TIG Post

Author: Chris Kodo

  • Dafeamekpor drags Railway Development CEO to court over post-retirement contract 

    Dafeamekpor drags Railway Development CEO to court over post-retirement contract 

    Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has dragged the Chief Executive Officer of the Railway Development Authority, Mr Yaw Owusu, to court over the extension of his post-retirement contract.

    The MP contends that Mr Ernest Yaw Owusu has exceeded the maximum five-year engagement period stipulated by the Constitution, as granted to him by President Akufo-Addo and is not entitled to the purported one-year post-retirement contract extension spanning from December 18, 2023, to December 17, 2024.

    He is therefore pursuing a declaration asserting that, in accordance with Article 199(4) of the Constitution, a public servant can serve for a maximum of two years at a stretch, not exceeding a total of five years if required due to service exigencies.

    Additionally, he is petitioning for a declaration that, under Article 199(4) of the Constitution, a retired public service officer can only be awarded a maximum post-retirement contract of five years, divided into periods not exceeding two years each.

    Furthermore, he seeks a declaration stating that the CEO is ineligible for a one-year post-retirement contract extension, having completed the maximum five-year engagement period prescribed by the Constitution.

    The Member of Parliament additionally requests an order to rescind the one-year post-retirement contract extension granted to the CEO by the President of Ghana.

    In bolstering his argument, the MP underscores that the CEO was granted an additional two-year post-retirement contract, commencing on December 16, 2021, and concluding on December 15, 2023, in his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of the Authority. This arrangement was confirmed by a letter dated December 15, 2021, signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante.

    Furthermore, he referenced a letter from the Ministry of Finance, dated August 5, 2022, and signed by Hon. Abena Osei Asare, which cited the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy. 

    This letter suspended approval for Post-Retirement Contract Appointments, except under circumstances where the retiring officer’s skills are scarce and indispensably required.

  • Two labourers perish in Dutch city bridge collapse

    Two labourers perish in Dutch city bridge collapse

    Two workers in the Netherlands died when a bridge they were building collapsed.

    The accident in Lochem happened when the ropes broke on a bridge part being lifted into place, and it fell to the ground.

    Two more people got hurt and are getting help at the hospital.

    Authorities are calling the bridge collapse an “industrial accident” and are currently investigating what caused it.

    Authorities told the Dutch broadcaster NOS that one of the workers who died was from Belgium and the other was from Poland. No more information about their names or ages was given.

    Many people were watching the part of the bridge being moved into position when it suddenly fell down. They are getting help for their mind.

    One person saw the arch moving and then heard a loud bang.

    They are going to build a bridge over a big canal in Lochem, a city in the eastern part of Gelderland, as part of a new road.

    The mayor, Sebastiaan van ‘t Erve, told the AFP news agency that everyone was very surprised by the accident on the new road that people had been waiting for.

    We have been working on building for five years. “And then all of a sudden, everything falls apart in just one day. It killed two people and hurt two more,” he said.

    The mayor said they didn’t know why the building collapsed, and that they were still looking into it.

    The local police said that the two hurt people were brought to the hospital and are expected to get better.

    “They were trying to raise the bridge, but something went wrong. ” You can look at the wires. The bridge started to spin. “The bridge part fell to the ground,” said Andre Meilink from the regional safety authority to NOS.

  • Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu resigns as Majority Leader; Afenyo Markin to take over

    Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu resigns as Majority Leader; Afenyo Markin to take over

    Reports emerging from the camp of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament indicate that the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has resigned from disposition as the Majority Leader.  

    He voluntarily resigned following tensions between some factions in the party, per the reports. 

    Deputy Majority Leader, Alex Afenyo Markin, is expected to assume his position.

    The development drew protests from First Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu and others, who had vowed to resist any changes in their ranks dictated by the party, stating that they were satisfied with the work of the current leadership led by Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

    It equally drew comments from the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, who insisted that the parties with representation in Parliament have a big say in appointing the leadership of their caucuses.

    “If as a new House, you barely even know each other, and then you are asked to go and appoint your leader without your party, how are you going to do it?

    “A party that has given you the platform to come to this House. You come on the ticket of the party and to appoint your leader, the party must lead that process. I don’t know how you can do it without the party, “ he insisted.

    Meanwhile, the National Council of the NPP is set to be briefed on the development on Friday when it meets.

  • Hospital in Alabama suspends IVF after judge finds stored embryos are children

    Hospital in Alabama suspends IVF after judge finds stored embryos are children

    A recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court says that frozen embryos are like children. This means that someone could get in trouble for accidentally destroying them. This has caused more debate about reproductive medicine in the US.

    The biggest hospital in the southern US state has stopped offering IVF services because they are worried they could get in trouble with the law.

    The hospital will keep taking eggs from women’s ovaries. But it said it would stop the next part of the IVF process, when the eggs are joined with sperm before being placed in the uterus.

    “We are sad because this will make it harder for our patients to have a baby with IVF,” said the top medical provider in the state.

    “But we need to consider whether our patients and our doctors could get in trouble with the law or have to pay penalties for following the usual IVF treatments. ”

    Doctors and groups that support people having babies warned that the decision could cause problems for fertility treatments in Alabama and other places.

    Conservative groups were happy with the decision. They believe that even the smallest embryo should be protected by law.

    Why did this case go to court and what was the court’s decision.

    The case comes from a lawsuit filed by three couples because their embryos were lost at a fertility clinic in 2020.

    A person went into the room where the baby cells were kept, touched them, and accidentally let them fall. Therefore, the embryos were broken down.

    The couples wanted to take legal action against the Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Mobile Infirmary Association for the death of their child, according to the state’s law about the death of a minor. The law protects unborn babies, but does not specifically protect embryos made through IVF.

    The court decided that the embryos were not considered a person or child, and the lawsuit for wrongful death could not continue.

    The Alabama Supreme Court agreed with the couples and said that frozen embryos are like children.

    The law says that it applies to all babies who have died, even if they were still in their mother’s belly.

    Agreeing with most people, Chief Justice Tom Parker said that all people have God’s image from even before they are born, and their lives should not be taken away because it would erase God’s glory.

  • Secret Service agents bitten at least 24 times by Joe Biden’s dog

    Secret Service agents bitten at least 24 times by Joe Biden’s dog

    President Joe Biden‘s dog Commander has bitten US Secret Service agents 24 times, according to new documents.

    The US Secret Service has records that show how much trouble the German Shepherd caused for the president’s bodyguards.

    A very experienced agent noticed that the bites meant the Secret Service is now telling agents to keep their distance and give more space.

    The notice came many months before the Commander was taken out of the White House.

    The papers were shared because of Freedom of Information requests and uploaded on the internet. The information is edited a lot to keep the Secret Service agents’ identities and security tactics a secret.

    Between October 2022 and July 2023, there were at least 24 times when people were bitten. This includes members of the Secret Service who were bitten on different parts of their body like the wrist, forearm, elbow, waist, chest, thigh and shoulder.

    The papers may not have all the times when Commander bit someone because they only have information about the Secret Service, not other people who work at the White House or Camp David in Maryland.

    The Biden family’s pet left the White House in October last year. This happened one week after a Secret Service agent got bitten and needed medical help.

    In June, an agent got a serious bite on the arm that needed stitches. There was some blood on the floor in a part of the White House, so they had to stop tours of the East Wing for 20 minutes.

    In July, another agent got bitten on the hand and needed six stitches. The bite made a big open wound and the person started to lose a lot of blood. This was in an email.

    This agent received a gift from coworkers that included medicine for pain and infection, pepper spray, a muzzle, and dog treats for safety reasons.

    In an email, a senior agent said that agents looking after Mr Biden and his family need to be creative to make sure they stay safe.

    “The recent dog bites have made us change how we do things when Commander is around- please stay far away (ideally stay one feature of land away),” the agent wrote.

  • Full list: Bawumia’s 24 member manifesto committee

    Full list: Bawumia’s 24 member manifesto committee

    Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has unveiled a list of individuals who will constitute the party’s manifesto committee, ahead of the 2024 general elections.

    These set of people will steer the affairs of his manifesto. The list contained in a statement issued on February 21, 2024, constitutes 24 prominent members of the party, including Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, former Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, etc.

    “The committee will be chaired by Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Sector Ministers will serve as advisors to the committees,” the statement said.

    The statement further stated that: “The Committee shall be responsible for undertaking a holistic review of the party’s 2016 and 2020 manifestos and engaging all relevant stakeholders to come up with a pragmatic 2024 manifesto.”

    The Manifesto Committee is further charged to discharge their mandate efficiently and professionally to produce a comprehensive manifesto document that can stand the test of time to address the legitimate concerns and socio-economic challenges of Ghanaians, according to the statement.

    Find below the composition of the committee chairs and their various designations.

        1.    Manifesto Committee

        a.    Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Chairman of the Manifesto Committee Chair

        b.    Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Vice-Chairman of the Manifesto Committee

        c.    Evron Hughes, Secretary of the Manifesto Committee

        2.    Manifesto Committee Coordinators

        a.    Prof. Kwaku Appiah Adu, Coordinator of the Manifesto Committee

        b.    Dr. Isaac Owusu Mensah, Coordinator of the Manifesto Committee

        3.    Manifesto Sub-Committees Chairs

        a.    Dr. Assibey Yeboah, Economy

        b.    Tony Oteng Gyasi, Trade and Industry

        c.    Kwakwo Nsafoah Poku, Energy and Petroleum

        d.    William Oppong-Bio, Agriculture

        e.    Dr. Augustine Blay, Communication and Digitalization

        f.    Dr. Gideon Boako, Lands, Minerals, and Natural Resources

        g.    Dr. Emmanuel Marfo, Science, Technology, Innovation, and Environment

        h.    Maxwell Opoku Agyeman, Legal and Governance

        i.    Justina Marigold, Local Government

  • Australian court charges former Broome bishop with rape

    Australian court charges former Broome bishop with rape

    Australian bishop Christopher Saunders has been accused of rape and a series of old sex crimes, including some involving children.

    The 74-year-old was taken into custody in Broome on Wednesday, after both the police in Western Australia and the Pope’s investigations.

    Mr Saunders, who has denied doing anything wrong before, was not allowed to leave jail and will have to go to court on Thursday.

    He is one of the oldest Catholic priests to be charged with this.

    Mr Saunders is accused of raping two people, assaulting 14 people in a bad way, and doing inappropriate things with children while he was in charge of them.

    Between 2008 and 2014, it is said that the crime happened in the faraway towns of Broome and Kununurra in Western Australia, as well as in the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu.

    Apart from Cardinal George Pell, who was sent to jail and then found not guilty, Mr. Saunders is the highest-ranking Catholic leader in the country to be accused of child sex crimes.

    On Thursday, The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said they will work with the police and find the charges against Mr. Saunders very serious and upsetting, especially for those making the allegations.

    Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said it is important to fully investigate all the allegations.

    Mr Saunders started working as a minister in 1976 and has mostly worked in the faraway Kimberley area in the north-west of the country. He became the Bishop of Broome in 1996.

    The diocese covers a large area of about 770,000 sq km, which is about the same size as Turkey. It includes very faraway parts of the country.

    Mr Saunders is popular for being sociable, doing advocacy work, and taking young men on camping and fishing trips. He is an important person in the local community. A beer is named after him.

    The accusations were first made in 2020, but the police didn’t find enough evidence to charge anyone.

    He chose to step down from his position as the Bishop of Broome in 2020, but still holds the title of emeritus bishop.

    But after the Pope ordered a big investigation, the police started looking into it again.

    Only a few Vos Estis Lux Mundi investigations have been conducted globally. In Latin, “Vos Estis” means “You Are the Light of the World. ” It is an investigation ordered by the pope in 2019 to stop sexual abuse and punish leaders in the Catholic Church who have done wrong.

