TIG Post

Author: Chris Kodo

  • Coronavirus impact on political campaigns: NPP to switch to ‘retail campaign’ – Sammi Awuku

    The year 2020 is an electioneering year and as usual of political parties, the season of elections is when campaigns are launched and large rallies are held, but it appears this year will be an exception; particularly when the public gathering restrictions and health protocols to prevent transmissions of the novel Coronavirus are to be observed.

    As the economy is adversely affected by Coronavirus, so are political parties and their candidates for this year’s Parliamentary and Presidential elections feeling the pinch of the pandemic.

    According to the National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammi Awuku, the current situation has called for candidates contesting the general elections to adopt new and creative ways to reach out to Ghanaian electorates.

    Sammi Awuku noted that the traditional way whereby political parties hold large rallies will be dearly missing this year; however, the candidates need to tap into new avenues to send their campaign messages to the masses.

    Speaking on Peace FM’s ”Kokrokoo” Friday, the NPP National Organizer disclosed that the NPP has adjusted itself to the current situation, therefore the party’s candidates will be embarking on a ”retail campaign” and not the usual ceremonious campaigns.

    He explained the retail campaign mechanism is to see the party move from house to house to personally interact with the electorates and ”sell” their candidates to them.

    Sammi Awuku shared nostalgic memories of previous years saying he misses the euphoria that accompanies rallies and the gathering of party members and supporters as well as traders who take advantage of the rallies to do business.

    ”We will miss the excitement that are accompanied with these elections. We miss it. We miss the large gatherings. We will miss that kind of feeling you get when you meet a brother or sister on the grounds…I’m sure, with all the political parties this year, we’ve been forced to readjust to the new normal and also observe these social and health protocols; and aside that, now, every strategist in a room is trying to find new and creative ways that you can still reach out to the masses of our people. We will miss the 2016 kind of campaign.

    ”It is true that the NPP is not a fan of flamboyant campaigns and our President doesn’t even want a flamboyant campaign but that ‘feel good’ feeling where you meet a large gathering and people would take turns to make speeches will now diminish. Now, the real test of everyone’s strategy will be what the NPP introduced in 2016 that we called the retail campaign. It nearly looked like the NPP could predict or look into the future more that a time will come that, that will be the best way of campaigning. But retail campaigning is difficult than any form of campaign. Retail campaign is identifying the voter or electorate and visiting the electorate at where the person is. You call it door-to-door”, he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi.

    Source: Peace FM

  • Water shortage affecting coronavirus fight in Assin Central – Health Director

    Dr Benjamin Amoako, the Assin Central Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has warned of dire health consequences if immediate steps are not taken to end the weeks of water shortage in the Municipality.

    He indicated that the lack of reliable and portable water supply over the last three weeks was a drawback to Government’s efforts to ensure reliable supply of water to encourage handwashing as part of measures to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.

    Briefing the media on interventions to contain the spread of the virus in the area, the Municipal Director of Health said the situation had compelled residents to resort to wells and polluted rivers as their water sources.

    The government in its bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 pledged to foot the water bills of Ghanaians for April, May and June 2020 to provide relief to all Ghanaians.

    The President also directed water service providers to ensure a stable water supply during the period.

    The Municipal Health Director explained that one of the cheapest, easiest, and most important ways to prevent the spread of a virus was to wash one’s hands frequently with soap under running water.

    The provision of safe water and sanitation should be regarded as a social good that protects the public from various diseases including outbreaks such as COVID-19.

    Currently, the Coronavirus disease had become a Global Pandemic and the Health Director highlighted the importance of health protocols as directed by experts, including regular handwashing as one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of the virus.

    In that light, he called on government and all stakeholders, particularly the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to work hard in resolving the challenges and ensure people have water for all essential uses at this time.

    However, some residents who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said they had been drinking untreated water for weeks.

    Narrating their ordeal, Mr Emmanuel Gyamfi, a resident of Bantama, said apart from the struggle they go through in search of unsafe water, they risked contracting water-borne diseases and even the Coronavirus.

    Source: GNA

  • Halt operations to avoid prosecution – Coronavirus Taskforce warns drinking bar operators

    The Sunyani Covid-19 Taskforce has called on drinking bar operators in the Sunyani East and West Municipalities to stop operating to avoid arrest and prosecution.

    Superintendent Haruna Alhassan, the Taskforce Commander, gave the warning following the arrest of nine persons, including two drinking bar operators who flouted the Coronavirus (COVID-19) directives, protocols and restrictions in Sunyani.

