akotosaid he was not impressed by the crowds that accompanied his competitors’ filing of nomination forms.
He said he decided to submit his forms with only core members of his campaign team, rather than hiring supporters.
“Let me say here that everybody who has come here including representatives of farmers, are here on their own accord. You cannot see any bused crowd, or any big commercial vehicle bringing people to come and support.
“People have come on their own volition and own conviction that my candidature will be good for the people of Ghana and the NPP, and I am very grateful.”, he said.
A Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Owusu Bempah, a has expressed optimism that the party will emerge victorious in the Assin North by-election slated for Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
He said the party was determined to reclaim the seat in the Assin North Constituency, which was carved out of the Assin Central Constituency.
Ernest Owusu Bempah argued that the New Democratic Congress (NDC) won the Assin North parliamentary seat by default in 2020, saying the NPP had always performed better in that constituency in both the presidential and parliamentary elections. He made this statement in an interview with Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Accra-based Original FM 91.9.
“I believe the good people of Assin North want to be represented in Parliament by someone who is untainted, credible, and can represent the interest of the chiefs and the people of Assin North, leaders and members of all faith-based organisations in the constituency,” he added.
The NDC is re-presenting James Gyakye Quayson, while the NPP’s candidate is Charles Opoku.
The by-election follows a Supreme Court ruling that annulled the election of James Gyakye Quayson as Member of Parliament for Assin North and directed Parliament to expunge his name from its records.
Following this, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has asked the Supreme Court to clarify its directive.
A former Energy Minister and a contender for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer-ship race, Boakye Agyarko, has pledged to help the party achieve a long-term dominance of Ghanaian politics for the next 40 years.
He made this remark today, 19 June 2023, as he filed his nomination at the party office in the presence of enthusiastic NPP supporters.
He said the party’s goal was not only to break the eight-year cycle of alternating power with the opposition, but to transform the country with a sustained governance.
“We have to motivate you; we have to prepare you. We have to make you eager to fight for this party in 2024. If we do that, then we are assured of 2024. I am interested in the party retaining power for the next 40 years, not just breaking the eight. Being in power for the next 40 years is the only way we are going to change this country. In the next 40 years, it is the only way we can change the country,” he stated.
The flagbearer hopeful, therefore, urged the members and supporters to work hard to ensure that the party’s victory in the upcoming election and beyond is secured.
“It is going to depend on you, forty years I wouldn’t be here, but the party will, and we must build a strong party where you are comfortable and most importantly where you will receive the reward of your hard work,” he added.
A British explorer is reportedly one of the passengers in a submersible that vanished while transporting tourists to the Titanic.
Coastguards lost communication with the vessel, which is being run by Oceangate Expeditions, and are now conducting a search and rescue operation in the north Atlantic Ocean.
It is one of many vessels that sporadically convey visitors, specialists, and scientists to the renowned shipwreck.
Oceangate confirmed to the BBC that a crew is on board and it would be ‘exploring and mobilising all options’ to bring them back.
In a statement, the company said: ‘Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families.’
It continued: ‘We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.’
The US Coastguard confirmed a search operation was underway, with the Boston team leading.
None of the identities of those on board have been confirmed, but British explorer Hamish Harding, the chairman of aircraft sales firm Action Aviation, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that he was joining the latest Oceangate expedition to see the Titanic.
The billionaire holds the Guinness World Record for the longest time spent at the deepest point of the ocean, which was earned when he spent four hours and 15 minutes at the bottom of the Marianas Trench with fellow record-holder Victor Vescovo in March 2021.
Mr Harding said in the post: ‘The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet.’
He appears to be referring to French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Titanic wreck site, who is also believed to be on the vessel.
Sky News reported that Mr Harding’s stepson Brian Szasz had posted on Facebook saying: ‘Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his Submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic.’
It can reportedly take eight hours for a submersible to take people down to the wreck – which lies 13,000ft below the surface of the ocean – and back up again, as part of a multi-day trip.
The missing submersible is understood to have a life support system designed to last 96 hours.
Last year, it was reported that one such excursion run by OceanGate cost a group of guests $250,000.
The mission was 10 days long, with eight of those days at sea, according to a tourist brochure.
It is understood that only five people are able to travel in the submersible. The number on board when it went missing is unknown.
Earlier this year, the company said it planned an expedition to the wreck for summer 2023, which would further document the Titanic and its ‘rate of decay’.
The Titanic lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic, about 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
It was the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its launch on April 10 1912, but it sank after colliding with an iceberg just four days later.
There are believed to have been around 2,224 people on board at the time, of whom more than 1,500 died.
Since the wreck was rediscovered in 1985, a number of people have journeyed to the sea floor to take a look – including James Cameron, who directed a massively successful film about the disaster in 1997.
Guards threatened three BBC journalists who had been abducted and interrogated in Libya, saying, “We will cut you to pieces and bury you here.”
The ordeal started the day after the crew landed in Tripoli to document the disappearance of Lebanese imam Musa al-Sadr in 1978 after he was invited to visit Libya.
The unnamed trio and news anchor Kassem Hamadé were crammed into a car before being placed in cramped quarters in a Libyan jail.
They spent the next five days being interrogated by Libyan intelligence authorities and, according to Kassem, told by a guard they would be killed.
All four were finally released after diplomatic pressure from the the UK foreign office, the Swedish government and the BBC, the Daily Mail reports.
The BBC said the team had full permission to be in the country and gather material for the documentary.
Kassem wrote about the frightening experience for Swedish newspaper Expressen.
He said he didn’t know why the crew were detained but suspected the documentary had spooked people in the Libyan intelligence community who were formerly loyal to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The reporter recalled the horror of being told by a prison guard: ‘You will die. We will cut you to pieces and bury you here. No one knows you’re here, it goes blank.’
He added: ‘The last word – blanco – I know all too well what it means. I have met people who were tortured ‘in blanco’. They have been suspended by their wrists with the help of a winch until only the tips of their toes touch the ground.
‘In that position, they have since been subjected to mindless violence. Those I have met were lucky to make it out alive. Many do not. How will it go for us?’
Kassem said he and the BBC team, made up of a reporter, a cameraman and a producer, had arrived in Tripoli to make the documentary about Musa al-Sadr.
At the airport, security staff eyed the team with suspicion and kept them waiting three hours before allowing them through passport control, he explained.
Two local drivers and a body guard were waiting for them in the airport carpark and, according to Kassem, ‘acting like we were in a war zone’.
He said they’d been booked into a hotel before arriving, but once in the city officials rebooked them into the city’s Radisson, telling them it was cheaper.
The next day the crew were awaiting further accreditation at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters near the hotel when a number of officials arrived and forced them into a waiting car.
He said he was in a state of shock and whispered to the others: ‘We are kidnapped.’
The person who appeared to be in command asked if they knew who he was and added if they didn’t they would soon find out.
Kassem whispered again to the others, this time saying he hoped it wasn’t ISIS or al-Qaeda.
While interrogated at the prison Kassem said he was accused of being a spy for Lebanon, then told he’d visited Israel before, which, he said, he hasn’t.
Later, when he said he worked for the Swedish newspaper Expressen, they allegedly told him it was not a newspaper but a government information agency and that he was passing on intelligence to Sweden, before claiming he was in Libya to assassinate someone.
Even when the crew was finally released and driven to the airport, Kassem feared they might be killed on the way.
But, he said, all four arrived safely at the airport and were relieved to fly home.
A BBC spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: ‘A small team working for the BBC entered Libya in March of this year with full permission, to gather material for a story. They were subsequently detained and interrogated over a number of days by the Libyan intelligence authorities.
‘The interrogation took place despite our authorised access to the country and without clear motive. We stand by our journalists and are deeply concerned about the treatment of this team. The safety of those working for the BBC is our first priority and we continue to support this team.’
A Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said they supported four British men who were released from detention in Libya and raised their cases directly with the Libyan authorities.