  • Haitian President’s wife charged in his assassination

    Haitian President’s wife charged in his assassination

    The murder of President Jovenel Moise in 2021 is being examined by a judge in Haiti. The judge has accused his wife, the former prime minister, and a former police chief of being involved in the murder.

    A 122-page document was leaked and published by a local media outlet. It says that the president’s widow, Martine Moise, and a former Prime Minister named Claude Joseph planned to kill the president so that she could take his place.

    Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire said to arrest and put on trial about 50 people for shooting Moise at his home in July 2021. A group of around 20 attackers, many of them hired from Colombia, were there.

    All the people accused were sent to the criminal court to be judged for crimes like planning together to commit a crime, stealing using weapons, causing fear in people, killing, and helping someone else to kill.

    The document said that the former first lady’s statements about the attack were full of contradictions and couldn’t be trusted.

    Joseph and the ex-leader of the national police, Leon Charles, were also found to have been involved in the killing. AyiboPost said that the document didn’t clearly show who was behind the assassination or who paid for it.

    Moise has spoken out against unfair arrests on social media. Joseph told the Miami Herald that the Prime Minister was using the Haitian justice system to go after his enemies in a classic coup.

    A person from Henry’s office said the judge can make decisions on his own according to the law and what he thinks is right.
    Miami court case

    A different trial for Moise’s murder is happening in Miami.

    The United States decided it had the right to handle the case because part of the assassination plan was made in South Florida. 11 people are being charged with being involved in a murder.

    We tell important stories about US politics, Canada’s diverse culture, and South America’s growing influence.

    Six out of 11 people admitted to being part of a plan to send Colombian soldiers to capture Moise, but they later decided to change the plan and kill him instead.

    The people who were planning secretly wanted to take out Moise and put Christian Emmanuel Sanon in charge instead, according to the US.

    Since Moise’s death, Haiti has become even more chaotic. There hasn’t been an election and Moise is still the president.

    Henry, who is the head of a group that disagrees with the current leaders, has postponed the elections for an unknown amount of time. He said it’s because there was a really bad earthquake and the criminal groups with lots of weapons are getting stronger. He asked for help from other countries.

    Gangs are becoming a big problem in many parts of the country. They now control most of the capital city and the number of murders has more than doubled in the past year to almost 4,800, according to a report from the United Nations.

    Kenya is getting ready to lead a team approved by the UN to help the police in Haiti. But other countries are cautious about helping because they are worried about past mistreatment by foreign missions and accusations against Haiti’s government.

  • WHO concerned about hospital’s surviving patients at Nasser in Gaza

    WHO concerned about hospital’s surviving patients at Nasser in Gaza

    The World Health Organization is worried about 130 patients at Nasser hospital in Gaza because the hospital is not working properly after an Israeli attack.

    The UN agency helped transfer 32 very sick Palestinians from the complex in Khan Younis on two missions.

    It means there is no electricity or water, and medical waste and garbage can make people sick.

    Israel’s soldiers are giving help to make sure the hospital can keep working while they fight against Hamas.

    The Israeli military has caught many “terrorists” and found weapons and medicine for Israeli hostages in a place controlled by Hamas. This happened last Thursday.

    Hamas is accused of using hospitals as cover, but they say it’s not true and that it’s just an excuse to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system. Israel and the UK call Hamas a terrorist group.

    Out of the 36 hospitals in Palestinian territory, only 11 are still partly working after four months of fighting. Three hospitals are only working at a little bit.

    At the same time, the Word Food Programme said it was stopping food deliveries to northern Gaza because there is a lot of confusion and violence since the civil order has broken down.

    It said that because of the looting and the attack on a driver, things will get worse there and more people might die because they don’t have enough food.

    The Israeli army started a big attack in Gaza after Hamas soldiers killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 253 people as hostages.

    The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says that 29,195 people have died in the area, including at least 103 in the last day.

    The WHO moved 23 very sick patients, including two kids, from the Nasser Medical Complex. They also gave medicine and food to the hospital.

    Four ambulances from the Palestinian Red Crescent took the patients to different hospitals in Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, and Rafah.

    “Some of the patients moved during the missions had paralysis, and two of them had tracheostomy. Others had external fixators for serious bone injuries. ” Two paralyzed patients needed someone to help them breathe during the whole trip because there were no portable ventilators available.

    WHO workers said the area around the hospital was very bad. Many buildings were burnt and destroyed, there was lots of debris, and the roads were gone.

    It said that if the hospital can’t continue to help the 130 sick and injured patients, as well as at least 15 doctors and nurses inside, more people will die.

    The WHO said its staff were not allowed to go to the hospital to check on patients and had heard that at least five patients in the intensive care unit had died.

    They said that the destruction of Nasser hospital is a big problem for Gaza’s healthcare system.

    The health ministry in Gaza said that Israeli forces had turned Nasser hospital into a place for soldiers, and the situation there is really bad, putting the lives of patients and staff in danger.

    On Monday, the Israeli defense ministry department that manages policy for the Palestinian territories, Cogat, said that the Nasser hospital was still open and running even though Hamas members were pretending to be medical workers during the Israel Defense Forces’ operations.

    “We helped send medical supplies to the hospital and worked with the UN to move the patients to safety,” they posted on X, which used to be called Twitter.

    The UN sent a big truck with diesel fuel, water bottles, food, bread, a new generator, and medicine to help.

    On Sunday, the Israeli military said they caught many terrorists and other suspects at the hospital. Some of them were involved in the 7 October attacks and had connections to the hostages. They also caught important members of Hamas.

    They found lots of weapons, two vehicles, and boxes of medicine. The medicine was supposed to be given to Israeli hostages as part of a deal.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent said that there is a problem at another big hospital in Khan Younis, called al-Amal. There are about 180 patients, doctors, and people who had to leave their homes and stay there, because two weeks ago Israeli soldiers went there.

    “Al-Amal hospital is being attacked by Israeli forces. They have hit the third floor, and two rooms are on fire,” said a post on X. “Also, someone attacked the hospital’s water pipes. ”

    The IDF did not comment right away.

  • World Food Programme halts supplies to northern part of Gaza

    World Food Programme halts supplies to northern part of Gaza

    The World Food Programme has stopped giving food to people in northern Gaza because there has been a lot of chaos and violence, and it’s not safe for the aid convoys to deliver the food.

    The agency said they made the decision with a lot of thought and the crews had to deal with large groups of people, gunshots, and stealing.

    The UN has been saying that there might be a famine in the north since December.

    The WFP says that these new reports show a rapid increase in hunger and illness.

    The Israeli military told 1. 1 million Palestinian people to leave the north of Wadi Gaza and go to the south when they started their ground attack in October. The area where people had to leave included Gaza City. It was the most crowded place in the territory before the war.

    Most people obeyed the Israeli order, but many hundreds of thousands stayed or couldn’t leave when Israeli soldiers surrounded the area and mostly took over Hamas’ bases there.

    Last month, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said that at least 300,000 people in northern Gaza rely on its help to survive.

    Not many aid deliveries have been made to the north because they need approval from the Israeli military for safety reasons.

    This weekend the WFP planned to start delivering food for a whole week. They were going to send 10 trucks each day to help stop hunger and desperation.

    But last Sunday, when a group of vehicles approached the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, they were surrounded by a lot of hungry people. Some people even tried to get onto the vehicles. When they entered Gaza City, there was gunfire, a lot of tension, and angry outbursts.

    Also, some trucks driving from the southern city of Khan Younis to the central town of Deir al-Balah were robbed and a driver was attacked.

    The WFP said in the last two days, their teams saw very high levels of desperation in the Gaza Strip.

    “There is not enough food and clean water, and many people are getting sick. This is making it harder for women and children to stay healthy, and many are becoming very malnourished. ”

    “People are dying because they don’t have enough food to eat,” it added.

    A report from WFP and UNICEF says that the situation in the north of Gaza is very bad.

    Nutrition checks at shelters and health centers in the north showed that over 15% of children under two years old were very malnourished, according to the WFP.

    The agency promised to find a safe way to start sending supplies again and asked for more help for northern Gaza. It said that more food should come into Gaza from many different ways and asked for the crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza to be opened.

    It also asked for a system that tells people when there is a need to help others, a strong way to talk to each other, and safety for its workers and friends, and for the people in Gaza.

    “Gaza is in a very bad situation and WFP needs to be allowed to prevent thousands of people from starving,” it says.

    Israel started fighting in Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7. About 1,200 people were killed, and over 240 others were taken hostage during the attack.

    According to the health ministry run by Hamas, 29,000 people in the Palestinian territory have been killed by the Israeli military’s campaign against Hamas.

  • Peace negotiations between Israel and Gaza no promising – Qatar

    Peace negotiations between Israel and Gaza no promising – Qatar

    According to the mediator Qatar, the talks to halt the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have not been progressing.

    Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he still feels hopeful, but he also mentioned that time is running out for us.

    The Prime Minister of Israel wants to continue with plans to invade Rafah, even though many other countries are telling him not to.

    Hamas says Israel is to blame for not making progress on reaching a ceasefire agreement.

    High-ranking officials from the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar are meeting in Cairo to try to stop the fighting.

    Sheik Mohammed said that the recent pattern has not been very encouraging. However, he always stays positive and determined to keep pushing forward. He spoke at a meeting of world leaders at the Munich Security Conference.

    “I think we are talking about a big agreement, and we still have some problems with the humanitarian part of these negotiations,” he said.

    But he said the truce should not depend on making a deal to free the hostages held by Hamas.

    “We have been in a difficult situation where many countries have misused the idea that a ceasefire will only happen if a hostage deal is made,” he said.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he sent people to talk with Hamas after US President Joe Biden asked him to. But they didn’t go back for more talks because Hamas’s requests were unrealistic.

    The group wants some things to happen, like trading hostages for Palestinian prisoners, Israel’s soldiers leaving completely, and for the war to stop after a 135-day break in fighting, divided into three parts.

    Israel started fighting back with its military because a group called Hamas attacked and hurt a lot of people and took hostages in a surprise attack on October 7th.

    More than 28,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s attack, according to the health ministry run by Hamas.

    MrNetanyahu said in Jerusalem on Saturday that he wants to defeat Hamas and his forces will keep fighting until Israel wins completely.

    He said that people who don’t want to take military action in Rafah are basically telling the country to give up in the war, and he also said that his soldiers would go into Rafah even if a deal to release hostages was made.

    At the beginning of the war, Israel told Palestinians to go to Rafah for safety while the Israeli military attacked the cities in the north.

    This week, Israeli officials said they want people to move to a “humanitarian zone” called al-Mawasi, which is a small area along the coast where farming is the main activity.

    President Biden told Israel not to attack Rafah unless they have a plan to protect civilians.

    MrNetanyahu is under pressure in his own country to bring back the hostages still in Gaza.

    Many people got together in Tel Aviv to ask for elections to happen sooner, even though they are not supposed to happen until 2026. Israel’s leader said no to his party’s request for an election right after the conflict with Gaza. He thinks it would cause too much disagreement.

    Meanwhile, Hamas said Israel is not helping to make a ceasefire happen. They also said they might stop helping unless they get aid for the north of Gaza. Aid groups are worried because there isn’t enough food, water or medicine in the area.

  • Dublin declares cross-border funding of €800 million

    Dublin declares cross-border funding of €800 million

    The Irish government has said it will give a lot of money, €800 million, for projects that involve both sides of the border.

    The leaders in Dublin agreed on the plans, which include €600 million to improve the A5.

    It’s also setting aside €50 million to improve Casement Park in west Belfast.

    Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said: “The promises we have made today are about helping communities on both sides of the border. ”

    We need to invest in people, infrastructure, and quality of life in Ireland and Northern Ireland. This will create better opportunities for future generations if we all work together.

    Mr Vardkar said that by spending €600 million on the A5 upgrade, it will improve the connection between the north and south of the island to match the rest of the island.

    Mr Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan spoke to the media in Dublin.

    The funding news also talks about changes to projects that are already happening, like the Narrow Water Bridge.


    Important projects approved – Martin

    Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin said it was a “special and important moment”.

    He said: “Important projects that have been planned for a long time are now approved to start or have received enough money to move forward with the help of partners, like the A5 upgrade. ”

    Mr Martin said he was very happy to approve the Narrow Water Bridge project.

    He said the money for Casement Park is a big investment in a part of Belfast that has had many problems for a long time.

    Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said that the money is coming at the right time and is very important, especially now that the Northern Ireland government is back and the North-South meetings are starting again.

    Mr Ryan said that the A5 road and trains running between Belfast and Dublin every hour will make it easier to travel between the two cities.

    Mr Ryan said the money was only the beginning and would make the connections in Ireland stronger.


    Maskey says good things are happening.

    “I’m glad that Sinn Féin’s Paul Maskey supports the money given to Casement Park. ”

    The MP from West Belfast said it was a good move towards making a top-notch sports facility.

    The SDLP said that the Irish government’s money would help fund projects that have been discussed for a long time.

    The leader of the party, Colm Eastwood, wants the Stormont executive to show the promises it made about important projects.

    DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is happy that the Irish government is giving money, but he thinks the UK should also promise to help.

    He said that the government of the Republic is not responsible for giving money for public services and infrastructure in Northern Ireland. “That is something for the UK to deal with. ”


    ‘Enough is enough’

    Niall McKenna from the group Enough is Enough said he was sure the new road upgrade would happen, before the A5 funding was confirmed. The group was started after the death of John Rafferty in 2020.

    He was talking on the BBC’s show called Good Morning Ulster.

    “We are really sure that it will happen this time – everything is going the right way and we are very sure it will happen this time,” he said.

    Many people have died on road A5. This road is causing a lot of deaths, and we need to make sure it stops.

    Mr McKenna said that people’s attitudes have changed a lot.

    He said: “People are not willing to accept that A5 isn’t being delivered anymore. ”

    Hamilton Hazzard has been a farmer in Omagh for more than 30 years. He does not support the A5 road plan.

    “I might lose 13% of my farm because they want to build a road. I don’t just object because of that. I’ve been asking for the existing road to be fixed for a long time. ”

    “We don’t like the plan, but we do want the road to be improved. ”

    Mr Hazzard said that the roads could be improved without taking away any land.

    He said: “The road needs to be made better with more places to pass, straightened out when needed, and places to pull over, and then you wouldn’t have to use 3,000 acres of important farmland. ”

    Today’s announcements are part of a project called Shared Island. It was started by Mr. Martin when he was the leader of the government in 2020.

    The Irish government’s plan for the next 10 years includes a lot of money to invest in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

    By 2030, there will be more than €3. 5bn (£3bn) invested in projects across the whole island, including €800m for projects that involve both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The money comes from the government’s Shared Island Fund, Project Ireland 2040 funds, resources for North/South cooperation, and the PEACEPLUS program, which is done with the European Union, UK Government, and Northern Ireland Executive.

  • Man dies after being bitten by his pet Gila monster in Colorado

    Man dies after being bitten by his pet Gila monster in Colorado

    Officials in Colorado have said that a 34-year-old person from the area died four days after being bitten by one of their two pet Gila monsters.

    The animals are dangerous snakes that live in the southwest part of the United States. Their bites usually do not kill people.

    But a specialist told media, that the person may have had an allergic response. The most recent deadly bite from a human is thought to have happened in 1930.

    Dr Nick Brandehoff, who knows a lot about reptiles and toxins, told the media that the incident was not even in a medical journal.

    He said that most bites make the area swell up and bleed.

    Dr Brandehoff said that the death last week shows that we should respect all venomous animals.

    The victim in Jefferson County, whose name is not known, had two meat-eating reptiles.

    Gila monsters are the biggest lizards in the country and can grow to about 22 inches (56cm) long, according to the Smithsonian Institution. They are named after the Gila River. They are called Gila River.

    On Monday 12 February, a young creature that was about 12 inches long bit the man.

    He went to the hospital and passed away last Friday.

    The coroner’s office in Jefferson County checked the body, but needs more tests to figure out exactly how the person died.

    You need a license to own a Gila monster in this state. The man had tarantulas and it’s legal to have them.

    An investigator from Colorado Parks and Wildlife said his team was asked to take the two Gila monsters out of the house.

    The lizards from the desert will be sent to a special place to get better. The animal that bit the man will be taken to a lab at the University of Northern Colorado first.

    There, the poison will be taken out and looked at to find out more about why its bite caused its owner to die.

  • Alexei Navalny: Mum demands Putin give back her son’s body

    Alexei Navalny: Mum demands Putin give back her son’s body

    Alexei Navalny’s mother wants President Putin to give her son’s body back.

    She said in a video that she had been trying to find him for five days, but didn’t know where he was. He died on Friday at the colony.

    Navalny’s wife Yulia asked the officials to let his family say goodbye to him.

    The family has been told that they won’t be able to get his body for two weeks.

    His mother was told that the substance is being tested by experts, a spokesperson for Navalny said.

    Russian authorities haven’t confirmed where the body is and have stopped efforts to find it multiple times.

    Yulia Navalnaya said that her husband’s body was being kept until the nerve agent Novichok poisoning was gone. Navalny didn’t die when someone tried to kill him with poison in 2020.

    Dmitry Peskov, who speaks for the Kremlin, said the accusations are not true and rude. He also said he wouldn’t say more because Ms Navalnaya’s husband recently died.

    Navalny’s mom asked President Putin for help outside the prison in Siberia where Navalny died on February 16th.

    She says she hasn’t seen him for five days, they won’t give his body to her, and they won’t tell her where he is.

    I need you, Vladimir Putin. It’s all up to you. I want to see my son now. I want Alexei’s body to be released right away so I can bury him properly.

    Her daughter-in-law posted a strong message on X (formerly known as Twitter) that echoed her words.

    She said she doesn’t care at all about what the murderer’s press secretary, Mr. Peskov, says about her words. She says Mr Putin killed her husband.

    “She said to return Alexei’s body and allow him to be buried properly, and not to interfere with people saying their final goodbyes to him. ”

    She made these comments after talking to the European Union and the Munich Security Conference. She also released a video on Monday where she promised to keep fighting for a “free Russia” like her husband did.

    She told EU leaders not to accept Russia’s presidential elections on 16 March and to go after the people close to Mr. Putin who are still trying to avoid sanctions.

    Navalny died in prison on Friday. The people in charge of the prison in Siberia where he was staying said he never woke up after he fell down during a walk.

    Authorities later said that Navalny had experienced “sudden death syndrome”.

    His mom and lawyer went to the faraway place as soon as they heard he died.

    The prison mortuary and local authorities have repeatedly stopped people from finding the body.

    On Monday, the government is still looking into Navalny’s death and hasn’t found out anything yet.

    Later, Kira Yarmysh, who speaks for Navalny, said that the investigators told Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila, that they will not give back his body for two weeks. They want to do some tests on it first.

    Navalny, a leader of the opposition in Russia for the past 10 years, was in prison for 19 years for charges that were thought to be politically driven.

    Western leaders are saying that President Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death. The EU and the US are thinking about imposing more punishments on Russia.

    The UK Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, said he thinks Britain and other wealthy countries in the G7 will put new penalties on Russians connected to the death.

  • Putin gifts Kim of North Korea high-fancy car

    Putin gifts Kim of North Korea high-fancy car

    Russian President Vladimir Putin gave North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a fancy car made in Russia.

    Pyongyang’s official news said that Mr. Kim’s top aides received the limousine on Sunday.

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the gift was a big fancy car called an Aurus, just like the one Mr. Putin drives

    The two countries, which were not very connected to the rest of the world, have become close friends since Russia attacked Ukraine.

    North Korea is believed to be giving Russia weapons like guns, rockets, and missiles for the war, even though both countries are supposed to follow international rules against it. Both sides say they did not break the rules about sanctions.

    Last September, Mr. Putin greeted Mr. Kim at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. This was Mr. Kim’s first trip to another country in four years.

    During the visit, the leader of North Korea looked at Mr. Putin’s fancy car and was asked to sit in the back. They also exchanged guns as presents.

    It is thought that Kim Jong-un likes cars and has a lot of expensive ones from other countries.

    Kim’s sister Yo Jong said that the gift shows how close the leaders of the two countries are. Her comments were reported by the North Korean state news agency KCNA.

    South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said that giving the gift broke the rules from the United Nations Security Council. They have sanctions against North Korea that say certain types of vehicles, like luxury cars, can’t be given to them.

    BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that although the two leaders are not like best friends, they both understand the advantages of having a closer relationship. Unlike Kim and former US President Donald Trump, they don’t have a very close or friendly relationship.

    Russia and North Korea have said that Mr Putin will go to Pyongyang soon.

  • Russian pilot “shot dead” in Spain after defecting to Ukraine

    Russian pilot “shot dead” in Spain after defecting to Ukraine

    A man was shot and killed in Spain. There is speculation that he is the Russian helicopter pilot who traveled to Ukraine last year.

    In August, Maxim Kuzminov flew a helicopter into Ukraine and turned himself in.

    The Spanish police have not said who the man is, but he was killed near Alicante last week.

    But, Ukrainian spies said that Mr Kuzminov died on Monday.

    “We confirm that he died,” said a representative to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. He chose to go to Spain instead of staying here.

    “He asked his former wife to come with him, and later he was found dead from a gunshot. ”

    Spanish police told the media that the person who got hurt might have been living using a fake name.

    According to the Spanish news agency Efe, the body of Mr. Kuzminov was found near a house in the town of Villajoyosa on the eastern coast of Spain. His documents matched his nationality, but had a different name on them.

    A burned car that might have been used by the attackers was found close to where the crime happened, the intelligence agency’s press service said.

    Last year, Mr Kuzminov told the Ukrainian secret service that he wanted to leave and join them.

    The “Operation Synytsia” allowed him to fly his Mi-8 helicopter over the border and land it in eastern Ukraine on 9 August.

    Two more people on the helicopter didn’t know what Mr. Kuzminov was going to do. They were shot and killed when they tried to run back to the border after the helicopter landed. Kuzminov, who was also shot in the leg, said that the Russian forces were responsible for the killings.

    In September, Mr Kuzminov said in a news conference that he changed his mind and joined the other side because he didn’t agree with Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    He also said that Ukraine agreed to give him $500,000 (£397,000) in government payments, new documents, and protection for his family.

    The Ukrainian government said they gave Mr Kuzminov the chance to stay in Ukraine.

    The person in charge of keeping Ukraine safe said that the person would have been safe here. “He said they didn’t behave as badly here as they did in Spain. ”

    Russian officials have not made a statement, but Sergei Naryshkin, who runs Russia’s spy agency, called the person a traitor and criminal.

    A few months after Mr Kuzminov left, Russian TV showed a man who is supposed to be a Russian spy saying, “I don’t think he will live long enough to go to trial. “

  • Yulia, widow of Alexei Navalny, confronts difficult task in Russia

    Yulia, widow of Alexei Navalny, confronts difficult task in Russia

    For a long time, Yulia Navalnaya was always with her husband. She always went to political protests and court hearings, and would sometimes hold his hand there.

    In 2020, when Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent, Yulia helped get permission for him to go to another country for treatment that saved his life.

    And now he has passed away by himself in a prison far away in the Arctic.

