President of Liberia and Africa’s only Ballon d’Or award winner, Mr. George Manneh Weah has supported the family of Black Stars winger, Christian Atsu with USD10, 000 to help organize the funeral of the player.
Atsu, who dominated football at the national team and club level, died during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the southern part of Turkey and Syria early this month.
A visit by the delegation on behalf of President George Weah said the token was to support the family in this difficult moment.
A statement by the president said, “I am deeply saddened to hear the devastating news of the passing of my neighbor, my small brother, my young friend, the late Christian Atsu, who was a victim of the recent earthquake in Turkey”.
Mr. Weah expressed his sincere sympathy to the family and urged them to stay strong as he pledged his continuous support to them.
The delegation, in honour of the former Newcastle man, also presented a citation to the family of the Black Stars winger.
Today, world football is mourning Christian Atsu for his massive contribution to football and society.
Explosions could be heard during the early hours of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine when Miia Mitskevych was born.
Several commentators predicted that in a matter of days, the Kremlin’s tanks would roll into Kyiv as she opened her eyes in a maternity hospital.
Miia spent her first night of existence in a bomb bunker beneath the hospital, where workers kept the facility running even as missiles pounded the city.
Svitlana, 38, and Igor, 47, will celebrate their daughter’s birthday with cake and a wish for “calm skies” one year from today.
Svitlana, a lawyer, recalled a family life which had been insulated from news of the massing Russian forces
‘We were the happiest ever,’ she says. ‘We were shopping, decorating the room… Igor, my husband, kept me away from the news about the war.
‘Therefore it was shocking for me.’
Miia was born after her parents made a dash to a maternity hospital while air sirens rang out (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
In the early hours of February 24, the family, also including their son, Maksym, then aged eight, were awoken by the sound of an explosion outside the windows of their 15-floor apartment in Kyiv.
‘I screamed and jumped out of bed,’ Svitlana says.
‘Then I ran to the next room to calm the eldest son. The explosion was very powerful, I had the feeling that there were planes dropping bombs.’
The family dressed, took food and water and went down to an underground car park which is used as the apartments’ bomb shelter.
Svitlana felt stressed and realised that she was having contractions.
They had the choice of the baby being delivered with the help of a next-door neighbour, a surgeon with no specialism in maternity, or to make the dash to the Kyiv Perinatal Centre.
They struggled to get network coverage but Igor managed to connect after going back upstairs to the apartment and calling their doctor at the hospital, who said Svitlana could be admitted.
Miia and Maksym meet for the first time in a car park used as a shelter under the family’s apartment (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
As air raid sirens rang out, the couple made the trip by car and she gave birth in a delivery room while rockets exploded in and around the city.
Miia was born at 6.55pm. Her first journey was seven floors down to the hospital’s bomb shelter, where the trio spent the night while Maskym was at home with his grandparents and hamster.
Despite power outages and the barrages of missiles, shells and kamikaze drones, the centre has continued operating 24/7 since the outset of hostilities. Eight days before the invasion, staff gathered to sing the national anthem in a show of solidarity for their homeland.
Svitlana is expectant in a loving embrace with her son Maksym and husband Igor before the full-scale invasion (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)Svitlana is preparing to mark her daughter Miia’s first birthday with a cake and a wish for her to live in peace (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
‘Doctors are heroes for whom I will pray all my life,’ Svitlana says.
‘They left their own families and came to the hospital in order to save other people’s lives.’
The next day Miia had her first car trip and got acquainted with her brother, who turns 10 on Monday. The family spent the first week in Kyiv where they were afraid to go near the windows in their home, with Russian cruise missiles slamming into residential buildings in the city.
On March 3, Igor drove Svitlana and the children to the relative safety of the Zakarpattia region in western Ukraine.
A month later he returned to Kyiv to continue working as an IT specialist.
Svitlana stayed until the summer and while she felt safe she wanted to reunite the family after months on her own with the two children.
Miia sleeps in the car park during an air raid alert in Kyiv (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)Svitlana has adapted to family life in wartime conditions (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
‘It was important for me to preserve the integrity of our family,’ she says.
‘In September my husband persuaded me to return to Kyiv, although I did not understand how I could live under the missile strikes.’
In October, Russia began to strike Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, causing power outages across the country in an apparent attempt by Vladimir Putin to freeze the population into submission.
‘We were not prepared for the blackout, even for four hours, but you can get used to everything,’ Svitlana says.
Svitlana and the children on the way to the Zakarpattia region in western Ukraine (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
‘We have learned to live without electricity. We bought a charging station, autonomous lamps, additional power banks and a gas stove to heat food for Miia. It is difficult, but these are not the same difficulties as our soldiers suffer in the trenches, without proper water and food.
‘This price we pay is worth being at home.
‘No matter wherever you are, under what conditions, your city, Kyiv, gives you strength, energy and motivation for life.’
After a year of war, the couple feel ‘stronger and braver’ and hope that Miia will have a future in a free, independent country.
‘The most terrible thing about February 2022 was the uncertainty,’ Svitlana says.
‘At the time, we didn’t even know what a missile strike sounded like.
‘Today we know everything Russia is capable of but we are ready for it.
‘We are stronger and braver and remain irrepressible, because we feel the support of the strongest countries in the world. And we are grateful to them, especially to Great Britain, for protecting us.’
Maskym shows his affection for his new sister in the relative safety of the Zakarpattia region (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
Svitlana has only one birthday wish for her daughter.
‘I wish my daughter a peaceful sky, because she has never seen it,’ she says.
‘This is the most important thing. We will be able to give her everything else.
‘I will pray for this heaven every day of my life until it become reality.’
The one-year anniversary falls at a time when intense fighting continues to rage in the east of Ukraine, with both sides expected to launch major assaults as spring approaches.
Svitlana prays that Miia will one day live in an independent Ukraine which is free from war (Picture: Svitlana Mitskevych/Facebook)
‘We can’t celebrate when our country is at war,’ Svitlana says.
‘We will not have guests because they are far away. But we will be together; the godmother and grandparents will come. I will bake a cake.’
The anniversary itself brings mixed emotions.
‘The day of February 24 is the most terrible for us as well as for all Ukrainians,’ Svitlana reflects.
‘But it’s one of the happiest days in our life at the same time.
‘Nothing in the world is absolutely black or absolutely white. It will forever remain a combination of opposite emotions which we experienced that day.
‘But Miia’s birth for us is a ray of hope that life goes on and we will win.’
Queen Mothers who are farmers have called for financial support and resources from stakeholders to enhance their agribusinesses.
They said agriculture was the backbone of the economy and that women in the business required all the support to develop and feed the nation.
They made the call during a panel discussion at the Second Edition of the Gathering of the Royals in Accra organised by Agrihouse Foundation in collaboration with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
This year’s edition is under the theme: “Championing Agri-growth through our Queen Mothers- The Agribooster Module”.
The gathering had Queen Mothers from the sixteen regions of the country, the agribusiness value chain players, policy makers and development partners
Pognaa Leticia Tantuo, Queen Mother, Nandom, Upper West Region, called on the Government to provide women farmers with mechanised farm tools, including tractors.
She said it was difficult for them to access tractor services.
Pognaa Tantuo urged processors to visit farms in the regions to strengthen and train the farmers on processing and storage of their farm produce to prevent wastage.
Naa Naama Azabu Tamboo, Queen Mother, Dindani Traditional Area, North East Region, appealed to the Government to subsidise and reduce the prices of some farm inputs and fertilisers.
Nana Ekua Badu, Queen Mother, Western North, said some coffee farms she had cultivated had been converted to cocoa farms because there were no ready market for the produce.
Mama Yorfomi Gliqui II, Queen Mother, Dzodze Apetepe, Volta Region, asked financial institutions to provide loans with low interest to help them to expand their agribusinesses.
Dr Dorothy Effah, Policy Officer, AGRA, said one of the central goals of every developing country was to increase income through agriculture.
She said communities must provide the enabling environment for women to thrive and to keep on participating in agricultural programmes.
Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Executive Director, Agrihouse Foundation, noted that over the years the event had made key impacts such as the introduction of the “One Household One Garden” initiative.
She said there had also been training by Organic Group Protectant (OCP), one of the largest phosphate and fertilisers companies in communities with the Queen Mothers as entry points.
Agrihouse Foundation is a Non- Governmental agricultural capacity building Organisation in Ghana.
After being sexually assaulted, a woman bit off her attacker’s tongue and gave it to the police as Genetic proof.
The 57-year-old woman was walking her dog in Avignon, a city in the Provence area of southeastern France, at around 4am on Sunday when a man started following her.
The man in his 30s allegedly approached the woman along Rue Diourbel in the Saint-Jean neighbourhood before attempting to hug and kiss her, according to France Bleu.
She wrestled her attacker off and bit off his tongue when he attempted to slid his hands down her pants.
The woman went home after the incident before alerting the authorities
Carrying the flesh home with her, she headed back out with her son to a local police station and gave them the tongue.
The man, originally from Tunisia and now living in France illegally, was arrested by officers at the scene.
He reportedly told investigators the woman was the person who jumped him.
The man will appear in court next Wednesday and will be forced to leave France.
In 2014, a woman in the UK similarly bit off her attacker’s tongue and kept it in her mouth to preserve crucial DNA evidence.
Adele Barber was walking home from a doctor’s appointment in January when a man brushed up against her on the street.
She shrugged it off at first but the man then ran up beside her before shoving her against a wall and sexually assaulting her.
‘He tried to kiss me and forced his tongue in my mouth,’ Barber told This Morning in 2015.
‘I thought this has left him vulnerable, I’m just going to bite down as hard as I can and it will show it’s not consensual in any way shape or form, get as much DNA as I can and try and cause enough pain to get this guy off me.’
The Prosecution handling the trial involving Dr Stephen Opuni, a Former Chief Executive of COCOBOD and two others want the Chief Justice to appoint a new trial judge for the case.
This is because the current trial judge, Justice Clemence Honyenuga, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High court judge, had been hearing the trial since 2018 and following his retirement last September, he was granted a six-month extension by the Chief Justice to conclude the case.
That mandate expires at the end of February 2023.
Mr Alfred Tuah- Yeboah. Deputy Attorney-General, who made the plea on Thursday, said the request was in the interest of justice and fairness.
Dr Opuni and Mr Seidu Agongo, a Businessman are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, willfully causing financial loss to the State, money laundering, and corruption by a public officer in contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are each on a GH¢300,000.00 self-recognizance bail.
The Deputy A-G said the prosecution was aware of the motion on notice for the recusal of the trial judge from further hearing the matter.
He said without prejudice to the pending motion and pursuant to Article 145 (4) of the Constitution, the trial judge was granted a limited mandate for the completion of the matter.
Mr Tuah-Yeboah said the time left for the trial judges’ mandate to expire was extremely limited and that Seidu Agongo was yet to open his defence in the matter.
He said it was impossible for the matter to be concluded.
Mr Samuel Cudjoe, Counsel for Dr Opuni told the court that his client had nothing to say.
Meanwhile, Mr Nutifafa Nutsukpui, Counsel for Agongo commended the Deputy Attorney-General for the suggestion.
Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, who informed the parties of the Supreme Court’s 7-0 unanimous decision on February 22, 2023, dismissed the review application to prohibit certiorari for perpetual injunction filed by Dr Opuni.
He said the details of their decision would be filed at the Registry of the Supreme Court on or by the close of Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
The Judge, having heard the Deputy A-G and the parties, said he would adjourn the matter and await the decision of the Supreme Court.
He said, “I should be the first person to be worried considering the numerous applications filed in this matter in this court and both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.”
“I will adjourn the matter to Wednesday, March 1, 2023, so that we hear the full reasons of the Supreme Court, and we get the full import of the Supreme Court,” he added.
Initially, an Accra High Court was supposed to hear a motion on notice filed by Seidu Agongo for the withdrawal of the trial judge from further hearing the matter.
Final year student at the Sunyani Technical University (STU), Mr Henry Gyamfi, has donated four projectors, and two giant screens to the faculty of Business Management Studies of the university.
Mr Gyamfi, a Higher National Diploma student, and the Chief Executive Officer the Saveok Company Limited, a Newmont Ahafo Mine sub-contractor, said the gesture formed part of the company’s corporate social responsibility of giving back to society.
He expressed the hope that the projectors would facilitate effective teaching and learning, and asked the faculty to take good care of them.
Engineer Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, the Vice Chancellor of the University thanked the donor and advised, especially past students to emulate the gesture.
In a related development, Partners for Compassionate Services, a United States-based charity organization has presented medical supplies and drugs worth GHC50,000 to University’s Clinic.
According to Mr Desmond Oppong, the Fundraising Officer of the University, he lobbied for the items to help enhance quality healthcare delivery in the university community. \
Mr Julius Kwayie-Mensah, the Sunyani Branch Manager of the Zenith Bank, made the presentation on behalf of Dr Yusif Addae, the CEO of the NGO.