The subject of the planned documentary, Musa al-Sadr, was a prominent Shia Muslim leader for two decades before he vanished. It’s said he helped to transform Lebanon’s Shia from a once-ostracised community to a politically powerful group.
Libya has always denied any involvement in his disappearance. It’s widely believed he was kidnapped and executed.
After a video of a holiday party during the epidemic surfaced, the Metropolitan Police commissioner speculated that Conservatives may soon be subject to more Partygate sanctions.
The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) personnel is shown partying and drinking in footage obtained by the Daily Mirror from December 2020, when Covid-19 limitations were in effect.
Sir Mark Rowley has now said that the police will take action against the alleged 24 participants.
One reveller can be heard saying it is okay to film ‘as long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules’.
Sir Mark told The News Agents Podcast the 45-second clip from the event told a clearer story than the photograph that was previously referred to investigators.
‘As people know, that case has been previously looked at based on a photo,’ he said.
‘It’s very obvious a video tells a much richer, clearer story than a photo.
‘And so, the team are looking at that with a view to whether that provides a basis for further investigation.’
Sir Mark implied that action is likely to be taken over the footage.
He added: ‘I think we can all see the colourful nature of the video and how much it tells a story way beyond the original photo.
‘I need to let a team work through that but I think we can all guess which way it will go.’
The Met considers various factors when deciding whether to investigate alleged breaches of Covid rules retrospectively.
‘One of the things we’ve taken account of in the past, of course, has been those involved in sort of setting the law and setting the policy being an aggravating feature, for example,’ Sir Mark added.
The Christmas event took place when indoor socialising was banned and people across the country were separated from family and friends.
Sir Mark said: ‘We are not routinely opening every minor historic allegation. So, if you phoned up about your neighbour from three years ago, we are not going to reopen that. B
‘But clearly cases that are particularly serious, particularly concerning, we will do.
‘As people know, that case has been previously looked at based on a photo. It’s very obvious a video tells a much richer, clearer story than a photo.’
This comes after Downing Street suggested Boris Johnson’s resignation honours could be reviewed by a special committee if nominees are deemed to have brought the honours system ‘into disrepute’.
The event was attended by former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and Tory aide Ben Mallet, who were put forward for a peerage and an OBE respectively by the former PM.
Liz Truss has at last addressed the iconic lettuce that survived her, and ironically, she is not pleased.
On October 20, 2022, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history announced his resignation following a turbulent tenure.
In a light-hearted “Liz vs. Lettuce” competition, the Daily Star newspaper established a live feed and asked which would last the longest.
‘How long can wet lettuce Liz romaine?’ it inquired on the lead page. and attracted much interest on a global scale.
And against all the odds, the lettuce came through victorious.
At the News XChange journalism conference today in Dublin, Ireland, Ms Truss said some elements of the media are ‘froth’.
Addressing the stunt, she said: ‘I don’t think that’s particularly funny I just think it’s puerile.’
Hitting out at the media further, she added: ‘I think that the British media are known throughout the world for being particularly vociferous and I don’t think they are particularly deferential to politicians.
‘It’s frustrating because I came into politics because I wanted to change the country, I want to push particular ideas, and it is frustrating when you get diverted onto a discussion of what hat you’re wearing, or whether you like photographs, all this other stuff, rather than one of the crucial issues that are affecting Britain, Europe, Ireland and the US.
‘I do think sometimes politics is sort of treated as a branch of the entertainment industry.
‘Who’s up, who’s down, who says what about who – it’s a bit playground when there are really serious issues going on.’
She said when she attended international summits she would get ‘a lot of sympathy’ from politicians abroad about the way she was treated.
Ms Truss added although ‘robust debate’ is ‘a good thing overall’, she thinks following politicians around and ‘shouting things at them is not really journalism’.
She was also asked whether she tries to dress like Baroness Margaret Thatcher, to which she responded: ‘I just think, frankly, it’s lazy thinking on people’s part. It’s not something I have ever consciously sought to do at all.’
People like to compare female UK prime ministers because ‘there aren’t that many of us’, she added, with the third being Theresa May.
Russian soldiers would be exposed to malaria-carrying mosquitoes via drones, according to a top Kremlin general.
Lieutenant-general Igor Kirillov, commander of Vladimir Putin‘s Russian Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, oddly claimed that the goal is to infect soldiers so they will grow ill or possibly die.
In the past, when Russia has made absurd assertions about the West or Ukraine, it has meant that they intend to carry out those specific actions themselves.
According to Lieutenant-General Kirillov, the situation could get more complicated as a result of the Kyiv regime’s planned flooding of the Kherson region, which could increase the risk of arbovirus infections.
‘After a drop in the water level, it is possible to form foci of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, primarily West Nile fever.
‘The high technical level of US preparedness for the use of infected vectors is evidenced by a patent for a drone designed to spread infected mosquitoes in the air.’
He didn’t go into any more details about the supposed patent, but added: ‘In accordance with the description, the drone must deliver a container with insects to a given area and release them.
‘When bitten, mosquitoes can infect military personnel with a dangerous infection, such as malaria.
‘The description of the patent emphasises that the infected soldier is not able to perform the combat missions assigned to him.’
The US Department of Defense has been contacted for a comment.
The claims come following reports two drunk Russian soldiers beat up and ‘castrated’ two Ukrainian prisoners of war with pocket knives inside a torture camp.
The Ukrainian survivors, aged 25 and 28, were allegedly dragged to and held at the camp for one and three months respectively.
Putin’s soldiers put the pair through an experience ‘worse than hell’ and only gave them freedom after a prisoner exchange.
One sad soldier succumbed to heat exhaustion just as the Royal Family arrived at Windsor Castle for today’s historic Order of the Garter procession.
The Household Cavalryman, who was dressed in full ceremonial garb, including a metal helmet, collapsed to the ground while facing the sun’s intensity.
A police officer and some bystanders were seen on surveillance footage helping the soldier stand up just before the parade passed them.
King Charles and Queen Camilla led the Royal party, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Anne with her husband, Vice Admiral, Sir Anthony Lawrence, during the Garter Day parade.
Disgraced Prince Andrew is said to have joined them for lunch in his role as Royal Knight Companion but was not allowed to take part in the parade.
The event, described as the most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain, was set up in medieval times by King Edward III, who was inspired by the legend of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table.
He set up his own group of honourable knights, called the Order of the Garter.
There are 24 spaces for Knights and Ladies Companion, who are recognised for their work and public service and hail from a variety of backgrounds.
The soldier fainted moments before the arrival of the King and Queen (Picture: PA)Officials rushed to help the member of Household Cavalry after his fall (Picture: Getty)
Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major were among guests seen going into St George’s Chapel for the prestigious ceremony.
Almost 3,000 royal fans gathered to watch the event unfold, cheering as the King and Queen waved.
The Baroness Ashton of Upholland GCMG was installed as a Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and the Lord Patten of Barnes CH was installed as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
The Prince and Princess of Wales leaving the service at Windsor Castle (Picture: REUTERS)
It is not the first time a soldier has fainted at a high-profile event.
Footage emerged of a trombonist desperately trying to continue playing his instrument after he was one of several soldiers to collapse during a rehearsal of the Trooping the Colour earlier this month.
Prince William tweeted after the event: ‘A big thank you to every soldier who took part in the Colonel’s Review this morning in the heat.
‘Difficult conditions but you all did a really good job. Thank you. W.”
A royal guard fell to the floor while watching the late Queen’s coffin during the first day of her lying in state at Westminster Abbey last September, leading to the live broadcast being halted.
Another member of the Household Cavalry was pictured face first on the ground after falling over during a Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in 2021.
A 12-year-old youngster passed away after passing out on a school pitch.
Around 4 p.m. on Friday, emergency personnel were called to a school in Shropshire after hearing that a small kid had fallen to the ground.
Joshua Lloyd‘s family posted memorials to their deceased son this morning.
While emergency personnel were en route to Dawley’s Telford Langley School, it’s thought that witnesses fought to save him.