    She says it’s Putin’s fault and wants Russians to help her fight him.

    Yulia Navalnaya posted a video online on Monday to gain attention in politics. She loves her husband a lot, and she is still very sad, so it’s hard to watch some parts of the recording.

    But it is very convincing.

    Navalny’s wife says she feels extremely sad and torn apart. But her anger is what makes her want to keep fighting for her husband’s cause.

    She wants to make Russia better in the future so that his death will have meaning.

    Some Russians who don’t like Mr. Putin might feel better after hearing the speech.

    Until now, Yulia Navalnaya was quiet and kept to herself. However, the video shows that she is a very strong woman.

    Her experience of loss and love gives her a strong sense of right and wrong, and she is very likeable.
    Powerful women

    In the past, strong women have taken over when men were not around.

    In nearby Belarus, the leader Alexander Lukashenko didn’t think Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was a threat, so he let her join the 2020 presidential race after her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky was arrested.

    MrLukashenko almost lost his power because of sexism. When he said he won by a lot, Ms. Tikhanovskaya brought many people to the streets, yelling about a dishonest vote.

    She had to leave her country after the KGB warned her, and now she is like a leader in another country.

    Evgenia Kara-Murza has also started working on a worldwide level.

    When her husband was poisoned in Moscow in 2015 and 2017, Evgenia stayed by his side in the hospital, watching over him closely.

    At that time, Vladimir Kara-Murza was working to get Western leaders to make things harder for Putin’s supporters by using sanctions.

    In 2022, he got in trouble for speaking out against Russia’s actions in Ukraine and was found guilty of betraying his country.

    Evgenia, who usually works as a translator, is now spending most of her time supporting her husband’s campaign for sanctions and also calling for his freedom in Western cities.

    Defeating opponents completely.

    Yulia Navalnaya could do the same job.

    She already talked to EU foreign ministers, who are very angry about Navalny’s death. They said Mr. Putin is ultimately responsible and there will be more consequences, but they didn’t say what they are yet.

    But it’s difficult to find the main opposition groups in Russia.

  • Ukraine war: Russia arrests US-Russian woman on suspicion of treason

    Ukraine war: Russia arrests US-Russian woman on suspicion of treason

    A woman with citizenship in both the US and Russia has been arrested in Russia for allegedly betraying her country and giving money to Ukraine’s army.

    The woman from Los Angeles was collecting money for a Ukrainian group that supports the armed forces in Kyiv, according to the Russian security agency FSB.

    She was also accused of going to rallies in the US that support Ukraine.

    The 33-year-old was held by the police in Yekaterinburg.

    The FSB stated that the woman has been gathering money for the Ukrainian organization since February 2022, when Russia began its big military operation in the country.

    It said that the money was later used to buy things like medical supplies, equipment, and weapons and bullets for the Ukrainian army.

    The video from RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, showed a woman with her face covered and blurred, walking with a police officer.

    She was put in handcuffs and taken to a police car. Then she was taken to a small room in the court and later taken out.

    The FSB stated that the woman was working against the safety of our country and was supporting the Ukrainian army while in the US.

    Last year in April, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made a new law that gives a longer jail sentence for treason. This is part of his plan to stop people from speaking against the government.

    The FSB arrested a woman in Yekaterinburg, which is 1,600km east of Moscow. This is the same city where US journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested for spying last year.

    Mr Gershkovich, who knows a lot about Russia, was working for the Wall Street Journal at the time.

    In January, Russia decided to keep him in jail until the end of March for trial. He could go to prison for up to 20 years if he is proven guilty.

    The US government says that the reporter was kept in custody unfairly.

    Last week, Mr Putin told US host Tucker Carlson in an interview that he thinks they might be able to make a deal to release Mr Gershkovich.

    A few more Americans are currently in jail in Russia. One of them is Paul Whelan, a former marine who has been in prison there since 2018. He was found guilty of spying and has to spend 16 years in prison.

  • Surgeries delayed after more than 1,600 doctors in South Korea strike

    Surgeries delayed after more than 1,600 doctors in South Korea strike

    Many surgeries were postponed and hospitals refused to accept patients because more than 1,600 doctors in South Korea went on strike on Tuesday.

    The young doctors are not happy with the government’s plan to add more trained doctors to the system.

    South Korea doesn’t have enough doctors for the number of patients. The government wants to increase the number of spaces in medical schools to have more doctors available.

    However, doctors do not like the idea of more competition, according to experts.

    South Korea has a healthcare system where most treatments are paid for by insurance, and over 90% of hospitals are owned privately.

    The doctors at this hospital are paid a lot of money compared to other doctors around the world. The average specialist at a public hospital earns almost $200,000 a year, which is much more than what most people in the country make.

    However, right now there are only 2. 5 doctors for every 1,000 people. This is the second lowest rate in the group of countries called OECD, with Mexico being the lowest.

    “Having more doctors means they have to compete with each other, which can lead to them earning less money. ” Prof Kwon Soon-man, a health expert at Seoul National University, said they don’t agree with the idea of having more doctors.

    The country doesn’t have enough doctors in far-away places, and also not enough in specialities like children’s health and childbirth. These specialities are not seen as profitable as some other types of medicine like skin and plastic surgery.

    Almost 6,500 new doctors and trainees, which is about half of the total, handed in their resignation letters on Monday, according to the country’s health ministry.

    About 1,600 doctors didn’t go to work from that group. The Korean Medical Association and Korea Interns and Residents Association asked their members to stop working completely on Tuesday.

    The government told doctors to start working again, and President Yoon Suk-yeol criticized a campaign that he said was putting people’s lives and health at risk.

    He said he knew of cases where cancer surgeries had been delayed because of the walk-outs. South Korean news said some patients had to leave or go to different hospitals.

    Young doctors are a big part of the staff in the emergency rooms. According to Yonhap, almost 37% of doctors in the largest hospitals in Seoul could be impacted.

    “We are very upset that trainee doctors are not willing to work,” said Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo to reporters earlier this week.

    On Tuesday, he said the government will use the law to stop the strike. The government can take away a doctor’s license if their actions hurt national healthcare.

    The country has taken legal action against doctors who went on strike before. The government said it was going to do something to two officials of the Korean Medical Association on Tuesday.

    Almost 6,500 new doctors decided to quit their jobs on Monday, which is about half of all the new doctors in the country. This information came from the health ministry.

    Out of the group, around 1,600 doctors didn’t come to work. The Korean Medical Association and Korea Interns and Residents Association asked their members to not work at all on Tuesday.

    The government wants doctors to start working again. President Yoon Suk-yeol is angry at the campaign that is hurting people’s lives and health.

    He said he knew of situations where cancer surgeries had been delayed because of the strikes. South Korean news say some patients have had to leave the hospital or go to a different one.

    Young doctors are a big part of the staff in emergency rooms. A news report said that as many as 37% of doctors at the largest hospitals in Seoul could be affected.

    “We are very unhappy that trainee doctors are not willing to work,” said Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo to reporters earlier this week.

    On Tuesday, he said the government will use the law to end the strike. The government can take away a doctor’s license if they do something that harms the nation’s healthcare.

    The country has charged doctors in the past for going on strike. The government said it was doing something about two officials from the Korean Medical Association on Tuesday.

  • Israel-Gaza war: US requests brief truce in UN document

    Israel-Gaza war: US requests brief truce in UN document

    The United States is seeking a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, and is urging the UN Security Council to support this.

    It also told Israel not to attack the crowded city of Rafah.

    The US used to not say “stop fighting” during UN votes on the war, but President Joe Biden has said similar things.

    The US is going to reject a new proposal from Algeria that asks for a quick ceasefire to help people in need.

    Over a million Palestinians who had to leave their homes now live in Rafah, which is half of Gaza’s population.

    Before the war, only 250,000 people lived in the southern city near Egypt.

    Many people who have been forced from their homes are living in temporary shelters or tents in very dirty and unhealthy conditions, with little access to clean water or food.

    The UN has warned that an Israeli attack in the city might cause a lot of people to be killed.

    Israel started fighting in Gaza after Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October. The attack caused about 1,200 people to die and more than 240 people to be taken captive.

    According to the health ministry in the Palestinian territory, 29,000 people have been killed by the Israeli military campaign.

    Many countries are telling the US to stop Israel from its very damaging attacks. The US has been supporting Israel’s right to defend itself during the war.

    It said it will stop the Algerian plan, but its own text does show that it doesn’t agree with Israel’s plans.

    Discussions will start on the US plan this week, but it’s not sure when or if the idea will be voted on.

    This is the first time the US has asked for a temporary break in fighting in Gaza at the UN. Before, the US said no to other proposals to stop the fighting.

    The US plan also says that a big attack in Rafah could hurt more people and make them leave their homes, possibly going to Egypt.

    It also says that doing this could cause big problems for peace and safety in the area.

    The draft resolution asks for a temporary stop to the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible, like what President Joe Biden talked about with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

    MrNetanyahu is not changing his plan even though other countries are asking him to. He promises to save the hostages and beat Hamas in Gaza.

    Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said they will attack Hamas unless they release all their hostages by March 10th. Ramadan starts today, it’s a special time for Muslims to fast and pray.

    The Arab countries say the Security Council must listen to the international community and stop the fighting.

  • Dublin to reveal significant spending across borders

    Dublin to reveal significant spending across borders

    The Irish government will soon announce a lot of money for projects that involve both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

    The Dublin cabinet will have a meeting to say yes to the plans. The plans will make sure that the £400m money promise for the A5 road will be kept.

    Exciting news about funding for Casement Park in west Belfast is expected to be announced soon. It’s believed to be in the tens of millions.

    Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin, and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan will talk to the media at lunchtime.

    It is expected that the funding news will have updates on projects that have already been announced, as well as new funding for education, health, and infrastructure, such as the Narrow Water Bridge Project.

    The BBC said on Monday that the A5 road from Dublin to Londonderry will get all the money it was promised and everything will be paid for.

    Hopes went up last week when the prime minister was asked to give the government more money.

    Mr Varadkar said in the Irish parliament that they will think about giving more money to finish the big upgrade. They had less money for it during the financial crash.

    ‘Enough is enough’

    Niall McKenna, part of the Enough is Enough campaign, said he believes the road will be upgraded. The group was formed after John Rafferty died in 2020.

    He was talking on the Good Morning Ulster show on BBC.

    “We are very sure that it will happen this time – we can see everything going the right way and we are very sure it will happen,” he said.

    “Too many people have died on the A5 road. This road is really dangerous and we need to make sure it stops killing our members. ”

    Mr McKenna said that people’s attitudes have changed a lot.

    He said, “People are not okay with not getting the A5 anymore. ”

    Today’s announcements are a part of the project started by Mr. Martin when he was the leader of the government in 2020.

    The Irish government’s new plan for the next 10 years includes a lot of money for projects in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

    The government plans to invest more than €3. 5bn (£3bn) by 2030 in projects that bring the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland together. This money will come from different funds and programs, including the Shared Island Fund, Project Ireland 2040, North/South cooperation, and the PEACEPLUS program, which is a partnership with the European Union, UK Government, and Northern Ireland Executive.

  • Body of Alexei Navalny to be kept for “chemical analysis” for two weeks

    Body of Alexei Navalny to be kept for “chemical analysis” for two weeks

    Reportedly, Alexei Navalny’s family have been told that they will not get his body for two weeks after his death in a Russian prison. Navalny was a critic of Putin.

    His mother was told that it was being kept for “chemical analysis,” a spokesperson for Navalny mentioned.

    Russian authorities have not said where the body is, and they keep stopping efforts to find it.

    The wife of the Russian opposition leader who passed away has said that they are hiding something.

    On Monday, Yulia Navalnaya said in a video that she will keep fighting for a “free Russia” and directly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for her husband’s death. She also claimed that his body was being kept until any signs of Novichok poisoning had gone away.

