Africa’s leading music streaming platform,Audiomack, has announced a significant upgrade to The Creator app.
The latest update features a revolutionary tool called the ‘Promote Tab,’ which empowers artists with free, user-friendly assets to support their creative journey and enhance music distribution.
This landmark platform aims to empower artists by providing them with the ability to upload music, analyse streaming data, promote content, and receive direct payments.
Initially launched in 2022, the Creator app is part of Audiomack’s unwavering commitment to promoting the growth of music distribution and consumption across the continent.
With the introduction of the Promote tab, artists can now receive earned trophies, providing them with a treasury of shareable assets to market their music.
These assets enable artists to attract fans’ attention and increase plays for new releases without the need for any design work.
Artists can also easily save, share, and copy links for their releases and profiles, as well as get embed codes.
The Promote tab has received over 187,000 sharing actions since its launch in mid-February, with 53% from copying links and 26% from sharing trophies.
Since its launch, the Creator app by Audiomack has achieved remarkable success with over one million app installations and 1.7 million uploads, thereby ranking as a top 10 iOS music app in Nigeria.
In addition, there has been a significant 31% increase in weekly direct uploads, with a range of 65,000 to 75,000 uploads every week.
As of March 2023, the app has experienced a 65% surge in Creator uploads and a 61% growth in unique uploaders.
Furthermore, about 40% of Creator app users share or upload a song each month, and 86% of users who initiate an upload complete it within seven days.
Speaking on the latest feature of the Creator’s app, Charlie Kaplan, Vice President of Product, Audiomack stated, “As technology advances, the needs of our base of young, international artists are constantly evolving.
“With the launch of the Creator app, we aim to empower these artists who increasingly create and store their music on their phones. Our goal is to provide world-class mobile tools to help them build audiences and careers in music.”
“The app leverages Audiomack’s unique strengths, such as direct upload and unlimited free storage, to support artists throughout all stages of their career lifecycle.
“With its ad-tier playback, in-depth analytics, and no-fee monetisation features, the Creator app is designed to be an all-in-one platform for artists to generate revenue and grow their audience,” Charlie added.
Audiomack is dedicated to empowering artists by relieving them of technical concerns and allowing them to focus on creating exceptional music.
With The Creator app, the platform is set to take African music to even greater heights, providing artists with the tools they need to succeed and promoting the growth of music in Africa.
This approach has made Audiomack a dependable partner for artists, assisting them in accomplishing their objectives and sharing their narratives with their fans.
Corrine Foxx, daughter of famous actor, Jamie Foxx, recently shared that her father has been out of the hospital for weeks. The actress revealed this in response to a media report that said that her father’s loved ones were preparing for the worst, according to the BBC.
Foxx has recently been in the headlines due to the mysterious illness that caused him to be taken to a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The cause of the actor’s illness has still not been disclosed to the public since his daughter posted about his hospitalization on April 12.
In a recent Instagram post, Corrine shared that the comedian has been out of the hospital for weeks and even recently played some pickleball. However, she did not share the date he was released.
She posted, “Update from the family: Sad to see how the media runs wild. My dad has been out of the hospital for weeks, recuperating. In fact, he was playing pickleball yesterday! Thanks for everyone’s prayers and support,” NBC News reported.
Corinne also announced, “We have an exciting work announcement coming next week too!”
Jamie Foxx was shooting his Netflix movie, “Back in Action” with co-star, Cameron Diaz, before he suddenly fell ill. People Magazine reports that Foxx’s medical emergency did not happen on set, and neither was he taken to the hospital in an emergency vehicle.
However, a Netflix source shared with The Hollywood Reporter that the movie remained in production and was set to wrap up filming on schedule.
As Face2Face Africa reported earlier, Foxx’s show, Beat Shazam, which he hosts together with Corrine – the show’s DJ, was passed on to Nick Cannon and Kelly Osbourne while he recovers.
Meanwhile, some Hollywood big names like Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Ellen DeGeneres, and Halle Berry among others, shared their thoughts and support for the star. The 55-year-old actor also surfaced two weeks ago on Instagram to thank his fans and well-wishers for their love.
Foxx has starred in many famous movies, including recent blockbusters like Day Shift, Project Power, Baby Driver, and the 2014 remake of Annie, in which he co-starred Cameron Diaz.
Imagine residing in a community that might literally vanish off the face of the planet at any moment.
The inhabitants of a gorgeous Swiss hamlet are currently in a terrible position that sounds like something out of a far-fetched catastrophe film.
Pictures of charming Swiss villages often resemble Brienz because of its picturesque surroundings, vivid blue lake, and high mountains in the distance.
But it’s those very mountains that have this entire village on the brink of annihilation.
Two million cubic metres of rock is coming loose from the mountain it sits under and an imminent monster rockslide could completely obliterate the tiny village any day now.
Every single one of the 84 residents have now been evacuated from Brienz, which sits in the eastern canton of Graubunden and is known for its dramatic Alpine scenery.
Swiss authorities ordered people to get out by Friday last week over fears it could soon be buried beneath the collapsing mountainside.
Alpine rock looming over Brienz could continue to break even further loose and spill down in coming weeks (Picture: AP)Village dairy farmer Giorgin Bonifazi says rocks bouncing down the side of the mountain sounded ‘like a train’ (Picture: AP)
The last man to leave was dairy farmer Giorgin Bonifazi who has been forced to move into his mother in law’s house with his wife Annette, and their 15-year-old daughter, while his 32 cows have been temporarily housed at a communal barn.
His flock of sheep have been left to fend for themselves in the fields around Brienz while the father-of-four and the rest of the community pray from afar for the mountain to crumble slowly to limit damage.
Giorgin, who has lived in Brienz his whole life, said: ‘The destructive power that the mountain could bring is terrifying to think about and so we have taken the advice of the authorities and left – only a madman would stay.
‘At night you could hear the rocks bouncing down the side of the mountain, they sounded like a train but after a while you got used to them but not this time.’
Danger zones have been blocked off after huge rocks started falling down into the village (Picture: AP)
He said the rocks have started tumbling down more frequently and in larger quantities and that some have even landed in the field at the back of his house.
He told MailOnline: ‘If the mountain gives and the rockface comes down it will come through like an avalanche and destroy everything.
‘The problem is no one knows when we will be able to go back, it’s just a question of waiting and watching and hoping that when it does come down the village is spared.’
The rumble of shifting ground, the sporadic crackle of rocks colliding, and the remains of dead trees and dirt sliding down the mountain facade last week brought an eerie sense of impending potential catastrophe.
The massive crumbling mountain dauntingly towers over the little hamlet (Picture: EPA)Locals have all been forced to evacuate the village – not knowing if their homes will be there in a few weeks (Picture: EPA)
Farm workers could be seen loading cows onto a truck and heading out of the deserted village last week in anticipation of the mountain collapse as locals were urged to leave by 6pm on May 12.
Areas have been cordoned off with yellow warning signs in five languages that read: ‘Attention rockfall.’
A strict exclusion zone around Brienz is being manned by police and civil protection units with roadblocks in place.
Switzerland’s Federal Office for Civil Aviation has also issued a no-fly zone order over the area as part of the safety operation.
Roadblocks are in place stopping anyone from entering the village (Picture: EPA)
Geology experts say the rockslide has the potential to power through at more than 120 mph wiping out everything in its path.
Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board of Albula, said: ‘We expect it to fall towards the village within the next few days or weeks.
‘The rock can come down in sections, which would be the most favourable solution.
‘It can also fall all at once, which would be disastrous for the village.’
Village mayor, Daniel Albertin, admitted getting everyone and everything out of Brienz has not been easy. He said: ‘This is a huge task for the entire community.’
Climate change is putting Switzerland at increased risk of natural hazards, including an increase in erosion due to higher temperatures, Swiss authorities say.
The extent of the damage that could fall upon Brienz remains to be seen and its future lies firmly in nature’s hand.
Elsewhere, a man who lives in ‘Britain’s Chernobyl’ says he will not leave despite it being earmarked for demolition.
Following reports that the social media influencer had been extradited to the US for an alleged romance scam, Ghanaian media personality Kwame A Plus criticized Hajia4Reall.
Mona Faiz Montrage, better known as Hajia4Reall or Mona4Reall allegedly swindled over $2 million from older, single American men and women in a twisted lonely-hearts scam and reports of her extradition went rife on May 15, 2023.
Since then, many Ghanaians have been sharing their views on the matter with some digging up for her old interviews where she spoke about her wealth and lavish lifestyle as well as encouraging young women to be diligent in order to make money, enjoy life and avoid being accused of surviving on money from men.
“Don’t forget to pray. No matter what you do, put your prayers first, work hard. Ladies, work hard, be determined and focused so that they won’t come and say you’re spending any man’s money; so that no man can sit on your happiness as well,” one of the videos in circulation captured her saying.
Sharing the same video clip on social media, A Plus, without mincing words said young women have been deceived for a long period of time.
He wrote in the Twi language: “Mo daadaa young girls no saa. Mo triso!” To wit, “You’ve always been deceiving the young girls. Nonsense”.
The rest of A Plus’s post, mostly typed in the English language sought to urge people to live within their means and not be swayed by anybody.
“My ladies, don’t ever look down on yourself. Don’t live by the standards of people who don’t know where they go when they sleep. Don’t let anyone give you pressure. You may not be rich, but you see how you are drosslessly stretching peacefully in your bed right now, and the police is not looking for you?… You are a blessing. Thank God, and keep on keeping on. Better days will locate you,” A Plus noted as he ended his submission on Hajia4Reall.
New York Post reported that Mona4Reall appeared in the Manhattan Federal Court for her alleged involvement in a series of schemes that targeted vulnerable people who lived alone.
According to court documents, she was involved with a group of con artists from West Africa from at least 2013 through 2019. The scammers would trick victims into transferring money to them under false pretences, such as to help move gold to the US from overseas, to resolve bogus FBI investigations, and to help fake US Army officers in Afghanistan.
Mona4Reall, in one case, allegedly duped a victim into sending her $89,000 through 82 wire transfers on the pretext of helping her father’s farm in Ghana, the court documents claim.
Meanwhile, New York Post’s report also stated that the socialite pleaded not guilty to the charges and is set to be released in the coming days on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor.
Dancehall musician, Shatta Wale, has disclosed why he discontinued his GOG album.
Fans have since been looking forward to the release of that particular album after it was announced in 2022.
However, Shatta Wale, said after working on the project for the past three years, he has been compelled to squash it.
In a new twist to events, Shatta, who has been suffering trolls on social media over the album’s delay said the project was saddled with some challenges.
Recounting the said challenges in a viral audio from a Twitter space, the Shatta Movement boss said his inability to secure some international collaborations killed his zeal to pull through.
“I couldn’t get some of the features and that was a problem. I was trying my possible best and that is why I’m saying when White people come and exploit us, that’s what the table looks like.
“For Instance, when Beyoncé wanted to feature me, I swear to God I didn’t want to continue that process again. You know why? Because a Ghanaian was coordinating for that thing and it went all wrong. Beyonce and her team actually wanted me to fly from Ghana with the crew.”
“Ghanaians with their pressure forced me to feature Beyoncé, now I’m getting problems, now the same Ghanaian can’t even get me that feature and that was the thing that got me pissed with the whole album,” he said.
Recalling another factor, Shatta asserted that his songs were leaked after trusting some Ghanaian distributors with it.
“I got some distributors to also get me a deal in Nigeria and everything was going on properly. They were supposed to give me a paper to sign so that they can give me an amount of money to shoot my videos and TG Omori was supposed to shoot my videos.”
“I don’t know what happened but I gave them a list to just test them on how they can keep my songs and I just wanted to see what will happen but they just leaked those ones which means, the person that connected me to those Nigerians and stuff did it. That person is in Ghana and as I’m talking to you now, his house papers I have them. Me I don’t play like that and I told him that I don’t want to go to court,” He added.
On March 30, Shatta Wale compensated fans with a different album titled M.A.A.L.I
The 10-track album featured top Jamaican musician, Vybz Kartel.
A report by the World Meteorological Organisation, a combination of heat-trapping gases from fossil fuels and an impending El Nio make it more likely than not that the world will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels for the first time.