Paramedics took Joshua to hospital but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. Emergency services were called to Dawley’s Telford Langley School[/caption]
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘We were called to reports of a child who had collapsed at Langley School in Dawley, Telford.
‘The first ambulance arrived six minutes after the call and was backed up by a second ambulance, a paramedic manager and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford.
‘On arrival, crews found a patient in a critical condition, already receiving medical support from bystanders. Crews took over and provided advanced care to the child before he was taken on blue lights to Princess Royal Hospital.
‘The doctor and critical care paramedic on the aircraft travelled with the ambulance crew on the way to hospital, where medics were on standby to receive the child.
‘Sadly, shortly after arrival at hospital it became apparent nothing could be done to save the child despite everyone’s best efforts and he was confirmed deceased.’
A West Mercia Police added: ‘West Midlands Ambulance Service alerted us that they were responding to a medical emergency involving a child at a school in Telford.
‘Tragically the child died in hospital that afternoon. His death isn’t being treated as suspicious. The thoughts of all of us are with his family and friends.’
Another revelation regarding her previous relationship with Nigerian Afropop singer Iyanya Onoyom Mbuk has been made by Yvonne Nelson in her autobiography “I Am Not Yvonne Nelson
According to her, their relationship came to an end due to Iyanya’s infidelity with Nigerian actress Tonto Dikeh.
Yvonne described her relationship with the singer as a dreamy relationship with breakfast in bed and all the niceties and that she had assurance that her love with him was forever when he tattooed her initials YN on his wrist.
“We had a decent relationship. breakfast in bed and all the niceties of a dream relationship one could think of. I had the assurance that he was someone I could be with forever. He tattooed my initials, YN, on his wrist, and I thought that was a big deal. If he wasn’t serious about he wouldn’t do that. In his hit song, “Ur Waist”, he mentioned how he lusted over me”.
However, their relationship took a turn for the worse when Yvonne Nelson started receiving calls from an unknown person each time she left Iyanya’s place, informing her that another actress would visit and sometimes even spend the night.
In her memoir, she revealed that the actress in question turned out to be Tonto Dikeh, who was mentioned in Iyanya’s song “Ur Waist.”
“One can therefore imagine my shock when I returned to Ghana after one of my visits to Nigeria and someone called me from his house.
The caller said anytime I left Iyanya’s place, another actress came over to him and sometimes slept over. The person felt strongly that there was something going on between them and thought I should know. That actress turned out to be Tonto Dikeh of Nigeria, one of the female celebrities Iyanya named in his “Ur Waist” song”
After Yvonne Nelson took to Twitter to express her frustrations and disappointment with the failed relationship, Tonto Dikeh responded on the platform, suggesting that people change, including their feelings, and advised Yvonne to move on.
“When I was convinced about the authenticity of the information I received, I was heartbroken. I took to Twitter to rant and vent. Tonto Dike responded on Twitter, saying people changed and so did feelings, so l should move on”.
Further revelations in Yvonne’s memoir shed light on additional incidents involving Iyanya and some of his female crew members, solidifying her belief that what occurred between him and Tonto Dikeh was not an isolated incident.
“I later heard more stories about what Iyanya did with some of his female crew members. It convinced me that what happened between him and Tonto Dike wasn’t an isolated incident. It was a pattern, his way of life. I knew I eventually would have left even if Tonto Dikeh hadn’t come into the picture. I did not see the need to keep fighting her for a man I had lost, especially when I knew her fate was not going to be different from mine.”
The much-talked-about romance between Kukere master, Iyanya, and Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelson, has hit the rocks in 2015 after the pair began dating in July 2012 and were spotted together at several functions.
In a 2015 interview, the well-known Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie shared some of his views on parenting, his cultural background, and his commitment to maintaining his privacy.
However, recent developments have sparked renewed interest in his past, particularly concerning actress Yvonne Nelson’s claims about their encounter in 2010.
Speaking with Delay, Sarkodie expressed his affection for children, stating, “I like babies, I like kids, I wish I could have a baby and the baby would never grow up and I could take care of the baby while she stays a baby.”
His heartfelt words unveiled a deep longing for fatherhood and his admiration for the joys of raising children.
When asked about his plans for having a baby, Sarkodie playfully alluded to his Ashanti heritage, humorously remarking, “I don’t plan. I am an Ashanti, we Ashantis want more. If I am to wait for my timing, I will be dead before I give birth.”
Continuing the conversation, Delay inquired about the potential mother of Sarkodie’s future child.
In response, Sarkodie firmly stated, “We can’t talk about that.”
He remained resolute in his decision to keep his personal relationships out of the public eye, a rare stance in the world of celebrity.
Emphasizing his position, Sarkodie explicitly stated, “I can say for a fact with you that I have never had anything to do with anyone on TV.”
This statement effectively dismissed any speculations regarding his involvement with individuals from the entertainment industry, highlighting his preference for cultivating relationships away from public scrutiny.
However, recent attention has been drawn to the rapper due to Yvonne Nelson’s revelations in her memoir, titled ‘I Am Not Yvonne Nelson,’ which was launched on June 18, 2023.
In a chapter titled ‘Abortion,’ Nelson disclosed a significant event from 2010, shedding light on her pregnancy by Sarkodie and his subsequent refusal to take responsibility.
This led Ms. Nelson to make the difficult decision to have an abortion.
Yvonne shared an emotional account in an excerpt from her book, describing the moment she went for a pregnancy test with her friend Karen.
The test held profound implications for Nelson, as she realized the potential life-altering consequences of the result.
Overwhelmed, she reached out to the man who impregnated her, Michael Owusu Addo, widely known as Sarkodie.
The public is now grappling with the complexities and sensitivities surrounding the rapper’s past actions and their impact on those involved.
As the story continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how Sarkodie and the individuals involved will navigate the aftermath of these revelations and address the public’s concerns.
Popular social media commentator Daniel Regha has questioned DJ Cuppy and Temi Otedola, daughters of Femi Otedola, regarding the postponement of their wedding plans.
Daniel in a tweet on Saturday, questioned why the billionaire’s daughters got engaged if they had no plans of tying the knot within six months.
He said: “Cuppy has been engaged since November 2022; while her sister Temi got engaged since April 2022, but there’s no proof that Mr Eazihas tied the knot.
Why rush engagement if there was no plan on getting married within 3 to 6 months? It’s not like money is a problem. No offense.”
It was reported that Nigerian disc jockey and producer, Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known asDJ Cuppy, got engaged by her British boyfriend and professional boxer, Ryan Taylor in November 2022 at Gumball award night in Abu Dhabi.
Also, Nigeria singer Mr. Eazi engaged Temi Otedola in April 2022.
Since their engagements, available information shows neither of the billionaire’s daughters has tied the knot, raising eyebrows among fans and trolls alike.
Ex-lover of Yvonne Nelson, Iyanya has suggested that the actress’ revelation that she got pregnant for Sarkodie in 2010 but had to abort the child due to the rapper’s rejection is “too much information”.
Reacting to a tweet, Iyanya seemed to wonder whyYvonne Nelson would capture such an incident in a book.
“Isn’t this too much information? Is this also in the book?” his tweet on June 19, 2023, sighted by GhanaWeb read.
Iyanya used to be the boyfriend of Yvonne Nelson until a split in 2012.
The singer had explained that they broke up “because we hardly had time for each other. I was hustling and I would do four shows in a day and I will make two million. So, I won’t say because I was in love with a woman, I’m going to see money and I’m going to lay back.”
In a publication by DailyPost in 2017, Iyanya reminisced about his encounter with Yvonne Nelson saying “It’s not easy losing a great and beautiful woman like Yvonne. She was everything I have at that moment.”
“Like our first day in bed. She was like ‘Oh yeah baby, I really love it’ and her late night and early morning messages and calls. I miss everything about her,” he said.
Flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party, Boakye Agyarko, has urged the party to take action against candidates in the flagbearership race who are disregarding the election rules.