    Navalny was able to stay alive after someone tried to kill him with Novichok in 2020.

    Ms Navalnaya’s voice was sometimes shaky with sadness and anger. She asked people to support her and feel the same anger and hate towards the people who killed their future.

    Navalny died in prison on Friday. The people in charge of the prison in Siberia said he never woke up after he passed out during a walk.

    His mother and lawyer went to the faraway colony right after they found out he had died.

    Efforts to find the body have been stopped by the prison morgue and local officials many times.

    The Kremlin said they are still investigating Navalny‘s death on Monday, but they haven’t found any results yet.

    Later, Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said that the investigators told Navalny’s mother Lyudmila that they would not give back the body for two weeks because they need to do a “chemical analysis”.

    In her video, Ms Navalnaya said she thinks Navalny was poisoned. The video looked similar to the ones her husband used to make.

    “They are not letting his mother see his body and they are lying about it. ” “She said she is waiting for Putin’s latest Novichok to go away. ”

    Navalny, who was a important leader for the Russian opposition for the last 10 years, was in jail for 19 years for reasons that many people think were political.

    Western leaders say President Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.

    On Monday, President Joe Biden said that Putin is to blame for the situation, whether he ordered it or not.

    At a meeting with reporters on Monday, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that Putin’s government in Russia slowly killed Navalny while he was in jail.

    The EU and the US are thinking about putting more restrictions on Russia after Navalny died.

    The UK’s top diplomat, Lord Cameron, also stated that he believes Britain and the other wealthy G7 countries will put new penalties on Russians connected to the person’s death.

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the comments made by Western politicians about Navalny’s death were disrespectful and not okay.

    The Russian prison officials said that Navalny had experienced something called “sudden death syndrome” over the weekend.

  • Military junta in Guinea closes borders and dismisses government

    Military junta in Guinea closes borders and dismisses government

    Guinea’s army took control of the country in September 2021 and got rid of the government.

    The president’s Secretary General, Brig Gen Amara Camara, announced the news on Monday on state TV using a presidential decree.

    Mr Camara did not say why the government was ending or when a new government will take over.

    The ministers in the old government were told to give up their passports and government cars.

    Their money in the bank cannot be accessed.

    The military leaders told the police and army to close all the borders of the country until they have full control over the government ministries.

    Mr Camara said that lower-ranking officials will run state ministries for a while until a new government is chosen.

    Bernard Goumou was the leader of the government that was taken over by Mamady Doumbouy. He was appointed as prime minister by Doumbouy.

    In September 2021, Col Doumbouy led the military in Guinea to remove President Alpha Condé, who was elected, due to protests against his attempt to serve a third term.

    Guinea and other countries in West and central Africa have experienced coups in the last few years. Others are Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Gabon.

    The West African group Ecowas, the African Union, and the UN have all strongly criticized the coups.

    Guinea will have elections in 10 months to bring back democracy. This is when the military and Ecowas’ agreement ends.

  • Lion kills zookeeper at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria

    Lion kills zookeeper at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria

    A devoted zoo worker, Olabode Olawuyi, in a shocking incident at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Nigeria, has met a tragic end at the paws of a lion he had been caring for over the past decade.

    The dreadful event unfolded while Olawuyi was carrying out his routine duty of feeding the lions. According to OAU officials, the lion attacked him, inflicting severe injuries. Despite the efforts of his friends to intervene, the wild cat’s aggression proved fatal.

    The university authorities confirmed the unfortunate incident, stating that the lion responsible for the attack has been euthanized to prevent further harm.

    Olawuyi, not only a zookeeper but also a vet tech, had been dedicatedly looking after the lions since their birth at the zoo nine years ago. The male lion, which he had nurtured from infancy, turned on him during a routine feeding, leading to the tragic outcome.

    The news of the incident has prompted Nigerians on social media to share images and express their concerns about the safety protocols at a government university in Osun state.

    The university community is grappling with sorrow over the loss, prompting the college to dispatch a team to offer condolences and support to Olawuyi’s grieving family.

    Prof Adebayo Simeon Bamire, the university’s head, expressed deep sadness about the tragic event and called for a thorough investigation to ascertain the circumstances leading to the attack.

    Adding to the narrative, Abbas Akinremi, the leader of the university students’ union, disclosed to a Nigerian newspaper that the attack may have occurred due to the zookeeper forgetting to secure the door after feeding the animals.

    Akinremi lamented the incident, hailing Olawuyi as a compassionate and caring individual who consistently looked after visitors to the zoo.

  • Farmers’ protest: Protesters against crop prices to resume their march in Delhi

    Farmers’ protest: Protesters against crop prices to resume their march in Delhi

    Dissenting Indian ranchers say they will continue walking to capital Delhi this week after dismissing a government proposition to purchase a few crops at guaranteed costs on a five-year contract.

    The dissidents started walking final week but were halted around 200km (125 miles) from Delhi.

    Since at that point, rancher pioneers were in talks with the government on their requests.

    But on Monday night, they said the offer was “not in their intrigued”.

    The government had proposed buying beats, maize and cotton at ensured floor costs – too known as Least Back Cost or MSP – through cooperatives for five a long time.

    But the agriculturists say that they will stand by their request of a “lawful ensure for MSP on all 23 crops”.

    “We request to the government to either resolve our issues or expel blockades and permit us to continue to Delhi to challenge calmly,” Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a cultivate union pioneer, told neighborhood media.

    They say they will continue walking from Wednesday.

    Ranchers frame an powerful voting alliance in India and and investigators say the government of Prime Serve Narendra Modi will be sharp not to outrage or distance them. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking for a third continuous term in control in common decisions this year.

    Final week, specialists clashed with the dissidents, terminating tear gas and plastic bullets at them in a offered to stop the walk. They fear a rehash of 2020, when thousands of agriculturists camped at Delhi’s borders for months, constraining the government to revoke disputable rural changes.

    The most recent circular of dissents started on Wednesday, when agriculturists from Haryana and Punjab begun walking to Delhi. They say the government did not keep guarantees made amid the 2020-21 challenge, conjointly have requests counting benefits and a obligation waiver.

    But their most important demand could be a law ensuring a bolster price for crops.

    India presented the MSP framework within the 1960s – to begin with for as it were wheat and afterward other fundamental crops – in a offered for nourishment security.

    Supporters of MSP say it is essential to secure agriculturists against misfortunes due to vacillation in costs. They contend that the coming about salary boost will permit ranchers to contribute in modern advances, move forward efficiency and ensure cultivators from being fleeced by middlemen.

    But faultfinders say the framework needs an update because it isn’t sustainable and will be deplorable for government funds. They moreover say that it’ll be ruinous for the agrarian division within the long run, driving to over-cultivation and capacity issues.

    Since final week, government minister Piyush Goyal and other government authorities had held four rounds of talks with the agriculturists. On Sunday, Mr Goyal told writers that the discourses had been “positive” which the government was concocting an”out-of-the-box” arrangement to advantage agriculturists, customers and the economy.

    But on Monday, rancher pioneers said they were disappointed with the way the talks were being held, claiming that there was no “straightforwardness”.

  • Ghana’s economy became a mess after ‘Akufo-Addo travelled with Serwaa Broni’ – Trader

    Ghana’s economy became a mess after ‘Akufo-Addo travelled with Serwaa Broni’ – Trader

    A Ghanaian trader has attributed Ghana’s economic downturn to President Akufo-Addo’s association with Serwaa Broni. 

    He noted that the association of both caused the President to lose focus. The statement was made during a candid interview with local media, where the trader expressed frustration over the state of the economy, linking it directly to what he described as a political misstep. 

    He stressed that President Akufo-Addo did not heed to the advice of Ghanaians and has now plunged the nation into an economic crisis.

    Asked what mark he would award the President in terms of his performance, he noted that he would score President Akufo-Addo 0%. 

    He noted that he would vote for former President John Dramani Mahama since he has lost confidence in the Akufo-Addo led administration, which Dr Mahamudu Bawumia played a key role in. 

  • My vote is for sale; the highest bidder gets my vote – Trader

    My vote is for sale; the highest bidder gets my vote – Trader

    A trader has vowed to sell her votes in the upcoming December 7, 2024 general elections. 

    Speaking candidly in an interview with AdomTV, the trader noted that she had observed that the disparity in wealth and resources among delegates and said most people who sell their votes are often wealthy. 

    “Delegates are always rich; those taking lands, those taking huge sums of money, those taking fridges. So we are now selling our votes,” she said. 

    Calling on the presidential candidates in the upcoming elections to reach out to her vote, she noted the highest bidder will definitely get her vote.

  • No military interference in election 2024 – Ghana Police Service

    No military interference in election 2024 – Ghana Police Service

    The Ghana Police Service has indicated that the December 7, 2024, polls will be held devoid of military intervention.

    According to him, the Ghana Police Service, together with its sister institutions, including the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Prisons Service, etc., is poised to spearhead the elections without employing the services of the military. 

    “It’s going to be only the police, the prisons, fire, and then immigration, they are going to conduct the elections. These institutions are going to support us. 

    “It is our baby. It is the baby of the police but we are bringing in our sister security to assist,” he said. 

    Additionally, he said political parties in the country have declared their willingness to cooperate with the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies in ensuring a violence free election in the upcoming 2024 polls. 

    Speaking in an interaction with JoyNews, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Prince Gabriel Waabu, revealed the Ghana Police service has held various engagements with the political parties who have pledged to play by the rules. 

    Asked about the relationship between the Ghana Police Service and political parties he said: “We have this rapport and we are engaging them one-on-one. We know with their assistance it would be a perfect thing.  

    “[We had a one-on-one kind of invitation. It was cordial. Very cooperative and they are going to play by the rules,” he said.  

    He, however, entreated political parties to talk to their followers and ensure that they eschew insults in their comments especially during the electioneering period. 

    He believes that if these are adhered to, “we would have a very beautiful election this year.” 

  • Election 2024: The military won’t be involved this year – Ghana Police Service

    Election 2024: The military won’t be involved this year – Ghana Police Service

    The Ghana Police Service has indicated that the December 7, 2024, polls will be held devoid of military intervention.

    According to him, the Ghana Police Service, together with its sister institutions, including the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Prisons Service, etc., is poised to spearhead the elections without employing the services of the military. 

    “It’s going to be only the police, the prisons, fire, and then immigration, they are going to conduct the elections. These institutions are going to support us. 

    “It is our baby. It is the baby of the police but we are bringing in our sister security to assist,” he said. 

    Additionally, he said political parties in the country have declared their willingness to cooperate with the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies in ensuring a violence free election in the upcoming 2024 polls. 

    Speaking in an interaction with JoyNews, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Prince Gabriel Waabu, revealed the Ghana Police service has held various engagements with the political parties who have pledged to play by the rules. 

    Asked about the relationship between the Ghana Police Service and political parties he said: “We have this rapport and we are engaging them one-on-one. We know with their assistance it would be a perfect thing.  

    “[We had a one-on-one kind of invitation. It was cordial. Very cooperative and they are going to play by the rules,” he said.  

    He, however, entreated political parties to talk to their followers and ensure that they eschew insults in their comments especially during the electioneering period. 

    He believes that if these are adhered to, “we would have a very beautiful election this year.” 

  • Bolivia floods: Dozens killed by heavy rains

    Bolivia floods: Dozens killed by heavy rains

    Many towns and villages in Bolivia are being warned about heavy rains that are causing a lot of damage.

    Authorities say that 33 people have died because of the rain since November. The rain has caused landslides and made rivers overflow.

    The number of people who have died is eight times more than this time last year.

    Officials are watching a few dams closely because they are worried they might flood.