    In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday, Supt. Alhassan wondered why some people did not see “the pandemic as real and deadly” and expressed surprise that “some educated persons who are supposed to know better and assist in educating others are rather apathetic to the Coronavirus directives”.

    He said there has been a number of instances where a medical doctor, a nurse, a teacher and even fellow security services personnel have had verbal exchanges with some of the members of the Taskforce whose only duty is to ensure the adherence to the social and physical distancing protocols to stem the spread of the pandemic.

    Supt. Alhassan expressed worry that some drinking bar operators in both municipalities are still operating, particularly in the night and violating the social and physical distancing and mask wearing protocols, despite several reminders and warnings to desist from such activities.

    He said in spite of the continuous education and sensitization through one on-one interactions in the markets and on local radio stations and community information centres within the Municipalities, “some individuals still claim they have not heard about the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Supt. Alhassan said “wearing nose masks in public places are now compulsory and people caught flouting this directive would be sent to the courts “.

    Source: GNA

  • Coronavirus: 131 new cases recorded in Ghana, sends tally to 6,617

    New figures released by the Ghana Health Service as regards confirmed Coronavirus cases in Ghana indicate that the country has recorded 131 new infections.

    The total number of cases thus, is 6617.

    27 more persons have recovered, bringing the recovery tally to 1978. Death toll however remains 31.

    Out of the 131 new cases, 81 infections were from the Greater Accra region while 22 were from the Ashanti Region. The Central region has 13 new cases; Central has 10 new cases. 4 new infections have been recorded in Western North while the Volta region has one more infection.

    Regional breakdown of the 6,617 cases:

    Greater Accra Region 4,780

    Ashanti Region 1,010

    Central Region 297

    Western Region 208

    Eastern Region 106

    Western North Region 61

    Volta Region 45

    Northern Region 34

    Oti Region 26

    Upper East Region 26

    Upper West Region 21

    North East Region 2

    Bono Region 1

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

     

  • Obinim has a peculiar heart condition – Lawyer explains transfer to doctors after release

    Lawyer for Bishop Daniel Obinim, has explained reasons behind an immediate transfer of his client to private doctors following his release.

    Counsel, Ralph Poku-Adusei who spoke to GhanaWeb Friday evening, explained that the Founder of the International God’s Way was released by the Kaneshie District Court at 3pm the same day. This was after he had met all the stated requirements for the bail.

    According to him, Bishop Obinim had been held in the police hospital since his arrest because of some health conditions, but was not receiving the needed treatment from health personnel at the hospital.

    “The hospital conditions were not good so he is currently with his private doctors trying to check his conditions so that he can be back to normal life. He has a peculiar heart condition that has been going on for some time so he has private doctors who have been making sure that he was well catered for, he was not receiving that treatment at the police hospital.” He said in an interview with GhanaWeb.

    Lawyer Poku-Adusei further endorsed reports that the police personnel at the headquarters tried to frustrate their efforts to fulfil the bail requirements.

    Family members who had spoken to the media Thursday, accused police personnel of trying to frustrate efforts to grant him bail.

    According to them, though they had been at the police headquarters since morning and had provided the required documents as sureties, they had been unsuccessful in executing the bail.

    Reacting to this, his lawyer said: “The CID came up with all manner of requirements that are needless but eventually we met all the conditions and requirements requested and eventually the bail was executed around 3pm this afternoon at the Kaneshie court and he has gone home.”

    Bishop Obinim was charged for offence of publication of false news and forging of documents contrary to Sections 208 and 159 of the criminal and other Offences Act, 1060 (Act 29) respectively.

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • NaCCA approves second batch of textbooks from kindergarten to basic schools

    The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) has published the second batch of the official list of textbooks recommended for the kindergarten to basic Schools.

    A total of 96 publications covering a number of subject areas were approved in the second batch by the Council, acting on behalf of the Education Ministry.

    This brings to 283, the total number of books approved by the Council, giving publishers the green light to publish in large quantities for the market.

    These textbooks have gone through series of reviews between NaCCA and the Publishers to ensure they conform to the expectations of the new KG-Basic 6 curriculum introduced in September, 2019,” a statement from NaCCA said.

    The Executive Director of NaCCA Dr Prince Armah said the approval of the 283 books is a testimony of a great and thorough work done by NaCCA as well as the publishers.

    He said there are a couple of subject areas NaCCA is still awaiting drafts from the publishers and assured teachers, students and parents that his outfit will do all it takes to improve teaching and learning.