According to the WMO, a momentary threshold breach may have occurred. However, it would be a sign of how swiftly climate change is happening and that the globe has passed a crucial climate threshold. And as temperatures soar, the WMO projected that there is a 98% chance that at least one of the following five years and the five-year span as a whole would be the warmest on record.
Countries pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees – and preferably to 1.5 degrees – compared to pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists consider 1.5 degrees of warming as a key tipping point, beyond which the chances of extreme flooding, drought, wildfires and food shortages could increase dramatically.
In its annual climate update, the WMO said that between 2023 and 2027, there is now a 66% chance that the global average temperature will breach 1.5 degrees Celsius – or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit – of warming for at least one year.
“This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius level specified in the Paris Agreement which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency,” said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas, in a statement.
The temperature increases are fueled by the rise of planet-heating pollution from burning fossil fuels, as well as the predicted arrival of El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon with a global heating effect.
“A warming El Niño is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” Taalas said. “This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared.”
The current hottest year on record is 2016, which followed a very strong El Niño event. El Niño tends to ramp up the temperatures the year after it develops, which could put 2024 on track to be the hottest year on record.
The world has already seen around 1.2 degrees of warming, as humans continue to burn fossil fuels and produce planet-heating pollution. And despite three years of cooling La Niña, temperatures have soared to dangerous levels. The last eight years were the warmest on record.
The report stated that the chance of temporarily exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius has risen steadily since 2015, when the WMO put the chance of breaching this threshold at close to zero.
The annual mean global near-surface temperature for each year between 2023 and 2027 is predicted to be between 1.1 degrees Celsius and 1.8 degree Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 average, said the WMO. That refers to the period before the sharp increase of planet-heating pollution from burning fossil fuels.
“Global mean temperatures are predicted to continue increasing, moving us away further and further away from the climate we are used to,” said Leon Hermanson, a Met Office expert scientist who led the report, in a statement.
Ghanaian singer, Efya, has expressed her desire to set a world record for the longest song ever.
This follows Hilda Baci’s feat of breaking the Guinness World Record for the “longest cooking marathon”.
The Nigerian chef reached a 100-hour mark surpassing the record previously held by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef who achieved the feat in 2019.
Netizens online, particularly Nigerians, have since not kept calm over the development which has triggered discussions worldwide.
However, Efya, believes she could also set a world record for Ghana, but through singing.
“If I can break a record, it will be for the longest song. Sometimes you can do the longest song recorded. I don’t have to be on my feet singing continuously. I could sing for a couple of days; I could hold a note for long. These dirges we have in Ghana are an example, we have 15 minutes of such songs. I could sing for 30 hours if I want to break the record. Hilda recorded 100 hours because she was cooking,” she told Abeiku Santana.
The Ghanaian neo-soul singer said the only challenge, perhaps, is she might not be allowed to recruit other people to participate in it.
“The challenge is that you might have to be the only one to sing. Maybe we might not be allowed to tag other people in it, because it will seem easy and another country can beat us easily over it,” she added.
The world’s most famous shipwreck has been revealed as never seen before.
The first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, which lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, has been created using deep-sea mapping.
It provides a unique 3D view of the entire ship, enabling it to be seen as if the water has been drained away.
The hope is that this will shed new light on exactly what happened to the liner, which sank in 1912.
More than 1,500 people died when the ship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
“There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship,” Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst, told BBC News.
He said the model was “one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research – and not speculation.”
[Image source, Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The bow of the Titanic is still instantly recognisable even after so long underwater
The Titanic has been extensively explored since the wreck was discovered in 1985. But it’s so huge that in the gloom of the deep, cameras can only ever show us tantalizing snapshots of the decaying ship – never the whole thing.
The new scan captures the wreck in its entirety, revealing a complete view of the Titanic. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 800m (2,600ft). A huge debris field surrounds the broken vessel.
The scan was carried out in summer 2022 by Magellan Ltd, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, who are making a documentary about the project.
Submersibles, remotely controlled by a team on board a specialist ship, spent more than 200 hours surveying the length and breadth of the wreck.
They took more than 700,000 images from every angle, creating an exact 3D reconstruction.
The scan is made up from 700,000 images captured by submersiblesThe large hole to the right of the boat deck opens over where the grand staircase once stood
Magellan’s Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, said it was the largest underwater scanning project he’d ever undertaken.
“The depth of it, almost 4,000m, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too – and we’re not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck,” he explained.
“And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimetre – even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects.”
The scan shows both the scale of the ship, as well as some minute details, such as the serial number on one of the propellers.
[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The stern, which has separated from the bow, is a chaotic tangle of steel[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The stern corkscrewed into the seabed as it plunged into the depths
The bow, now covered in stalactites of rust, is still instantly recognisable even 100 years after the ship was lost. Sitting on top is the boat deck, where a gaping hole provides a glimpse into a void where the grand staircase once stood.
The stern though, is a chaotic mess of metal. This part of the ship collapsed as it corkscrewed into the sea floor.
In the surrounding debris field, items are scattered, including ornate metalwork from the ship, statues and unopened champagne bottles. There are also personal possessions, including dozens of shoes resting on the sediment.
[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] Extraordinary detail can be seen of the ship[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The serial number on a propeller can be made out
Parks Stephenson, who has studied the Titanic for many years, said he was “blown away” when he first saw the scans.
“It allows you to see the wreck as you can never see it from a submersible, and you can see the wreck in its entirety, you can see it in context and perspective. And what it’s showing you now is the true state of the wreck.”
He said that studying the scans could offer new insight into what happened to the Titanic on that fateful night of 1912.
“We really don’t understand the character of the collision with the iceberg. We don’t even know if she hit it along the starboard side, as is shown in all the movies – she might have grounded on the iceberg,” he explained.
[Atlantic Productions/Magellan] The hope is that the scan could reveal more about what happened on the night the Titanic was lost
Studying the stern, he added, could reveal the mechanics of how the ship struck the sea floor.
The sea is taking its toll on the wreck, microbes are eating away at it and parts are disintegrating. Historians are well aware that time is running out to fully understand the maritime disaster.
But the scan now freezes the wreck in time, and will allow experts to pore over every tiny detail. The hope is the Titanic may yet give up its secrets.
In Malawi’s Nsanje area, a hippo attack caused a boat carrying more than 30 villagers across the Shire River to capsize, killing one toddler on board, according to police.
Per police spokesman, Agnes Zalakoma, the event occurred early on Monday, leaving 23 of the boat’s 37 occupants missing and presumed dead in the crocodile- and hippos-infested sea.
In a statement released on Monday, Zalakoma noted that the deceased child was just one year old and said that “well-wishers managed to rescue 13 people while 23 others went missing and the dead body of the toddler has been found.”
Rescuers are continuing searching for the missing persons, Zalakoma’s statement added.
Zalakoma told CNN Tuesday that it was dangerous to cross the river and accidents are common.
“It is too dangerous because it (the river) is too shallow and in this river there are crocodiles that most of the time attack people and also hippopotamus that cause incidents like the one we’re dealing with,” Zalakoma said.
According to a lawmaker for the Nsanje district, Gladys Ganda, the villagers were crossing the Shire River to get to their farms at the Malawian border with Mozambique when their boat was hit by a hippo.
Hippos are one of the world’s most dangerous animals, and they can snap a canoe in half with their strong jaws, according to National Geographic.
They are found naturally in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in east and southern Africa.
Hippo attacks are also common in sub-Saharan Africa. In December, a two-year-old Ugandan boy was attacked by a hippo which swallowed half of his body before spitting him out, Uganda’s police said.
Rescuers are continuing searching for the missing persons, Zalakoma’s statement added.
Zalakoma told CNN Tuesday that it was dangerous to cross the river and accidents are common.
“It is too dangerous because it (the river) is too shallow and in this river there are crocodiles that most of the time attack people and also hippopotamus that cause incidents like the one we’re dealing with,” Zalakoma said.
According to a lawmaker for the Nsanje district, Gladys Ganda, the villagers were crossing the Shire River to get to their farms at the Malawian border with Mozambique when their boat was hit by a hippo.
Hippos are one of the world’s most dangerous animals, and they can snap a canoe in half with their strong jaws, according to National Geographic.
They are found naturally in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, especially in east and southern Africa.
Hippo attacks are also common in sub-Saharan Africa. In December, a two-year-old Ugandan boy was attacked by a hippo which swallowed half of his body before spitting him out, Uganda’s police said.
With Hilda Baci’s remarkable achievement of cooking for 100 hours and 40 minutes, many people want to make history and are considering breaking records.
However, some world records are virtually difficult to break, here are five of the most difficult records to break you shouldn’t even try.
1. Most roof tiles broken in one minute with bare hands
Can you imagine breaking roof tiles with your bare hands? Well, someone has done that. On the set of “Lo Show dei Record” in Italy on July 11, 2014, taekwondo expert, Lisa Dennis broke 923 roof tiles in one minute with just her bare hands.
2. Most bees on a human body
Did you know that Ruan Liangming, a man from China, currently holds the world record for wearing the thickest bee suit? It’s quite an impressive feat! There were about 637,000 bees on his body, and they weighed together about 140 pounds. Thankfully, Guinness does not recognise dangerous stunts like this.
3. Most cockroaches eaten by a human
An Englishman by the name of Ken Edwards made an appearance on The Big Breakfast TV show on March 5th, 2001, where he astounded viewers by devouring a record-breaking 36 cockroaches in just one minute. It’s hard to imagine anyone having the stomach for such a feat but Edwards proven himself to be quite the insect connoisseur!
4. The heaviest aircraft that a person has ever pulled
Kevin Fast set the record for the heaviest vehicle to be carried over at a height of 100 feet on September 15, 2008. The airplane weighed over 57,243 Kg. This sounds like a real-life Hulk.
5. Most metal is eaten by a human
Michel Lotito, a man from Grenoble, France, was known for eating items that are typically not thought of as edible as televisions, bicycles, and even a whole aeroplane. Lotito, who reportedly consumed approximately nine tons of metal by 1997, suffered from a disease that made him eat things other than food. Lotito died from natural causes and not metal eating as you would expect.
Ghanaian musician, Kuami Eugene, has made waves on social media after he challenged his lookalike to match his new hairstyle.
In a video posted on his Instagram account two days ago, Kuami Eugene playfully taunted his doppelgänger, questioning what he would do about his changed hairstyle.
The challenge garnered attention and left fans eagerly anticipating the response.
On May 17, 2023, the much-anticipated response arrived with Kuami Eugene’s lookalike, who goes by the name Steve Quamz, posting a video on TikTok, showcasing his newly styled hair, which is identical to the musician’s.
In the video, the lookalike confidently responds to the challenge, saying, “Kuami, what are you saying? You threw a challenge, and I have done it for you.”
The video quickly gained traction on various social media platforms, with fans praising the look-alike’s attention to detail in recreating Kuami Eugene‘s signature hairstyle.
Many viewers have also shared their thoughts on the challenge, claiming they find it hilarious given the striking resemblance between the two individuals and commending the lookalike’s commitment to embracing the challenge.
As reported by local authorities, there have been at least eight fatalities as a result of severe flooding and mudslides in the Emilia Romagna area of northern Italy, forcing more than 5,000 residents to leave.
According to Reuters, the vice president of Emilia Romagna, Irene Priolo, told reporters that the remains had been found in several different areas and added that although the rain was letting up, river levels were still rising.
The area, which has been experiencing a protracted drought, is under a red alert, which is the highest level of warning or emergency for weather-related deaths. The location has been evacuated and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, scheduled for this weekend, has been cancelled.
Fourteen rivers burst their banks in the region, forcing people in cities such as Cesena to climb onto the roof of their buildings to escape incoming water, Reuters reported. Firefighters rescued them with helicopters or rubber dinghies.
A total of 600 firefighters have been deployed from across Italy to assist with evacuations in the region after Italy’s longest river, the Po, broke its banks,” the Italian Department for Civil Protection said in a tweet.
Residents in numerous areas across the region, including in the city of Bologna, were asked not to leave their homes.
The city of Ravenna has also been heavily affected. “It’s probably been the worst night in the history of Romagna,” Ravenna Mayor Michele de Pascale told RAI public radio according to Reuters, saying that 5,000 people had been evacuated from his city alone overnight.