    Juan Carlos Calvimontes, who is in charge of Civil Defence, said that in Bolivia, 10 out of 340 towns are on the highest alert and 279 are on the second highest alert.

    Authorities also mentioned that they sent help to Achocalla, in La Paz province. A 35-year-old woman and her two children were buried in a mudslide that covered their home.

    A neighbor told the local newspaper that she yelled at the woman to leave the house, but the mother might not have been able to take her children with her in time.

    More than 20 people got hurt.

    In La Paz province, officials are watching the water levels in the Incachaca dam very carefully.

    Government experts and the mayor of La Paz city went to see the dam on Sunday. La Paz is the city below the dam.

    Mayor Iván Arias said the reservoir is full of water, but it is draining properly and shouldn’t cause any big problems downstream.

    Three additional water storage areas – Hampaturi Alto, Pampalarama and Alpaquita – are also full.

    Bolivia is getting heavy rain after a very long time of not much rain and one of its hottest winters ever.

    In October, many people came to the Incachaca reservoir to pray for rain because it was nearly full.
    The doors that release water at the Incachaca reservoir.

    Bolivia often has extreme weather, like heavy rain. But now, climate change has made it more likely to have even heavier rain.

    The world has gotten 1. 1 degrees Celsius warmer since the industrial era started, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments make big reductions in emissions.

  • Election 2024: Political parties have assured that they will play by the rules – Police

    Election 2024: Political parties have assured that they will play by the rules – Police

    Political parties in the country have declared their willingness to cooperate with the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies in ensuring a violence free election in the upcoming 2024 polls. 

    Speaking in an interaction with JoyNews, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Prince Gabriel Waabu, who revealed this said the Police service has held various engagements with the political parties who have pledged to play by the rules. 

    Asked about the relationship between the Ghana Police Service and political parties he said: “We have this rapport and we are engaging them one-on-one. We know with their assistance it would be a perfect thing.  

    “[We had a one-on-one kind of invitation. It was cordial. Very cooperative and they are going to play by the rules,” he said. 

    He, however, entreated political parties to talk to their followers and ensure that they eschew insults in their comments especially during the electioneering period. 

    He believes that if these are adhered to, “we would have a very beautiful election this year.” 

  • Continue to have confidence in gov’t – Akufo-Addo to Ghanaians

    Continue to have confidence in gov’t – Akufo-Addo to Ghanaians

    President Akufo-Addo has appealed to Ghanaians not to lose their fate in the current administration since the government is still working tirelessly to make life better for all Ghanaians.

    He, thus, has entreated Ghanaians not to lose faith in the government. 

    “We are working hard, and continue to have confidence in the government,” President Akufo-Addo told journalists ahead of his keynote address at the Heads of State and Government’s Dialogue on Saturday, February 17, 2024. 

    Ghana over the past few years has been experiencing an economic crisis, a situation that has become topical in the country. 

    Since its wobbling state after it was hit by the infamous coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the government put in some measures to put the economy back onto a sound footing.

    One of the measures deployed by government to stabilize the economy was to run to the International Monetary Fund for financial assistance to fix the broken economy.

    Though some Ghanaians have expressed disappointment in government for plunging the economy into destruction, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has pointed out that his government was working assiduously to ameliorate the hardship fraught Ghanaians.

    He further entreated Ghanaians to continue to have confidence in his government as the economy turns the corner.

  • Election 2024: Over 300 officers under training – DCOP Waabu

    Election 2024: Over 300 officers under training – DCOP Waabu

    Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Prince Gabriel Waabu, has revealed that the service is poised for a successful 2024 elections. 

    Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, he noted that over 300 officers are currently undergoing vigorous training as part of measures to ensure an incident-free 2024 elections. 

    During the interview, DCOP Waabu disclosed that the Ghana Police Service is partnering with sister institutions including the Ghana Prisons Service to ensure that the upcoming elections is devoid of any violence. 

    “Sensitisation is ongoing. We and sister security, the Prison service, Fire , immigration, all are on the table. They are all doing what they can too,” he said. 

    He added that the service has secured equipment meant to facilitate the elections. 

    “Equipment has been gotten and as of now, we still have recruits under training and all is geared towards the 2024 elections and I tell you what, officers over 300 are good to go to college and they will definitely pass out before 2024 elections. 

    “So these are some of the ways and the measures that we have put in place to see to it that the 2024 elections becomes a success,” he added. 

  • “We leave patients to scream for endless amounts of time” – Gaza doctors

    “We leave patients to scream for endless amounts of time” – Gaza doctors

    In Gaza, doctors have said they are doing surgery on patients without giving them pain medicine, not able to help people who are sick for a long time, and trying to heal really bad wounds with not enough medical supplies.

    “We don’t have enough painkillers, so we have to let patients scream in pain for a long time,” a person told the media.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) said the health care in Gaza is really bad.

    As of Sunday, 23 hospitals in Gaza were not working at all. Twelve were only partly working and one was barely working.

    The health agency stated that air strikes and a shortage of supplies have made the health system even more stretched.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that Hamas often uses hospitals and medical centers for its terrorist activities.

    The IDF told the BBC that they didn’t attack hospitals, but went into certain areas to stop Hamas from using their equipment and to catch the terrorists. They said they were very careful when doing this.

    It said it will let in help for people in Gaza, like medicine.

    Help groups, like the WHO, have been stopped from getting to places and not allowed to help.

    Gaza’s hospitals are very full and don’t have enough supplies, say healthcare workers. There are reports that some hospitals in southern Gaza are very full and are taking care of more patients than they usually do.

    Four hospitals have been built in Gaza with a total of 305 beds, as reported by the WHO.

    Israeli forces attacked a hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday, causing it to stop working.

    The IDF found weapons and medicines with the names and photos of hostages at the hospital. They also caught many terrorists hiding there. Hamas is putting many innocent people in danger by using hospitals for their own violent purposes. They are not using the hospitals to help people, but to hurt them.

    Workers at the hospitals nearby are saying that the operation at Nasser has made their job more difficult.

    Yousef al-Akkad, who runs the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, said the situation there is the worst it’s been since the war started.

    “The situation was really bad before, so what do you think it’s like now with thousands more people who have been forced to leave their homes and are staying in the hallways and public areas. ”

    He said the hospital didn’t have enough beds for the patients who needed treatment. So, the staff were putting sheets over metal frames and wood and putting many patients on the floor with nothing.

    Other doctors in different parts of the Gaza Strip have also described similar situations. “We put people with heart problems on the floor and start to help them right away,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, the director of Rafah’s Martyr Mohammed Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital.

    A group from Hamas chose the leaders of the hospitals in Gaza. Sometimes, these leaders were there before Hamas took over the area.

    Medicine and things needed for treatment.

    Doctors are having a hard time because they don’t have enough medical supplies to do their work. “We can’t find any oxygen,” someone told the media.

    Dr al-Akkad said we don’t have enough medicine for anesthesia, supplies for the intensive care unit, antibiotics, and painkillers. “Many people were badly burned and we don’t have the right medicine to help with their pain. ”

    A doctor said that surgeries were being done without pain medicine.

    A group of doctors from the WHO met a little girl at a hospital. She had very bad burns on 75% of her body. The hospital didn’t have enough medicine to help her feel better.

    Dr Mohamed Salha, who is in charge of Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, said that people were brought to the hospital for treatment on donkeys and horses.

    “The catastrophe is when the patients have wounds that are decaying because they have been open for more than two or three weeks,” he said.

    He said the doctors there had done surgeries using head torches because they didn’t have enough electricity.

    Staff are away from their families.

    The WHO says there are about 20,000 healthcare workers in Gaza, but most of them are not working because they are having a hard time supporting themselves and their families.

    Dr al-Akkad said that the hospital has more staff and volunteers now because people who had to leave their homes came to help. But he said they didn’t have enough to handle all the patients and injuries they were getting.

    After the bombings, he said badly hurt people come to the hospital and they look like the dish kofta made with ground meat.

    “The hospital sees many people with different injuries like brain injuries, broken ribs, broken limbs, and sometimes even losing an eye. We see all kinds of injuries here. ”

    He said that one patient might need five or more doctors who are experts in different areas to treat all of their injuries.

    Some doctors are still working and can’t be with their families.

    “Dr Salha in northern Gaza misses her family very much. They have been away for over three months and she wishes she could hug them. Her family is staying in the south to stay safe. ”

    I am happy that I can help kids, women, and old people get medical care and stay healthy. I feel good about saving their lives.

    We do not have space for patients who need long-term medical care.

    Doctors told the BBC that people in Gaza with long-term illnesses suffered a lot.

    “Really, we don’t have any beds for them, and we can’t keep in touch with them,” Dr. al-Akkad explained

    “For anyone who used to have dialysis four times a week, now they only have it once a week. ” If this guy used to work 16 hours a week, now he will only work for one hour.

    Some women are having their babies in tents without medical help because the hospitals that provide midwifery care are full.

    “A person dies in one department, but a baby is born in the other. ” Babies are born and there is no milk for them. Dr Salha said that the hospital gives every child one box of milk.

    People are going to hospitals because they have caught diseases in crowded and dirty places.

    “Many people are sick and we can’t find a cure,” said Abu Khalil, who is 54 years old and living in Rafah, southern Gaza.

    We have to leave early in the morning and wait in line, you might end up behind 100 people. “You come back with nothing. “

  • They attack me through criminal prosecution – Navalny (flashback)

    They attack me through criminal prosecution – Navalny (flashback)

    In 2017, BBC Hardtalk interviewed Alexei Navalny, a leader who opposes the government, before he tried to run against Vladimir Putin for president of Russia.

    Navalny talked openly to Stephen Sackur about his feelings. He discussed his relationship with Putin, how corruption is a big problem in Russia, and what he wants for the future of the country.

    “I’ve always been in trouble with the law my whole life,” Navalny said in a scary conversation. “They fight me in this way. ”

    Sackur said the activist was being very careful, but if they push too hard, they might end up in jail.

  • Mother of Navalny still looking for his body

    Mother of Navalny still looking for his body

    Alexei Navalny’s friends and family, including his mother, are in a faraway Russian town called Salekhard today. They are not too far from the Arctic prison where he passed away.

    They are trying to find his body, but his spokeswoman says they are having a hard time.

    Kira Yarmysh posted on X.

    His lawyer tried to go into the building where the dead bodies are kept, but the workers there made him leave. They wouldn’t tell him where the body was.

    She says Russian officials have told lawyers that they are continuing to look into his death for a longer time.

    Yarmysh says that they are dishonest and only care about themselves, and they don’t even try to hide it.

  • EU representatives meet with Yulia Navalnaya

    EU representatives meet with Yulia Navalnaya

    As we mentioned before, Yulia Navalnaya is in Brussels to meet with EU officials at the Foreign Affairs Council.

    We have received photos of her shaking hands with European Council President Charles Michel, before going into a private meeting.

    Maria Pevchikh, a Russian journalist and anti-corruption activist who has collaborated with Alexei Navalny, is also attending the meeting.
    We will give you all the information as we receive it.


  • Deliberate and rapid ascent to prominence in politics of Yulia Navalnaya

    Deliberate and rapid ascent to prominence in politics of Yulia Navalnaya

    Yulia Navalnaya has made a big decision to get involved in politics, which is the same thing her husband has been doing for a long time.

    Her video looks similar to those made by Alexei Navalny – with the same passion and strength.

    Navalny’s wife says Putin killed him in prison, and the government is hiding his body to hide the evidence.

    She says he has caused her a lot of pain and suffering.

    However, she is asking Russians to not give up, to come together with her, and keep fighting for her husband’s political goals in Russia so that his sacrifice won’t be in vain.