Mr Agyarko emphasized the importance of upholding the rules and regulations for a fair and transparent electoral process.
Speaking on the matter, Mr Agyarko stated, “It is important that all [candidates] uphold the rules and regulations, without sounding like a fly in the jar, there have been many provocations, there has been many breaking the rules for which no sanctions have been applied. I have even raised the matter at the national council.
“So long as the rules are clear, so long as there is total fairness, so long as we are all tempered or measured, I believe that we would have a very peaceful contest. But please do not hold yourself aloof from the entire process.”
Responding to Agyarko’s plea, Evans Nimako, the Director of Elections of the NPP, urged him to report any instances of election rule violations by the aspirants to the appropriate committees.
Nimako assured Agyarko that the party would address the concerns once they are brought to their attention.
Ghanaians have been taken aback by an intriguing revelation made by actress Yvonne Nelson that Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie got her pregnant and rejected the pregnancy.
This, according to the actress happened in 2010.
The controversy sparked by Yvonne Nelson‘s revelation has stirred significant debate and garnered attention within the media and public. Both celebrities have been trending on Twitter following the revelation.
While some believe the claim, others like popular musician, Shatta Wale don’t. Shatta has voiced his skepticism regarding the matter, suggesting that it may lack substantiation or may be misrepresenting the truth.
In response to Yvonne Nelson’s recent claim that musician Sarkodie fathered her child and subsequently denied it, Shatta Wale,a prominent figure in the Ghanaian entertainment industry, has publicly refuted her allegations. Shatta Wale, known for his candid nature, has come forward to dismiss Yvonne Nelson’s assertions, challenging the credibility of her statement.
In a tweet, Shatta said: “Oh no sark can’t do that ? I don’t believe this aaaahhhh .. #Abortion like how ? Sark ? Naaaa.. He won’t even kill mosquito ..All be lie.”
Oh no sark can’t do that ? I don’t believe this aaaahhhh ..#Abortion like how ?
Sark ? Naaaa.. He won’t even kill mosquito ..All be lie 🥂
Mother of one of the Takoradi kidnapped girls expressed her profound anguish and shared her ongoing struggle as she continues to wait for the remains of her beloved daughter to be returned, allowing her to finally find solace through a proper burial.
Five years after the report on the abduction and killing of four Takoradi girls, some relatives of these girls are yet to bury the victims.
Comfort Arhin, the mother of one of the victims, Ruth Abakah has revealed that her family never got the request to have a DNA test performed on the alleged skeleton belonging to Ruth granted.
She again added that there is no permanent resting place for Ruth Abakah as her remains were never seen or received by the family for burial.
“We don’t have the skeleton of Ruth for burial. Even on the day of the final trial, I heard four coffins were presented in court but they were closed to the public. We were never invited to the sitting. The was no hearing on the days we appeared in court so, to date, we can’t tell what exactly transpired,” she said.
In an interview with DANI FM and monitored by GhanaWeb, Ruth Abakah’s mother, Comfort Arhin stated that the families of the victims were never present during the trial of the then suspects, Sam Udeotuk Wills and John Orji.
Nana Adwoa Quayson, the sister of one of the victims, Ruth Love Quayson, concurred that her family is also yet to receive the remains of her sister for interment.
“We never performed a DNA test on the skeleton of my sister. We only depended on what the state had conducted. We didn’t get the remains of my sister so there was no burial or funeral rites. We don’t know if the police buried the remains or they are still in a lab,” Nana Adwoa Quayson said.
Between July and December 2018, there was a report on the kidnapping of Ruth Abakah, 19; Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21; Ruth Love Quayson,18 and Priscilla Koranchie, 15.
The abduction was perpetrated by two Nigerians; Sam Udeotuk Wills and John Orji but only Sam was eventually convicted in 2021 to a life sentence.
A search and rescue operation has been launched in the wake of the disappearance of a submarine that was used to transport visitors to the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Monday, the Boston Coastguard informed the BBC that a search operation was being conducted for the submersible.
It is unclear how many, if any, passengers were on board when it vanished.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow soon…Check back shortly for further updates.
In response to the need to “stabilise” the bilateral relationship between the two superpowers, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Monday that the US and China had made “progress” towards reviving relations.
The top US diplomat acknowledged that there are still significant issues between the two countries that need to be resolved but expressed his “hope and expectation that we will have better communications and better engagement going forward” after two days of meetings with senior officials in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping.
Blinken is the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing in five years, and his talks with senior Chinese officials were seen as a key litmus test for whether the two governments could stop relations from continuing to plummet at a time of lingering distrust.
“It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability,” Blinken said at a news conference in the Chinese capital Monday. “And both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it.”
“I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level channels of communication, to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement, and to explore areas where we might work together on our interests, align on shared transnational challenges, and we did all of that,” Blinken said.
“We’re not going to have success on every issue between us on any given day, but in a whole variety of areas, on the terms that we set for this trip, we have made progress and we are moving forward,” he said.
“But again, I want emphasize none of this gets resolved with one visit, one trip, one conversation. It’s a process,” the top US diplomat said.
One of the key issues that did not get resolved was that of restoring military-to-military communications between the US and China. Contacts between the country’s top military officials remain frozen, and two recent incidents have raised concerns that the fraught relationship could veer into conflict.
China recently rebuffed a meeting between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who is under US sanction, in Singapore, although the two did speak briefly.
Blinken said that although he raised the need for such channels of communication “repeatedly” in his meetings, there was “no immediate progress.”
“At this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that. I think that’s an issue that we have to keep working on. It is very important that we restore those channels,” he said.
The top US diplomat said his conversations touched on the Ukraine war and North Korea, and that he raised US concerns “shared by a growing number of countries about the (People’s Republic of China’s) provocative actions to the Taiwan Strait, as well as in the South and East China Seas.” He said the US position on Taiwan has not changed and pressed China over human rights.
The top US diplomat also repeatedly noted that he sought to clarify the US’ economic stance toward China in his meetings with top Chinese officials and to emphasize that the US is not seeking to “contain” China economically.
“There is a profound difference for the United States, and for many other countries, between ‘de-risking’ and decoupling,” he said.
“We are for de-risking and diversifying. That means investing in our own capacities and in secure, resilient supply chains, pushing for level playing fields for our workers and our companies, defending against harmful trade practices and protecting our critical technologies so that they aren’t used against us,” he said.
Blinken said China assured the US and other countries that it will not provide lethal aid to Russia and “we have not seen any evidence that contradicts that,” though he noted that China’s assurance was in keeping with repeated statements made in recent weeks.
“What we do have ongoing concerns about, though, are Chinese firms, companies that may be providing technology that Russia can use to advance its aggression in Ukraine. And we’ve asked the Chinese government to be very vigilant about that,” Blinken added.
Blinken said he raised human rights in his meetings, including the human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. He also said he “specifically raised wrongfully detained US citizens and those facing exit bans.”
The top US diplomat said on areas of potential cooperation, the two sides “agreed to explore setting up a working group effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals” for fentanyl. China is one of the top producers of those precursor chemicals that are used to produce the highly deadly synthetic drug that has claimed the lives of thousands.
The top US diplomat described his conversations with top Chinese officials Wang Yi and Qin Gang as “candid, substantive and constructive,” and said his meeting with China’s president was “important.”
However, that meeting was not publicly confirmed until shortly before it took place, and uncertainty around whether Xi and Blinken would meet during the two-day visit further highlighted the fraught US-China relations. A failure to schedule a face-to-face meeting would have been seen by Washington as a slight, breaking with a number of previous visits from top American diplomats.
The meeting, which took place at Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People, was only publicly announced by the US about an hour before it went ahead. It lasted roughly half an hour, beginning at 4:34 p.m. local time and ended at 5:09 p.m., a State Department official said.
“The world needs an overall stable Sino-US relationship, and whether China and the United States can get along has a bearing on the future and destiny of mankind,” Xi told Blinken, according to a Chinese readout of the meeting.