“Ravenna is unrecognizable for the damage it has suffered,” he added.
Tweeting on Tuesday evening, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni extended her “total sympathy” to those affected by the flooding, adding that the government stands “ready to intervene with the necessary aid.”
This pledge was echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying that the “government will do everything necessary to help” everyone from “evacuees to those who have lost crops” due to the flooding.
In the neighboring eastern region of Le Marche, also severely hit by flooding, 200 firefighters have been mobilized for rescue efforts in the past 24 hours, according to the Vigili del Fuoco fire service.
The torrential rains come after months of drought that dried out the land – which meteorologists say has reduced its capacity to absorb water, worsening the floods, according to Reuters.
Water levels on northern Italy’s Lake Garda fell to record lows in February, with Venice experiencing unusually low tides.
From lengthy droughts to severe flooding, the intensity of water-related disasters around the world has increased over the last two decades as global temperatures climbed to record levels, according to recent research.
The study from NASA scientists published in March in the journal Nature Water found that increasingly frequent, widespread and intense droughts and floods were linked more strongly to higher global temperatures than to naturally changing weather patterns, like El Niño and La Niña. This suggests these intense events will increase as the climate crisis accelerates, the study says.
Formula 1 has announced the cancellation of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix because of heavy flooding in the region, citing safety concerns.
In a statement shared on Twitter, it said, “It would not be right to put further pressure on the local authorities and emergency services at this difficult time.”
On Tuesday, Formula 1 staff were asked to leave the site of the race as a precautionary measure, an F1 source told CNN.
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is the first event of the Formula 1 season in Europe and was scheduled to take place this weekend.
Def Jam Records signee, Stonebwoy has indicated that he will definitely hit the studio with reigning artiste of the year, Black Sherif (Blacko) to produce a banger.
He made this remark while debunking rumours that there is a rift between the two, since Stonebwoy did not feature Blacko on his 5th Dimension album.
Explaining why he didn’t collaborate with the 2023 VGMA Artiste of the Year, Black Sherif, on his 5th Dimension album in an interview with Amansan Krakye on Property FM in Cape Coast, the ‘Therapy’ hitmaker said there is no outstanding issue between the two.
“If you say that why didn’t I feature Black Sherif on my 5th Dimension album it might seem that there’s an issue between us but there are no issues at all.There are a lot more musicians in Ghana that I haven’t done songs with and there are names you can mention but there’s no problem between us,” he added.
“If we haven’t done a song yet it doesn’t mean there’s any wahala but it will definitely happen. We shouldn’t take it like it’s something that should have happened already and because it hasn’t happened so there’s something no we shouldn’t read meanings into it,” he stated.
Speaking further, Stonebwoy said there is still more time ahead to make magic with the ‘Kweku the Traveller’ hitmaker.
“By God’s grace, we have a lot of years ahead of us and we pray that better must come so we look forward to doing a collabo with Black Sherif and many other artistes as well,” he opined.
Controversial Ghanaian socialite cum comedienne, Afia Schwarzenegger, has reacted to Haja4Reall’s arrest.
Several international news portals and the United States FBI reported that Hahia4Reall had been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam targeting older, single Americans.
According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old model appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes.
The news has since flooded social media, topping Twitter trends amidst massive reactions from netizens online.
A few celebrities, including Bridget Otoo, Shatta Wale, and others, have commented on the issue.
Joining the bandwagon of celebrities to share an opinion, Afia said Hajia should be hailed for her bravery and not condemned.
She asserted that the socialite should be commended for venturing into an act a lot of men do not dare to participate in.
According to her, Hajia should be lauded for taking back some of the resources our colonial masters (white men) stole from us.
“Celebrate Hajia4Reall because she has done well. We were colonized by white men who came for our resources, and Hajia4Reall has now decided to fight our battle for us by taking back what belongs to us and you people are angry? What are you saying? By the time she comes out, she will be taking more than $ 2 million.
“She has done what a lot of men cannot do. It is a Guinness Book of Records kind of thing. Have you seen that Hajia’s story has shut down the buzz around Hilda Baci. She cooked 100 dollars, but she doesn’t have $ 2 million,” she stated during a TikTok live.
Hajia’s jail requirements
Meanwhile, Mona Faiz Montrage, popularly known as ‘Hajia4Reall’ or Mona4FReall has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
She is set to be released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence in the coming days on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer, and the prosecutor’s office have confirmed.
Ghanaian socialite Hajia 4Reall is set to be released on home detention but will have a GPS ankle monitor on her leg as she faces prosecution in a romance scam case in the United States (US).
The 30-year-old influencer has been extradited from the UK to the US for allegedly defrauding elderly, single American men and women to the tune of $2 million in a depraved lonely hearts scam.
The United States Attorney’s Office said she’s being prosecuted for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those schemes.
Hajia 4Reall faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the charges, which include wire fraud, money laundering, receipt of stolen money and conspiracy.
According to the New York Post, she pleaded not guilty to all the charges during her first court appearances in the US.
The report further cited Hajia 4Reall’s lawyer as saying she was set to be “released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence in the coming days on $500,000 bond, with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor.”
Hajia 4Reall’s lawyer, Adam Cortez, also disclosed that there were six alleged victims involved in the case.
“At this time all we know is that there are six alleged victims and only two dealt with a woman and only one of them claims that he dealt with Ms. Montrage,” he said.
Meanwhile, a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said she allegedly scammed one of her victims with a fake marriage.
She is alleged to have sent the victim a tribal marriage certificate purporting to show that they were married in Ghana and took $89,000 from her victim.
“As to one victim, MONTRAGE used her real name and spoke to the victim several times by phone. MONTRAGE sent the victim a tribal marriage certificate purporting to show that MONTRAGE and the victim had been married in Ghana,” the US Attorney’s Office said on its website.
“The victim sent MONTRAGE approximately 82 wire transfers totaling approximately $89,000 to purportedly help with costs associated with MONTRAGE’s father’s farm in Ghana.
“In total, MONTRAGE controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the Enterprise.”
Hajia 4 Reall is presumed innocent until proven guilty, though.
A Nigerian has been sentenced by the Accra Circuit Court One to an eight-year jail term in hard labour for impersonating a police officer, Commissioner of Police (COP) Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah.
Bright Daniels, who at the time of committing the crime, was a convicted prisoner at the Nsawam Prisons, created a fake Facebook account in the name of the former CID boss and was duping the unsuspecting public huge sums of money under the pretext of getting them slots to the UN and other institutions.
He initially denied the offence but was taken through a full trial and found culpable.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Emmanuel Nyamekye, giving the facts in the Court presided over by Mrs Afia Owusua Appiah, said the Complainant was COP Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, a former boss of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service who is now stationed at National Police Headquarters, Accra.
Daniels, an ex-convict is a Nigerian, who served a seven-year jail term at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons. His accomplice, Livinus Amadianaeze Ugwu, also an ex-convict and a Nigerian, is on the run, the Court heard.
DSP Nyamekye said in April 2021, COP Addo-Danquah’s attention was drawn to a fake Facebook Messenger account created in her name and bearing her picture that was being used to solicit money from police personnel under the pretext of getting them slots to United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) Missions in Somalia and Sudan.
He said the user of the said fake Facebook account contacted the victims and directed them to pay money via Airtel/Tigo cash to phone number 0271701436.
Detective Chief Inspector Baffoe paid GHC10,000.00 through Airtel/Tigo cash to the number and the amount was subsequently withdrawn by Daniels.
The prosecution said investigations revealed that the phone number was traced to the environs of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons in the Easter Region.
Further investigations revealed that Daniels was the user of the number. After a search conducted by the police, a Samsung Galaxy A02 phone which Daniels used to chat with Ugwu and a Tecno feature phone that was used to receive the money from Detective Chief Inspector Baffoe was retrieved.
DSP Nyamekye said Forensic Examination conducted on the devices revealed that Daniels and Ugwu conspired to use the name and photograph of the COP Addo-Danquah to collect money from Police personnel under the pretext of getting them a slot to travel to the United Nations and African Union Mission in Somalia.
Daniels then acquired the SIM card with 0271701436 that was used to receive money from their victims.
He admitted the offence and after investigations, he was charged and put before this court.
As reported by local the police and US officials, an attack on a US convoy took place in Nigeria on Tuesday. Four individuals were killed, including two police officers and two members of the US embassy staff. Three other people were also taken hostage.
The attack happened in the southeast Anambra state, according to the Anambra Police Command, who told CNN that the attackers “murdered two police operatives and two staff of the US consulate and set their bodies and their vehicles ablaze.”
According to the White House and the neighbourhood police, none of the dead personnel were US nationals. John Kirby of the US National Security Council stated that “no US citizens were involved and no US citizens were injured.” “There have been some injuries, and possibly some deaths,”
When the assailants saw security forces “they made away with two police operatives and a driver of the second vehicle in the convoy,” Ikenga Tochukwu, deputy superintendent of police, said. “No US citizen was in the convoy,” he added.
Police said that joint security forces “have embarked on a rescue and recovery operation in the area.”
A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that “Mission Nigeria personnel are working with Nigerian security services to investigate.”
They continued: “The security of our personnel is always paramount, and we take extensive precautions when organizing trips to the field,” they continued.
An Accra Circuit Court has remanded into police custody a 40-year-old tile setter for insulting President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Raphael Okoe Ankrah, also known as Okoe Killer was arrested after police saw a video posted to social showing the accused using very unsavoury words on the President.
He has since pleaded not guilty to offensive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace.
The Court presided over by Mr Samuel Bright Acquah, ordered that Ankrah be brought back on May 30, 2023.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Maxwell Oppong told the Court that Ankrah lived in Jamestown.
He said on May 15, 2023, the Police saw a viral video in which the Ankrah was seen insulting the President.
ASP Oppong said the police had to arrest Ankrah because the video was not only vile but had annoyed and agitated the public.
The Police’s Intelligence Directorate tracked Ankrah and arrested him at his hideout at James Town in Accra.
The prosecution said Ankrah admitted the offence in his investigation cautioned statement and was accordingly charged.
Mr Yaw Dankwa, Ankrah’s Defense Counsel who prayed for bail for the accused, said the charge did not support the facts, which he said was political, because his client denied the offence upon his arrest.
He suggested that the said video could have been manipulated and until it was presented and scrutinised in court, his client was innocent of the charges.
Mr Dankwa said Ankrah, a “responsible father” with a wife who had a two-week baby, was not a flight risk.
He said Ankrah had “people of substance” ready to stand surety for him.
The prosecution, opposing the bail, pleaded with the Court to send the accused to the psychiatric hospital as he told police he was not in his right frame of mind.
ASP Oppong said that based on Ankrah’s utterances in the video, he would be safer in police custody because his life was in danger in his community.
On him not being a flight risk, the prosecution said Ankrah was a squatter living in an uncompleted building with no fixed place of abode, but his lawyer said there were no uncompleted buildings in James Town.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) taskforce has arrested two managers of restaurants and the staff of an electrical cable company in Accra for not issuing VAT tax invoices.
The companies are Waves Lounge and Pub, Chez Amis Pub and Grill, and Grand Pacific Limited, dealers in general electrical cables.
The managers were taken to the Customs Office at the headquarters for their statements before being handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police.
Mr Edward Appenteng Gyamerah, Commissioner, Domestic Tax Revenue Division, GRA, said the managers had refused to issue certified VAT invoices by the Commissioner-General at the point of purchase of goods at their outlets.
The initiative, he stated, was part of the Authority’s exercise to ensure tax compliance and retrieve taxes due the state.
He said the Division had several options at its disposal to aid in revenue mobilization, including already existing initiatives such as auditing and test purchasing, among others.
Mr Gyamerah said the test purchases conducted on 115 taxpayers that were sampled for a week revealed that a total of 93 taxpayers were not issuing the VAT invoice.
The figure, he stressed translated into a non-compliance rate of 80.9 per cent and said it was an offense for a registered taxpayer to fail to issue a VAT invoice for purchases made.
He said the division would continue with the enforcement exercises with an eye on the implementation of the electronic invoicing system and other tax types.
The government has tasked the GRA with raising a revenue target of GHc 106 billion for the 2023 fiscal year.