    Today, the Kremlin was asked about the death of Putin’s biggest political rival. They said that an investigation is currently happening. Actually, it’s just been made longer.

    In the video, Yulia’s voice breaks a little when she talks about the sadness and hurt that she is feeling now. But she is also very angry and blames Putin for destroying Russia’s hope, freedom, and future.

  • Wife of Alexei Navalny claims “Putin killed Her husband”

    Wife of Alexei Navalny claims “Putin killed Her husband”

    Putin is being blamed for the death of Alexei by Alexei Navalny’s wife.

    Alexei Navalny’s wife made a video saying that she thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is the reason her husband died.

    She said: “Hello. I am Yulia Navalnaya, someone else should be here instead of me. “”But that person was murdered by Vladimir Putin. “

    Russian officials said that the politician from the opposing party passed away in jail on Friday. The strong opponent of President Vladimir Putin was put in jail in 2021 for reasons believed to be unfair and driven by politics.

    More update on this story soon.

  • Govt increases salary for public sector workers by 23% 

    Govt increases salary for public sector workers by 23% 

    Public sector workers will enjoy an increase in their salaries following the implementation of a 23% adjustment of wages, announced by the government. 

    The decision is the result of a conclusion of negotiations with relevant stakeholders on the base pay for 2024.

    According to the Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, who announced this on behalf of the government, said this takes effect from January 1, 2024.

    “The government is very committed to upholding workers’ interests and has never faulted in paying salaries even when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020,” Kwaning-Bosompem is quoted by graphic.com.gh

    “In other jurisdictions, during the COVID-19 pandemic, salaries were cut and people were laid off, but in Ghana the government kept faith with workers by paying their salaries,” Kwaning-Bosompem added.

    He further stated that the Ghanaian economy is showing some signs of recovery and urged public sector workers to ensure they help to consolidate the gains made towards economic stability.

    “The economy has started showing signs of full recovery, and we must work together to stabilise the fiscal environment and prosecute stability in the macroeconomic environment,” the Controller and Accountant General said.

  • Israel’s raids have rendered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital inoperable – WHO reports

    Israel’s raids have rendered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital inoperable – WHO reports

    The World Health Organization said that the Nasser hospital in Gaza has stopped working because of an attack by Israel.

    Israeli soldiers went into the building on Thursday because they had information that hostages taken by Hamas were being kept there.

    The WHO said they were not able to go to the place to see what was happening.

    The IDF said its Nasser operation was careful and not very big. It also accused Hamas of using hospitals for terror.

    Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of WHO, said that the Nasser hospital in Gaza can no longer operate after being under siege for a week and ongoing raids.

    “The WHO team tried to go to the hospital yesterday and the day before, but they were not allowed inside to see the patients and their serious medical needs. They were only able to deliver fuel to the hospital compound with their partners. ”

    “Approximately 200 people are still in the hospital. ” At least 20 people need to go to other hospitals right away to get medical help. Every patient has the right to be referred to another doctor.

    The hospital in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, only has four medical staff left to take care of the patients.

    The media could not go to the hospital and could not check the situation there by itself.

    Someone who works at the hospital said that 11 patients died because the electricity and oxygen supply stopped. They also said that some doctors were taken by the police.

    The Israeli army says nobody was killed because of what they did, and they were instructed to keep the hospital working.

    The report said that they brought diesel and oxygen to the site, and that they are using a temporary generator.

    “We don’t give patients any medicine to stop them from feeling pain, so they have to yell for many hours. ”

    There has been a lot of fighting around the Nasser site for several weeks. Israel keeps saying that Hamas is using hospitals and schools as places to plan and carry out their actions.

    The Israeli army says it has killed around 20 Hamas soldiers and taken many weapons near the hospital.

    The IDF said that in the last day, many terrorists were killed and a lot of weapons were taken.

    At least 1,200 people died in attacks in Israel by Hamas-led gunmen on 7 October last year.

    Israel started a war in the Gaza Strip as a reaction. More than 28,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 68,000 injured since the war started, says the health ministry run by Hamas.

    It said that in the last day, at least 127 Palestinians died and 205 were hurt.

    Even though there is still fighting in Gaza, people are trying to make peace between Israel and Hamas in Cairo. But the mediators from Qatar said that the progress hasn’t been very good lately.

    Sheik Mohammed said that things haven’t been going well lately, but we will stay positive and keep working hard.

    Israeli leader Netanyahu said he sent people to talk after US President Biden asked, but they didn’t come back because Hamas’s requests were not realistic.

    Hamas said that Israel is the reason why they haven’t been able to make a deal to stop fighting.

    The group has set out some rules. They want the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, Israel’s forces to leave completely, and the war to stop after 135 days of fighting, divided into three parts.

    Mr Netanyahu said that Israel is still sending troops into Gaza, even though other countries are telling them not to do it until they have a plan to get the Palestinian people out of the area. They are now moving towards Rafah in the south.

    Around 15 million people are in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. They were told by Israeli forces to go there for safety while Hamas targets were being attacked in northern and central Gaza.

    Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said again that he does not want Palestinians to be moved forcefully into Egypt’s Sinai desert.

    During a phone call, the French President and another leader agreed that it is important to quickly stop the fighting.

    Mr Sisi believes that the best solution is for Palestinians to have their own independent country.

    On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said his government all agreed to officially not support the idea of recognizing Palestine as a state on its own.

    He said that any agreement must be made by Israelis and Palestinians talking to each other directly.

    “Israel refuses to follow international demands for a final agreement with the Palestinians. ” “A deal can only be made if both sides talk to each other directly, without any conditions,” said a statement from the government.

  • ECG, GRIDCo summoned over dumsor in Ashanti Region 

    ECG, GRIDCo summoned over dumsor in Ashanti Region 

    Authorities of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) in the Ashanti region have been summoned by the regional minister for an emergency meeting. 

    Mr Simon Osei-Mensah who is also the Regional Security Council (RESEC) Chairman is seeking to hold this meeting with the power supply agencies to ascertain the cause and also find solutions to recent intermittent power supply in the area.  

    Some communities in the Ashanti region are grappling with incessant power cuts,popularly known as ‘dumsor.’ 

    Several communities are without electricity for 12-24 hours without any official communications from the power producers and its distribution partners in the region.

    Last week, an unstable power situation in the Ashanti region dominated radio and television discussions in the region, compelling the regional minister to step in today.

    Ashanti regional minister, Simon Osei-Mensah while confirming the scheduled meeting described the development in the region as unfortunate and therefore the need for the official meeting with managers of the ECG and GRIDCo.

    “Yes, I’m meeting them at 10am today about the inability of the power supply in Kumasi, for that matter the Ashanti region in general. The situation is not the best and we must work things out to perfect it. I will speak to you after the meeting,” he said.

  • Israel denounces Lula of Brazil for comparing Gaza War to Holocaust

    Israel denounces Lula of Brazil for comparing Gaza War to Holocaust

    Israel is angry at Brazil’s president for saying Israel is killing a lot of people in Gaza, and that it’s like the Holocaust.

    Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that in Israel’s military campaign, there was a strong army fighting against women and children.

    The foreign minister of Israel said that Lula’s comments were antisemitic and that he is not welcome in the country until he takes back what he said.

    The top Jewish group in Brazil also disapproved of Lula’s remarks.

    Lula, who was at an African Union meeting in Ethiopia, said the situation in Gaza with the Palestinian people is unlike anything from the past. It really happened when Hitler chose to kill the Jews.

    “It’s not a fight between soldiers. ” It’s a fight between a strong army and women and children.

    The experienced politician on the liberal side criticized Hamas for attacking Israel on 7 October, killing over 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.

    But he has been openly against Israel’s military attack, which the health ministry in Gaza says has killed more than 28,800 people, mostly women and children.

    His most recent words come after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue attacking Rafah – the southernmost city in Gaza, where around 1. 5 million people have fled – even though there is more and more pressure from other countries.

    Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said they will remember and not forgive.

    “It is a very harmful attack on Jewish people. ” From me and the people of Israel – tell President Lula that he is not welcome in Israel until he takes back what he said.

    Mr Netanyahu said that Lula’s comments were making the Holocaust seem less important and trying to hurt the Jewish people and Israel’s right to protect itself.

    “He said it’s not okay to compare Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler. ”

    Hitler’s Nazi government killed six million Jewish people in the 1930s and 1940s.

    Israel asked the Brazilian ambassador to come for a meeting on Monday.

    The main Jewish organization in Brazil, the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, said that Lula’s comments were a twisted version of the truth that hurt the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants.

    Lula supported South Africa’s accusation of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.

    In January, judges at the ICJ said that South Africa can keep going with its case against Israel.

    The court told Israel to stop its military from doing things that could be considered genocidal, to stop and punish actions that encourage genocide, and to make sure the people of Gaza receive help.

    However, the court did not demand that Israel stop its military operations in Gaza right away.

    Brazil and South Africa are part of a group called Brics. It’s a team of important developing countries that are working together to challenge richer Western nations.

    The World Health Organization said that the Nasser hospital in Gaza can no longer work after it was attacked by Israel. The IDF said it did a careful and small operation and blamed Hamas for using hospitals for terrorism.

    “Right now, people are trying to make Israel and Hamas stop fighting in Cairo. But the people from Qatar who are helping don’t think it’s going very well. “

  • Crew deserts ship as Houthis claim to launch another missile assault off Yemen

    Crew deserts ship as Houthis claim to launch another missile assault off Yemen

    The workers on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden left the ship after it was attacked by the rebel group called the Houthi movement from Yemen.

    A spokesperson for the Houthi military said that the ship Rubymar could sink because it was hit by missiles.

    The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that a ship was left empty near Yemen after it was damaged by an explosion.

    Lloyd’s List Intelligence said that the ship Rubymar was attacked by two missiles.

    The Houthis, who are supported by Iran, have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones since mid-November. They say they are doing this to support the Palestinians in the fight between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

    The attacks made many shipping companies stop using the important waterway, which is responsible for about 12% of global sea trade.

    The US and British military started bombing areas in western Yemen that are controlled by the Houthi rebel group. This was done in retaliation for previous attacks.

    On Sunday night, UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) got a report from a ship about an incident that happened about 35 nautical miles (65km) south of the Yemeni Red Sea port of Mocha.

    The owner said there was an explosion near the boat that caused damage at around 11:00 pm local time.

    On Monday, the agency said that the military reported the crew left the ship after it was attacked.

    “The boat is parked and all the crew are okay,” it said. “The military is still there to help. ”

    A company called Ambrey said that a cargo ship from Belize, registered in Britain and operated by Lebanon, was attacked in the Bab al-Mandab Strait while sailing northwards on Sunday.

    “The ship slowed down from 10 to six knots for a short time, changed direction, and called the Djiboutian Navy. Then it went back to its original speed and course,” the report stated.

    Ambrey also said that the ship’s crew had been taken off by another merchant ship, and this matches with the actions of a Singaporean-flagged container ship.

    Lloyd’s List Intelligence, which provides information about ships, said that the Rubymar was hit by two missiles and got badly damaged.

    According to MarineTraffic, the Rubymar ship was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Bulgaria before the tracking signal was last received on Sunday.

    Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Monday morning that their naval forces shot missiles at a British ship called Rubymar in the Gulf of Aden.

    The ship was badly damaged and completely stopped, but he didn’t show any proof.

    “Because the ship was badly damaged, it might sink in the Gulf of Aden. ” “We made sure the ship’s crew got off the ship safely during the operation. ”

    The Rubymar boat is from Belize and is owned by Golden Adventure Shipping, which is located in Southampton, England.

    Ambrey knew that a cargo ship from Greece, owned by the US, asked for help from the military after a missile attack about 100 miles east of the southern port of Aden in Yemen.