“Dr Addae is very passionate and his organization is ever ready and determined to help meet the health needs of the students, and the public as well,” he said.
He said the NGO was ever ready to further support the university clinic to meet the growing demand of its clients, and entreated management of the facility to take good care and use the items for the intended purpose.
Dr Vera Achiaa, the Medical Director of the University Clinic, thanked the donor for the gesture, saying the items would greatly help improve on health service delivery.
MPs are anticipated to learn that a three-line whip will be in effect starting on Monday after cabinet ministers were asked to attend an eleventh-hour session on Sunday.
The Prime Minister’s new plan will hinge, however, on the backing of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), with failing talks likely leading to further delays.
Sunak is expected to hold more talks with the DUP and top EU officials before any announcements are made, the Times reported today.
Ever since the UK voted to leave the EU, the question of Northern Ireland’s border with Ireland, an EU member, has plagued ministers.
Boris Johnson’s Northern Ireland protocol re-introduces custom checks on goods entering the country from mainland Britain.
In other words, it effectively leaves half of Northern Ireland inside the EU’s customs union and single market and half inside the British one.
Politicians, though, aren’t exactly eager to have checkpoints back, the kind Northern Ireland and Ireland did away with after joining the EU.
And pro-Brexit politicians see the protocol as a way for the bloc to retain power over the country.
Ever since Johnson’s ‘oven-ready’ deal went back to the drawing board, Sunak has sought to broker revised trade rules for Northern Ireland.
His new Brexit deal would see a prime minister once again gamble with their political career, an issue that cost David Cameron and Theresa May their jobs.
The UK’s exit from the EU has proved divisive, to say the least (Picture: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto)
The premier met with pro-unionist leaders keen to maintain ties with Britain last week in Belfast to get their backing.
Since the protocol, the DUP has refused to return to a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland – so Sunak’s new deal was crucial in tempting the party back.
But Sunak’s new deal was set to be announced this week until leaks of its contents prompted backlash from the DUP and Eurosceptic Tory MPs.
Under Sunak’s plans, almost all checks would have been scrapped and Westminster allowed to set Northern Ireland’s VAT and state aid policies.
It would also have given the Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont, and the UK government the right to hash out new EU laws impacting the territory.
Johnson warned this week that dropping the Northern Ireland protocol would be a big mistake.
‘I think the best way forward is the Northern Ireland bill,’ he told Sky News.
‘It’s a very good bill. It fixes all the problems. It solves the problems that we have in the Irish Sea, it solves the problems of paperwork, VAT and so on.’
As of Thursday, February 23, 2023, a total of 6,259,229, Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were still in the custody of Nigerian Elections officers, data from the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, indicates.
A total number of 87,209,007 PVCs had been collected by Nigerians during the time of the release of the data.
The data which was collated as of 5th February 2023 shows that uncollected PVCs stood at 6,259,229. Nigeria has a registered voting population of 93,469,008.
The Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council PCC had on Wednesday demanded a breakdown of Nigerians who have collected their PVCs, saying the data was necessary for its election planning.
At a news conference Wednesday in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed that the commission would upload the PVC data collection disaggregation on a polling unit basis to its website by Friday.
Aside from journalists from domestic and foreign media, some of those present at the briefing were a former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda; leaders of the International Republican Institute IRI and National Democratic Institute NDI; Chairmen of the electoral commissions of the Republic of Benin, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Tanzania, and Niger Republic as well as members of the Diplomatic Corps.
State-by-state figures.
A state-by-state analysis of PVCs collection showed that Lagos has the highest figure of 6,214,970, followed by Kano with 5,594,193; Kaduna, 4,164,473; Katsina, 3,459,945; and, Rivers, 3,285,785.
Ekiti which has the lowest number of registered voters also has the lowest number of PVCs collected – 958, 052.
A summation of PVCs collected on the basis of geopolitical zones showed that the Northwest has 21,445,000; Southwest, 15,536,213; North Central, 14,603,621; South-South, 13,284,920; North East, 11,937,769; and, South East, 10,401,484.
In his address, Yakubu said the Commission has meticulously prepared and implemented its Election Project Plan, learning from recent elections.
“This election is a huge logistical deployment. We have painstakingly procured, organized, and delivered all the materials to the States for deployment. We commenced the delivery of non-sensitive materials over two months ago and they have been batched down to Registration Area/Ward and Pulling Unit levels.
“Sensitive materials have been delivered to the States and are presently being delivered to our Local Government Area offices. As such, these materials are only between one and two levels away from the Polling Units. We have achieved this by learning from our recent difficult experience with logistics. We have completed arrangements with the transport unions for the final leg of the movement of personnel and materials to the Polling Units. They have assured us of their readiness to provide all the vehicular needs of the Commission for the election”, he said.
Yakubu added that the commission has also completed all the testing of its technologies to be deployed for the election, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS and the INEC Results Viewing Portal IReV.
“On 4th February 2023, we tested the BVAS in a mock accreditation exercise and uploaded the results to IReV. We are satisfied with the performance of the BVAS, which has been confirmed by several groups that observed the exercise. Lessons learnt from the exercise have helped us in the training of 10,600 Registration Area Technical Support Staff RATECHS. They will provide the necessary support to ensure that the deployment of the BVAS is without hitches.
No PVC, no voting
“Let me reiterate that the procedure for voting as provided in the Electoral Act 2022, clearly makes the use of the BVAS mandatory. So also, the use of the Permanent Voters’ Card PVC. The ‘No PVC, No Voting’ rule subsists.
“In the last few months, we made 13,676,907 PVCs available for collection for new voters and applicants for transfer and replacement of lost/damaged cards. While we are pleased that the rate of collection is higher than in previous years, there are still, unfortunately, many cards that were not collected.
“Vote buying remains a major threat to our democracy. We have worked closely with enforcement agencies to ensure that this is eliminated from our electoral process. We are convinced that our joint operations before and on election day will vastly reduce the prospect of voter inducement, which is not only illegal but immoral.
“The ban on the use of mobile phones and photographic devices at the voting cubicles is still in place. Some voters have used these devices in previous elections to snap their marked ballot papers for vote transactions. However, citizens are permitted to come to the Polling Units with these devices, as long as they do not take them to the voting cubicles. Our arrangement of placing the ballot box near the voting cubicle and away from party agents remains.
“In the build-up to the general election, several of our facilities were attacked by unknown assailants in various parts of the country. I am pleased that we have fully recovered from those attacks, and we have been further assured that our facilities, staff, voters, observers, and citizens will be safe during the election.
“As a result of recent developments in the economy, we have also had to consult with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL on the fuel situation. As you all know, we require Premium Motor Spirit PMS and Automotive Gas Oil AGO to power vehicles and boast for land and marine transportation as well as our generators during the election.
“We are pleased that the NNPC Limited assured us that it will ensure the availability of the products for the polls. Likewise, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured us that it will provide us with the small amount of cash we require from our budget to cash payments to some critical service providers for the election. I must reiterate that the bulk of payment for works goods and services is still paid for by electronic transfer.
“I want to assure Nigerians that we are adequately prepared for this election. We remain fully committed to a free, fair, and credible process. I want to once again declare that our allegiance is only to Nigerians. Our commitment is to ensure that in this election we put everything in place for free choice, fair contest, and credible outcome”, he added.
Apparently, a jeweler’s employee died from an electric shock while dozing next to his phone, and his coworkers discovered him after his death.
Concerned coworkers visited Puttawat Kamwan‘s apartment in Samut Prakan, Thailand, after the 34-year-old failed to show up for work three days in a row.
But when they entered his bedroom, they saw him on the bed, crumpled and dying, his hand on his phone.
Photos from the scene show Mr Kamwan’s bedroom with the charger and power cord lying next to his bed.
His colleague Pantatip Kanthong, 22, said: ‘We work at a jewellery shop.. He was absent for three days and did not answer his phone.’
‘After work, we went to his room but we found his door was open. We went inside with the landlady and found him.’
Building owner Nattanit Hawharn, 31, said Puttawat stayed home alone and was usually silent in his room so she didn’t think anything was wrong.
Emergency services in Thailand said he had been dead for at least three days before he was found (Picture: ViralPress)The shop worker was found next to his phone charger after he is believed to have died after an electric shock (Picture: ViralPress)Mr Kamwan was discovered by colleagues after he didn’t turn up for work for three days (Picture: ViralPress)
She said: ‘He was usually quiet and rested in his room or drank cans of beer after work. We saw his door was opened. We thought he was only sick.’
Investigating officer police captain Pongnarin Nontanok of Bang Phli police station said they found no traces of assault.
He said: ‘Puttawat Kamwan was still lying on his bed. His right arm was also touching the charging phone.
‘We found no trace of assault. From the evidence, he had been dead for at least three days.
‘His corpse was bloated and sent foul stench across the room.’
Pongnarin added that Puttawat might have been killed by short-circuiting as his arm was lying on the charging phone.
The policeman said: ‘The initial investigation reports noted the presence of the phone and charging cable, so electrocution was suspected as the cause of death.
‘This was confirmed with an autopsy at the Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital in Bangkok.’
The National Liberation Council (NLC) launched this Coup with a coded name “Operation Cold Chop” on February 24th, 1966.
President Kwame Nkrumah left Ghana on February 21, 1966 to Hanoi, the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam through the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh to resolve the then Vietnam war.
Ghana was then left under the supervision and control of a three-man Presidential Commission.
He was surrounded by his foreign affairs minister, Alex Quason Sackey, his Trade and Industry Minister Ambassador Kwesi Armah and among others.
The Coup De’tat
A group of men from the Ghana Army led by Lt. C B (later General) Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Major (later General) Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, with a great support from the Police Service who moved in a coded name called “ Operation Cold Chop” overthrew President Kwame Nkrumah from power while he was on a peace mission to Hanoi at the invitation of premier Ho Chi Minh.
This happened in the early hours of February 24th, 1966.
At exactly six o’clock that morning, Colonel Kotoka made the biggest announcement on Radio Ghana saying;
“Fellow citizens of Ghana, I have come to inform you that the Military, in cooperation with the Ghana Police, have taken over the government of Ghana today. The myth surrounding Nkrumah has been broken. Parliament has been dissolved and Kwame Nkrumah has been dismissed from office. All ministers are also dismissed from office. The C.P.P. is disbanded with effect from now. It will be illegal for any person to belong to it.”
Painfully, Kwame Nkrumah heard the sad news through the Chinese Ambasaddor over there that he had been overthrown in a coup d’etat.
Kwame Nkrumah could not believe that he had been overthrown.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
After the coup d’etat code named “Operation Cold Chop” in Ghana, Former President of Guinea Sekou Toure came to the rescue of Kwame Nkrumah.
He invited him to Guinea where he arrived on March 2, 1966, together with his bodyguards and a few civil servants who had remained with him.
ACCRA, GHANA: Workers demonstrate with placards 06 March 1966 in Accra. In the center, on one of the placards, a caricature says Kwame Nkrumah is a “Sasabonsan”, which means a “Great Devil”. Following the arrival of Nkrumah to the government, Ghana gets his autonomy from Great Britain, and became independent in 1957. The military junta took power 24 February 1966 while Nkrumah was away. (Photo credit should read AFP via Getty Images)
After the coup d’etat
President Kwame Nkrumah was beautifully received by the Former President of Guinea and was given 21 gun salutes.
Toure declared that Kwame Nkrumah would be with him as “the head of state of the secretary-general of the Guinean Democratic Party at the Airport.
In Nkrumah’s book, ‘Dark Days in Ghana’, Nkrumah revealed that the coup d’etat was the handiwork of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) of the United States of America.
The leaders who overthrew Nkrumah immediately opened the country’s border and its prison gates to allow the return from exile or release from preventive detention of all opponents of President Kwame Nkrumah.
The National Liberation Council (NLC), composed of four army officers and four police officers, assumed executive power.
It appointed a cabinet of civil servants and promised to restore democratic government as quickly as possible.
6th March 1966: Children around a fallen statue of the self appointed president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah during the coup that overthrew his dictatorship. (Photo by Harry Dempster/Express/Getty Images)
The African continent in the past few years has seen lots of emerging talents; from comedy, to acting, to dancing, to rap…and the list goes on. Especially with the emergence of social media, these great talents have become acessible. One of such talents is a user identified as Tyneebee.
She has been praised for her great renditions of many hits; from Kiss Daniel’s ‘Cough,’ to Benzzjay’s ‘Adulthood na scam,’ among other hit songs.
To some, she is one of the finest talents Nigeria could ever have. Others have also described her as a ‘rap goddess.’ She has been compared with the likes of Nikki Minaj, Eminen and Cardi B due to her exceptional talent and her young age.