Out of this figure, the Domestic Tax Revenue Division is expected to collect 70 per cent of the total revenue.
This year, President Nana Akufo-Addo assented to the three amendments passed by Parliament.
They are the Excise Duty (Amendment), Act 2023 (Act 1093), the Income Tax (Amendment), Act 2023 (Act 1094), and the Growth and Sustainability Levy Act 2023 (Act 1095).
These amendments were to complement efforts to ensure the Authority met its revenue target.
Mr Joseph Annan, Area Enforcement Manager of GRA, in charge of Accra Central, said the Authority would continue to embark on surprise exercises across the country to apprehend culprits evading tax.
He urged the public, especially customers who make taxable purchases, to always request and insist on their VAT invoices.
An entertainment company has paid more than $2 million in fines as a result of a joke made by a Chinese stand-up comedian that made a loose allusion to a term used to describe the nation’s military.
The expensive penalty emphasises the fine balance comedians must walk in tightly controlled China, where politics is rarely amusing, and the serious repercussions for anyone in the entertainment business who are perceived to cross the line.
After utilising a word connected to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during his comedy presentation at the Century Theatre in Beijing over the weekend, Li Haoshi, better known by his stage name House, attracted the attention of authorities this week.
As the official backlash grew, Li canceled all his performances while the entertainment company that represents him, Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media, issued an apology.
On Wednesday the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism said a subsidiary of the firm would be fined $1.91 million and deprived of $189,000 it made in “illegal gains” – an apparent reference to Li’s two live gigs last weekend. The company was also indefinitely suspended from holding any performances in the capital.
The statement accused Li of “seriously insulting” the military and “causing bad social impact.”
Li will be subject to further investigation alongside his agent and other relevant staff, the bureau added.
The culture authority has not elaborated on details of the investigation but in 2021 China enacted a law to ban any insult and slander on military personnel.
To international audiences Li’s joke might appear innocuous.
During the show, he began a skit about how he had adopted two stray dogs since moving to Shanghai.
He went on to say that their chase after a squirrel one day reminded him of eight words, before he unleashed the controversial punchline, according to audio posted to Chinese social media site Weibo.
“Fine style of work, capable of winning battles,” he said, flipping a well known Chinese Communist Party slogan referring to the PLA.
The phrase was first uttered in 2013 by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who also chairs the military, when he set out a list of qualities he commanded from the nation’s army. It has since been repeated at various official occasions and in state media.
Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media is one of the biggest stand-up comedy show producers in the country.
In handing down its penalty in a statement on Wednesday, authorities in Beijing concluded that Li’s Saturday show contained “a plot amounting to a serious insult to the People’s Liberation Army and causing a bad social influence.”
“We will never allow any company or individual to wantonly slander the glorious image of the People’s Liberation Army on a stage in the [Chinese] capital, never allow the people’s deep feelings for the soldiers to be hurt, and never allow serious subjects to be turned into an entertainment,” the culture authority said.
Li had already apologized on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where he has 136,000 followers.
“I will take all the responsibility and call off all my performances to deeply reflect and reeducate myself,” he wrote on Monday.
Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media previously said it had suspended the comedian from all productions indefinitely.
Stand-up comedy has gained traction in China in recent years against the backdrop of an emerging trend of televised contests that pit witty comedians against one another.
After the penalties were announced, some Chinese internet users took to the Twitter-like Weibo platform to praise the official body’s decision.
“Well-deserved. Stand-up comedy is a low form of art that thinks it is cultural,” one user wrote.
But others feared it may lead to a further crackdown on comedy.
China imposes stringent censorship on issues it deems sensitive – from women’s cleavage to criticism of the Communist Party. That ideological control has tightened under Xi’s rule, widely impacting the entertainment industry.
A six bedroom house has been razed down by fire at Sehwi Akaasu, a suburb of Bekwai in the Bibiani Anhweaso Bekwai Municipality of the Western North Region.
Occupants, including children, were unhurt after the inferno at the residential apartment.
Esi Mmrah, one of the affected residents, said that the fire had burnt an undisclosed amount of money from her cooperative organization.
She said the fire had destroyed her materials, mattresses, and other electrical appliances, indicating that the fire was able to cause huge damage because the residents in the apartment had tried to control the inferno by themselves, which eventually escalated.
Meanwhile, the cause of the inferno is still unknown.
The Nfatowohene of Sehwi Akaasu, Nana Yaw Boadi II, who doubles as Ankobeahene of Sehwi Bekwai Traditional Council, told the media how he had witnessed the scene.
The chief stressed that he had arrived at the scene at exactly 1:15 am and, by then, the father had rescued his eight children from the fire unhurt.
They placed a call to the Sehwi Wiawso Regional Fire Service, but their arrival couldn’t save anything in the house.
However, he appealed to the Bibiani Anhweaso Bekwai Municipal Chief Executive to come to the aid of the affected residents.
Three parliamentary candidates from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have been criticised by the leadership of the party for voicing their grievances about the just ended NDC primaries through the media instead of using internal structures.
The three newly elected parliamentary candidates comprising Sam George of Ningo Prampram, Muntaka Mubarak of Asawase, and Felix Kwakye Ofosu of the Abura Asebu-Kwamankese constituency in the Eastern Region, have all granted interviews to Joy News accusing some national executives of interfering in the just ended primaries instead of being neutral referees.
The three have thus called for sanctions against such national executives to instil discipline at the national level that can trickle down to all members.
The former Deputy Information Minister, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu said these actions could bring divisions in the party ahead of the major election in 2024. He says aspirants who lost the bid to represent their constituencies would feel slighted and would not lend themselves to the development of the party going forward.
But speaking on Top Story on Joy FM, the Deputy General Secretary, Mustapha Gbande, said his three senior colleagues should have used the party structures instead of going to the media.
“I also want to think that my senior colleagues who are complaining, understand that grievances will not be picked from the media, and so we have an internal mechanism on how grievances are channelled and how they get addressed.
“This is not to say that they don’t have grievances, I want to also encourage that at this time, party members will refrain from comments and actions that will disintegrate the unity of the party particularly now that we are done with the election, and also particularly that it is coming from people who have been elected or people have won” he noted.
He said if the party were to discipline everyone as they’re demanding, that process would start with them for sidestepping laid-down channels to have their grievances heard.
“Generally, there’s indiscipline everywhere and the leadership that we have is bold and positioned enough to confront indiscipline. Going to report internal grievances in the media is just as bad as taking the party to court or betraying the party.
“And so members who are aggrieved by decisions and in the spirit of discipline must understand that those grievances ought to be channelled through internal processes. I have heard them say that leadership must hear everyone out and discipline people, if I am supposed to discipline anybody, I will first of all discipline an elected member who will run to the media to further deepen cracks.”
He said at this point, the party and its flagbearer are more committed to bringing everyone on board particularly those who lost the election.
“I think that we are done with the election, and generally, it’s been a very good election. Do people have an interest? Yes. Have there been issues? Yes. Our focus is to look at the larger interest. These complaints are coming from people who have survived the election. I think that is not a big issue. The bigger issue is the ones who have lost it. And so the effort of the National Executive Committee is to address the concerns of elected members and how to bring up those who have lost the election so that we can move together as a family.”
“They should not be the ones to run to the media complaining about how unfairly they’ve been treated. They’ve won the elections, they’ve survived the conspiracy theory, they’ve survived the vaccine, they’ve survived the ganging, what is left and what is more important is for us to push them to achieve their aim, and their aim is to win the election.
He said the national executives are more than capable to invoke their powers to bring sanity to the party, explaining that, “if you don’t take care, by the time you invoke such powers you would have sacked everybody, and that’s why we encourage people to use internal mechanisms where we tolerate each other and allow our differences not to undermine the collective interest of the party.”
According to him, the National Executive Committee is positioned to reconcile the party alongside the flagbearer to ensure a united front going into election 2024.
“We are neither for nor against the conflict because conflicts will always be part of politics, and when it comes, for us as referees and arbiters, our role is to give each of the persons who have complained a fair hearing” he added.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Professor Seidu Alidu, wants the NDC to fix these internal grievances before the elections. According to him, the fact that these experienced politicians opened up to the media about their concerns means that the problem might have existed for some time.
Abeiku Santana has apologised to the CEO of Pizzaman restaurant, for remarks he made regarding the punishment of two workers who were caught stealing chicken and cooking oil.
In a recent statement he made during his show on Okay FM, he expressed his regret over his harsh words and the impact they may have had on Pizzaman’s business.
He said, “A week ago, I spoke my mind, I Abeiku Santana, I spoke my mind with regard to the sentence of two guys, who were working at Pizzaman, for stealing chicken and vegetable cooking oil.
“I stated that the sentence that was emitted to these men was harsh, and I said the owner of Pizzaman was not right for doing that. I apologize to him for what I said, I didn’t say it right, and I am sorry,” he said.
Abeiku went on to explain that he had not considered the impact his words could have on Pizzaman’s business and the challenges that the owner may have been facing as an entrepreneur.
“What I said wasn’t thought of carefully and I didn’t think of it in the way that it was someone’s company and the person was hurting.
“So Pizzaman, I am sorry for saying you are not a guy, and I am sorry for saying that you should have found an alternative means to get your money.
“I do not support thievery, and I continue to say that I do not support thievery or condone stealing. However, I didn’t think carefully about your situation and your condition as an entrepreneur,” he added.
The media personality concluded his statement by offering an unqualified apology to Pizzaman and acknowledging the importance of considering all sides of a story before making a statement.
“So I want to render an unqualified apology to Pizzaman for anything that I have said that has hurt you. I am very, very sorry, extremely sorry, and I won’t do that again in Jesus’ mighty name,” he added.
Abeiku Santana, on last weekend’s edition of United Showbiz, insisted he will never apologise for what he said but seems to have changed his mind after that.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in 2021 and attempted to appeal the decision but was unsuccessful.
His first sentence of three years in jail with two years suspended was affirmed by the court on Wednesday. The court also ruled that he can serve the third year of his sentence while wearing an electronic bracelet under home arrest.
Ghanaian musician E.L. has revealed how he was heavily fined for sampling the ‘Efa Wo Ho B3n’ choral song.
Talking about his new single, ‘Chop Life’, which also has a catchy phrase, the Ghanaian singer said street jargon does not belong to anyone.
“I’m not sure that using such words in my song can get me into trouble but the one which got me into trouble was when I used Efa Wo Ho B3n in my song. That one they sued me and I had to pay some heavy block but it has made me learn my lesson so with the lines that I used in my Chop Life song as for that one yawa no go come,” he told Amansan Krakye in an interview.
“As for the ‘chop life’, it is our street rhymes that I used in my song so it doesn’t really belong to anybody and my mum is a Ga native woman,” he added.
He said, growing up, nobody held anyone uncountable for using street jargon until recently.
“So I feel I’m entitled to use some of our jargon and our street anthem in my songs and it’s something we grew up singing but nobody came to hold anybody’s neck.”
As the first stop on a European tour devoted to the situation in Ukraine, Chinese envoy Li Hui is expected to conclude a two-day visit there on Wednesday. China is attempting to position itself as a peacemaker in the bloody conflict despite its close relations to Russia.
Although Ukraine has not provided any information, a source within the Ukrainian government informed CNN earlier this week that a Chinese envoy will be in Kyiv on Tuesday and Wednesday.
China has kept quiet about the Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs’ visit, which it had advertised as a part of a five-nation tour to foster communication for “a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
When asked about Li’s trip at regular press briefings this week, China’s Foreign Ministry said information would be shared “in due course.”
Last week, the Foreign Ministry said Li would visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia starting May 15 – just days before the Group of Seven (G7) leaders are expected to affirm their solidarity against Russia in a summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
China has attempted to cast itself as a peace broker and deflect criticism that it has not acted to help end Russia’s warin Ukraine, more than one year after Moscow invaded its western neighbor.
Li’s apparent arrival this week coincided with an exceptionally dense aerial assault by Russian forces on the capital Kyiv early Tuesday, though Ukraine said most of the Russian munitions failed to hit their marks after being destroyed by its defense systems.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week wrapped up his own tour of European countries, where he welcomed promises of fresh military aid from countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Zelensky spoke late last month for the first timesince the start of the war, and according to Beijing, Xi pledged to facilitate peace talks, including by dispatching an envoy.