    He added that more books are being considered for recommendations in the coming weeks.

    “NaCCA welcomes comments and feedback from school managers, teachers, parents and the general public on the Recommended Textbooks. This will help textbook writers and publishers improve on the quality of their textbooks,” the statement said.

     

     

  • Why should I participate in EC’s ‘old and new testament meeting’ and risk arrest? Asiedu Nketia

    General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia says there is no way he and his party will flout COVID-19 directives laid down by President Akufo-Addo.

    Thus Johnson Asiedu Nketia asserts that he will not place himself in a position where he will be arrested for attending an ‘illegal’ meeting.

    The NDC refused to attend a recent IPAC meeting organized by the Electoral Commission because it was against the directive by the president for all public gatherings to be suspended over the outbreak of the coronavirus.

    The opposition party also kicked against the EC’s plan to hold the meetings in two separate groups to ensure that social distancing protocol can be fully observed.

    Speaking in an interview on Neat FM’s Me Man Nti programme, he wondered why President Akufo-Addo said there should be no political activity, yet the EC went ahead to flout that order.

    “Isn’t the President surprised when he sets rules and it is being disobeyed? Didn’t he say we should cease all political activities and concentrate on fighting COVID-19? Should we disregard that directive and be arrested by the police, whose fault will it be? The meeting was against the executive instrument… is the EC part of essential services? If it was part, the President would have said so…the president’s directives on COVID-19 made the meeting illegal. How therefore can you take proper decisions at a meeting that is illegal? We couldn’t have been part of an illegal meeting,” he indicated.

    Old and New Testament

    Asiedu Nketia also mocked the EC’s plan to hold the IPAC meeting in two different sessions; describing it as the “old and new testament”.

    “We’ve never heard of a meeting where the issues are discussed in two groups; old and new testament meeting…” he derided.

     

    Source: Peace FM

     

     

  • COVID-19 virtual Eidul-Fitr 2020 celebration to hold on Sunday, May 24

    Spokesperson for the National Chief Iman, Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu has announced the 2020 Eidul-Fitr celebration will take place in Ghana on Sunday 24th May 2020.

    A statement issued and copied to GhanaWeb said; “Following the COVID-19 preventive restrictions on social gathering, a virtual EIDUL-FITR celebration prayer will be led by the Eminent National Chief Imam supported by the Muslim leaders at the Ghana Broadcasting corporation house on Sunday 24th May 2020 at 9:00am prompt.”

    “His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana supported by the vice president will use the occasion to address Muslims country wide.”

    “Accordingly all Muslims in the country are advised to celebrate the 2020 EIDUL-FITR with families at home by following the National Chief Imam on the state television,” the statement added.

    “We wish to take this opportunity to wish Muslims in Ghana and beyond a happy COVID-19 EIDUL-FITR 2020 celebration,” it concluded.

     

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Golden Star Resources reports two COVID-19 cases at Prestea mine

    Gold mining firm Golden Star Resources has reported two positive cases of COVID-19 among employees at its Prestea mine located in the Western Region.

    In a statement issued on Thursday, May 21, 2020, Goldstar said both employees have had mild symptoms and are being closely monitored.

    The statement added that in line with the “Company’s COVID-19 management protocols and those of the Ghana Health Service, contact tracing has been carried out and as a result close to 60 members of our Prestea team are currently in quarantine and awaiting test results”.

    “Of these, the majority are involved in mining activities (including rock breaking, scoop operations and blasting) and engineering activities (including winder operations and pumping). As a result, site management is revising planned operations in the short-term in order to ensure the safety of all team members and to allow for possible critical skill shortages. This is likely to have some impact on production from 24 Level over the coming weeks until employees who are currently in quarantine are able to safely return to work. At this stage, it is anticipated that the impact on development activities on 17 Level, which are crucial to the longer term viability of the operation, will be minimal”.

    The company said currently it has not reported any cases of Covid-19 at its Wassa mine, which remains operational, noting that neither the supply chains nor the export and sale of gold doré at the Wassa and Prestea mines were impacted.

    In January 2017, Golden Star began commercial production at its Wassa underground gold mine.

     

    Source: Graphic.com.gh 

  • Patience Nyarko said something important but… – Celestine Donkor

    She is not in support of the tone of her colleague Patience Nyarko’s comments about Joe Mettle but Celestine Donkor believes the Obi Nyanime singer was communicating something important that must not be ignored.