Born Tynee Bee Gold, the 18-year-old, has gained popularly over social media following the release of various clips of her ‘remaking’ various songs. Her fans simply can’t get enough of her. Undoubtedly, Tyneebee is one of the finest young talents Nigeria and the African continent can boast of.
What makes her music adorable and unique is how she is able to translate and blend her life experiences into the music she makes.
Not only is she a rapper, Tyneebee is also a presenter, voice-over artist, music artist, and model. She’s also passionate about the well-being of her country and has created songs for that.
In September 2020, she completed her Secondary Education after writing taking the WAEC exam.
It use used to guide mariners or mark positions in the ocean.
According to local media, the object was around 1.5 metres in diameter and appeared to be rusted, which suggests it may be made out of iron.
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Bomb experts had been called to the beach to investigate (Picture: NHK World)
It is also equipped with a series of metallic handles.
After the orb was found, photographs had been sent to the Japanese self-defence forces and coast guard for further examination.
Bomb experts were even called to Enshu Beach to investigate the strange spherical shape.
The area had swiftly been evacuated as a result of the discovery.
The mysterious metal sphere could be a rusted version of a structured buoy (Picture: ntyangfan.com)
Speaking to public broadcaster NHK, one local man who regularly runs on the beach said he did not understand why the ball had suddenly become the centre of attention.
‘It’s been there for a month,’ he told the outlet. ‘I tried to push it, but it wouldn’t budge.’
The news comes after American fighter jets shot down a number of ‘unidentified objects’ spotted in US and Canadian airspace over the past month.
President Biden revealed earlier last week that the objects shot down were in fact most likely humdrum research balloons.
READ MORE: Reddit users pile in with opinions on mysterious creature found on UK beach
‘We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were but nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,’ Mr Biden said.
China has also claimed that the alleged spy balloon was merely meant for civilian research.
One of the members of the once vibrant music group Wutah, Afriyie, has disclosed how top-rated Nigerian musician, Burna Boy, sampled one of his songs without his consent.
Per the Wikipedia definition of sampling, it is ‘the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalized, sped up or slowed down, repitched, looped, or otherwise manipulated’.
So, in the view of Afriyie, the above is just what the ‘Last Last’ hitmaker did.
Speaking with Nana Romeo on Accra FM’s midmorning drivetime show, he mentioned that he was aware from the very moment Burna Boyreleased his ‘Common Person’ that it was his ‘Here To Stay’ that was sampled.
However, he got really convinced after another colleague in the music industry called Jack called to confirm the same.
Afriyie added that later some other people also called to confirm the same thing and stressed that what Burna Boy did could be likened to theft because he made a few changes.
“Some people are saying it’s creativity, while others are saying it’s theft. He also somehow changed the key, and he didn’t sing like me, but the sax and the flow…For some of my melodies, he played the guitar,” he said.
Asked if he had any plans to confront Burna Boy over this issue, he quickly said he was not going to do so because people will attack him and possibly tag him a hater of the ‘African Gaint’
Afriyie was quick to add that he was however happy that people who have musical ears have seen this and are talking about it.
Watch the interview below and listen to the two songs for yourself…
The 128-page book dubbed, “Discover Western Region” was written to market tourist attractions in the Region and to attract investors to the region’s enormous tourism potentials.
The book highlights the region as Ghana’s top travel location for a honeymoon, a memorable holiday, some relaxation, and recreation.
It also gives at least 53 reasons why one should visit the sites.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Darko-Mensah said the purpose of the book was to stimulate people’s interest in paying a visit.
He said the book would serve as a traveller’s guide to tourist sites in the Western Region and promote it as “Ghana’s Tourism Heaven.”
Mr Frederick Agyemang, Western Regional Coordinating Director, said the tourism sector led in employment and was, therefore, an economic pillar, providing jobs and opportunities, most notably for women and the youth.
He said tourism had been a central and most important part of the country’s development and that it remained a significant contributor to Ghana’s GDP and continue to attract foreign investment.
Mr Agyemang indicated that the Western Regional Co-ordinating Council (WRCC) under the leadership of Mr Darko-Mensah was keen on promoting the tourism business in the Region.
He commended the Regional Minister for his vision and efforts to document what he considered a very comprehensive book of the tourism industry in the Region.
“This is particularly an important development, as the book will surely fill the current gap in the public understanding of the role of the Tourism industry in the Ghanaian economy,” he emphasised.
Nana Kobina Nkestia V, the Paramount Chief of Essikado Traditional Area, who chaired the occasion, was impressed with the efforts of the minister for taking time to put up such a book despite his busy schedule.
He recommended all and sundry to get a copy of the book to know more about the region in terms of its tourism potential.
Madam Araba Ghansah, who read a speech on behalf of Mr Kwaw Ansah, Founder of Bisa Aberwa Museum, noted that it was the first time a Western Regional Minister had cared enough about the Region to take steps to advertise it to tourists and investors from his own resources.
She defined the book as a fast-paced, racy collage of photographs presenting the Region.
Madam Ghansah noted that the intent, spirit, and content of the book would shape the future of how the Region sold its tourism and investments.
The event was attended by heads of institutions, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), religious leaders, traditional leaders, the business community, and family and friends.
Yet, given that other drivers merely got out and walked over the pebbles, it appears that the drivers were more focused on getting where they wanted to go.
Yesterday, a highway in Ayacucho, a city in south-central Peru that has seen three days of showers with more to come, was covered in a sheet of mud.
Shirley Mora Vilcatoma, a bus passenger, recorded video of the landslide as it covered the road in front of numerous stopped automobiles.
Some people could be seen sprinting from the rockfall as it blocked off the road completely.
Witnesses said that frustrated people whose journeys were stopped short by the disaster eventually just stepped over the accident site to leave.
Bus passenger Marcelina Palacios was on her way from Ica to Pausa when the avalanche took place.
‘Others are walking,’ she said, according to Reuters, ‘but I can’t because my mother is elderly.’
No one has been reported injured in the rock slip.
Peru has long struggled with landslides, where tonnes of torrential rainfall in the mountains push walls of mud and boulders down slopes.
But years of deforestation aren’t helping, with forests that once acted as barriers to hold back the water being turned into farmland.
Severe landslides ripped through Arequipa, sweeping once luscious hillsides clean Picture: Reuters)At least 12,000 people suffered some form of damage in the disaster (Picture: AFP)
It comes only weeks after Peru landslides smashed southern Peru, killing at least 40 people, injuring dozens and leaving countless stranded on February 6.
The Nicolas Valcarcel municipality in the Camaná province was among the hardest hit, while Secocha, perched on the Ocoña River banks, was gobbled up by the mud.
At the peak of the days-long rainfall that set off the slides, the swollen river flowed at a rate of 585.6 cubic metres per second.
The landslides ripped through five small gold-mining villages in total across the Mariano Nicolás Valcárcel municipality, damaging or washing away more than 600 homes and impacting more than 12,000 people.
Programmes Manager, CDD Ghana, Mr Paul Aborampah Mensah, , in a solidarity message at the launch of the 30th Anniversary of Ghana’s Parliamentary Democracy in Accra, said prior to the Fourth Republic, Parliament was a branch of Government with the most disrupted life in Ghana’s constitutional and political history.
“It was a victim of the coups d’etat of February 1966, January 1972, and December 1981.”
He said Parliament resumed its life in the Fourth Republic on a less than optimistic note, as the decision of the New Patriotic Party to boycott the December 1992 parliamentary elections robbed the first Parliament of an official opposition party.
He noted that in January 1997, with the arrival of a fully representative and competitive chamber, Parliament began to deepen its institutional foundations and assumed its proper role as a multi-party chamber reflecting the diverse and divergent political party affiliations and identities within the Ghanaian polity.
Mr Mensah said over the course of the Fourth Republic, Parliament, in keeping with its rightful role as the People’s Assembly and, for that matter, the most popularly accessible and representative branch of Government, had developed and enjoyed a productive working relationship with Civil Society.
“CSOs have helped to inform and educate the Ghanaian public about the business and work of Parliament, supported the Parliamentary Service and successive classes of Members of Parliament (MPs) to build capacities relevant to their multiple mandates and functions of law making, oversight and representation,” he said.
“CSOs work closely with and supply various knowledge products to MPs and committees of Parliament to help improve the quality of proposed legislation.”
Mr Mensah said those organisations had also undertaken periodic assessments of the performance of MPs and Parliament itself.
That last activity of CSOs had not always been welcomed by MPs or Parliament, he said, but those organisations and Parliament had come to appreciate that occasional respectful disagreement was an inevitable part of their engagement.
“These engagements are healthy for the progressive evolution of the nation’s parliamentary democracy,” he said.
“Mr Speaker, Parliament indeed, has come a long way in these last thirty years. The Fourth Republican Parliament is the first and only Parliament in our history to reach adulthood.”
Mr Mensah said the people of Ghana still looked up to Parliament to keep oversight and checks-and-balances of the Executive, protect the public purse, and diligently scrutinise proposed legislation and international contracts and agreements.
In short, a substantial part of the burden of making the nation’s democracy work for the people rests on the shoulders of Parliament.
The event, chaired by Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, was on the theme; “The Fourth Republic: The Journey Thus Far”.
Saturday, 7th January, 2023, was exactly 30 years since the Constitution of the Fourth Republic of Ghana came into force.
It appears that marriage proposals in the church are gradually becoming a trend among Christians in 2023.
Quite recently, two young people got social media talking after one Christian brother surprised his girlfriend in church and proposed to her in front of the entire congregation.
After all the positive reactions that the video received, there has been another surprise proposal in the church.
A video sighted by zionfelix.net has another Christian brother called Jesse going on his knees to ask his girlfriend, Gladys, and asking her to be his wife in front of the entire congregation.
The lady, who was obviously one of the few who didn’t know about this planned proposal was busily doing her work as the videographer of their church.
Out of the blue, the Christian brother appeared behind her, got on his knees, and touched her hand.
As soon as she saw the ring in the hand of her boyfriend, the Christian sister almost fainted in the church, and one of the gentlemen had to rush to get the camera from her hand.
Well, she accepted the proposal and took the ring. The two love birds shed some tears and eventually a warm embrace.
According to the government, the feat which was achieved on February 21, 2023, marks a significant leap as talks with the International Monetary Fund for the implementation of the post-COVID-19 programme for economic growth.
The successful conclusion meant that the government issued 16 series of new bonds to eligible holders whose tenders were accepted by the government.
This is in respect of the GHS-denominated bonds issued by the government, E.S.L.A Plc, or Daakye Trust Plc.
A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Finance Ministry said, “This successful result is a significant achievement for the Government in the implementation of the economic strategies of the post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) during this current economic crisis.”
“The settlement was made pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth in the 2nd Amended and Restated Exchange Memorandum dated 3rd February 2023 (the “Exchange Memorandum”),” the statement added.
Below are the full details of the settlement 1. On the Settlement Date, 16 Series of New Bonds were issued to Eligible Holders whose tenders were accepted by the Government. Pursuant to the Exchange Memorandum, the principal amount of the New Bonds per holder is composed of the outstanding principal amount of Eligible Bonds tendered by such holder plus any amount of Accrued Interest Payable in respect thereof and was allocated among holders based on each holder’s category pursuant to the Exchange Memorandum. On the Settlement Date, such principal amount was credited to their respective securities account at the Central Securities Depository (“CSD”) from which each holder’s Eligible Bonds were tendered.
2. Pursuant to the Exchange Memorandum, all tenders accepted by the Government resulted (i) in the case of the Eligible Bonds issued by the Government, in electronic cancellation of such Eligible Bonds at the CSD on the Settlement Date, and (ii) in the case of Eligible Bonds issued by E.S.L.A. Plc and Daakye Trust Plc, in the transfer, on the Settlement Date, of such Eligible Bonds in favour of the Government who became the holder thereof.
3. On the Settlement Date, the Government signed the New Bond Documentation, consisting of the new Deed of Covenant under which the New Bonds were constituted and issued (including the Terms and Conditions governing the New Bonds attached thereto) Pricing Supplement specific to each Series of New Bonds. Copies of the New Bond Documentation have been made available on the dedicated websites of the Ministry of Finance (https://mofep.gov.gh/news-and-events/debt-operations) and the CSD (https://www.csd.com.gh/dde), and on the Invitation Website (https://projects.morrowsodali.com/ghanadde). Moreover, copies of the New Bond Documentation have been made available for inspection by holders of New Bonds at the CSD.
Russian mercenaries who were captured have exposed the lies they were given as inducements to join Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Victor and Anatoliy were both incarcerated for a long time in Russia until recently, the one for the murder of a Chechen guy and the second for fighting.
That is, until Yevgeny Prigozhin, called “Putin’s chef,” arrived by helicopter at their prisons and made a promise to wipe their records clean and pay them £2,200 per month.
They were parachuted to the frontline as Wagner Group fighters after six weeks of ‘very tough training’ with assault rifles, machine guns and mines.