Beijing’s diplomatic and economic support of Russia since the early days of the war have accelerated concerns about China’s foreign policy across European capitals. While Xi’s call with Zelensky was their first, the Chinese leader has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin five times during the conflict – including twice in person.
Beijing’s ties with Moscow have been under close scrutiny over the past week as European officials discussed a recalibration of the bloc’s China strategy.
EU Foreign Affairs chief Josep Borrell on Friday said the bloc’s relations with China “will not develop normally if China does not push Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.”
Li’s trip to Ukraine would make him the highest ranking Chinese diplomat to travel to the country since start of the war.
A seasoned former diplomat, Li served as ambassador to Russia from 2009 to 2019, and his resume includes significant contributions to the China-Russia relationship during a key era of deepening cooperation under Xi and Putin.
In 2019, Putin presented Li with the Order of Friendship, making him only the second Chinese national to receive a state decoration from the Kremlin, according to Chinese state media. Xi was the first, receiving the Order of St. Andrew two years earlier.
Li’s scheduled visit to Ukraine comes amid what observers have described as a concerted effort from Beijing to reposition itself to be seen as a neutral agent of peace amid worsening ties with Europe.
After his call with Xi last month, Zelensky said the exchange was “meaningful,” but underscored that “there can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises.”
Beijing in February released a paper on a “political settlement” to the conflict, which critics said would only help Russia consolidate its territorial gains in Ukraine, as it did not include a call for Russia to withdraw before a ceasefire.
On Monday ahead of Li’s expected arrival in Ukraine, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for Ukraine’s peace plan to be the basis of efforts to resolve the conflict.
“We should never forget that Ukraine is the country that was brutally invaded. It is therefore the one that should set out the core principles for a just peace,” she said in Brussels.
Ukraine, the US and more than 100 nations have called for peace predicated on the unconditional withdrawal of Russia troops from Ukrainian territory.
Beijing, however, has repeatedly accused the US and its allies of fueling the conflict through weapons support to Ukraine, and has sought buy-in on its “political settlement” from other countries.
An editorial in the state-run English-language China Daily on Sunday said that Li would visit Poland, France and Germany during his tour as they are “key stakeholders” in Europe when it comes to any peace agreement.
The US, the editorial said, was excluded from Li’s itinerary as it was “questionable” whether Washington was open to efforts to advance peace.
Son Jun-ho, a South Korean soccer player, has been detained in China for allegedly accepting bribes as Beijing cracks down on alleged corruption in Chinese football‘s higher echelons.
Son was arrested by public security officials in Liaoning province, in northeastern China, on Friday “on suspicion of taking bribes as a person who is not a functionary of a state organ,” according to Wang Wenbin, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Son plays midfield for Shandong Taishan, a Chinese Super League (CSL) football team that won the league championship and Chinese Football Association Cup in 2021. He is a part of the South Korean men’s national team and the group that qualified for the round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday the ministry was aware of Son’s situation and that local Korean diplomatic missions were providing consular assistance. The spokesperson would not provide further information due to the Personal Information Protection Act.
Wang said China would provide South Korean officials with the “necessary facilitation” to perform their consular duties.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said it had written to the Chinese Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation regarding the player on Tuesday but had not yet heard back. Vice President Kim Jeong-bae was checking on Son’s condition with the South Korean Foreign and Sports Ministries, a KFA official told CNN.
Son is the first foreign soccer player to be investigated and detained since the CSL started in 2004, according to China’s state-run Global Times.
His arrest is part of a broader initiative by Beijing torid Chinese soccer of alleged corruption in the highest levels of the sport.
The Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog has been investigating a host of Chinese Football Association figures.
They include former president Chen Xuyuan, former vice-president Yu Hongchen, former head coach Li Tie, former secretary-general Liu Yi, former CSL general manager Dong Zheng,and former CFA disciplinary committee head Wang Xiaoping.
Shandong Taishan’s former head coach Hao Wei is also being investigated over allegations of match-fixing, Global Times reported. On Tuesday, Shandong Taishan hired South Korean Choi Kang-hee to replace Hao as head coach.
Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based Chinese soccer expert and author of “Sporting Superpower,” a book about China’s sporting ambitions, told CNN that Son’s arrest reflects the state of Chinese soccer which is “not in a good place, at all.”
“The league hasn’t been in as bad a state for at least a decade,” Dreyer said. “It was only six years or so ago when Premier League managers were talking about the Chinese league being a threat with its financial muscle.
“The trend at the time was China really could rival some of the top leagues of the world. We’re miles away from that now, light years.”
A representative for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Tuesday that Britain and the Netherlands are forming a “international coalition” to assist Ukraine in acquiring F-16 fighter jets, which Kyiv claims are essential to its defence as Russia intensifies its aerial attacks.
Following a meeting between Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland, the two NATO allies reportedly tried to bring US-made jets to Ukraine as well as train Kyiv’s pilots to fly them.
The statement from the presidents of Britain and the Netherlands was warmly received by Ukraine, which has been arguing that the fighter jets are crucial to protect against Russian missile and drone threats.
“We need F-16s, and I am grateful to our allies for their decision to work in this direction, including training our pilots,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Yermak said Belgium, another NATO ally, in particular, had “confirmed its readiness to train” Ukrainian pilots.
Britain does not have F-16s in its air force, but the Netherlands and Belgium do. The US Air Force has almost 800 F-16s in its fleet.
Speaking in the United Kingdom Monday, Zelensky welcomed promises of fresh military aid from European leaders – but renewed his demands to be provided with modern fighter jets.
Following a visit with Sunak, Zelensky hinted that Ukraine is closer to receiving F-16s, saying that Kyiv and London were “actively moving forward” on a plan. Zelensky also thanked the UK for agreeing to train Ukrainian pilots.
The US Air Force calls the F-16, which first flew in 1978, a “relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system.”
The single-engine jets can act in air-to-air or ground-attack modes, flying in all weather conditions with a range of 500 miles (860 kilometers).
It would be a substantial upgrade to the aircraft in Ukraine’s fleet now, largely Soviet-era warplanes that were either in Ukraine’s air force before the Russian invasion or have been given to Kyiv by other European states like Poland that used to be in the Soviet orbit.
Despite Zelensky’s repeated pleas for F-16s, many of Ukraine’s allies have been reluctant to supply Kyiv with weapons that can reach Russian soil.
Early on in the war, the US believed that supplying Ukraine with new fighter jets would risk an escalation between NATO and Russia.
Meanwhile, US and allied officials have previously said the jets would be impractical because they require considerable training and Russia has extensive anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot them down.
Any movement of F-16s to Ukraine would require US approval and US President Joe Biden said earlier this year that Kyiv did not need the fighter jets.
But CNN reported in March that the US is working with Ukrainian pilots in the United States to determine how long it would take to train them to fly F-16s, according to sources briefed on the matter.
A Chinese fishing boat sank in the Indian Ocean, leaving 39 fishermen missing, according to Chinese state media on Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged an all-out rescue effort for the crew, which consists of 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesians, and 5 Filipinos, according to state news agency Xinhua.
According to Xinhua, search and rescue crews have arrived on the scene. It was also mentioned that ships from Australia and other nations had joined the hunt, and that China had sent out at least two ships to help.
None of the crew has yet been found.
The vessel, named “Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028” and owned by Shandong province-based Penglai Jinglu Fishery, capsized in the central part of the Indian Ocean around 3 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Chinese state media said.
In a statement Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said Chinese authorities were grateful to the Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Department for its timely dispatch of aircraft and coordination of vessels passing through.
“We hope that surrounding countries will continue to work with China to carry out joint search and rescue and not give up hope of saving lives,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
More rescue teams were rushing to the scene, he added.
As a result of US President Joe Biden cancelling his trip, a summit of the leaders of the United States, India, Australia, and Japan that was to be held in Sydney the following week has been postponed, according to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He added that discussions may still take place while leaders are in Japan.
On May 24, Biden was scheduled to attend a meeting of the informal security conversation with Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. This meeting was considered as a response to China’s strong stance in the region.
The late hour cancellation – which also saw Biden pull out of a visit to Papua New Guinea – comes as the US seeks to energize its security ties in the Pacific amid rising competition with Beijing.
But Washington’s fractious domestic politics has curtailed what would have been a significant visit to Asia by a US president.
Biden had been planning to travel to Sydney for the summit as part of a weeklong Asia tour that was set to begin in Hiroshima, Japan, for a Group of Seven (G7) leader summit, and include a stopover in Papua New Guinea for a meeting with Pacific Island leaders.
Biden will still travel to Japan starting Wednesday, but he canceled the additional legs of the trip, due to the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations in Washington, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
The Quad leaders would instead have discussions in Japan, where all four leaders would be over the weekend, Albanese said Wednesday, adding that no time had been confirmed.
“The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend,” the Australian leader said.
The meeting would be the third in-person leaders gathering for the Quad, known formally as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which was founded over 15 years ago but has seen increased prominence in recent years.
The leaders were expected to discuss deepening their cooperation on a range of issues from critical and emerging technologies, to climate change and maritime domain awareness, according to a statement released by the White House last month.
Albanese said the other Quad leaders could still visit Sydney next week and that discussions are underway.
The Australian leader also hinted at Biden’s frustration that events on Capitol Hill had forced his hand.
Biden and Albanese spoke over the phone early Wednesday, when Biden expressed his disappointment “at some of the actions of some members of Congress and the US Senate,” Albanese said.
“It is behavior that clearly is not in the interests of the people of the United States, but it’s also because the US has a critical role as the world’s largest economy. It has implications for the global economy as well, this hold up of the debt ceiling that they’re engaged with,” Albanese said.
Biden has been meeting with lawmakers in Washington as the White House scrambles to avert a potential government default. Congress has failed to come to an agreement on raising the country’s debt ceiling, though negotiations are ongoing.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said a default could trigger a global economic downturn, “risk undermining US global economic leadership,” and raise questions about America’s ability to defend its national security interests.
Both the Quad meeting in Sydney and Biden’s planned Monday stopover in Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby had been seen by observers as opportunities to strengthen US partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.
The region has taken on a greater importance for Washington as China becomes increasingly assertive over its territorial claims in regional seas, expands its naval capabilities and militarizes islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing has also ramped up its military intimidation of Taiwan, a self-governing democratic island China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory. Last month, Beijing launched military drills around the island in retaliation for a visit between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
In Port Moresby, Biden had been slated to meet Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders from the region’s Pacific Island Forum.
The visit, highly anticipated by the Marape government as a potential economic boon, was the latest step by the US to re-engage in the South Pacific – a strategically significant region widely seen as having been largely overlooked by Washington since the close of the Cold War.
China has in recent years elevated its own diplomatic outreach in the region and made significant inroads with some Pacific Islands governments, including the signing of a bilateral security deal with the Solomon Islands last year.
Biden’s visit to Port Moresby would have been the first by a sitting US President and would have coincided with negotiations between the two countries on a defense cooperation agreement.
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation think tank in the US, said the impact of the cancellation of the Quad meeting in Sydney might be “negligible,” as the grouping already had “good momentum” from previous meetings.
The cancellation of Monday’s visit to Papua New Guinea, however, could have more far-reaching consequences for US policy toward the Pacific Islands, he said.
The US “has done a good job in elevating its game in the region, but this missed (Papua New Guinea) visit will serve as evidence to the contrary – essentially that Washington is an unreliable partner over the long-term,” he said.
“This feeds directly into Beijing’s narrative and could strengthen its hand,” he said.
Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, requested non-lethal military gear and air defence systems when she met with President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday in Seoul, according to reports in both Koreas.
Zelenska, a representative of the Ukrainian president who is in the South Korean capital, made a long list of requests, according to Lee Do-woon, the president of South Korea. These included mine detectors, demining tools, and first aid trucks.
As stated by the Ukraine’s presidential office, Zelenska told Yoon that her country needed help with technologies South Korea “is famous for.”
“We discussed with the president the need for air defense systems to stop the missile terrorism of the aggressor country,” Zelenska was quoted as saying.
“We also need the means to clear the traps that Russia has left on our territory and medical equipment to save those who were wounded by the attackers,” she added.