    Speaking on Joy News on Wednesday, May 20, the Okronkron singer said Patience was probably trying to dispel the perception that the Gospel industry could be built around one person.

    “She wanted to communicate something important, that an industry cannot be built around one person. However, she could have done that nicely without temper,” she stated.

    Celestine also chided the media for asking questions that generate controversies.

    “I really want to talk to the media who ask these questions to arouse controversies. They are also not helping matters because for some, their questions raise unnecessary comments and competition,” she said.

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    In Celestine’s opinion, it was about time Gospel artistes redefined their purpose and stayed focus and not dwell on who is the leader or the best in the fraternity.

    “Patience Nyarko is a brilliant singer, she has good messages and Obi Nyanime and W’afom Kwan are great songs and she won a lot of hearts for that. I will tell her to maintain her focus, besides, it is not necessary that as an artiste, you must write your own songs.

    “Some artistes are not composers, it is okay that you find someone to write for you or do cover versions. At the end of the day if Joe Mettle won like 1,000 souls with Pentecost or Methodist Hymns, that is hurray,” she said.

    Source: Graphic Showbiz

  • Coronavirus: Children half as likely to catch it, review finds

    Children and adolescents are half as likely to catch the coronavirus, the largest review of the evidence shows.

    The findings, by UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will feed into the debate about how schools are reopened.

    Children also appear less likely to spread the virus, but the team said there was still uncertainty on this.

    The UK government is expected to publish its scientific advice on schools later.

    However, only England has announced that some primary children (Reception, Year 1 and Year 6) could return to the classroom, sparking concerns about safety.

    It is already clear that children are at far less risk of becoming severely ill or dying from coronavirus.

    The researchers went through 6,332 studies from around the world – much of it not formally published – to try to get the answers. They identified only 18 with useful data.

    These were a mixture of studies that tested how the virus spreads in schools or households through rigorous testing of contacts, as well as studies that test large numbers of people in a population for the virus to see who is carrying it.

    The analysis showed children were 56% less likely than an adult to catch the virus when exposed to an infected person.

    “Teachers worry about their children and I think it is incredibly reassuring the children they teach are half as susceptible to this virus,” said Prof Russell Viner, from University College London and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

    However, the reason why is not clear.

    There have been discussions about differences in children’s lungs that make it harder for them to catch the virus or that they are exposed to more colds that are related to the coronavirus, which might lead to some degree of immunity.

    Can children spread coronavirus? The evidence was less clear-cut about how easily children spread the virus. For example, one study of 31 clusters of infections showed only three (10%) were started by a child. The equivalent figure in influenza is 54%.

    However, the researcher said if children were less susceptible to the virus, they are also less likely to be the major source of infections.

    Prof Viner added: “This supports the view that children are likely to play a smaller role in transmitting the virus and proliferating the pandemic, although considerable uncertainty remains.”

    He refused to be drawn directly on the political decision of reopening schools, but said he would be concerned if all the focus was solely on the health impacts to adults “and the harms to children of staying off school were devalued and not playing into the equation”.

    The advice given by the UK government’s scientific advisors, called SAGE, is due to be published later.

    However, the rival group called “Independent SAGE” has published its opinion, saying schools should not re-open until there is the ability to track the spread of the virus and test anyone coming into contact with infected people.

    It also said the risk to pupils would be halved if reopening was delayed by two weeks as a result of cases reducing further.

    Boris Johnson has indicated that 25,000 contact tracers, able to track 10,000 new cases a day, would be in place by 1 June.

    Sir David King, who leads the group, said: “It is clear from the evidence we have collected that 1 June is simply too early to go back, by going ahead with this dangerous decision, the government is further risking the health of our communities and the likelihood of a second spike.”

    Source: bbc.com

  • Tenet: Trailer for Christopher Nolan film arrives minus release date

    A second trailer for Christopher Nolan’s mysterious new film Tenet has been released, giving more clues about its complex time travel narrative.

    Unlike the teaser trailer released in December, however, the new promo does not end with confirmation of the film’s scheduled 17 July release date.

    The trailer instead merely states it will be “coming to theaters” [sic].

    The three-minute trailer was launched on popular video game Fortnite before being made available elsewhere.

    Cinemas around the world are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and it is unclear when they will reopen.

    Earlier this month the CEO of the Vue chain expressed hopes it will be able to reopen its cinemas in July.

    The Showcase cinema chain said it was also “working towards” welcoming back customers at the beginning of that month.

    According to Fortnite publisher Epic Games, the idea to launch the trailer in the game “came from a phone call with Christopher Nolan”.