They spoke about being thrown into the horrors of war, seeing comrades slaughtered as worthless cannon fodder ahead of the Russian Army ahead of the one-year invasion anniversary tomorrow.
Viktor, a dad-of-two from Stavropolsky region in Kavkaz, said: ‘We were told other countries were involved in the war in Ukraine, including Britain, and that we were defending Russia against foreign terrorists.
‘We were told we would not
be fighting civilians, but fascists and soldiers from other countries.’
Soldiers reportedly linked to Wagner Group are said to be fighting with Assad’s forces in Syria The head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, speaks to prisoners in Mariy El Republic
In total, about 200 men in his prison agreed to join the Wagner Group, with hopes of ‘a fresh start’ after the war in Ukraine is won.
After signing up in September last year, Viktor told the Mirror he was taken by bus to Rostov, near to Ukraine, and then to Luhansk, in Donbas,
‘With a criminal record I would not be able to get a job, and I felt I had no choice, even though it took a week for me to decide to join Wagner,’ the ex-builder said.
‘We would be sent in groups of 15 against what they said were just ten Ukrainian soldiers, then we’d discover there were up to 40 Ukrainians.’
Viktor described what was happening on the frontline of the war as ‘shocking and horrible’, detailing how he would see ‘arms and legs being shot off in battles’.
Like Viktor, Anatoliy was also captured by the Ukrainian Army while fighting as a mercenary for the influential group.
He had 18 months left on his three years and six-month sentence for brawling when Prigozhin flew into his prison looking for recruits.
Yevgeny Prigozhin gave a terrifying speech to prisonersA soldier wearing a patch bearing the Wagner Group’s insignia
The car mechanic, from Samara, central Russia, described the oligarch as a ‘serious man’.
Again like Viktor, Anatoliy said he was not told where he was being deployed to, but he ‘understood we would fight in Ukraine’.
‘We were doing full-scale attacks and I was in five big battles and Wagner Group was always ahead of the Army,’ he said.
Anatoliy was captured by Ukrainian forces after he and his Wagner comrades were sent into a battle against Kyiv’s forces in Donbas.
He said: ‘Eventually I was alone, pinned down by Ukrainian forces. Wagner Group sent in another detachment of ten men and the sniper killed five of them.
‘I was lying there with no more ammunition, a Ukrainian soldier standing above me with a machine gun. He fired into the ground near my legs as a warning. I was then taken prisoner unharmed.’
Wagner Group consists of around 50,000 soldiers largely recruited from Russian prisons.
Auditing and accounting firm, Deloitte Ghana is urging policy makers to balance the tax burden, so that businesses are not overtaxed in the search for revenue.
In an article on “Maintaining the balance in the proposed income tax reform”, it said the current economic climate is providing new challenges, and it is important for taxpayers to see that tax policy makers are taking their changing circumstances into account.
“A key lesson from the implementation of the electronic transfer levy and the domestic debt exchange programme is that all parties must shoulder an appropriate share of the increased tax burden. Retaining this balance in the income tax reform will be critical to achieving the government’s 2023 tax revenue targets”, it mentioned.
Proposed income tax reforms
The main income tax reforms proposed in the 2023 budget statement included the introduction of an additional personal income tax (PIT) band of 35% on monthly chargeable income above ¢50,000; a revision to the upper limit when calculating vehicle benefit for PIT purposes and the introduction of a minimum chargeable income system for businesses.
Deloitte Ghana said “as a response to the current economic challenges, these reforms are expected to increase tax revenue, but at the same time increase the tax burden for taxpayers still recovering from the economic downturn. As the government has called for an even distribution of the increased tax liabilities, the draft Bill is an opportunity to consider reforms to particular areas not yet taken into account, to provide for a more equal distribution of any tax increases”.
Potential areas of relief for businesses
Rising inflation, coupled with the depreciation of the Ghana cedi, have significantly increased the cost of vehicles, but the third schedule to the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) limits capital allowance deductions for road vehicles other than commercial vehicles to ¢75,000.
The definition of a commercial vehicle covers vehicles designed to carry a load of more than half a ton, or more than 13 passengers. This means that for vehicles which do not exceed either threshold, only ¢75,000 is recognised for capital allowance purposes, and businesses are unable to claim a deduction for the full cost of these vehicles used to generate income.
Deloitte Ghana said the upwards revision of the capital allowance deduction cap in respect of vehicles (other than commercial vehicles) would reassure taxpayers while ensuring the revenue targets are achieved.
Deduction of repair and improvement expenses
Section 12 of Act 896 limits the deduction of repair and improvement expenses to 5% of the written-down value of the pool to which the asset belongs and requires capitalisation of the excess.
The report said in a number of cases, the entities are unable to claim a tax deduction for the full cost of repairs and improvements in the year they are incurred, increasing their tax costs as a result.
Although this may be a timing issue, it said it has the potential to create a negative cash flow impact for businesses.
It therefore want an upward adjustment of the limit on deductions between 50% and 70%, adding, if not 100% of the repair and improvement cost incurred, would potentially provide a form of relief to taxpayers without necessarily damaging the government’s revenue augmentation efforts.
According to Dr. Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampah, the current system has failed to adequately prepare students to meet current industry standards thus contributing to the wave of unemployment in the country.
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, he said the NDPC has partnered some select technical universities to rollout a precision quality standard policy to train students to meet the demands of the job market.
“We need to look at the kind of training we’re offering for these young people. So you’d realize that for the last three or four years, the emphasis has been on skills related to C-Tech and then TVET, the vocational technical engineering focusing on mathematics and others. These are technical skills which you acquire.
“And once you’re able to do that, because that is what the industry is not having, it’s not just running them through, but providing it for them with a change in attitude, a change in mindset, and these are the things the private sector is looking for.
“Once you enter without any of these skills you become a liability, the private sector doesn’t want it. And therefore we need to change our whole educational system and training and we’re not just talking about it,” he said.
He added that “Embedded in this whole policy is identifying institutions which have turned into real pilots for this practical process. So when you go to some of our technical universities which we’ve been working for some time now, these are churning out entities and individuals for our industrial activities.”
Thursday saw the continuation of search and rescue efforts in northern China after a coal mine collapse left at least five people dead and scores trapped.
According to state-run Chinese media, as of Thursday night, 48 individuals were still missing and six were injured.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, the disaster happened on Wednesday in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia, when a 180 metre (590 foot) steep slope gave way above the open-pit mine.
The rescue operation was halted overnight due to a massive landslide near the site Wednesday evening, with efforts still blocked as of early Thursday morning – though state media reported in the afternoon that operations were “ongoing.”
More than 470 rescue workers have been working at the scene, alongside 40 medical workers, team leader Wei Zhiguo told CCTV from the scene. An additional 200-member team has also been mobilized, he said.
Firefighters, rescue dogs and trucks have also been mobilized from across the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
“I had just started work at 1:15 in the afternoon when I realised that rocks were falling from the mountain,” one hospitalized miner told CCTV on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.
“I saw that the situation was getting more and more serious, and an evacuation was organized, but it was too late, the mountain just collapsed.”
“We must make every possible effort to rescue the missing persons and treat the injured,” said Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for an immediate investigation into the cause of the accident, according to the news agency.
The collapsed coal mine is owned by Xinjing Coal Mining Company and is located in the town of Alxa League.
Marie-Claire Rupio, the gorgeous wife of the late Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, has shared a photo of her son, Joshua Atsupie, holding a trophy similar in design to the FIFA World Cup.
The young budding footballer plays for the Under 9 division of the football club called Team Gosforth.
After a competitive final in the Pro Motiv8 Tournament in Washington, Joshua Atsupie and his team took home the trophy.
His mother was so happy that she took to her Instagram stories to share the memorable moment.
Considering this incredible milestone in his football career, Marie-Claire hinted that Joshua would make his late father proud.
She captioned the post saying,
Christian Atsu’s son
“Will make his dad proud.”
She then added the crying emoji at the end of the message to signify that she was still in mourning.
Below is an old photo of Atsu’s son radiating with smiles.
A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics of the University of Ghana, Prof. Eric Osei-Assibey says Ghana should expect more downgrades from rating agencies until a deal is reached between government and external debt holders, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speaking to Joy Business at the American Chamber of Commerce-Ghana 2023 Economic Outlook Report, Dr. Osei-Assibey described the recent downgrade by ratings agency, Fitch on Ghana’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating to Restricted Default from ‘C’ as worrying.
“This is not good but once you have this negative information coming up every now and then affecting your currency and others, we should expect more of this until government reaches an agreement with the IMF and external debts holders”, he stated.
With the right policies in place, Dr. Osei-Assibey is hopeful the economic can see a rebound in the medium term.
“These things will come but I’m sure with time the economy will be stable with the IMF programme. Government as I said earlier should support various sectors of the economy”, he stressed.
The American Chamber of Commerce Ghana 2023 Economic Outlook Report provided insight into government’s tax provision, fiscal and monetary development, debt sustainability and key macroeconomic performance and targets.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that after a missile attack from the coastal enclave, Israel began airstrikes targeting alleged weapons production and storage facilities in Gaza.
The IDF said in a statement that “fighter planes hit a weapons manufacturing plant” in central Gaza operated by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation in charge of Gaza.
The statement stated that “concurrently, a military installation belonging to the Hamas Terrorist Organization in the northern Gaza Strip which was also employed as a naval weapons storage depot was targeted.”
Earlier Thursday, the IDF said five rockets fired from Gaza toward Israeli territory, including the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot, were intercepted and another rocket fell in an open area.
The airstrikes come after the deaths of at least 11 Palestinians in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, which occurred during a raid by the Israeli military that also left at least 500 injured, Palestinian officials said Thursday. One of the dead targeted in the Nablus raid was a Hamas member, and two were Islamic Jihad commanders, the two militant groups said earlier.
“Our teams dealt with 488 injuries during the occupation forces’ invasion into Nablus, including 103 injuries of live bullets taken to hospitals in Nablus,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The other injuries included tear gas inhalation and shrapnel wounds, they said. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the numbers.
The raid in Nablus lasted about four hours and, unusually, took place in broad daylight because the IDF said it had intelligence on where the suspects were. The IDF accused them of being responsible for the death of an Israeli soldier and of posing an imminent threat.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday that Israel would “settle accounts with those who attack Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” praising the previous day’s Israeli military raid into Nablus.
Netanyahu said that raid targeted “three terrorists” who “shot and murdered Staff Sergeant Ido Baruch last October and they were about to carry out additional attacks against us.”
“I would like to commend the ISA and IDF Intelligence for the precise intelligence,” that led to the raid, the Israeli prime minister said, referring to the Israeli Security Agency, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Defense Forces. He also thanked “the soldiers who acted with heroism and confidence under fire.”
The United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said late Wednesday he was “appalled by the loss of civilian lives” in the raid.
“I am deeply disturbed by the continuing cycle of violence,” Tor Wennesland said in a statement. “I urge all sides to refrain from steps that could further enflame an already volatile situation.”
The occupied West Bank has been rocked by a series of lethal Israeli military raids in the past year, as tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories remain sky-high in a region riven by bloodshed.
An Israeli raid in the city of Jenin in January caused the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records, with at least 10 Palestinians killed on the day and one dying later of his wounds. One day later, at least seven civilians died in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem – which Israel deemed one of its worst terror attacks in recent years.
This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a cabinet that has been described as the most far right and religious in the country’s history.
Netanyahu previously told CNN’s Jake Tapper that people can get “hung up” on peace negotiations with the Palestinians, saying he has opted for a different approach.
As relations between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants boil over, CNN’s Hadas Gold said the scenes on Wednesday reflected those “not seen since the second intifada,” or uprising.
“Even for the last year and a half or so here, that has been a very violent and deadly year, these numbers are some of the highest I’ve seen in my time here,” she added.
Chief Operating Officer and Principal Architect of Spektra Global, Karen Evans Halm, says young people should take pride in their professions and upgrade their skills to increase employability.
According to her, a lot of young people have no passion for their professions as evidenced by their failure to self-invest in themselves and their skills.
She noted that instead, businesses are faced with a situation where the people they employ are only concerned about their paychecks and yet are unable to put in the work that rewards them.
“Do we even care about our profession? Some generations back, we had people who took pride in what they do. So it’s not just a question of food on the table so that they kind of pretend to work just waiting for payday, but they actually take pride in what they put out.
“But now we have a generation that is so entitled, they think that you the employer you have to do this, you have to do that, they want all the benefits in the world without asking themselves what am I contributing? So it’s all a question of what I’m getting out of this company, what this company is going to do for me, but they forget that it’s a hand in hand dance.
“What are you also bringing to the table? How are you contributing to what is being done? Even as a person, as a professional, as a carpenter, as a welder, as an architect, do you even take pride in your creation? Because that is the only way you’ll have the passion required to develop yourself.