Since the war broke out in Ukraine, South Korea has maintained its stance of not providing lethal weapons to a warring country, although Yoon has hinted at a possible major policy shift.
However, during an interview with Reuters in April, the South Korean leader said his country would consider sending lethal aid to Ukraine if there was a large-scale attack on civilians.
The East Asian country has previously faced calls from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to relax its rule on not exporting weapons to countries in conflict, so it could help arm Ukraine.
During the Tuesday meeting, the Ukrainian first lady also expressed hope that South Korean companies would take part in rebuilding Ukraine, according to the spokesman for Yoon’s office.
Yoon greeted Zelenska by expressing his condolences to the victims and the Ukrainian people, and told her that South Korea would “actively support Ukraine” in cooperation with NATO countries and the international community.
Separately, Zelenska met South Korea’s first lady Kim Keon-hee, who praised the “courageous and devotional” efforts her Ukrainian counterpart has made in the midst of a war, the presidential office spokesman said.
The Ukrainian first lady handed Yoon “a personal letter and an invitation from the president of Ukraine” to visit her country, the Ukrainian side said.
Zelenska was in the country to take part in the Asian Leadership Conference, accompanied by Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko and Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostyslav Shurma, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.
In a speech to the conference Wednesday, Zelenska said “humanitarian aid alone will not save” Ukrainians.
“Where there is a criminal in your house, who has come to kill your family, humanitarian aid alone will not save the residents,” Zelenska said, referring to Russia’s invasion.
“The first thing to do is stop the murderer. In the case of Kherson, it could be air defense systems, technologically advanced and effective like everything your country creates and produces.”
Since the beginning of the war, Zelenska has used her position to raise awareness of the plight suffered by her citizens and maintain diplomatic relations with global leaders.
Just before her trip to Seoul, she met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to discuss the psychological rehabilitation of children in her country.
Last year, she met US first lady Jill Biden privately at the White House to discuss American support for Ukraine.
A former contestant of a television reality show (Mentor) has been sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty for manslaughter by a seven-member jury.
Bismark Ato Foster was charged for two counts namely; murder and use of offensive weapon which led to the death of one Razak Mohammed, at Nungua Coco-Beach on September 26, 2016.
Though he pleaded not guilty to the two charges, the jury found him guilty for manslaughter instead of murder, seven years after the incident.
The jury had returned a 6-1 guilty verdict against him for both charges but upon further deliberations, returned again with a guilty verdict against him for manslaughter and use of offensive weapon.
Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh, presiding at the Criminal Court ‘3’ accordingly imposed a life sentence on him after the jury were discharged.
For the charge of the use of offensive weapon, he was sentenced to 25 years, with both punishment set to run currently.
Plea for mitigation
With his plea for mitigation, his counsel had prayed the court to tamper justice with mercy and hand the convict with the minimum punishment since he was a first time offender.
Counsel also drew the court’s attention to the fact that the convict had properly conducted himself throughout the trial and was available anytime the case was called.
It was his prayer again that the convict is a very young man who has great future ahead of him and only became a victim of circumstance.
He said his client had shown remorse throughout the trial and the judge should use her motherly instinct to give him minimum punishment.
Counsel said the convict did not intentionally cause the death of the deceased as found by the jury and prayed that looking at his age, his demeanor through out the trial, the incident was purely accidental.
Counsel said, the convict was the only one left to protect the property of his family.
Prosecution
The plea for mitigation by the defence counsel was opposed by the prosecution.
It was the case of the prosecution that the offense committed is severe and should be given the maximum punishment of life imprisonment to serve as a deterrent to others.
The prosecution pointed out that the gun went off twice and that could not be said to be not intentional.
To this end the prosecution invited the court to impose the maximum sentence on the convict to serve as punitive measure to deter others accordingly.
Justice Mary Maame Ekue Yanzu after hearing the parties sentenced the convict into life in prison.
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, who was in court reports that lawyers of the convict have indicated their intention to appeal against the conviction and the subsequent sentencing.
Brief facts
Per the summary of evidence to the jury, the complainant, Ebenezer Ekow Ayaim, who was the first prosecution witness is a businessman and he had acquired two plots of land at Nungua Coco Beach area.
According to him, he has been living on one plot with his family for the past 6 years whilst the other plot of land is undeveloped.
The complainant indicated that he knew the accused person because he occasionally weeds his undeveloped plot without his consent.
The complainant said following that he reported the incident to the police on about two occasions.
He, on September 24, 2016, again reported the incident to the police and two police officers followed him to the plot of land.
He said the police officers advised the complainant to build a fence wall around the undeveloped land and one of the police officers by name Caesar recommended the deceased, Razak Mohammed and his colleagues to supply the complainant with sand and stones for the construction of the fence wall.
The evidence indicated that the complainant contacted Razak and his colleagues and on September 26, 2016 at about 5:45 pm, they came to the complainant’s house to inspect the plot.
The complainant said he together with Razak and his colleagues went outside to inspect the plot of land but the complainant went back inside the house briefly to pick his slippers because he was then only wearing a pair of socks.
He, whilst in his house he heard a gunshot and quickly ran out to see Razak shot dead and one of his colleagues, Stephen Ansah’s arm bleeding.
The complainant said he called the police for assistance and rushed Stephen Ansah to the Police Hospital for treatment and later lodged a complaint at the Nungua Police Station.
Building contractor’s account
It was the case of Stephen Ansah, the building contractor, the second prosecution witness in the case that on September 24, 2016, he paid a visit to his police officer friend, Caesar at the Nungua police station.
He said, when he got to the station, Razak (now deceased) was also with Caesar and whilst at the Police Station, the complainant came to the station and reported that he had property he wanted to develop.
According to him, Caesar recommended him and the deceased to do the work and they visited the complainant in his house at Coco Beach Nungua, the following day at about 6pm and discussed the work they would be undertaking.
He said on Monday September 26, 2016 at about 6.00pm, he and the deceased went to the complainant’s house and they proceeded to the land to see where they would deposit the sand and stones to be used for the construction.
It was his case that they noticed someone had erected some boards on the land so they decided to remove them so that the vehicle that would deliver the sand and stones could have easy access to the land in order to deposit the sand and stones.
He said, whilst removing the boards, the accused person came out of his house and the accused person upon seeing them, went back into his house.
Gunshots
He said, a few minutes later, the accused person came out of his house holding a pump action gun and from a distance, fired at the deceased who fell on the ground.
He said he attempted to offer assistance to the now deceased who had been hit by the bullet by lifting him up and in the process of offering assistance, the accused person fired again and the shot hit his right arm.
The evidence of the contractor was that he ran towards the complainant’s house and the complainant rushed him to the 37 Military Hospital for treatment.
But, Razak was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Police officer’s account
A police officer, G/CPL Dei-Ofori Ceaser, who was the 3rd prosecution witness, told the Court that, on September 24, 2016 at about 11.30am, the Complainant made a complaint to him that someone was encroaching on his land.
He said he and one Chief Inspector, Kwame visited the land and met the accused person on the land but he was not doing anything criminal.
He added they left and went back to the police station after the complainant informed him that he wanted to develop the land.
He said, at that time, the deceased and one Kojo had visited him at the Police Station and heard the intention of the complainant to develop the land and they expressed interest in taking the contract to develop the said land.
CID’s evidence
It was the evidence of Detective Chief Inspector Osei Yeboah, stationed at the Kpeshie Divisional CID headquarters that on September 26, 2016, the case was referred to him for investigation.
According to him, on the same day, a team of police officers led by the crime officer Superintendent, Yaw Ohene-Takyi visited the crime scene at Nungua Coco-Beach.
He said, they found the body of a male adult aged about 46 years lying in a pool of blood in a prone position in between a house and a portion of land raised to footing level.
He said they inspected the body and a gunshot wound was found at the right part of the chest and the deceased’s body was identified by neighbors as Razak Mohammed.
According to him, photographs of the body of the deceased and the crime scene were taken and the body was conveyed to the Police Hospital mortuary for preservation and autopsy.
He said investigations led to the arrest of the accused person and statements taken from him.
The accused was eventually directed by the office of the Attorney General to charge the accused with murder and use of offensive weapon, which he did.
The Chief Operating Officer of Dana Air, Ememobong Ettete, announced this in a statement via its official Twitter handle on Tuesday.
Recall that Hilda surpassed the current world record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual.
The 27-year-old started cooking on Thursday 11th May 2023 and surpassed India’s Lata Tondon who set the record with 87 hours 45mins in 2019.
Speaking on the development, Ettete assured that the company will always support the craft, creativity, efforts, and innovations of young Nigerians, who embody the true Nigerian spirit as a proudly Nigerian brand.
“We have always blazed the trail in terms of support for the arts and entertainment industry, health care, and culture and our corporate social responsibility has been all-encompassing.”
“We will be supporting Hilda’s local travels for one year and We are inspired by her…
Dana Air strength and determination for greatness.
“We understand her mum is also a chef and she must have gotten this inspiration from her and in the light of this, we shall be supporting her mum with 3 months of local flights for free.
“We thank Hilda’s mum for giving us an amazing daughter and for being a huge support system to Hilda. We thank all those who came out to dispassionately support one of our own. You are the real MVP.” He added.
A former Deputy National Youth Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana, has been declared the legitimate winner of Saturday’s parliamentary primary held in the Ketu North Constituency of the Volta Region.
The national leadership of the NDC announced through its General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey on Tuesday, May 16,2023, after the party’s Functional Executive committee probed the dispute.
There was misunderstanding on Saturday between Edem Agbana and his contender, John Adanu Zewu after a tie.
The vociferous former National Youth Organiser was declared the winner by just a vote, but after two recounts upon the request of his opponent, the Electoral Commission established that three ballot papers had not been stamped.
It emerged later that two out of the three unstamped ballots were cast in favour of Edem Agbana, and one in favour of John Adanu.
Despite this, Mr. Agbana insisted that he had won with 360 votes against his opponent’s 359 votes although the EC did not declare him winner.
There had been reports suggesting a possible rerun of the polls in that constituency, but the NDC at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday, delivered a verdict on who the legitimate winner was.
The General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey explained that the said unstamped ballot papers were part of the original ballot booklet provided by the party and so there was no over-voting.
“By and large, we got a consensus coming across the table that the ballot papers [in question] were an integral part of the booklet of ballots that came from the national office that went to that constituency. And therefore they were not foreign materials. We also checked and saw that there was no over-voting. The tallying process done by the agents of the candidates tallied with all the ballot papers found in the ballot box.”
“These for us were the pieces of information we wanted to ascertain. So the ballot papers were authentic… Following this, we are of the position that, the will that the voters expressed is the authentic will of the people. That original result had candidate Edem Agbana having 360 votes, followed very closely by candidate John Adanu who had 359. Very close as it was, we had to go by the will of the people of Ketu North.”
“So we want to tell you that, at the end of the day, the committee headed by the National Chairman of the NDC, aided by my own self…that the will of Ketu North was that Edem Agbana was the one that won the most number of votes on the day. Even though it was that close, Edem Agbana will be declared the winner,” Fifi Kwetey noted.
Baci, a Nigerian and an Akwa Ibom State native, surpassed the record for the longest cooking time by an individual, with a 100-hour record time. Baci beat Indian chef, Lata Tondon, who had completed the task in 87 hours, 45 minutes, and 00 secs in 2019.
The statement, released on their official website read; “She’s hoping to snap up the record title for the longest cooking marathon (individual) which currently belongs to Lata Tondon (India) with a time of 87 hr 45 min.
“Hilda began cooking on Thursday and continued through to Monday, reportedly whipping up 55 recipes and more than 100 meals in a whopping 100-hour stint.
“Officials on our records team look forward to reviewing the evidence and hope to be able to verify Hilda’s efforts as a new record very soon.”
According to the British reference body, one of its spokespersons said they “are looking forward to receiving the evidence for its Records Management Team to review before we can confirm the record is official.”
Managing Director of Renaizance Oil Limited, an unlicensed Oil Marketing Company, has been convicted on 23 counts of defrauding by false pretense, with the total amount involved exceeding GH¢27.9 million.
David Aseye Tay, was convicted after two years of full trial by the Criminal Division of High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo on all 23 charges despite earlier pleading not guilty.