“China respects the interests of the United States and will not challenge or replace the United States. Similarly, the United States must also respect China and not harm China’s legitimate rights and interests,” Xi added. The readout said that Xi told Blinken that the world needs stable China-US relations and that the future of humanity hinges on both getting along.
The two global powers have been increasingly at loggerheads over a host of issues ranging from Beijing’s close ties with Moscow to American efforts to limit the sale of advanced technologies to China.
Earlier this year, a Chinese surveillance balloon that was detected floating across the US and hovering over sensitive military sites before ultimately being shot down by an American fighter plane sent relations plunging to a new low and resulted in Blinken scrapping an earlier Beijing visit.
This time, the diplomatic mission went forward.
A roughly three-hour meeting between Blinken and Wang earlier Monday underscored the deep challenges in overcoming the mistrust and friction that has come to characterize the relationship.
The Chinese government’s growing clout internationally and increasingly authoritarian controls at home have pushed the US to reframe how it manages its relations with the power in recent years.
Repeating Beijing’s typical rhetoric, Wang blamed Washington’s “wrong perception” of China as the “root cause” of the decline in the two sides’ relations and demanded the US stop “suppressing” China’s technological development and hyping the “China threat,” according to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the United States to co-exist in the new era,” Wang said, adding that Blinken’s visit came at “a critical juncture in US-China relations, where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict.”
Wang also reiterated that Taiwan is one of one of China’s “core interests,” over which it “has no room for compromise or backdown.”
The self-ruling democratic island, which China’s ruling Communist Party claims but has never controlled, has increasingly been another flashpoint in the US-China relationship.
During the meeting, Blinken underscored the need for the countries to “responsibly” manage their competition through “open channels of communication” to ensure it “does not veer into conflict,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The US would continue to use its diplomacy to “stand up for the interests and values of the American people,” Blinken said, according to the statement, which described the talks as “candid and productive” and said they including discussion of potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges.
Overall, Wang’s comments took a more combative tone than those of China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who met with Blinken the previous day. Qin said both sides agreed to “advance dialogue, exchanges and cooperation” and “maintain high-level interactions,” according to a readout from Beijing.
Blinken’s Sunday meeting with Qin, which stretched more than five hours and then wrapped with a working dinner, resulted in progress “on a number of fronts,” with both sides showing a “desire to reduce tensions,” a senior State Department official told reporters Sunday.
“Profound differences” between the US and China, however, were also clear during the meeting, the official added.
While Qin holds the title of Foreign Minister, he wields less power than Wang, who directs the country’s foreign policy through his position among party’s core leadership.
Blinken’s original scheduled visit in early February had been agreed on as a follow-up to an amicable face-to-face between US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November.
That meeting – the first in person between the two leaders as presidents – was seen a pivotal step in restoring certain lines of communication, which Beijing last year severed last year following a visit from then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Both the US and China had played down expectations of a major breakthrough during Blinken’s visit.
Ahead of the meeting, Washington was careful to manage expectations, with a senior State Department official last week telling reporters that he does not expect “a long list of deliverables.”
Meanwhile, both sides are also navigating how the meetings play to their respective domestic audiences.
In the US, how strongly to counter China has become the topic of heated political debate – with some lawmakers slamming the Biden administration for sitting down with Beijing.
China views Washington as actively trying to thwart its development, and is also very much aware the US is headed into a presidential election cycle, where hawkish rhetoric against it may intensify further.
Its officials also meet Blinken in an environment where China’s state media and official rhetoric have long portrayed Washington as a bad-faith actor responsible for destabilizing ties.
Mr Dennis Yeribu, Principal Manager, Planning and Programmes Directorate of the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), says about 10 per cent of all road crashes are linked to poor tyre maintenance.
He has therefore advised motorists to observe good tyre maintenance practices to ensure safety on the roads.
Mr Yeribu made the comments on Friday during a “Stay Alive Tyre Safety Campaign,” organised by the NRSA in collaboration with Vulco and supported by the Ghana Police Service.
As part of the exercise, the team performed tyre assessments of about 500 private vehicles plying the Tema Motorway. They also shared tyre safety and management tips with drivers, gave out tyre inflation coupons and embarked on road safety sensitisation.
After carrying out tyre checks, the team informed drivers of their tyre health status and provided them with remedies.
Mr Yeribu said an important component of road safety was the issue of tyres which many road users, unfortunately, paid little attention to.
He said the Tyre Safety campaign would be replicated in other regions of the country, adding that, soon a similar exercise would be organised for public transport.
Mr Yeribu said the data gathered from the exercise would inform future policy directives and targeted education programmes on road safety.
He thanked Vulco and the Police for their assistance and lauded the drivers for their cooperation and availing themselves to receive the education.
The drivers on the other hand, thanked the NRSA for the exercise and for enriching their knowledge on tyre safety.
Mr Shakti Shukla, National Retail Manager of Vulco, said his outfit had observed that about 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the vehicles had winter tyres instead of summer tyres which were best suited for Ghana’s weather condition.
Summer tyres have a dedicated rubber compound that delivers excellent grip and handling on both dry and wet roads in warmer conditions. On the other hand, winter tyres provide outstanding grip on road surfaces covered with snow and ice, as well as wet roads in cold conditions.
He informed that the standard maximum shelf life of tyres was five years but observed that most tyres were overaged and cracked.
The shelf life of a tyre is the time between date of manufacture and period of its road worthiness. This applies to the period before the tire is first used—the period when the tire is kept away in the dark from having direct contact with sunlight or rain.
He advised motorists to purchase tyres that conformed to their vehicle’s Original Equipment (OE), had the correct tyre size, maintain the recommended tyre pressure and check the warranty given by the manufacturer.
The OE are the parts of a car that were fitted at the factory during manufacturing. Only approved OE tyres are fitted to new cars. OE tyres are developed specifically for each make and model of car.
He advised drivers not to fit different tyre sizes on the same axis but to only mount the size specified by the manufacturer.
“To maximize the tire performance, a driver should make an axis rotation every 10,000 kilometres. Drivers should control their tire pressure every 15 days, use manufacturer’s recommended pressure, check the status of valves and place caps on the valves.”
“Elements that impact negatively on the life of tyres include driving at high speed, taking turns too fast and quick stops. The consequences of unbalancing include tyre damage, irregular wear, loss of traction and stability and lack of comfort,” he said.
A recent sensitisation workshop was held in Sunyani to educate judges and magistrates from the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo regions about the newly implemented Narcotic Control Commission Act 2020 (Act 1019).
The workshop, organized by the Perfector of Sentiments Foundation (POS Foundation), the Judicial Training Institute, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), aimed to equip participants with knowledge about the alternative provisions for drug possession and use offenses, particularly concerning Indian hemp.
According to a DailyGuide report, the event witnessed the participation of regional police and prison commanders, as well as past and present director generals of the Narcotic Control Commission.
Notable attendees included Justice Tanko Amadu of the Supreme Court, who also serves as the Director of the Judicial Training Institute, Kenneth Adu-Amanfeh, the Director General of the Narcotics Control Commission, and Akrasi Sarpong, the former boss of NACOB. Jonathan Osei Owusu, the Executive Director of POS Foundation, and His Lordship Justice Patrick Baiye, the Supervising High Court judge for the Bono and Ahafo regions, were also present, with Justice Baiye chairing the training workshop.
Jonathan Osei Owusu, the Executive Director of POS Foundation, emphasized the importance of sensitizing the judiciary to the new law and its implementation.
He highlighted that the Act 1019 aims to approach drug use, possession, and dependence as public health and safety issues rather than focusing solely on law enforcement, incarceration, punishment, and repression.
Under the previous law, PNDC Law 236, individuals found guilty of possession and use of minor narcotic drugs faced a prison sentence of 10 years. However, the new law has replaced the prison term with a fine ranging between 200 and 500 penalty units, amounting to GH¢2,400 and GH¢6,000.