    “We were all talking about our love of seeing new trailers in a THEATER and how sad we were that we can’t do that right now – but how maybe this could be the next best thing,” tweeted its creative director Donald Mustard.

    It has also been announced that one of Nolan’s previous feature films will be screened inside the game later this year.

    The British director’s other films include Inception, Interstellar and the Oscar-winning World War II film Dunkirk.

    He also directed the three films in the so-called Dark Knight trilogy – Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

    According to Tenet’s distributor Warner Bros, his new film is “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage”.

    Its stars include John David Washington from Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Twilight’s Robert Pattinson and Sir Kenneth Branagh.

    According to the new trailer, Sir Kenneth – who also appeared in Dunkirk – plays a “Russian national” who can “communicate with the future”.

    The trailer sees a character use the word “inversion” alongside scenes in which events appear to play out in reverse.

    The trailer features a car chase in which vehicles move both backwards and forwards, close-combat fights and shots of a plane crashing into a hangar.

    “This reversing of the flow of time,” Washington’s character is heard saying. “Doesn’t us being here now mean it never happened?”

    Reaction on Twitter has been broadly positive, with users variously describing it as “stunning”, “so good” and “iconic”.

    “This is Christopher Nolan’s world and we’re just living in it,” tweeted another impressed commentator.

    Tenet’s own Twitter page states categorically that the film will be “coming to theaters” on 17 July.

    That will be reassuring to cinema operators following the decision of some distributors to bypass theatrical distribution and release their films directly online.

    Universal released Trolls World Tour online in April, while Sir Kenneth’s film version of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl novel will premiere on the Disney+ streaming service next month.

    Before the coronavirus crisis caused cinemas and other entertainment venues to close their doors, the films had been scheduled to open theatrically in April and May respectively.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Confusion mars Tarkwa Nsuaem MCE confirmation

    A section of assembly members in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region were on Friday allegedly prevented from taking part in the confirmation exercise of Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) nominee Benjamin Kessie.

    The assembly members, who numbered 22, were reported to have been prevented from entering the voting grounds by heavily armed policemen “allegedly on orders from above”.

    One of the affected, assembly member for Kwabedu Paa Kwesi Ephraim, in an interview with Connect FM explained that on Thursday they had information that a plan had been hatched to clandestinely confirm the nomination of Benjamin Kessie early morning the following day.

    “We heard rumors [Thursday] evening that the confirmation will come off very early morning [Friday]. So, we called our Presiding Member and asked him about what we have heard. He told us that he has not signed any letter to warrant the exercise. So, any letter we see is not from him but we should go to the ground and see if indeed the exercise will come off. When we came to the venue this morning, we came to meet many heavily armed police men at the entrance. When we asked, we were told they were here for the confirmation exercise. So, we decided to enter since we ought to be part of the exercise but we were prevented from entering. Minutes after, we saw a bus full of government appointees and other assembly members coming. To our utmost surprise, the police ushered them in.”

    Mr. Ephraim continued that to further prove that they were members of the assembly they showed their identification cards and letters inviting them to the previous confirmation exercise but that was not enough for the security men present.

    “We managed to get some letters from our colleagues and showed them to the security men and still they will not allow us in. It turned into a scuffle and some of us were beaten and shoved away. We have everything on tape.”

    Assembly member for Tebrebe Electoral Area Addison Sackey, who was also affected, claimed that the newly elected Presiding Member Emmanuel Gado was prevented from coming to the venue when he parried pressure on him to sign a letter to convey the meeting for the confirmation exercise.

    “We have the recording of our telephone conversation with Presiding Member where he told us everything. How he was taken to Sekondi to be forced to sign letters which he refused and the order on him to feign sickness and not to come to the confirmation grounds,” he claimed.

    According to him, when they attempted to complain to the Western Region Minister Kwabena Otchere Darko Mensah, who came to meet them at the venue, he snubbed them.

    “We were here when the electoral officials also came. We explained to them about the current situation and why they cannot supervise the confirmation exercise. But strangely enough they did not mind us but proceeded to the grounds.”

    Injunction

    Angered by the perceived illegal confirmation process, the affected assembly members marched to court to injunct Benjamin Kessie from holding himself as the MCE.

    “We will injunct Mr. Kessie from holding himself as the MCE because the process that led to his confirmation was obviously illegal. We will also injunct the assembly from functioning because some members of the assembly participated in the illegality,” Mr. Addison Sackey said

    Confirmation

    The MCE nominee Benjamin Kessie was confirmed at the event by 90 per cent of members present to vote.