The counts include one count of defrauding by false pretense, nine counts of issuance of false cheque and 13 counts of money laundering.
In court on Monday, May 15, his request for sections of the Plea Bargaining act, 1079 to be referred to the Supreme Court was refused after the prosecution had indicated it was not interested in negotiating with him under the Plea Bargaining law.
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, who was in court reports that, his sentencing has been deferred to May 29 as the court orders for a restitution with the complainant as part of his mitigation plea before his sentencing.
The convict who has been remanded into prison’s custody until May 29, is said to have made a false representation to a licensed Bulk Distribution Company, importers of finished petrol and diesel products in 2018 and defrauded it by over GH¢27.9 million.
Brief facts
Per the brief facts of the case presented to the court, the Complainant Mr. Nick Danso Adjei, is the Charman of Misyl Energy Company Ltd ., a licensed Bulk Distribution Company (BDC) who are importers of finished petrol and diesel products.
Whilst, the accused now convict, David Aseye Tay, is the Managing Director of Renaizance Oil Limited, an unlicensed oil marketing Company (OMC).
According to the prosecution, in January 2018, Renaizance Oil was introduced to the Complainant and the accused person, then entered into negotiations with the General Manager of the Complainant’s Company to lift the products in the name of three (3) Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
The OMCs, according to the Prosecution, were Goodness Energy Limited, Compass Oleum Limited and G&G Oil Company Limited.
The Prosecution said, at the time the accused person entered into negotiations with the complainant company, he knew two (2) of the OMCs, Goodness Energy and Compass Oleum did not belong to him.
Misrepresentation
It said, at the same time, the Accused person misrepresented to these OMCs that he had imported petroleum products into the country which he had kept at oil farms belonging to some BDCs which he could supply them with.
“These OMCs paid him in full, yet he failed to supply them with those products.”
The Prosecution told the court that, in the case of Goodness Oil, he failed to supply them to the tune of one million eight hundred and ninety thousand, five hundred and twelve Ghana Cedis (GH¢1,890,512.20).
“The accused person was expected to make payments to Misyl Energy, the Complainant Company, before the products were lifted or immediately after the products were lifted.
“However, the accused person deliberately stopped making payments through dubious means to the tune of twenty seven million nine hundred and eighty seven thousand, two hundred and fifty Ghana cedis (GH¢27,987,250.00) and then issued cheques to cover this amount.
But, these cheques were dishonoured,” the Prosecution told the court.
It said, the accused issued these cheques knowing very well the cheques will not be honoured.
“The accused person then used proceeds from defrauding the Complainant’s company to purchase third OMC mentioned, that is G&G oil.
“The accused person also purchased other properties using proceeds from defrauding Misyl Energy.
But with time, the Complainant’s Company became suspicious that the accused had defrauded them,” the Prosecution narrated.
It said, the Chairman of Misyl Energy therefore reported the matter to the police for investigation.
“In the course of investigations, the accused person issued a post-dated cheque to the tune of two hundred and fifty thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢250,000.00) which was presented later and dishonoured.”
Dr. Kofi Amoah, a philanthropist and economist, congratulated John Mahama on his selection as the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) flagbearer ahead of the 2024 general elections.
The businessman has however posited that John Mahama’s 14 major promises which were contained in his post-election victory speech held at the University of Development Studies earlier this week lacked the fine details that Ghana needs to prosper.
He thus called on the former president to as soon as practicable outline in detailed form how he plans to achieve the promises he has made.
According to Dr Amoah, politicians get away with many promises in the lead-up to elections without giving citizens an idea of how these promises will be achieved and the timelines within which the promises will be actualized.
Commenting via his verified Twitter handle, Dr Amoah said: “CONGRATS TO PREZ MAHAMA 4 WINNING THE NDC FLAG BEARERSHIP. His 14 promises fall short of the needed n necessary deviation Ghana deserves. Promises that show HOW to accomplish them, ie financial plans, loans? Sir, we need a BUDGET proposal, balanced or not.”
In a follow-up interview to understand his viewpoint, Dr Amoah told GhanaWeb that a clear blueprint of how the many promises politicians make to Ghanaians will be funded or achieved is critical to the development of the country.
“This is what Ghana needs from her presidential hopefuls to help us cut the umbilical cord of empty promises that are not properly vetted for authenticity, practicality and doability, what the Americans call the “Ways and Means”, Dr Amoah explained.
Making references to the past to buttress his point, Dr Kofi said “ The sweet litany of promises our politicians, hitherto, have made to get elected quickly metamorphose into big loans as the source of funding these promises … a pot of funds that also fulfils the insatiable bellies of the corrupt, exaggerated project costs, high flying junkets and a spattering of 18th century looking school buildings, clinics and hospitals without the sustainable plans for well-paid medical staff and necessary equipment, badly constructed roads and boastful flyovers and bridges contracted to foreign companies….
“Ghana is broke and it’s going to take a few years to recover from the yoke of debt payments. It’s therefore critical that a truthful and transparent focus is made and presented to the electorate for their buy-in so that there will be no surprises as to how to move from the deplorable state we presently find ourselves.
I did not expect candidate Mahama to have produced his detailed proposal at his “victory” speech but since he has outlined his promises to underpin his roadmap, we expect him to also present his support Ways and Means approach as soon as practicable.
There are obviously going to be other candidates and Third Force Groups to compete for power and they must all be prepared to provide the details of their financial plans and the Ways and Means of their Rescue and Restoration programs for media and other analyses.
Ghana cannot keep travelling the same Road into the Ditch…
We must jettison our penchant for the leaders who promise freebies and progress without serious work…
By selecting these leaders we have all become enablers of our own demise.
I hope we have learned our bitter lessons and as such we will now all collectively vow to only follow the leaders who propose for us a believable, possible and practical ROAD TO SUCCESS, with its thorns and potholes visible but also with the hope and likelihood of Redemption, Renewal and Progress.
CONGRATS TO PREZ MAHAMA 4 WINNING THE NDC FLAG BEARERSHIP
His 14 promises fall short of the needed n necessary deviation Ghana deserves
Promises that show HOW to accomplish them,ie financial plans, loans?
Former president Mahama is seeking re-election to lead the country once again and has promised to do a litany of things, including appointing only 60 ministers and deputy ministers when he wins power.
He has also promised to return the banking licences of banks that were affected in the banking sector clean-up and also instigate the murder of journalist Ahmad Suale among many promises.
Mr. Mahama delivering an acceptance speech following his victory in the NDC’s Primaries at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Monday, 15 May 2023, pledged his commitment to run a government with fewer officials and appointees as compared to the current Akufo-Addo-led administration.
“I am committed to operating an effective government with not more than sixty (60) ministers. These Ministers together with other appointees of the government will not be entitled to ex-gratia payments after their tenure, as they will commit to that undertaking even before the necessary constitutional amendments, including a review of the controversial Article 71,” Mr Mahama stated.
Reacting to the NDC flagbearer’s speech, in a Facebook post on Tuesday, 16 May 2023, the North Tongu MP who went unopposed in the just-ended Primaries, indicated that Mr Mahama would be saving the taxpayer GH¢350 million if he fulfills his pledge.
“John Mahama’s inspiring & patriotic pledge to appoint not more than 60 Ministers & Deputies, and to prevent all his appointees from receiving ex-gratia payments, will at current conditions of service potentially save the Ghanaian taxpayer an impressive GH¢350million in four years,” Mr. Ablakwa posted on the social media platform.
Member of Parliament for Keta constituency in the Volta Region, Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, has disclosed it cost him a whopping GH¢1.4 million to run his campaign for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary primaries which took place across the country on Saturday, 13 May 2023.
According to the lawmaker, politics has become expensive and not an easy enterprise to fund.
Speaking on Talk of the Nation on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, 16 May 2023, Mr Gakpey said “It cost me GH¢1.4 million to run the campaign.”
Asked by show host Klem Setumte if the money was from his own resources, he said “From my own funds, friends and family”.
Mr Gakpey explained further, “Now posters are very expensive, the economy is hard” and quizzed rhetorically “Do you know how much an A0 poster costs now? One is GH¢20, GH¢25 that one is even impression…do you know how much T-shirt costs now? GH¢45, and then, do you know how much fuel costs? You have to empower teams to go house to house, it’s not an easy task and then [on election day], you have to convey all the people to the election ground, how to feed them and all that, it’s not an easy task.”
He continued that “Politics is expensive, campaigning is expensive, but the resources are from multiple sources, genuinely, that is what is happening, campaigning cost, it’s not an easy task”.
He added that “conveying 1,200 people to a ground to vote and feed them and all that, and then radio advert and all that, is not an easy task, I must be sincere with you, politics is becoming a very expensive business now.”
Asked about his motivation for wanting to be a parliamentarian when it has to cost him this much, Mr. Gakpey noted that his motivation is to save lives.
“My motivation is to save lives and people that’s it so that your name will remain in the books that you also saved lives because I [have] human-centered policies for my people. So money is not everything, caring for the aged, the needy ones are things you can see. If you ask me the benefits of this to me, it is that I see my people being healthy, I see my people being happy that I’ve impacted their lives.”
Following four years of training in courses such as Bible theology, Christian counselling, and education and leadership, three Christian leaders have been conferred Doctors of Ministry (DMin) from Vision International University.
They are a Member of the Council of State; E.T Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of West African Terminals Limited; Apostle Peter Owusu Aboagye, and the Superintendent Minister of South Accra Circuit of the Methodist Church; Very Reverend Solomon Aryetey Patterson.
The university, which is a global distance learning network, trains church leaders, educators and other professionals in leadership in various fields of Christian service, offering online learning programmes from Certificate to Master’s degree.
Christian leadership
At a brief ceremony to confer the awards on them at the Bethel Methodist Church in Accra last Sunday, the Founder and President of the Vision International University, Dr Stanley DeKoven, urged the awardees to teach, preach and put into practice what they had been thought.
He also urged them to prioritise their health, so they could do the work of God.
He encouraged Christian leaders to build their capacities, noting that education was an investment for them, the kingdom of God and the Church.
“We believe that every individual Christian should be trained for ministry, and we believe in individual callings.
We are committed to help our students to achieve their ministry goals,” he said.
Dr DeKoven said Christian leaders must ensure that their emotions were lined up with the truth of God’s word so as to fulfill God’s purpose in their lives.
Integrity
“Walk with integrity, honesty, be upright before God and one another, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide and direct your life each day.
You will then experience the prosperity for your journey,” he said.
“We believe that every one of you will be ambassador that will teach and preach the Word of God anywhere and wherever that God calls you,” he added.
The National Director of Vision International University, Ghana, Very Rev. Dr Mathias Kwesi Forson, urged Christians to build their capacities in the ministry to discern good and bad doctrine.
He added that it was important for Christians to educate themselves in the Word to make meaningful contributions to ensure prosperity in their families, churches and the country.
Speaking on behalf of the recipients, Mr Mensah expressed commitment to train other Christian leaders to lead and preach the word of God.
Quality
He acknowledged the fact that they had been equipped to offer quality development in the areas of their calling, adding that their expertise was needed now more than ever.
He encouraged his colleagues to use their knowledge and skill for the betterment of humanity.
“As we move forward from this point, we must remember that the most important lessons we have learnt is the ability to keep learning.
“The pursuit of knowledge is a lifelong journey and I have no doubt that we will continue to grow and develop in our fields of study,” he said.
Three(3) persons have lost their lives in a tragic crash between a tricycle and a truck at Adukrom -Akuapem in the Okere District of the Eastern region.
The crash occurred on the 16th of May 2023 at about 7:am near the waterworks junction area.
According to an eyewitness, the tricycle locally known as “Aboboya” was loaded with concrete land demarcation pillars descending from Adukrom towards Aseseeso but reportedly failed brake and collided with a Kia truck with registration number GE 7984 coming from the opposite direction.
The two persons aboard the tricycle died instantly but the rider died upon arrival at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital where eight other victims were rushed to for emergency care.
Assemblymember for Adukrom- Methodist electoral area Hon Ebenezer Obiri Asare, explained that a total of twelve(12) victims were involved.
Five (5) were in the tricycle while seven (7) were in the Kia truck.