This significant change offers trial courts alternatives to custodial sentences, deviating from the practices of the previous regime. The implementation of the new law sets an essential example for drug policy reform advocacy in West Africa, where countries such as Kenya and Nigeria have already embraced pretrial measures to reduce prison populations.
Explaining the need for the amendment, Mr. Osei Owusu pointed out that drug policies and enforcement have resulted in more harm than reform, given the increasing prevalence of drug use and trafficking over the years despite the punitive punishments in place.
The training workshop aimed to equip judges and magistrates with the knowledge and tools to effectively handle offenses under the new act, taking into consideration the health aspects of drug abusers and providing them with appropriate rehabilitation or imposing fines.
Addressing the participants, Kenneth Adu-Amanfeh, the Director General of the Narcotics Control Commission, stressed that drug use should be viewed as a public health issue rather than a crime. He expressed relief that the new law enables judges and magistrates to prioritize human rights and public health safety.
Adu-Amanfeh emphasized that individuals with minor drug use and dependence require assistance rather than imprisonment, urging the courts to refer them to rehabilitation centers.
A welcoming response came from DDP William Kula, the Bono Regional Commander of the Ghana Prison Service, who highlighted that the new act would help decongest the prisons.
Currently, the Sunyani Prison, originally designed for 450 inmates, houses 915 individuals, resulting in overcrowding of over 100%. Notably, 31 inmates are serving sentences ranging from 15 years and below for narcotic drug use, while six others are awaiting sentencing on remand. Kula recognized the change in the new law as a step in the right direction.
In his closing remarks, Justice Patrick Baiye described the training as highly engaging and commended the organizers for their exceptional work.
Kueaa Darhok struggles to navigate the sucking mud and deep puddles on his way to the communal cooking area at the heart of the transit camp he now calls home, his faded pants bagging over the top of borrowed rubber rain boots.
South Sudanese who have fled their country and refugees from Sudan wait there while charity workers and local women spoon through steel pots of lentils and porridge under his reassuring gaze and soft-spoken assurances.
Having South Sudanese ancestry, Darhok served as the principal of an English-language secondary school in Khartoum, the country’s capital, where he instructed students in works by renowned African writers like Chinua Achebe in an effort to instill in them, in his words, a sense of ethnic pride.
After fighting broke out over two months ago in Khartoum, he and his family made the terrifying journey back to South Sudan and he has become a community elder here at the camp.
Set up a week into the fighting in Sudan, when desperate families arrived seeking shelter, the Renk transit camp near the border of South Sudan and Sudan was not supposed to hold more than 3,000 people. It now houses more than double that. There are no sanitation facilities, not enough waterproof sheets and not enough food. Not enough of anything.
“I eat once a day, sometimes not even that,” Darhok says, keeping an eye on the meal distribution. “Most of the men here are the same, so that the most vulnerable – the women and children – can eat.”
Even then, Darhok says, not all those queuing up will get food, and they’ll return to expectant families empty-handed.
The UN estimates at least 860 people have been killed since fighting erupted on April 15 between Sudan’s Armed Forces and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
With 6,000 people injured across Sudan as of June 3, half a million people have fled the country and more than 1.4 million are internally displaced.
Blighted by decades of fighting both before and after independence from the Republic of Sudan, South Sudan was already Africa’s largest refugee crisis, with 2.2 million people displaced outside the country’s borders and 2.3 million internally displaced. Now at least 800,000 South Sudanese have been driven back by the fighting in Sudan.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Renk, Charlotte Hallqvist told CNN that an average of 1,500 people have been arriving daily since the fighting began in Sudan, adding to the burden of a country where 75% of the population are in need of assistance.
Hallqvist says the UN’s emergency response was already critically underfunded, “and the new emergency is adding additional strain to already limited resources.”
To respond to the Sudan crisis in neighboring countries, the UN needs $566 million, with the South Sudan response alone in need of $96 million.
According to UNHCR figures, two months into the crisis, international donors have so far only contributed 10% of the total figure, and 15% of the overall Sudan regional emergency response.
On June 19, the United Nations, the governments of Egypt, Germany, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the European Union will convene a High-level Pledging Event to support the humanitarian response in Sudan and the region in a bid to drive up donor contributions.
For many here in Renk, it’s too late; the international community’s delayed response has already cost lives.
Malnutrition and unsanitary conditions are triggering an epidemic of communicable diseases, and every day, Darhok tells us, a little boy or girl dies.
A CNN team visiting the camp witnessed the burial of one boy, not quite two years old, who had died in the early hours of that morning from measles.
His mother and grandmother sat in shocked silence as men shoveled earth onto his grave at the local cemetery, pausing to plant a spindly wooden cross before heading back to their own tents and their own vulnerable families, carrying with them the specter of a death that could have been prevented.
In a trial that might result in a decades-long jail sentence extension, opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is now imprisoned, went before a Russian court on Monday to defend himself against new charges of extremism.
Navalny was charged in 2021 with the alleged “creation of an extremist community,” according to a report from Russian state agency TASS that year. At the time, Navalny was already serving terms totaling 11 and a half years in a high security institution.
His incarceration and arrest, according to him and his supporters, were politically driven efforts to stifle his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In comments posted to his Twitter account, Navalny said the “absurd” charges could lead to him serving a further 30 years behind bars.
Navalny, 47, dressed in black prison garb, appeared at his hearing in person in a court room at the IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, around 155 miles east of Moscow.
Journalists were not admitted to the court room, instead having to follow proceedings through a live stream with poor audio quality. Navalny’s communications team has complained about not being able to hear what is being discussed.
In comments posted on their Telegram account, Navalny’s team criticized the court for organizing a “live streaming with a monstrous sound, where the meaning of what is happening can be guessed only by isolated words, all the while calling the process open.”
Sitting at a long table with his lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Olga Mikhailova and Svetlana Davyodva, Navalny asked for his parents to be allowed into the hall. Judge Andrey Suvorov said he will consider the request later.
Navalny’s team challenged judge Andrey Suvorov, and asked him to recuse himself, according to the team’s Telegram posts. It was not immediately clear on what grounds they asked for the recusal. The judge refused the request.
His team also questioned the location of Navalny’s hearing.
“In a normal situation, a person convicted for the period of a new criminal trial is taken from the colony to a pre-trial detention center, and the hearings take place in the courtroom. But with Navalny, of course, it is more beneficial to hold a trial 250 kilometers from Moscow and 70 kilometers from the nearest large city – Vladimir,” the team said on Telegram.
Also present at the hearing is Daniel Kholodny, the former technical director of the Navalny Live YouTube channel, accused in the same extremism case.
Lilia Chanysheva, the former coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in the western Russian city of Ufa, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison last week, after being found guilty of “organizing an extremist community.”
Throughout the trial, Chanysheva maintained her innocence.
“I am engaged in ordinary public political activities, to which I have every right under the Constitution,” she said following the announcement of the verdict. “What is illegal is this justice that is happening.”
Navalny has been incarcerated in Russia since his return to the country in January 2021, on charges of violating terms of probation related to a years-old fraud case, which he dismisses as politically motivated.
He had previously been taken from Russia to Germany in August 2020, after he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny arrived comatose at a hospital in Berlin, following a medical evacuation flight from the Siberian city of Omsk.
A joint investigation by CNN and the group Bellingcat implicated the Russian Security Service (FSB) in Navalny’s poisoning, piecing together how an elite unit at the agency had followed Navalny’s team throughout a trip to Siberia, when he fell ill.
The investigation also found that this unit, which included chemical weapons experts, had followed Navalny on more than 30 trips to and from Moscow since 2017.
Russia denies involvement in Navalny’s poisoning. Putin himself said in December 2020 that if Russian security services had wanted to kill Navalny, they “would have finished” the job.
Ghanaian artist Kwabena Kwabena is of the view that, some people’s inability to establish a relationship with their fathers can be attributed to their mothers.