But if you see your job or your career as just a means to an end or just a way to put food on the table, definitely you will not be focused; definitely you’ll not be committed. Do you even have that personal excellence drive that everything that comes out of me, it has to have that personal touch of excellence? If you don’t have that then it will be difficult for you to improve on yourself on your own,” she said.
Karen Halm noted that some business have stopped hiring for entry-level positions due to the impatience of their young employees.
She explained that after some businesses embark on rigorous training for their new entrants, they quit their jobs immediately for higher paying jobs.
This she says affects the productivity of businesses as they have to once again retrain new staff over and over again.
“There has to be that personal drive, there has to be that personal commitment and there has to be that patience. Because what we’re finding is that he wants to drive in the same car that CEO is driving, same thing, and so even when you invest in them and train them, two years they’re gone.
“So when they come in it will take you like two years to prep them and bring them up to speed where they now become economically useful to your organization. After that two years they think that ‘well now I can do this, I can do that’ then they go to the next highest bidder.
“So as an employer, you keep training, you keep training then you realize that that is hurting productivity. So the question is why won’t I rather go for the person who has prepared him/herself?” she said.
Voters in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, will head to the polls this week to select their next president amid mounting unhappiness in the country due to worsening insecurity and economic hardship. Will any of the frontrunners, most of whom have been in the political system for decades, be able to turn the country around?
Nigeria’s outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after nearly eight years in power amid a backdrop of chaos and widespread unrest, as many people are unable to access the cash they need to buy food because of a botched roll-out of new banknotes.
But the cash crisis is not the only problem Nigerians face, with the last year being marked by struggle and tragedy, including high inflation and deadly attacks by gunmen against innocent civilians.
Mr Buhari’s supporters say he has done his best and highlight achievements, such as his work on infrastructure projects and attempts to combat violent extremism. But even his own wife, Aisha Buhari, has apologised to the Nigerian people for falling short of their expectations.
So whoever wins the election will not have an easy job.
Who is running for president?
A total of 18 candidates are campaigning for the top job, but only three have a realistic chance of winning, according to opinion polls. Only one of the 18 is a woman.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 70, is standing for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) party. Known as a political godfather in the south-west region, he wields huge influence but has been dogged by allegations of corruption over the years and poor health, both of which he denies. Some say his campaign slogan Emi Lokan, which means “it’s my turn [to be president]” in the Yoruba language, shows a sense of entitlement.
Atiku Abubakar, 76, is running on behalf of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He has run for the presidency five times before – all of which he has lost. Most of his career has been in the corridors of power, having worked as a top civil servant, vice-president under Olusegun Obasanjo and a prominent businessman. Just like Mr Tinubu, he has been accused of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.
Peter Obi, 61, is hoping to break up the two-party system which has dominated Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999 and is running for the little known Labour Party. Although he was in the PDP until last year, he is seen as a relatively fresh face and enjoys fervent support on social media and among Nigeria’s youth. The wealthy businessman served as governor of the south-eastern Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. His backers, known as the “OBIdients” say he is the only candidate with integrity, but his critics argue that a vote for Obi is wasted as he is unlikely to win.
Who is likely to win?
Convention suggests a candidate from one of the two main parties will win – Mr Atiku or Mr Tinubu. But Mr Obi’s supporters are hoping he can spring a surprise if they can mobilise the large youth vote to back him.
When is the election?
It is due to take place on Saturday 25 February 2023. If there is no clear winner, a second round will be held within three weeks. There will also be elections for the country’s powerful state governors on Saturday 11 March.
The head of the election commission has dismissed suggestions that the vote could be delayed because of insecurity.
When will the election results be announced?
In the last two presidential elections the winner has been known on the third day after voting.
But votes will be counted as soon as voting ends on Saturday 25 February. Those who stay behind at their polling station will have the result announced to them, but it is a long process before all the results work their way up to Abuja from the tens of thousands of polling units across the country.
BVAS might speed up the process this year, but Inec-appointed officials will still have to travel to Abuja from the 36 states with hard copies to be read aloud.
Only then will the Inec chairman announce a winner – or that a second round is needed.
How does the election work?
In order to win, a candidate has to obtain the highest number of votes nationwide, and more than a quarter of ballots cast in at least two-thirds of Nigeria’s states.
If none of the candidates manage this, there will be a second round run-off between the top two candidates within 21 days.
What are the main issues?
Reducing insecurity is one of the key concerns of voters, in a country which is currently experiencing a kidnapping-for-ransom crisis, battling militant Islamists groups in parts of the north and a separatist insurgency in the south-east.
Two of the most shocking cases last year were a mass shooting at a Catholic Church in Owo and the storming by gunmen of a passenger train in which dozens of people were killed or kidnapped.
Image caption, Peter Obi’s supporters, who appear to be younger Nigerians, are vocal on social media
President Buhari says he has fulfilled his promise to “frontally and courageously tackle terrorism”, but many Nigerians feel the country is still not safe.
The economy is another area of concern. Inflation now stands at 21.8%, according to the latest figures released this month. This rising cost of living has left many families struggling to make ends meet, with local media describing the situation as “dire”.
Unemployment is also a major problem, leaving many graduates fearful that they may not find work even after years of university study, which has prompted many to try and leave the country. Latest figures from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics show that 33% of the population is unemployed – jumping to 42.5% for younger adults.
Despite being a major oil producer, four out of 10 Nigerians live below the poverty line and “lack education and access to basic infrastructure, such as electricity, safe drinking water, and improved sanitation,” according to the World Bank.
Many of the candidates have put these issues at the centre of their campaigns.
But these problems have been mounting for several years, leaving some Nigerians sceptical about whether whoever wins the election will actually be able to fix them. Despite the large number of registered voters – 93.5 million – concerns persist about apathy and how many people will actually show up on the day to cast their ballot.
With almost 40% of registered voters under 34, the vote has been called the “election of young people” by elections chief Mahmood Yakubu.
A senior Congress party official in India has been detained on charges of insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Following his alleged reference to troubled businessman Gautam Adani when he named Modi “Narendra Gautamdas Modi,” Pawan Khera was detained at the Delhi Airport along with other party members.
Last month, following a report by financial research and short seller firm Hindenburg Research levied accusations of stock market manipulation and fraud on the Adani Group, Adani, one of the richest individuals in the world, had his net worth decrease by half in less than two weeks. The Adani Group criticised the research, calling it “malicious” and “baseless.”
Adani is seen as a close ally of Modi.
In recent months, Modi has been accused of silencing his critics after the country banned a documentary from the BBC that was critical of the prime minister’s alleged role in deadly riots more than 20 years ago.
Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai earlier this month citing “irregularities and discrepancies” in the BBC’s taxes. The BBC defended its documentary and said it was complying with the tax investigation.
Police from the state of Assam said they had deployed a team to New Delhi to arrest Khera for questioning after a case was registered on Wednesday for his “objectionable remarks about the Prime Minister.”
“[Khera] was trying to disturb the communal harmony in the society, sections of the Indian Penal Code under criminal conspiracy,” Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, Assam police spokesperson, told CNN.
On Thursday, India’s Supreme Court ordered Khera to be released on interim bail. CNN has not yet been able to reach Khera and his lawyers.
The Congress party labeled Khera’s arrest as “undemocratic,” saying in a statement, “We vehemently oppose this dictatorial behavior.”
The transition from social media fame to the ‘halls of power’ has been a smooth one for many ‘socialite-turned-politicians’.
Perhaps, it is because their celebrity status puts them a step ahead of potential competitors, with ‘fame’ being the catalyst.
Also, the drive for an increased youth participation in governance in recent times has turned the political culture into a vibrant one, thereby making it attractive for some celebrities to participate.
This trend was not the same in the past, as politics was largely dominated by full-time politicians, businessmen, or ex-military generals.
However, it is interesting to note that a number of celebrities are contesting party primaries to represent the opposition National Democratic Congress in Parliament.
Seeking a total overhaul, these individuals are not only pushing for a change in their various constituencies, but also a change in the seat of the presidency.
Real Estate mogul cum socialite, Emmanuel Kojo Jones-Mensah, is eyeing the Keta seat.
Kojo Jones whose wedding took Ghana by storm sometime in 2022, is expected to ease his path into the legislative house on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.
Even before the contest, the aspirant started embarking on some developmental projects such as the construction of bridges in the constituency.
The Keta Constituency seat is currently occupied by Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey.
Mr. Gakpey took over from Richard Quashiga who opted out after serving in the 7th parliament.
Another aspirant to look out for in the impending parliamentary primaries of the opposition NDC is businessman and showbiz investor, Baba Sadiq Abdulai Abu.
Popularly known in the entertainment circle as Baba Sadiq, the young entrepreneur is eyeing the Okaikoi Central seat.
The seat which has been occupied by Patrick Yaw Boamah of the governing New Patriotic Party for a while now has remained with the party since the constituency was created.
Baba Sadiq is however counting on his experience, youthfulness, and plans for the constituency to annex the seat should he get the nod to carry the flag of his party.
The constituency has a large number of Zongo population, mostly youthful, and these political pundits believe could play to the advantage of Baba Sadiq.
Joana Gyan Cudjoe, Keche’s wife
Ghanaian business executive, Dr. Mrs. Joana Gyan-Cudjoe is set to contest the Amenfi Central Constituency seat under the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.
Joana who is married to singer Keche Andrew announced her intentions in some flyers capturing the new entry of parliamentary candidates of the party.
In an Instagram post that first announced Joana’s presence in Ghana’s political scene, she wrote: “Vote for me please.”
The Amenfi Central Constituency parliamentary seat is currently occupied by the NDC’s Peter Yaw Kwakye-Ackah.
Joana Cudjoe described herself as a “Mother for all” adding that “Amenfi Central needs you”.
The business owner’s motto “growth and development” labels her as the right candidate for the position.
Fred Nuamah
Popular actor and movie producer, Fred Nuamah, has announced his intention to contest the National Democratic Congress’ parliamentary slot for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency.
During the 2020 general elections, celebrated actor, John Dumelo contested for the seat on the ticket of the NDC but failed to secure the needed votes thus losing out to Lydia Seyram Alhassan of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
It is currently unclear if Mr. Dumelo is eyeing the seat again.
Fred Nuamah, who is also a film director is best known for his role in the movie ‘The Game’.
He is the founder and CEO of Ghana Movie Awards & Ghana TV series awards, an annual award show that recognizes excellence in the Ghanaian film industry.
Celebrated Ghanaian actor, farmer, and politician, John Dumelo will be another candidate to watch in the impending parliamentary primaries for the opposition NDC.
The actor created a lot of buzz in the 2020 elections by contesting for the Ayawaso West Wuogon seat. He however lost to the incumbent Lydia Seyram Alhassan.
Mr. Dumelo, a first-timer, however, gave his opponent a run for her money.
According to reports, Ghanaians might witness a rematch in 2024 as Mr. Dumelo has reportedly decided to have another bite at the cherry in the same constituency.
This development is despite reports that Dumelo set his sights on the yet-to-be-created Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) constituency in the OTI region.
Mr. Dumelo had set camp in the area engaging in a number of projects including the distribution of farming implements to constituents.
But the latest development has disclosed that Mr. Dumelo might just stick to the Ayawaso West Wuogon where he will go head-to-head with another actor Fred Nuamah who has already thrown his heart into the race
The Duke of Sussex’s choice to disclose how many Taliban militants he dispatched while serving with the British Army in Afghanistan has drawn criticism from UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who believes “boasting about tallies” demoralises fellow service members.
This month, the Taliban itself as well as several British security and military officials criticised Prince Harry for writing in his memoirs “Spare” that he had killed 25 Taliban members.
Wallace told British radio station LBC Thursday that “every veteran makes their own choices about what they want to talk about,” but “the armed forces is not about a tally.”
A former soldier himself, Wallace said that “boasting about tallies, or talking about tallies … distorts the fact that the army is a team game,” with the infantry supported by hundreds of people, such as those in the Royal Logistic Corps and in headquarters.
“It’s not about who can shoot the most or who doesn’t shoot the most,” Wallace added. “It’s my personal view that if you start talking about who did what, you’re actually letting down all those other people because you’re not a better person because you did and they didn’t.”
In his autobiography, Harry wrote at length about his experiences in the British Armed Forces.
The prince completed two tours of Afghanistan, one spanning 2007 to 2008 and the other from 2012 to 2013.
In his book passages, Harry recounted how the advancements in technology allowed him to say “precisely how many enemy combatants” he had killed, and that he saw them as “chess pieces removed from the board.”
“I’d been trained to ‘other-ize’ them, trained well. On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering,” Harry wrote.
He later denied boasting about the number of Taliban fighters he had killed, saying last month on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that his “whole goal … with sharing that detail is to reduce the number of (veteran) suicides.”