He said fire Service personnel, police and civilians worked together to retrieve the bodies and manage the accident situation.
“We were following the tricycle but when it reached Adukrom water works it crashed into the driver’s side of the Kia. The tricycle was descending with speed it seems there was a brake failure. So two of the five persons on the tricycle died instantly while the other three were rushed to hospital. We are told the rider popularly known as Enkase also couldn’t survive.”
Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, is a Nigerian chef and restaurateur who just finalised her attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking by an individual.
The chef initially set out to cook for 96 hours to significantly break Lata Tandon’s2019 record of 87 hours and 45 minutes. As the 96th hour approached, she was motivated to extend her attempt to 100 hours and 40 minutes, breaking the record by over 13 hours.
Hilda’s Cook-a-thon started on May 11, 2023, and ended late on May 15, and she prepared over 200 meals served to more than 4,000 people.
While appreciating the love and support, Hilda Baci said, ” I am so amazed at the outpouring of love from Nigerians towards achieving this record. The first six hours were the toughest for me, I had to pray to God for strength.
“I appreciate everyone who took time out to support and encourage me by visiting the venue to cheer me on or driving the conversation on social platforms.
“Your unwavering passion to see me succeed through this attempt is heartfelt. I am grateful to my family, the various teams that worked with me on this project, and fans from all over the world who kept the passion going.’’
The Guinness Book of Records attempt will be ratified after the Official World Record Office verifies the proceedings. This will include ensuring that the attempt is well-measured, standardised, and verifiable.
The Attorney-General, Godfred Dame has revealed that the Ghana Police Service has invited former chairman of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal-Mining (IMCIM), Prof Kwabena Frimpong- Boateng, for questioning following the release of the IMCIM report.
He noted that the police service has written to Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng as it opens an investigation into his 37-page galamsey report, from which a docket is to be built for prosecution.
The Attorney-General said that the docket would eventually get to his office for the already-started due process to continue, thus, debunking perceptions that he has removed himself from the matter.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who chaired the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, accused some government officials and appointees of the president at the Jubilee House, of not only engaging in galamsey but also frustrating his fight against it while in office as the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and innovation.
He named the director of operations at the presidency, Mr. Lord Commey, as one of the bigshots behind galamsey in the country.
The world-renowned heart surgeon also accused the president’s cousin, Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, of intervening to frustrate attempts by the committee to stop Imperial Heritage Limited from decimating some forest reserves through illegal mining activities.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng also said Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, orchestrated media attacks on him so as to court disaffection against him in the eyes of President Nana Akufo-Addo as far as his fight against galamsey was concerned.
Additionally, Professor Frimpong-Boateng named Mr. Joseph Albert Quarm, a former Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta, as being neck-deep in illegal mining.
They have all denied the allegations.
Speaking on the matter, the Attorney General said, although he is interested in the report, he wants due process to be gone through without him being seen as “railroading” it.
“I am interested in it, but of course, certain fora have been invoked: I understand CHRAJ sees of it, the OSP sees of it. If now I, as Attorney General were to review the report, what would you think? I’m sure it will lend itself to all kinds of suspicions,” he told Kojo Yankson.
“I think that really, I can look at the report and review it, but if I do so, you the same media, will say: ‘He’s just a government’s lawyer.’ Yes, let independent people look at it,” Mr. Dame stated.
He said since the docket would eventually land on his table, his intervention is not needed now.
“So, really, I’ve not removed myself from the process, I’m part of it. It’s just due process that will have to be followed”.
He advised the media against sanctifying the report prematurely.
“But a caution and admonition that I would like to give you, the media is that do not raise the level of it and do not accord any sanctity to the report until it has gone through the test prescribed by law.”
Following her extradition from the U.K. for a $2 million romance fraud, Hajia 4Reall is fighting for her freedom in the United States of America.
Hajia 4Reall was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and was extradited from the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023.
According to the prosecution, the Ghanaian socialite’s alleged romance scam targeted elderly and single Americans who were living alone.
Federal prosecutors add that Hajia 4Reall, real name Mona Faiz Montrage appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, 15th May 2023, for her alleged involvement in several romance scams.
Hajia 4Reall’s lawyer, Adam Cortez, also disclosed that there were six alleged victims involved in the case. “At this time all we know is that there are six alleged victims and only two dealt with a woman and only one of them claims that he dealt with Ms. Montrage,” he said.
Adam Cortez is the owner of The Cortez Law Firm. Adam Cortez graduated from Incarnate Word College (now University of Incarnate Word) in 1988 with a B.B.A in Accounting (Magna Cum Laude), and The University of Texas School of Law in 1991.
Adam has been admitted to practice in Texas since 1991. Adam has also been admitted to practice in New York since 2006.
The Texas-based legal practitioner is known for handling Criminal, Litigation: Commercial, Litigation: Personal Injury, and Civil Rights cases. He is also known as a fighter due to his love for boxing as he was once a TV host for a boxing show.
In 2017, CBS featured him telling his story of blending boxing with his profession as a lawyer.
Following her extradition to the US for her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam, Ghanaian mental health activist Nana Abena Korkor Addo has stepped up to defend socialite Hajia4Reall.
The US Attorney’s Office has charged Hajia with fraud and money laundering for her role in a romance fraud scheme.
Ghanaians have condemned her over her previous interviews in which she claimed she worked hard for her money only to be exposed as a fraudster.
However, Abena Korkor, who has previously also served time in a U.S. prison for drug smuggling, has sought to console Hajia.
According to her, she shouldn’t be too worried because American prisons are well equipped hence not too bad to spend time there.
She also said after her incarceration, she will come back and still be a star in Ghana.
In a post on social media, Abena said “@hajia4reall you are a tough nut to crack. You may have made some mistakes but you rise above it. I always believe in reformation. US prisons are well equipped if you are there. Take the time to reflect on your life and come back a winner. Book deals, more music etc await you. May God be your strength.
We are all trying to survive and make best of the opportunities presented. Sometimes we are exploited by predators in our lives. Never give up, I am a living testimony”.
Hajia 4 Reall was yesterday extradited from the UK to the US for allegedly defrauding elderly, single American men and women for over $2 million in a depraved lonely hearts scam.
According to the prosecution, Hajia 4 Reall’s romance scam targeted elderly and single Americans who were living alone.
According to the prosecutors, from at least 2013 through 2019, Hajia 4Reall was involved with a group of con artists from West Africa who assumed fake identities to trick people into thinking they were in relationships with them using emails, texts and social media messages.
Russian soldiers may have shot down four military planes that crashed not far from the Ukrainian border.
Following the Saturday crashes of two fighter jets and two military helicopters in the Bryansk region, the commander of Russia’s Wagner private army made the assertion.
Officials from Russia have not yet responded on the reports.
The four planes likely belonged to the same military aviation group.
Speaking on messaging app Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said: ‘Four planes, if you draw a circle in the places of their fall, it turns out that this circle has a diameter (and all of them lie exactly in a circle) of 40km (25 miles).
‘Now go on the internet and see what kind of air defence weapon could be in the centre of this circle, and then build your own versions.’
However Mr Prigozhim, whose forces are fighting in the city of Bakhmut, later clarified that he was not ‘in the know’ about the situation.
He has repeatedly criticised the Russian military for its strategy in Ukraine. He also claims it has failed to supply Wagner with the ammunition it needs in Bakhmut.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force, denied that Ukraine was involved in shooting down the aircraft.
He suggested on Ukrainian television that Russia itself could be responsible, but later claimed he made the remark as a joke.
Shelling from both sides of the border has repeatedly hit Bryansk, which borders the Chernihiv and Sumy provinces of Ukraine.
Russian authorities claim unexplained explosions had derailed two freight trains in the region, and an armed group had crossed the border from Ukraine in March and killed two civilians.
Bishop Kwabena Asiamah, also referred to as Ajagurajah, has dared to challenge Hilda Baci’s Guinness World Record for cooking continuously for the longest period of time.
In an effort to break the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon, the 27-year-old Nigerian chef finished her 100-hour nonstop cooking marathon yesterday.
Hilda Baci surpassed the previous record set by an Indian chef, Lata Tondon in 2019. The previous titleholder cooked for 87 hours, 45 minutes, and 00 secs.
The news of Hilda Baci’s record has gone viral across the globe attracting myriads of comments including one from Ajagurajah who claims that Hilda’s milestone is not a difficult task for him.
According to the leader of Universal Spiritual Outreach popularly known as Ajagurajah Movement in Ghana, due to the cooking liturgy associated with his church, he has been cooking for more than 86 hours but hasn’t been noticed.
“I heard a Nigerian lady broke a cooking record of 86 hours. This is even small. I am coming to cook for one-week nonstop. Mine is not even gas, I will be using firewood, one week with cameras on me,” he said in a video shared on his Instagram page.
The post has gathered over 600 comments from fans who are throwing their support behind the Ghanaian spiritual leader.
In another video, he said because of his Church’s cooking liturgy, he has cooked longer hours than anybody in this world. “Easter conventions, I sometimes slaughter a cow alone. People don’t support people, if not so, there is one who can beat me in this record.
Recently we held a full moon ceremony and I cooked for longer hours. I have set this record so many times just that nobody filmed me. but this time around I will not leave anything to chance,” he said in the video below.
In one of the largest art thefts in modern history, five men were found guilty of stealing valuable gems worth millions of dollars.
In November 2019, the infamous masked criminal gang stole 21 items of jewellery containing over 4,300 diamonds from the Green Vault Museum in Dresden, Germany.
The legendary 49-carat Dresden white diamond, a diamond-encrusted sword, and other 18th-century valuables had a combined insured value of £98.9 million ($113.8 million).
The men, who have not been named due to German privacy laws but are aged between 24 and 29, were sentenced to between four and six years in jail.
The Dresden state court convicted them of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson. One defendant was acquitted.
They meticulously planned their crime with several visits to the museum beforehand.
The Berlin gang cut the power supply to street lights outside the museum by causing a fire just before the break-in.
They then slipped into the museum through previously cut and re-taped bars on a window, and broke display cases with an axe.
After their heist they sprayed a fire extinguisher to cover their tracks, set fire to a car in a nearby garage, then fled to Berlin.
But the group were caught a few months later following raids on the German capital.
Four of the defendants admitted to the crimes in January, as part of a plea bargain which saw most of the stolen jewels returned.
The fifth defendant admitted only to the procurement of objects to assist with the crime, such as the axes.
Many of the items were however badly damaged and some are feared to never be returned, including a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony.
The Green Vault dates back to 1723 and is one of the world’s oldest museums, which contains the treasury of Augustus the Strong of Saxony.
Some of the other biggest hauls in history include the Antwerp diamond heist, which was dubbed the ‘heist of the century’ and known as one of the largest robberies in history.
Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewellery in Belgium in 2003 at a value of more than £79 million ($100 million).
And last year an audacious 27-minute robbery in northern California, USA, was also hailed as one of the largest jewellery heists in history.
It’s estimated the mob got away with up to 30 bags containing an unknown number of individual pieces worth around £83 million ($100 million).
Following a referral from Scotland Yard about a severe sexual assault allegation, Essex Police have started an investigation into MP Julian Knight.
It is unclear why the matter was forwarded on because the Metropolitan Police had already concluded its investigation into the Solihull MP, who had lost his Conservative whip.
“We have agreed to take on an investigation that has been referred to us from the Metropolitan Police Service,” Essex Police stated in a statement.
“We are looking into a serious sexual assault allegation.”
‘The Essex Police investigation remains at an early stage.’
Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Waldie will oversee the work carried out by a senior investigating officer with ‘extensive experience’.
Mr Knight, currently sitting in the Commons as an independent, was suspended from the Tory Party in October 2022.
He was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Nevertheless, his demand for a return of Tory whip was rejected due to ‘further complaints’.
In response, Mr Knight accused the Whips Office of pursuing a ‘witch hunt’ against him.
He had said: ‘The police have confirmed today that there is no evidence to support that allegation and closed their investigation. They did not even need to interview me to do so.
‘Yet the Whips Office now seems intent on continuing a witch hunt against me in an attempt to prevent my naming names.’
Mr Knight has represented Solihull in the West Midlands since 2015.
In April he said he would step down at the next general election, adding: ‘I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that no job or political career is worth this.’