He explained that some mothers, most at times, compete with the fathers over the children, which ends up with the mother always being the favorite person of their children.
In an interview on Hitz FM, he shared his thoughts on how some mothers contribute to the non-existing bond between some fathers and their children.
“Believe you me, I am a father and how I feel about the children I have and how I love them, I don’t think any man hates their own children. So, if you find any man in a situation and position and it looks as if he doesn’t have a relationship with his children, or it looks as if he is not around, mostly, 90% is caused by the mothers. You are both parents so why should there be a competition?” he said.
The singer also stated that such a practice affected his relationship with his father growing up.
He shared that due to how his mother won their attention, he grew up not liking his father but he got to understand the whole concept when he became older.
“Speaking from experience, that is how I grew up. Of course, at a point, we all grew up not liking our father until I became older; until I became an adult, that is when I developed a personal relationship with my father. Not to say that my mum did something wrong, but I can only attribute it to that attention and that jealousy. And women probably don’t see the impact of these things,” he explained.
The Reverend Dr Joyce Rosalind Aryee, Executive Director of Salt and Light Ministries, has admonished health professionals to be patient with patients and serve them with love under all conditions.
That, she said, would help them to add value and preserve the lives entrusted in their care.
She was speaking at the sixth annual Methodist Health Professionals Conference, in Accra, on the theme: “Administering Saline in Healthcare”.
The Conference brought together about 460 Methodist Health Professionals to reflect on how they minister to people through their work.
It will educate them on how to accomplish their God-given assignments to heal the sick and promote healthy living in communities.
Dr Joyce Aryee, thus, urged them to exhibit high professional standards and be morally upright in their service to humanity.
Like the Saline, which is used in healthcare to replenish, cleanse devices and treat certain types of bacteria, they should be of the right balance to be effective and not harmful.
Dr Aryee expressed concern over the negative attitude of some health professionals.
She, therefore, charged them to reform and focus on being peacemakers.
Mr. Enoch Osafo, Health Director of Methodist Church Ghana, said the Conference was to encourage health professionals to be ethical and cater for their patients with compassion and uphold their dignity.
It is part of the Church’s mission to disciple all men while preparing health professionals to provide the utmost quality care to patients.
The Conference will also discuss how to use the Methodist Health Sunday to reflect on God’s promise to be in good health and prosper and educate church members to lead healthy lifestyles.
“This Conference will educate the professionals on patients’ rights and data protection in the public space, and keep patients’ information professionally, ” he added.
It was important for health professionals to honour their responsibilities under the Patients Charter of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), he emphasised.
According to the Charter, patients have the right to know the identity of all their caregivers and other persons who may handle them at the health facility.
The patient also has the right to privacy during consultation, examination and treatment.
Consequently, when it becomes necessary to use a patient’s case for teaching, his/her consent must be sought.
On the other hand, patients are responsible for providing their full and accurate medical history to aid in diagnosis, treatment and counselling purposes.
It is also their responsibility to request additional information and clarification regarding their health or treatment, which they may not have been well understood.
Actor LilWin from Kumawood has spoken out about a trying time in his life and admitted that he was to blame for his mother’s decline.
During his appearance on UTV’s United Showbiz, the actor shared that he had fallen seriously ill for five years, and throughout that challenging period, his devoted mother exhausted all her resources to ensure his well-being and recovery.
Recounting the ordeal, he disclosed, “I caused my mother’s downfall. I was ill for five years a few years ago. I was admitted at Gee (Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital), where I sometimes received fifteen (15) to twenty (20) injections a day. My mother has truly suffered for me.”
The actor expressed deep gratitude for his mother’s unwavering love and care during his illness.
He pledged never to disappoint her, which explains why he holds his mother in the highest regard and lavishes her with gifts to the best of his abilities.
Lil Win shared further insights into his commitment to his mother, stating, “When I built my first house, my mother was 72 years old. I gave her the house and lived in a rented apartment… When my mother turned 77 years, I bought her a car.”
These gestures serve as tangible expressions of his immense appreciation for her sacrifices and reflect his determination to provide her with a comfortable and fulfilling life.
Member of Parliament for Zebilla Constituency, Cletus Avoka, has called on Ghanaians to as a matter of priority unite and work collectively to consolidate the gains made under the fourth republican Constitutional democracy.
He said Parliament was proud of the journey and successes achieved under the 1992 Constitution which had strengthened the country’s unity in diversity and political stability and Ghanaians should not take such opportunities for granted.
“Democracy is expensive, but dictatorship is worse,” he said, adding “do not take our democracy and peace for granted, we have to work hard to sustain our democracy and peace because a divided country is a fallen nation”.
Mr Avoka, who is also a former Majority Leader, made these remarks when he led MPs and other stakeholders in a Parliamentary peace walk in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.
The peace walk, coupled with other sporting activities, is under the auspices of Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, as part of activities marking the 30th Anniversary of Constitutional Democracy under the Fourth Republic.
It is being held on the theme: “30 years of Parliamentary democracy under the Fourth Republic: the journey thus far.”
Mr Avoka said Ghana, after its Independence in 1957, had three Constitutions before the 1992 Constitution, under Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia and Dr Hilla Limann, but they were all short-lived.
He said the 1992 constitution which gave birth to the Fourth Republic had stood the test of time and attributed the successes to the framers of the Constitution who took into consideration the views of all stakeholders at the grassroots.
He said it was imperative to sensitise Ghanaians to participate in governance to strengthen the stable democracy for sustainable socio-economic development and preservation of the Constitution.
The MP indicated that the calls for some portions of the 1992 Constitution to be amended to fight ills in governance and society in general is apt, however, it would only yield desired results when Ghanaians change their attitudes.
“At the end of the day, it is not the type of Constitution that we run that matters but it is how we manage the Constitution that matters because you cannot put everything in the Constitution.
“The American Constitution is about 20 pages; the British do not have a written Constitution and we got our Constitution and Independence from them. You can draw any Constitution, but the people can still be corrupt, extorting people, so, it is about our attitude, mentality, common sense, practicalities and ensuring good governance,” he stressed.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, said democracy was all about understanding the diversity that existed among people and harnessing such diversities for their growth and development.
He said, particularly, stakeholders in the Upper East Region needed to work together despite their political and tribal affiliations to restore peace in conflict areas to enhance economic growth.
“Definitely there would be problems because we are humans but anytime those problems come, we should sit down and talk about it and solve it instead of running to pick a gun to solve the problem,” he appealed.
Some dignitaries who joined in the peace walk included, Mr Isaac Adongo, MP for Bolgatanga Central, Dr Kurt Nawane, MP for Nabdam, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, MP for Bolgatanga East, Ms Lydia Akanvariba, MP for Tempane, Mr Albert Akuka Alalzuuga, MP for Garu, Mr and Thomas Adda Dalu, MP for Chiana-Paga.
Others are Mr John Tia Kolgo, former MP for Talensi, Mr Gaaga Azitariga, former MP for Bongo, some Municipal and District Chief Executives, state institutions, students, and people from all walks of life.
The topic of how some Ghanaian film producers ‘jeopardised’ and ended the careers of some actors came up in the middle of the discussion on United Showbiz.
The career of people like Yvonne Nelson, Agya Koo, and others, who had been successful in the past, was apparently squashed at a series of meetings that took place a few years ago for an unknown reason.
This was after Big Akwes disclosed how Agya Koo’s building project was put on hold for years because he couldn’t afford to fund it after he was blacklisted by the producers.
“They had a meeting. Ola sitting here is part of them. They took him off the screens and because of that, he wasn’t able to complete the project in 2016. So Agya Koo’s mansion wasn’t completed with proceeds from acting. Acting helped him establish the foundation, but he finished the project with NPP money,” he fumed.
Ola Michaels, one of the members of FIPAG, the organization of film producers, responsible for the act, confirmed Big Akwes’ claims while stating reasons for taking the actors off screens.