Some leading figures from the military community criticized Harry in January, when sections of his book were leaked shortly before its publication date, saying that his remarks could jeopardize his safety and give the British Army a bad reputation.
The UK’s former national security adviser Kim Darroch, who was the British ambassador to the United States from 2016 to 2019, told Sky News he would have advised Harry against making the statements.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British army officer, told the same network they “tarnished” his reputation and “unjustly” painted the British Army in a negative light.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for the publication of the “School placement for sale” committee report.
This comes on the back of the Education Ministry’s alleged refusal to take responsibility for errors and rather dragging GNAT in the widespread scandal that has hit the school placement system.
The Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, according to reports had revealed that janitors and security personnel who were captured as middlemen in the investigative documentary by The Fourth Estate on the controversial ‘Computerised (School) Placement for Sale’ were not employees of the Education Ministry but of the GNAT Hostel.
However, GNAT in reaction to the matter described it as “unfortunate and unbecoming of a body with which we share a common aspiration of guaranteeing the country’s young ones a future of bliss and certainty through education.”
It added: “In view of the attacks by Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng on the Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT, we demand the publication of the Committee’s report on ‘School placement for sale’ to assure parents, guardians, and the entire Ghanaian Public and all concerned of its (MOE/GES) continued commitment to upholding standards on the education front.”
Meanwhile, GNAT wants the Director-General to rebuke Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng to refrain from dragging the image of the Association into disrepute on any platform he appears on in the interest of ensuring industrial peace and harmony in the country and the educational front.
“The GNAT is happy that none of its staff was incriminated by the Fourth Estate and hopes that going into the future, the Ministry of Education would plug all loopholes, so that the exercise would not, in the words of Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng, be turned into a marketplace where officials linked to the exercise would exercise their mandate through a network of intermediaries, such as security guards and cleaners, as exposed by the Fourth Estate.
“As a key stakeholder in the sector, GNAT will always collaborate with the Ministry of Education in its efforts to improve the sector but will not condone comments and acts that are intended to tarnish the image of the Association,” GNAT warned in its statement.
In a rare daytime raid by Israeli military forces on the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, at least 11 Palestinians were murdered and more than 100 others were injured, according to Palestinian sources. The Red Crescent director in the area called the operation a “massacre.”
According to Israeli authorities, three suspects who were “planning assaults in the near future” were the focus of the operation in Nablus on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency issued a joint statement describing the three as “neutralised.”
The IDF said one was shot while fleeing and the other two were killed in an exchange of fire with the military.
Israeli authorities said that suspects threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and “explosive devices” at Israeli forces.
At least 102 people are injured, according to the official Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) citing the Palestinian health ministry. Seven of the injured are in critical condition, WAFA reported.
The Israeli military’s daytime raid began at around 10:15 a.m. (3:15 a.m. ET), Ahmad Jibril, the local director of Red Crescent, told CNN. It is “a time when everyone is out shopping in the open market of the old city. No one expects an invasion at this time of the day,” he said.
There were Israeli snipers on the rooftops shooting live ammunition, he said. “That’s why many people were shot in the head, shoulders and backs,” he said. Most of the dead were shot in the head, he added.
“People who were unarmed and even away from the old city were also shot. Bullets were everywhere!” he said.
Jibril said there was a drone dropping tear gas “randomly.” He also said drones were firing live ammunition, which the IDF denied.
Maj. Nir Dinar, an IDF spokesman, told CNN that Israel did not operate drones that fired live ammunition in the West Bank.
“I think what they saw was small drones that drop tear gas grenades as a riot dispersal means, and these were used,” he said.
Red Crescent’s Jibril said some Israeli special forces were disguised as locals, and while Dinar refused to comment on whether there were undercover Israeli operatives, he said: “The IDF has such capabilities.”
Jibril said their “teams were prevented from reaching the injured,” including a four-year-old child with a heart condition who was rendered unconscious by tear gas.
The IDF’s Dinar said that he hoped it was not true that Israeli troops had prevented medics from reaching the wounded: “I am not familiar with such behavior and I hope it did not happen. If they have evidence, let us know and we will take it to the commanders.”
Briefing journalists about the raid, the main IDF international spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht painted a picture of a large, chaotic event, which he said got “very messy.”
Israeli Security Agency and Border Police Special Forces had approached the house where they believed the suspects were located and told them to surrender, he said.
“They didn’t surrender, they confined themselves into the house and opened extensive fire on our forces,” he said. One of the suspects tried to leave the house and was shot, he said, while the other two continued exchanging fire with the Israelis.
“And at some point, we upgraded our efforts. And there were also rockets that were fired on the house. And the two guys were neutralized,” he said, later confirming that meant killed.
Pressed for details about the rockets, he said: “When you come into a situation when people are not surrendering, you intensify the fire.”
But the battle continued on other fronts, he said, with Israeli reconnaissance units coming under fire. “It was cars, it was firing from the roofs and it was motorbikes – a very, very aggressive exchange of fire,” he said. “A lot of violence.”
He said the importance of the targets explained the IDF decision to go into the militant hotspot in broad daylight. While they prefer “night time activity,” he said the daylight raid “was based on a specific intelligence indication we got from the Shin Bet,” as the Israeli Security Agency is generally known.
“That’s why we went in there. These are guys that killed one of our soldiers.”
The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its commanders were killed in the clashes with Israeli troops.
The Lion’s Den militant group also confirmed its members were involved in the fighting, but did not say if any of their members were killed.
One of the dead targeted in the Nablus raid was a Hamas member, the Palestinian militant group said. Hamas claimed Hussam Salim as a member and a martyr, releasing a photograph of him holding an assault rifle with a telescopic sight.
The IDF named him as one of their targets, accusing him of carrying out “shooting and explosive device attacks” and dispatching the killers of IDF soldier Ido Baruch last year. The IDF identified Salim as a senior operative of Lion’s Den, which claimed responsibility for the killing of Baruch in October of last year.
There is overlap between the membership of Palestinian militant groups.
Six of the dead were men in their 20s, the Palestinian health ministry said. One was 16, one was 33, one was 61 and was was 72. All were men, the ministry list of dead shows.
The raid brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces to 61 this year, the Palestinian health ministry said. That number includes people shot as they attacked Israelis, militants being targeted in raids, people clashing with Israeli forces during raids, and bystanders, CNN records show
Eleven Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks this year: seven in a shooting near a synagogue, three in a car ramming attack, and a border police officer who was stabbed by a teenager and then shot by friendly fire from a civilian security guard.
IDF raids into the West Bank usually occur overnight; the last time the military conducted a daylight operation, they said it was because of an immediate threat.
Islamic Jihad’s armed faction in Gaza, the Al Qassam Brigade, warned they are “watching the enemy’s escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank, and its patience is running out.”
The occupied West Bank has been rocked by a series of lethal Israeli military raids in the past year, as tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories remain sky-high in a region riven by bloodshed.
An Israeli raid in the city of Jenin in January caused the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in over a year, according to CNN records, with at least 10 Palestinians killed on the day and one dying later of his wounds. One day later, at least seven civilians died in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem – which Israel deemed one of its worst terror attacks in recent years.
This comes as Netanyahu leads a cabinet that has been described as the most far right and religious in the country’s history.
Netanyahu previously told CNN’s Jake Tapper that people can get “hung up” on peace negotiations with the Palestinians, saying he has opted for a different approach.
As relations between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants boil over, CNN’s Hadas Gold said the scenes on Wednesday reflected those “not seen since the second intifada,” or uprising.
Hayye Yartey in a recent interview addressed inflammatory claims from a Ghanaian pastor that Atsu wouldn’t have died if he only donated portions of his wealth to churches instead of poor people.
According to Yartey, Atsu’s philanthropy didn’t exclude churches, recalling how the late footballer donated his first-ever salary as a foreign professional to a Ghanaian church he wasn’t even a member of.
Yartey said the church was located behind the park where Atsu and his colleagues grew up playing football and he wanted to help it out after making it.
“He was a Christian. Very devoted to his religion, and his Bible. There is a church just behind us where he always wanted to pull his fellow players,” the Cheetah FC CEO told TV3.
“I remember when Christian went to Porto and succeeded in the trials, Porto went on to pay him 800 euros a month. So I received 800 euros [the same amount as his salary] through Western Union from Christian.
“I was so happy thinking he had sent me money but his call followed up and he said the 800 euros he had sent was equivalent to x amount of Ghana cedis which he ordered me to give to the church.”
A Ghanaian pastor, Prophet Eliezer Oswald Awuyeh. recently claimed God didn’t save Christian Atsu because he does not donate any money to the church.
According to the preacher, Atsu wasted his money on the poor and needy and left the church starving – hence when he was in trouble God did nothing to help him.
An influential member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former minister Rojo Mettle Nunoo has admitted that he worked as an unofficial party agent in the Election Commission’s “strongroom” during the 2020 elections.
In an interview on Citi FM (February 23) Rojo recounted his footprints serving the NDC at the EC strongroom in successive elections.
“I am a citizen of this country, I believe in good governance, I have represented the NDC from 1992 in the strongroom, I did the same in 1996, 2000 and 2004, I ended up in court and ended up in the Supreme Court in that petition,” he told host Umaru Sanda.
He recounted serving the NDC in the 2008 election in the strongroom, which process led to John Evans Atta Mills winning power on his third attempt.
Rojo added that his absence in the EC strongroom inn 2016 was due to illness but that he was back in there for the 2020 elections despite not being accredited.
“2020 in spite of my ill-health, I had no accreditation but I entered the EC to defend John Mahama and being a critically present person in the conduct of that election in the strong room, he elected me to become a witness in the petition,” he added.
When Mahama filed a petition after the 2020 election, Rojo was one of three witnesses who appeared before the Supreme Court. Due to ill-health, he presented his evidence via video conference.
The court unanimously dismissed the petition paving the way for Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to serve his second and final term which expires in 2025.
Ahead of the 2024 polls, Mahama has been tipped as the presumptive flagbearer of the NDC with one of his main challengers being Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a former Minister of Finance.
Rojo, happens to be one of the key members of the Duffuor campaign team.
According to local police, a manhunt is under way for the assassins of a senatorial candidate for Nigeria’s opposition Labor Party who was shot and set on fire in his campaign truck late Wednesday in the southeast of the country’s Enugu State.
Oyibo Chukwu, a politician, and an unnamed personal assistant were killed by assailants who authorities believe to be members of the outlawed separatist organisation IPOB and its militant offshoot ESN.
According to a police statement, many attacks late on Wednesday targeted members of other political parties, with Chukwu’s murder being one of them.
“The Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command, CP Ahmed Ammani, fdc, has ordered the … manhunt of the subversive criminal elements, suspected to be IPOB/ESN renegades, who … ambushed and simultaneously attacked and murdered People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) members, and also attempted to attack the convoy of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate.”
The armed attackers stormed their target points in a tricycle and Hilux vehicle, the statement added.
The attacks are happening less than three days before Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi said in a tweet Thursday he was saddened to learn of the brutal murder of his party’s senate candidate.
“I received with deep shock and sadness, the news of the painful killing of Barr Oyibo Chukwu, the Senatorial Candidate of the Labour Party, for Enugu East Senatorial Zone. … I strongly condemn the killing of Barr Chukwu in all its entirety,” Obi tweeted adding that Nigerians should “freely exercise their civic duties without intimidation.”
More than 93 million Nigerians are registered to participate in the country’s general elections starting Saturday, but uncertainty hangs over voter turnout on polling day, with insecurity among the biggest concerns.
Separatist gangs have terrorized the southeastern region where agitations for a breakaway Biafra state have turned violent many times. In other parts of the country, marauding gunmen known locally as bandits have carried out mass kidnappings mostly for ransom.
Voting will not take place in more than 200 polling units across Nigeria, INEC says, because of concerns over security.
The Nigeria branch of Amnesty International has also condemned the killing, describing it as “horrific.”
“Amnesty International strongly condemns the horrific killing last night of the Labour Party (LP) candidate … Oyibo Chukwu, who was also gruesomely burnt inside his vehicle while returning from a campaign activity in Agbani, Enugu state … The Nigerian authorities must order a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent, and effective investigation into the killing, and bring those suspected to be responsible to justice,” the human rights group tweeted Thursday.
Using a mound of corpses to argue your point to the authorities has to rank as one of the oddest PR strategies in recent memory.
In an extraordinary public request for ammo for his Ukrainian warriors, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner, appeared to have done just that this week. On the eve of the anniversary of the whole invasion of Ukraine, he has also harshly exposed his ongoing dispute with the military leadership of Russia.
On Wednesday, Prigozhin posted a picture on Telegram showing the bodies of several dozen slain Wagner fighters, piled unceremoniously in a courtyard. Alongside that shocking photo, he posted the image of a formal request from Wagner for more ammunition, pointing the finger of blame squarely at the Russian Ministry of Defense for squandering one of those lives.