    UKMTO said there was an attack in the same place. The boss said there was an explosion near a ship, but the ship and crew are safe.

    Mr Sarea also said Houthi air defenses in the Red Sea province of Hudaydah had shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone “while it was attacking our country on behalf of Israel”.

    The US military did not make a comment right away.

    The US Central Command attacked and destroyed five enemy weapons in Yemen on Saturday to protect U. S ships and merchant boats in the area.

    This was the first time that US forces found a submarine drone being used by the Houthis since the attacks started.

  • Lister Hospital fingered for medical negligence over Pokua Poku’s death

    Lister Hospital fingered for medical negligence over Pokua Poku’s death

    Lister Hospital’s medical staff have been accused of failing to provide the appropriate standard of care, which may have contributed to Pokua Poku‘s demise.

    The renowned fashion designer sadly passed away on February 14,2024, shortly after delivering at the facility. 

    There have been concerns about negligence at Lister Hospital, following her painful exit as disclosed by Ghana crimes on Twitter.

    “The well-known Ghanaian fashion designer and creative director, Pokua Poku-Mouhtiseb, passed away on Wednesday, February 14, reportedly due to childbirth complications, adding to the sorrow of this situation,” the tweet said.

  • Ruto, Tinubu under fire for ‘excessive’ travels

    Ruto, Tinubu under fire for ‘excessive’ travels

    Kenya’s William Ruto and Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu have been criticized for traveling abroad a lot since they became presidents.

    The two men have been described in a bad way – it’s said that they spend a lot of money on flying, which is a problem when the economy is not doing well at home.

    The Standard, a newspaper in Kenya, gave Mr. Ruto the nickname “Flying President”. It means that he loves flying so much that he always wants to do it, even if he has a lot of other important things to take care of.

    Last month, Mr. Tinubu went to Europe again, and Nigeria’s opposition leader Atiku Abubakar said on social media that Nigeria doesn’t need a “tourist-in-chief. ” He didn’t like that the president went on a private trip when there are a lot of problems in Nigeria.

    This can be seen as a quick and easy criticism that anyone can make. Presidents have to go to meetings with other leaders and build good relationships with other countries. This is important for diplomatic and economic reasons because it can lead to profitable investment deals.

    But some people have noticed that late Tanzanian President John Magufuli did not travel outside of Africa during his six years as president.

    “Personal praise”

    Kenyan foreign policy expert Prof Macharia Munene agrees that some trips are needed, but thinks that others are a waste of money.

    Some presidents really enjoy flying in planes. He said that some of these trips are more about showing off themselves than benefiting the country.

    Mr Ruto and Mr. Tinubu, along with their representatives, say that their trips are important for solving the problems they are being criticized for not addressing.

    In the eight months since Mr. Tinubu became president, he has taken 14 trips, which is less than two trips each month. Meanwhile, Ruto has made about 50 trips since he became president in 2022, which is more than three trips each month.

    Mr Ruto’s predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, usually took about one foreign trip per month during his ten years as president. This is similar to the behavior of Nigeria’s former president, Muhammadu Buhari. However, when it comes to the total number of days spent abroad, the difference is not very big.

    Other leaders from different countries have also been traveling a lot by air, but people keep asking if Mr. Ruto and Mr. Tinubu really need to take so many trips.

    The leaders of Nigeria and Kenya were both in Europe at the end of last month. Ruto was in Italy for a summit and Mr. Tinubu was in France for a private visit, his third time there since last May. Since that time, Mr. Ruto has gone on more trips.

    In June 2023, only three weeks after starting his new job, Mr Tinubu went to Paris for a two-day meeting about the climate. He had already visited there a few months ago to take a break and make plans for the time after he became president.

    He went from Paris to the UK to have private discussions with the person who had the job before him. They both went to “rest” after the elections. A week later, Mr. Tinubu went to Guinea-Bissau for a meeting with other countries in West Africa. After that, he went to Nairobi.

    In August he went to Benin, and in September he went to India, the United Arab Emirates, and the US for a meeting of the United Nations before going back to Paris.

    He was at home all through October and then started traveling again in November. He went to Saudi Arabia, Guinea-Bissau, and Germany at the end of November, and a week later he went to Dubai.

    The Nigerian president’s office said that these trips are necessary to bring in money from other countries.

    “Every time I travel to another country, I always tell investors and business people the same thing. ” Nigeria is prepared and available for doing business,” President Tinubu said in his New Year message for 2024.

    Mr Ruto has been very busy traveling since he became president in 2022.

    From September of that year to December of last year, he went to other countries at least two times every month. In May 2023, he took five journeys. He has visited many African countries, Europe and the US for international events and meetings with other countries.

    This year in January, he visited Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Italy. This month, Mr Ruto has already visited Japan and the UAE.

    Frequency and cost are both important factors to consider.

    According to the Nigerian newspaper Punch, Mr Tinubu spent at least 3. 4 billion naira on travel in the first six months of his presidency. This is 36% more than the budgeted amount for 2023. The information comes from GovSpend, a civic tech platform that monitors government spending.

    In Kenya, the Controller of Budget, which is a separate office that watches over how the government spends money, reported that the president’s travel spending went up a lot in the year until last July. This included nine months when Mr. Ruto was president.

    Total spending on travel, both within the country and abroad, was over 1. 3 billion Kenyan shillings ($9. 2 million; £73 million) for the year. This was more than 30% higher than the travel budget for the previous year.

    The person who speaks for the government of Kenya did not answer the BBC’s questions about Mr. Ruto’s trips, even though the president and the spokesman have said they are okay.

    Mr Ruto said he doesn’t travel for fun. He goes on these trips to bring in money from other countries and to find jobs for Kenyans living abroad. He mentioned that he has found over 300,000 job opportunities through his talks with other countries.

    After the recent visit to Japan, Mr Ruto said he had made agreements worth more than $2. 3 billion

    Nigeria and Kenya are defending the benefits of presidential trips while also responding to criticism of government employees traveling overseas.

    Kenya has reduced its government worker travel budget by half after being accused of wasting money on trips within the country and abroad. However, the president himself does not seem to be affected by this and has said he will continue to take trips as long as they are helpful.

    Last month, the leader of Nigeria said that he will be cutting back on the number of people who travel with him for official purposes by about 60%. His spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, said the president will reduce the number of people he travels with, but it’s not clear if he will also reduce the number of trips he takes.

    However, it’s not only Kenya and Nigeria that have been worried about the cost of traveling.

    As people in Congo were getting ready to vote last year, some people said that President Félix Tshisekedi took too many trips and didn’t have much to show for them.

    In November, Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera stopped himself and his ministers from traveling outside the country. He also told anyone who was already abroad to come back because the country was having money problems.

    Other countries, like Uganda, The Gambia, Namibia, and Sierra Leone, have also needed to deal with government officials spending money on travel since last year. The leaders of Namibia and Sierra Leone have been called the “flying president” by local newspapers, similar to Kenya’s Mr. Ruto

  • Delegates from Islands meet with French politicians over profile of Channel

    Delegates from Islands meet with French politicians over profile of Channel

    Officials from Guernsey and Jersey came back from a trip to Paris.

    Guernsey Representative Jonathan Le Tocq and Jersey Representative Kirsten Morel met with people from the French National Assembly and the Senate.

    The goal of the visit was to make the Channel Islands more well-known to French political leaders.

    The topics talked about included connections in the ocean, problems with using renewable energy, and relationships between different areas.

    Mr Morel said that Jersey has strong connections with France in politics, culture, and economy that have lasted a long time.

    “He said our talks showed that it’s important for the Channel Islands and France to work together, and we both agree to keep working together even more in the future. ”

    Mr Le Tocq said France is an important partner in Europe.

    He said: “This visit was a good chance to improve our relationship with the government in Paris as part of our policy to be good neighbors. “

  • Irish government to fulfil its financial commitment to A5

    Irish government to fulfil its financial commitment to A5

    The Irish government is getting ready to fulfill its funding promise of £400m for the A5.

    The project is to make the road between Londonderry and Dublin better.

    An important Irish government official told the BBC that all the money will be given back after the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

    The taoiseach was asked last week to give more money to the government, and people hoped he would.

    Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in the Dáil that they will think about giving more money to finish the big upgrade, because the funding was cut a lot during the financial crash.

    In answer to a question from the Sinn Féin TD for Donegal, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Mr. Varadkar said the government would soon be able to “promise more money for the A5 road. ”

    “We didn’t fully cancel our promise, but we did cut it a lot because of the financial crisis here,” he said.

    “The situation has changed, and our country is now in a much better financial position. The Northern Ireland Executive is also operating again. ”

    “I talked to Minister O’Dowd about this when I visited Stormont last Monday. ”

    “We can make a new promise to give money to the A5 in the next week or two. ”

    The Irish government promised to give $400 million for a big road project, but later they said they would give less.

    The road is very dangerous on the island of Ireland. More than 50 people have died there since 2006.

    The project to improve the road by making it wider has not started yet, even though it was announced 16 years ago. There have been many delays.

    If done, the big update would be the biggest road ever made in Northern Ireland, with a cost of about £1. 6 billion

  • Mahama is yet to come out with a policy direction after being elected flagbearer – Justin Kodua

    Mahama is yet to come out with a policy direction after being elected flagbearer – Justin Kodua

    General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong has asserted that despite being elected flagbearer, former President John Dramani Mahama is yet to come out with a policy direction. 

    He noted that unlike Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who has presented his vision for the country, Mr Mahama has not publicly declared any policy direction.

    “Just look at the NDC flagbearer former President John Mahama…has he come out with his policy direction after a year of being elected flagbearer?” he asked.

    However, available facts suggest otherwise. Mr Mahama during his Building Ghana Tour has outlined a number of policies including his 24-hour economy policy. 

    Also, the NDC recently published a document containing 60 policy positions that Mahama has shared in the course of his campaigns.

    Mr Kodua disclosed that Dr Bawumia will outdoor his campaign team this week, all things being equal. It is widely expected that he will present the list to party leadership before any formal announcements are made.

    The John Mahama versus Mahamudu Bawumia contest in 2024 will be the first time in the Fourth Republic that both major contenders for the presidency will be from the northern part of the country.

    Mahama, a former Vice President and later president is gunning for his final term in office while Bawumia wants to go a step further after serving for two terms as Vice President, he is in his final year in the role.

  • Lunar New Year: China spends more on tourism than pre-COVID

    Lunar New Year: China spends more on tourism than pre-COVID

    Tourism spending in China rose higher than before Covid during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to government data.

    According to the government, people spent 47% more on tourism within their own country this year compared to last year. The amount spent was about 632. 7 billion yuan (£69. 7bn)

    The parties happened after many years of pandemic rules and limits, which were stopped in early 2023.

    The data increased because the holiday was one day longer than usual.
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    During the first week of the Year of the Dragon, 474 million trips were taken within the country. The break lasted for eight days and ended on Sunday. That was over 34% more than last year and 19% higher than in 2019 before the pandemic.

    The officials didn’t give details, but based on the numbers we have, it looks like people are spending about 9. 5% less on their trips compared to last year.

    According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, many people are still choosing to spend less money on things.

    The Spring Festival in China is a really big holiday when lots of people travel. It’s the biggest migration in the world.

    Usually, many people in China go back to their hometowns to see their families or go on trips around the country.

    During the pandemic, big parties were called off and people were not allowed to travel.

    The increase in spending during Lunar New Year is good news for China, even though the country is going through some tough times.

    Beijing is dealing with some big problems, like a housing market crisis, low overseas sales, and worries about prices dropping for things people buy.

    “New information released on Sunday showed that the amount of money foreign businesses invested in China last year was the smallest it has been in 30 years. ”

    According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the amount of money coming from other countries to invest in our country is the lowest it has been since 1993.