In Yvonne Nelson’s case, he established that she had a bad attitude on set, adding that ‘dropping her’ was simply to teach her a lesson.
“Her conduct on set was bad. I didn’t like her attitude on set. She does what she likes, she comes on set whenever she likes among other things. It’s been long so I don’t remember,” Ola Michael confirmed.
Touching on Agya Koo’s part, Ola said, the Kumawood actor at that time proliferated the screens, hence the decision to take him off was to put an end to the monopoly and pave the way for new actors.
“He was taking over the whole of Ghana. Why? So, the idea was to groom other actors to replace him. The idea was to bring others on board so they can also shine. We wanted to push others so that it won’t be just about one person.
“What if he gets tired or something happens and he cannot work? Then it means the industry will collapse. What wrong did we do? Isn’t that what helped LilWin? Isn’t that what helped Akrobeto? We started giving all these people lead characters,” Ola stressed
Previously discovered to be alive in a coffin during her own wake, the woman from Ecuador has since gone away.
Gilbert Barberán, the woman’s son, reports that Bella Montoya, 76, passed away on Friday after being hospitalised for a week in critical care in the seaside city of Babahoyo.
When Montoya was discovered alive after beating on her own coffin at the wake in Babahoyo, she was swiftly sent to the Martin Icaza General Hospital.
“During her hospital stay, she received comprehensive medical care and periodic evaluation by hospital specialists. Likewise, the respective medical audit was carried out for this case,” Ecuador’s Ministry of Public Health said in a statement.
Montoya initially entered the hospital for a stroke and was reported dead once before.
Barberán told CNN that he has to register his mother’s death on the civil registry for a second time.
Montoya’s daughter, Zeneida Leal, said her mother’s condition had been worsening.
“The doctor said that my mom was sick, that she was very delicate, that she was suffering from kidney failure, that she couldn’t be saved because everything was getting complicated and she went into respiratory arrest,” Leal told CNN.
The Ministry of Public Health has said an investigation is underway into the events leading up to her presumed death.
Following Yvonne Nelson‘s chilling exposé of her past relationship with Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie, Twitter has been a hive of activity.
Parts of Yvonne Nelson’s book disclosed a point in her life when the rapper impregnated her and refused to accept responsibility, a situation that compelled her to abort the baby.
A chapter in Yvonne Nelson’s book titled ‘Abortion’, threw focuses on the development that occurred in 2010,
“I had gone for a pregnancy test to confirm what becomes the most obvious conclusion for a sexually active young woman who misses her monthly flow. I was in the company of Karen. And when the test result was ready, I wasn’t strong enough to open it. She did and declared the verdict.
“On an ordinary day, I would have laughed out loud and that would trigger a string of jolly conversations and jokes. But this was no laughing matter. It was a grim piece of information that was capable of turning my world upside down. I wasn’t the only one responsible for the situation, so I called the man whose potent seed had germinated in me. His name is Michael Owusu Addo, a renowned Ghanaian musician who is better known as Sarkodie.”
However, the issue has been received with shock and excitement as netizens have since been sharing interesting reactions to it.
Others are lambasting the actress for bringing up the issue now that Sarkodie is happily married.
At a demonstration against an LGBTQ festival, local authorities led by the mayor got into a physical altercation with the police in the South Korean city of Daegu on Saturday.
The Daegu Queer Culture Festival was opposed by groups including Christian organisations, and the police had already given permission for it to happen.
They have the support of Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, who earlier this month asserted that the event might “instill the wrong sexual culture in teenagers.”
The injunction was rejected by the court, and the parade – an annual event first held in 2009 – was allowed to continue, prompting Hong and other critics to argue instead that it posed too much of a traffic disruption. Police had warned last week that the area would see heavy congestion due to the parade, and that it would deploy personnel to help manage the traffic.
Tensions came to a head on Saturday when local government officials gathered to protest at the festival site. A video posted by the event organizers shows festival vehicles stuck on the road, unable to enter due to the protesters.
Photos show large numbers of police arriving to disperse the protesters, pushing through the crowd with shields and interlocking arms to form a human barrier.
South Korean news agency Yonhap estimated that about 500 protesters and 1,500 police officers were at the scene. The festival ultimately continued, with the parade taking place as planned.
Afterward, Hong lambasted the police on social media, accusing them of “injuring our public officials for the sake of the queer festival.” He also said that he would hold the police chief accountable, saying the festival had been held “illegally” because the city government had not given permission for organizers to occupy the road.
In a scathing response, police said the festival was a “legal assembly” with the right to use public roads, since the court had rejected all injunction requests by the opposition. It pointed out that the festival had been safely held without incident for the past 14 years, that police were simply carrying out their duty of providing protection, and urged the mayor to “stop rambling.”
Under South Korean law, organizers of assemblies and demonstrations only need to submit details to local police, such as the estimated number of attendees, to obtain permission. Police may ban an event if it causes “serious inconvenience to traffic” – but this was challenged in 2015 when a Seoul court overturned a police ban on a pride parade, ruling that it should only be banned if there is a “clear direct threat” to public peace and safety.
The Daegu police appeared to point to this case in their statement on Saturday, which referred to “court precedents” on legal assemblies.
Hong, the Daegu mayor, has previously made headlines for anti-LGBTQ statements, such as claiming that gay men would weaken the South Korean military, according to local media.
Homophobia is rife in South Korea, where there is no comprehensive anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBTQ people. South Korea does not legally recognize same-sex marriage, and is less accepting of gay couples compared to nearby democracies like Japan and Taiwan.
Every year, opponents and religious groups often show up outside the country’s biggest pride festival, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival, to blast anti-LGBTQ slogans through loudspeakers.
For years, the festival has been held in a grassy square in Seoul’s city center – but this year the city government rejected its application to use the venue, instead granting permission for a Christian youth concert, which festival organizers criticized as discriminatory.
The festival is set to go ahead on July 1 in Seoul’s busy Euljiro area instead.
In light of the country’s worrying glacier melt, Swiss voters have passed a new law to decrease the use of fossil fuels and drastically slash levels of pollution that heats the earth.
The nation must achieve net zero – where it would remove from the atmosphere at least as much pollution that contributes to global warming as it emits – by 2050, according to the law, which received just over 59% of the vote in a referendum held on Sunday.
With no domestic oil or gas resources, Switzerland now imports about three-quarters of its energy.
“These fossil fuels will not be available indefinitely and they place a heavy burden on the climate,” a statement on the Swiss government website said Sunday. The government said it wants to reduce the use of oil and gas while increasing energy produced within Switzerland.
The new bill includes measures to lower energy consumption and support companies to use more climate-friendly technology.
Switzerland intends to invest 2 billion francs ($2.24 billion) into helping people to replace home heating systems run on fossil fuels with those run on renewables, and 1.2 billion francs ($1.34 billion) for businesses to green their technology, André Simonazzi, a Swiss government spokesperson, posted on Twitter.
Switzerland, a country of 8.7 million people, has a system of direct democracy, which allows citizens to trigger a nationwide referendum on proposals that gain more than 100,000 signatures.
A climate law was first introduced back in 2021, including measures to increase taxes on activities that produce high levels of planet-heating pollution, such as flying and driving gas-powered cars. But it was rejected by voters.
This current climate bill was proposed as a response to the Glacier Initiative, set up by the Swiss Association for Climate Protection, which pushed for an end to fossil fuels in order to save the country’s glaciers.
“This law now brings our country on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050 even though there’s still a long way to go until these changes are fully implemented,” said Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich and who was a member of the Glacier Initiative’s scientific advisory board
The record run of recent climate extremes in Switzerland, and worldwide, “seems to have convinced many citizens that climate change is no longer something looming on the horizon but it’s already here, and everybody is touched by it,” Huss told CNN.
Switzerland has been increasingly feeling the impacts of the climate crisis. The country lost 6% of its glacier volume between 2021 and 2022, according to a recent World Meteorological Organization analysis.
Emergency services were called to Dawley’s Telford Langley School[/caption]