“This is one of the gathering places of the dead,” Prigozhin said. “These are the guys who died yesterday due to the so-called ‘shell starvation’ [by the Russian MOD]. There should have been five times fewer of them. So mothers, wives and children will get their bodies.”
Apparently, the message got through to someone. In a message and voice note Thursday, Prigozhin said a shipment of ammunition was now on its way to his forces.
“Today at 6 am (local) it was reported that shipment of ammunition begins,” he said. “Most likely, the train has started moving … we are told that the main papers have already been signed.”
What was the rationale behind this ghoulish spectacle? Prigozhin already has a reputation for callousness and cruelty: Late last year, around the New Year’s holiday, he visited a morgue stacked withthe body bags of dead Wagner soldiers, many of whom had been recruited from prisons with a promise of amnesty.
“Their contracts are over,” he deadpanned. “They’re going home.”
But Prigozhin’s latest stunt appeared to raise the ante in the oligarch’s confrontation with Russia’s defense establishment, and with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Before Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin was a shadowy figure. While the activities of Wagner were well documented – the mercenaries had appeared on battlefields in Syria and Libya as well as on training missions in the Central African Republic – the Russian government more or less denied its existence.
All that changed after Russia’s military suffered humiliating setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine. Prigozhin – a canny political entrepreneur without any official government position – began openly taking credit for Wagner’s efforts to secure some territorial gains, particularly in the battles raging around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
He even began to acknowledge his role in Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election, admitting that he had founded the Internet Research Agency, the notorious St. Petersburg troll farm that the US government has sanctioned for interfering in American elections.
His unexpected rise prompted speculation about possible elite infighting in Moscow as Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine sputtered. One of Prigozhin’s chief rivals has been Shoigu, who had clashed with the businessman over military contracts given to and then taken from one of the oligarch’s enterprises.
In one recent recording, Prigozhin railed against unnamed “functionaries” – a likely swipe against Shoigu – who “have breakfast, lunch and dinner on golden dishes and send your daughters, granddaughters and whoevers to vacation in Dubai, showing no shame at all, at the very same time that Russian soldiers are dying at the front.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has become a remote and isolated leader since the Covid-19 pandemic, has no clear successor, and some political insiders speculated that some opportunistic upstart – a Prigozhin, for instance – might sense a potential opening or chance to build a power base independent of Putin.
Certainly, Prigozhin’s outbursts would have been unthinkable before February 24, 2022, when open criticism of the defense leadership by a military contractor would not have been tolerated. Earlier this week, Prigozhin escalated his spat with Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, accusing them of “treason” for their alleged failures to support and supply the Wagner group in Ukraine.
“The Chief of the General Staff and the Minister of Defense are handing out commands right and left, that the Wagner PMC should not receive ammunition, they are also not helping with air transport,” Prigozhin claimed in a recording posted by his press service on Telegram. “This can be equated to high treason now when Wagner PMC are fighting for Bakhmut, losing hundreds of their fighters every day.”
Not everything Prigozhin says can be taken completely at face value. This is the man, after all, who helped bankroll one of Russia’s most notorious disinformation campaigns. And the complaints about ammunition starvation leave unanswered myriad questions about the precise nature of the relationship of Wagner to the Russian military, how its formations are supplied with equipment, and who ultimately exercises command and control over its forces.
In a recent report, Candace Rondeaux, the director of Future Frontlines at the Washington-based New America think tank observed, “Despite perceptions of the Wagner Group as an independent paramilitary organization, Wagner’s branding, communications, and operations are deeply intertwined with the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, Putin’s oligarch allies, and the Russian military.”
And one of the unanswered questions remains how, exactly, Prigozhin manages to operate openly, when mercenary activity is technically proscribed by Russian law. The New America report says groups such as Wagner are part of a “cartel-like structure” that intertwines them with the Kremlin, Russia’s power ministries, large state-owned companies, and Putin himself.
“Although Russian citizens are prohibited by law from serving as mercenaries in foreign wars, a small number of Russia’s paramilitaries operate under a set of laws and executive decrees that allows them to provide services on contract to Russian state conglomerates that the Kremlin deems strategic in nature,” Rondeaux wrote. “These include Russia’s state arms conglomerate Rostec as well as energy industry giants Gazprom, Tatneft, Rosneft, and Stroytrangaz.
“All five state-owned firms are headed by Putin’s oldest friends from the days when he was a KGB agent. In effect, this schema allows Putin’s closest inner circle, through frontmen like Prigozhin, to manage the cartel-like structure that constitutes what many think of today as the Wagner Group.”
Whether the Wagner frontman will retain his usefulness to Putin after such crude public criticism, then, remains to be seen. He’s certainly shown little sign of dialing down his media campaign.
On Thursday, Prigozhin posted a video greeting on his Telegram channel to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day, a Russian national holiday. In the video, Prigozhin is shown a building in the distance that Wagner fighters claim to have taken close to downtown Bakhmut.
Prigozhin gruffly responds: “OK, let’s go, otherwise this will be our last greeting.”
Ghanaian music superstar Fuse ODG has reacted to a recent comment by comedian Michael Blackson that there are only four Ghanaian music superstars unlike there are in Nigeria.
Michael Blackson in a recent interview on popular American podcast “Drink Champs” where he introduced his newly signed artist revealed Ghana could not boast of more than four (4) music superstars, unlike Nigeria.
Listing the four Ghanaian superstars, Michael Blackson mentioned Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Shatta Wale and Black Sheriff as the only superstars.
Perhaps as an afterthought, the comedian who recently established a school in his hometown in Ghana in a tweet mentioned Fuse ODG as one of the music superstars he forgot to mention on the podcast.
He wrote;
“Can’t forget @FuseODG ????????”
Fuse ODG, however, was not excited about his comment asking him to do better.
Fuse ODG revealed Michael Blackson’s comments on the podcast were unfortunate especially when he (Fuse ODG) had introduced him (Michael) to a lot of Ghanaian artists.
He wrote;
“Mike…I don’t know how you go on @Drinkchamps and say there are only 4 artists in Ghana. Not cool bro. I’ve personally introduced u to a lot of GH artists in GH! smh. Stop embarrassing us on these platforms…you’re supposed to educate them.”
Michael Blackson has since his comment on the podcast received varying opinions leading him to the discovery of new talents.
Mike…I don't know how you go on @Drinkchamps and say there are only 4 artists in Ghana. Not cool bro. I've personally introduced u to a lot of GH artists in GH! smh. Stop embarrassing us on these platforms…you're supposed to educate them. https://t.co/bUPVVs2ZZ1
I think the main reason we don’t have enough artists in Ghana is because we don’t put each other on, Nigerian Artist put each other on all the time and that’s why there are so many stars there.
Listen my Ghana artists ya are all different in ya own way so no need to feel threaten, if you see talent help him out. God will bless you and make you bigger
Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has called for an overhaul of Ghana’s education system.
According to Dr. Kodjo Essiem Mensah-Abrampah, the current system has failed to adequately prepare students to meet current industry standards thus contributing to the wave of unemployment in the country.
Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, he said the NDPC has partnered some select technical universities to rollout a precision quality standard policy to train students to meet the demands of the job market.
“We need to look at the kind of training we’re offering for these young people. So you’d realize that for the last three or four years, the emphasis has been on skills related to C-Tech and then TVET, the vocational technical engineering focusing on mathematics and others. These are technical skills which you acquire.
“And once you’re able to do that, because that is what the industry is not having, it’s not just running them through, but providing it for them with a change in attitude, a change in mindset, and these are the things the private sector is looking for.
“Once you enter without any of these skills you become a liability, the private sector doesn’t want it. And therefore we need to change our whole educational system and training and we’re not just talking about it,” he said.
He added that “Embedded in this whole policy is identifying institutions which have turned into real pilots for this practical process. So when you go to some of our technical universities which we’ve been working for some time now, these are churning out entities and individuals for our industrial activities.”
On Thursday, dozens of security personnel flocked to the runway of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport, but not to seize a disruptive passenger or apprehend a terrorist or criminal mastermind who was fleeing the scene.
It was to detain an opposition figure accused of “disturbing tranquilly” by saying the Prime Minister’s middle name incorrectly.
The Congress party’s spokesperson, Pawan Khera, was detained by police after being pulled off of an aircraft while en route to his party’s national convention.
His alleged crime? Disturbing communal harmony by making a jibe at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he had referred to on live TV last week as “Narendra Gautamdas Modi” in reference to embattled business magnate Gautam Adani.
Adani, seen as a close ally of Modi and one of the wealthiest people in the world, saw his net worth halved in less than two weeks last month after a report by financial research firm Hindenburg leveled allegations of stock market manipulation and fraud against the Adani Group. The Adani Group condemned the report as “baseless” and “malicious.”
Police from the state of Assam said they had deployed a team to New Delhi to arrest Khera for questioning after a case was registered on Wednesday for his “objectionable remarks about the Prime Minister.”
“[Khera] was trying to disturb the communal harmony in society, (according to) sections of the Indian Penal Code under criminal conspiracy,” Prasanta Kumar Bhuyan, Assam police spokesperson, told CNN.
But the arrest of Khera has set the stage for a dramatic showdown between India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party, which has accused the government of stiffling dissent in the world’s largest democracy of 1.3 billion people.
Scores of Congress politicians responded to the arrest by sitting on the airstrip in protest. Khera was released hours later, after India’s Supreme Court ordered him to be released on interim bail. But his brief detention set off a media frenzy in the country, dominating prime time news and headlines.
Speaking to reporters after his release on Thursday, Khera said he was “asked to deplane as if I was a terrorist.”
“This is not the only example of people’s rights and liberties being curtailed. Today it’s me, tomorrow it could be anyone,” he said.
Congress member Supriya Shrinate, who was traveling with Khera at the time of his arrest, added, “If this isn’t tyranny, then what is?”
The Congress party said in a statement that Khera’s arrest was “undemocratic,” and “arbitrary,” adding: “We vehemently oppose this dictatorial behavior.”
“This charade is not going to deter us from raising questions” about the Adani group and its alleged ties to Modi, it said.
CNN has contacted a BJP national spokesperson for a comment but has not yet had a response.
Speaking to Indian news channel NDTV late Thursday, the BJP chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said: “Police have all the rights to arrest (Khera).
Khera’s arrest comes weeks after the country banned a documentary from the BBC that was critical of the Prime Minister’s alleged role in deadly riots more than 20 years ago. Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai earlier this month citing “irregularities and discrepancies” in the BBC’s taxes. The BBC defended its documentary and said it was complying with the tax investigation.
Days before Khera’s arrest, Sarma, the Assam chief minister, had warned there would be consequences to his remarks about Modi.
“India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.
After declaring his intentions to contest in the 2024 parliamentary elections, Ghanaian business mogul cum socialite, Emmanuel Kojo Jones Mensah, has picked up his nomination forms to that effect.
To prove his seriousness, Kojo Jones, shared a post on social media, highlighting the underlying motivation in seeking to become a legislative representative for the Keta Constituency.
The business mogul, whose wedding took Ghana by storm sometime in 2022, is expected to ease his path into the legislative house on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.
Even before the contest, Kojo Jones had started embarking on some developmental projects such as construction of bridges in the constituency.
“I have officially picked up the upcoming NDC parliamentary primaries in Keta slated for May 13. Incoming to the decision to enter the parliamentary race. I have taken cognisance of the current state of the underdevelopment, alarming poverty level, youth unemployment, failing educational standards and general decadence of Keta Constituency. To which there is the urgent need for a paradigm shift.
“Keta constituency is the spiritual home of the National Democratic Congress where the founder, the late Jerry John Rawlings hails from. It is also a significant part of the world bank description of the Volta Region where traditional bulk of votes aggregate originates for the NDC,” some details on the flyer announcing his intent read.
About Kojo Jones
Emmanuel Kojo Jones-Mensah is one of the young millionaires in Ghana who is making the business environment of the Ghanaian market very competitive.
With over a decade of experience in construction, design, and global real estate development, he has established himself as a business mogul.
He gained a lot of experience working with a few construction and real estate companies in the UK.
After working and gaining so much education, experience and exposure from the UK, Kojo returned to Ghana in 2015 to establish a new business alongside his family.
He is the CEO and Founder of the Empire Conglomerate, which comprises various businesses in various sectors: Empire Concrete Ltd, Empire Domus Ltd, Dominion International Petroleum Ltd, KJM Trading Ltd and Kingscrown Media.
After successfully acquiring a Bachelor of Laws in Business Law in 2011, he further pursued a Master of Business Administration in 2012 at Coventry University in the UK where he specialized in Oil and Gas Management.
The National Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Hanna Bisiw, has slammed Gloria Huze for picking up Dr. Kwabena Duffuor’s presidential nomination form in the name of the party’s Ashanti Region Women’s wing.
In a statement copied to GhanaWeb, on Thursday, February 23, 2023, Bisiw Louisa said that the action taken by the Ashanti Regional Women’s Organiser, Gloria Huze, was totally intolerable.
She added that no executive of the party can use the wing of the party for their personal businesses.
“My attention has been drawn to a deplorable and unacceptable action by the Ashanti Regional Women’s Organiser, Gloria Huze, in the upcoming Flag bearer race.
“She is on record to have led a delegation to pick up the nomination form for a Presidential Candidate Aspirant in the name of the Ashanti Regional Women’s Wing.
“I vehemently and categorically disassociate the wing from her conduct and wish to state emphatically that her conduct is not in any way a representation of any parts of the wing either in the Ashanti Region or across the other 15 regions in the country,” parts of the statement read.
The National Women’s Organiser added that the disciplinary committee of the NDC’s women’s wing has been notified about Gloria Huze’s action and will take the necessary steps to bring her to book.
Gloria Huze, together with some staff of NDC presidential hopeful, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, picked his nomination for the party’s presidential primaries, which is scheduled for May 2023, on Thursday at the party’s headquarters in Accra.
Read the full statement below:
NATIONAL WOMEN’S WING ISSUE A STATEMENT ON ASHANTI REGIONAL WOMEN’S ORGANISER PICKING FORMS FOR DUFFOUR
DISCLAIMER
My attention has been drawn to a deplorable and unacceptable action by the Ashanti Regional Women’s Organiser, Gloria Huze, in the upcoming Flag bearer race.
She is on record to have led a delegation to pick up the nomination form for a Presidential Candidate Aspirant in the name of the Ashanti Regional Women’s Wing.
I vehemently and categorically disassociate the wing from her conduct and wish to state emphatically that her conduct is not in anyway a representation of any parts of the wing either in the Ashanti region or across the other 15 regions in the country.
The women’s wing will sanction any such persons who seek to use the mandate of the wing to run individual businesses.
The disciplinary Committee of the women’s wing have been duly notified. The necessary steps shall be taken for the greater good of the wing and interest of the party.
According to a decree that was published by the official newspaper “El Peruano” on Tuesday, the government of Peru is providing families who lost a relative during the country’s protests between December 8 and February 10 with almost $13,000 in financial assistance.
According to the ruling, the injured will receive half of this amount, or $6,500 US dollars (25,000 nuevos soles), while each family will receive around $13,000 US dollars (50,000 nuevos soles).
The directive also states that the payments are not regarded as reparations but rather as financial assistance for civilians and police officers.
“Economic assistance to the people killed and injured is a duty by the State due to the families’ patrimonial affectation but does not exempt (the state) of the responsibility to look for truth, justice, and reparation for the victims for the abuse of their human rights,” it wrote on Twitter.
As CNN first reported, Peruvian families have demanded reparations for deaths and injuries around the protests since former President Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested in December. His removal from office sparked the demonstrations amid deep dissatisfaction over living conditions and inequality in the country.
There has been at least 60 protest-related deaths, according to Peru’s Ombudsman’s office, including one police officer. Most of those deaths happened outside Lima. As of February 22, seven people died in Apurimac, ten in Ayacucho and twenty in Puno for example, according to the same organization.
The government’s announcement comes after a preliminary report released by Amnesty International accused Peruvian authorities of acting with “a marked racist bias” in its crackdown on the protests last week.
The human rights group also accused Peruvian security forces of using firearms with lethal ammunition “as one of their primary methods of dispersing demonstrations, even when there was no apparent risk to the lives of others” – a violation of international human rights standards.
CNN reached out to the Ministry of Defense and Interior for comment on the Amnesty International report and the allegations of excessive use of force against protesters. The Ministry of Defense declined to comment and told CNN there is an ongoing investigation by Peru’s Prosecutor Office with which they are collaborating.
A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry also declined to comment, highlighting the ongoing investigation by the prosecutor’s office.
UK-based Ghanaian musician, Stephanie Benson, has revealed that, unlike other musicians, she has her shows organized exclusively for a private audience.
She described her audience as wealthy people who wanted her performances to be exclusively for them. She premised this on a question she was tagged with by Happy 98.9 FM Evening Drive’s Akua Sika, inquiring how she spent her Christmas holidays.
“The kind of shows I do are private; I can’t take my phone and film them for my audience.” she disclosed, and she further added that her audience is usually the rich, who pay good money for an exclusive show. “My audience is like the rich and wealthy who organize their black-tie events,” she explained, referring to the audience’s exclusivity and limited nature.
However, Selina indicated that her shows organized for charity are usually shared for public viewing. “It’s low-key; I can post it when I do charity ones, but most of the time I can’t,” she explained.
Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has disclosed that the entire Minority Caucus in Parliament is solidly behind the presidential candidature of John Dramani Mahama.
He told Oyerepa TV on February 22, that all 137 National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs were in attendance at a meeting held earlier this week to pledge their support for the former president.
Asked whether all NDC MPs were in support of Mahama’s bid to lead the NDC into the 2024 elections, he responded: “Absolutely, all Members of Parliament on the ticket of the NDC were all present…
“… and on behalf of all of us, our new leader Hon. Ato Forson made a resounding declaration of total support for his candidature and it was followed by a resounding applause followed by a standing ovation.”
According to him, “the brother of a possible contender was introduced at the meeting because he is also a Member of Parliament and he declared his support,” he added without naming the said MP.
Mahama declares bid, picks nomination forms
Mahama’s formal intention to run for a third consecutive shot at the presidency was reported when a number of NDC MPs confirmed after a meeting that he was going to contest.
On February 22, forms were picked on his behalf by Prof. Alabi and regional chairmen amid fanfare. Mahama is expected to address the media in due course to formally announce his bid.
Mahama’s political roots date as far back to the days of Ghana’s independence when his father served in the Nkrumah government.
John Mahama, a political thoroughbred
He is reputed to be one of the most thoroughbred politicians of the Fourth Republic having served from the local level (Assembly) through to becoming a Member of Parliament for Bole Bamboi on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress.
Mahama held deputy minister and ministerial portfolios under the Rawlings government before rising to become vice president under John Mills and president when he took over from Mills then won his first full term in 2012.
He is widely expected to contest for the presidency come 2024 as he seeks a final term in office on the back of two straight defeats to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2016 and 2020.
In order to replace the spacecraft that suffered a coolant leak in December and left two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut without a means of transportation down to Earth, Russia launched a Soyuz spacecraft.
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was launched on Thursday at 7:24 p.m. ET, which is 5:24 a.m. local time, from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome launch facility.
Almost two days will pass in orbit as the unmanned spacecraft makes its way towards the International Space Station. Just after 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, it is anticipated to dock with the Russian-run Poisk module on the space station.
The Soyuz MS-23 will be the return vehicle for cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, all of whom traveled to the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-22 capsule in September.
Rather than flying with crew members aboard, the Soyuz MS-23 launched on Thursday with only a “Zero-G indicator,” which can be any object that is left in the cabin and is designed to float freely when the capsule enters microgravity. For this mission, the indicator is a teddy bear tethered by a string inside the cabin.
About two months into the three men’s journey, the MS-22 experienced a coolant leak, leaving the cabin at temperatures deemed unsafe for the crewmates to use for their return journey. The Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA quickly worked to establish plans to send areplacement vehicle. Roscosmos officials said they had determined that the leak resulted from a small hole caused by an impact with a micrometeoroid.
Plans to launch the rescue vehicle, however, were drawn into question when a Russian cargo ship, called Progress, experienced a similar coolant leak after docking with the space stationon February 11. Three days later, Roscosmos had said in a post on the social media site Telegram, that it would delay the Soyuz MS-23 launch until at least March while the agency investigated the cause of the Progress vehicle’s coolant leak.
On Tuesday,however, Roscosmos said in an updated Telegram post that it had determined the cause of the Progress spacecraft leak was “external influences.”
“The Russians are continuing to take a very close look at both the Soyuz and the Progress coolant leaks,” Dana Weigel, the space station’s deputy manager for NASA, said during a Wednesday briefing.
“They formed a state commission that is assessing the anomalies,” she added, noting that the team is analyzing potential causes from the time the capsules launched through their journey in orbit.
Originally, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara were expected to launch to the space station on March 16 aboard MS-23.
Instead, Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio’s time will be extended on the space station until they can return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 later this year. That return could happen in September, according to a report from Russia state-run media outlet TASS.
If that timeline holds, the three crewmates will have extended their expected six-month stay in space to about one year.
When asked about the extended stay, Joel Montalbano, the space station’s program manager for NASA, said the crew remains in good health and there is no reason to expedite their journey home.
The crew is “willing to help wherever we ask,” Montalbano said during a January 11 news conference. “They’re excited to be in space, excited to work and excited to do the research that we do on orbit. So they are ready to go with whatever decision that we give them.”
He added,“I may have to fly some moreice cream to reward them.”
The launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft comes just days before NASA and SpaceX will launch their Crew-6 mission. Expected to lift off early Monday morning, Crew-6 will carry NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg as well as Sultan Alneyadi, an astronaut with the United Arab Emirates, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Shortly afterthose four arrive at the space station, NASA’s Crew-5 astronauts will return home from their five-month staythere aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.NASA officials said this week that the coolant leaks experienced on the Soyuz and Progress vehicles would not have any impact on the SpaceX missions and that no similar issues were discovered on Crew Dragon vehicles.
Beautiful Ghanaian actress Rosemond Alade Brown popularly known as Akuapem Poloo has revealed that as a Christian, she developed the habit of cheating on her boyfriend all the time.
“When I was a Christian, I used to cheat on my boyfriend. I had a boy but I still had a sugar daddy who took care of me, but now it’s only my boyfriend”, she revealed in an interview with Accra-based Kingdom FM in an interview.
“I was handling it nice when I was a Christian, you can do what you want in Christianity”, she claimed.
According to the actress, she chose that kind of life while she was still a Christian because there was no discipline in the religion which made sure she was put to right. However, after converting to Islam, she found out that the religion got to discipline her so she had to put a stop to such a lifestyle.
She also noted that there is so much freedom in Christianity which according to her, made her choose the kind of life she was living some years back.
“When I was a Christian I was doing my half-naked thing but after I converted to Islam, I am not able to do that. Because when you go to Mosque all the women are in Hijab, they are all covered but when you go to church, most of them are not decent. They will wear a short skirt and leave parts of their body exposed”, she said.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has resurrected the discussion on the payment of his emoluments as an ex-Ghanaian leader. According to Mr Mahama, he is entitled to some benefits according to Parliament but those entitlements have been withheld because he is politically active.
“I’ve been Vice President before, I’ve been President of this country before, according to parliament, I’m supposed to receive all kinds of emoluments to pay my fuel and my electricity bill, my water bill, medical bills, air travel, vehicles, everything but I can assure you that all those emoluments have been withheld because I’m politically active,” he said.
Mr Mahama reiterated this in his interaction with his former appointees in Accra on Wednesday, 22 February 2023, where he called on them to come out of retirement and join him in the fight to reclaim power in 2024.
“If I was retired and not commenting on national issues, I would have all those emoluments paid but it doesn’t bother me, because of my new granddaughter and my children, I believe that the future of this country is one that we must rescue from the hands of this looting brigade and reset the Ghanaian project, bring back good governance, strengthen the fight against corruption, put in place the things that will make it impossible for another president to come and land us in the same ditch that we currently are, and so I’m the first to announce to you that even though I was retired in 2016, I’ve come out of retirement and I’m available for the task ahead.”
Last year, Mr Mahama made similar comments about his emoluments.
He had said in an interview with Accra-based TV3 on Monday, 12 September 2022, that: “I receive only my monthly pension, like President Kufuor or President Rawlings was receiving until he died. That is all I get.”
The YouTube account of renowned YouTuber, Wode Maya, has been hacked.
Till the evening of February 23, 2023 he had a booming YouTube channel with over 1.2 million followers and over 900 uploads.
He is reputed as one of the continent’s biggest YouTubers sharing cross-continental content aimed at putting out a positive aspect of Africa and Africans within the continent.
Then the hackers struck.
His page first went blank and the name changed from “Wode Maya” to “Microstrategy.”
Before long, it was confirmed with the unusual activity on the channel that it had actually been hacked.
The new owners started multiple live streaming with the aim of soliciting for funds in a crypto currency scheme. At GhanaWeb’s last check, there were five such streams running concurrently.
Meanwhile, all of Wode Maya’s videos had gone off the page even though the page information remained intact – page created in 2013 with over 193 million views.
A robust social media campaign started almost immediately with people especially on Twitter tagging YouTube and YouTube Support to help Wode Maya to reclaim his account.
After some hours, it turned out that the channel had been taken down entirely. All previous links when clicked return a message: “Video Unavailable. This video is private.”
Also, the page when searched on YouTube also returns zero result.
The vlogger, real name Berthold Winkler, has yet to publicly comment on the development.