    He had 19 Yes votes and 2 No votes. Twenty-one out of a total of 43 members of the assembly participated in the confirmation exercise.

    Mr. Kessie only three days ago Wednesday was rejected by the Assembly.

    Before his nomination, he was rejected three times by the assembly in his bid to become the Presiding Member.

    Earlier, six groups in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality had questioned the basis for the nomination of Mr. Kessie when he had been rejected three times by the very assembly he seeks to lead.

    Mr. Kessie replaces Gilbert Kennedy Asmah, who was recently declared the best performing MMDCE in the Western Region.

     

    Source: 3 News

  • Nigerian who impersonated Oppong Nkrumah, Ayorkor Botchway granted bail

    The Circuit Court in Accra presided over by His Honour Emmanuel Essandoh has granted bail in the sum of GHC12,000 to a Nigerian woman who impersonated some ministers of state to defraud victims of over GHC10,000.

    The accused person Vivian Sajida Imran, a trader who pleaded not guilty to all the charges in addition to her bail sum is to produce two sureties, one of whom must be a public servant earning not less than GHC1,200.

    The 31-year-old trader was granted bail after his lawyer had prayed the court for her to be admitted to bail.

    The case has been adjourned to June 3, 2020.

    Sajida, 31, together with her husband Prince Joel, currently at large have been charged with eight counts of falsely pretending to be a public officer and defrauding by false pretence.

    Brief facts

    The brief facts of the case as presented to the court by Detective Frederick Sarpong were that complainant is an operative of the National Security.

    The First Accused person (A1) is a trader while A2 currently at large is the husband of A1.

    According to the prosecutor, the victims in the case live across the country.

    He said during the month of April A1 and A2 used the names of Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Foreign Affairs Minister and Henry Quartey, the deputy national security minister to create multiple Facebook accounts and pretend to be ministers.

    According to him, A1 and A2 in their online chats and phone calls with the victims informed them that they could secure them each with employment at the Tema Oil refinery, Ghana Gas or Cocobod.

    Detective Sarpong said, A1 and 2 further requested the victims to pay various amounts to MTN mobile money accounts for the application forms and interviews.

    “The monies amounting to GHc10, 277.00 were paid to MTN mobile 0242774965 and 0551047196 and later transferred into A1s mobile money number 0248024471.

    “The honourable minister who later had a wind informed the National security and A1 and A2 were tracked to their house at Ashaiman Jericho where A1 was arrested but A2 managed to escape.

    The prosecutor told the court that, a search conducted in the room of A1 and A2 revealed six mobile phones including the three mobile money numbers used to receive the monies from their victims.

    He explained that “an order of the court was sought and a forensic examination was carried out on the retained mobile phones. One of the retained mobile phones was found to contain MTN SIM number 0248024471 registered in the name of A1.

    The same number was found to be the final destination where the booty obtained from the victims were transferred to and later withdrawn.

    According to him, “in the investigation caution statement of A1, she admitted being the owner of number 0248024471. The victims were later contacted and they narrated their ordeal.”

    “Intensive efforts are being made to track A2 who is still at large. After investigation A1 was charged with the offence as stated on the charge sheet,” he told the court.

     

    Source: Starr FM

  • Wizkid & myself are the greatest of all time Davido

    Davido has declared himself and Wizkid as the two greatest of all time in the Nigerian music industry.

    CEO of Davido Music Worldwide David Adeleke aka Davido has stated that he is a G.O.A.T. alongside Wizkid Ayo.

    He shared a traditional photo of the two on his official Instagram handle and made such a comment, prompting over 14,000 socialites to react to it.

    Many people hold the assertion that Burna Boy deserves G.O.AT. tag more than the two combined.

    Wizkid and Davido used to be rivals until they recently made peace.

    They are two talents from Africa who have really worked hard to the top over the years.

    See The Screenshot Below:

    Wizkid & myself are the greatest of all time - Davido declares

    Source: Celebritiesbuzz.com.gh

     

  • GPL Return: We can’t challenge government – GFA PRO

    Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association Henry Asante Twum has said that the association cannot challenge government decision over suspension of football in the country.

    The Ghana Premier League was suspended in March due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

    It is unclear whether the football season will be truncated or not due to the rapid growth of the deadly disease.

    Henry Asante in an interview expressed that the Ghana FA is working hand in hand with the government to know the fate of the topflight league.

    “We cannot sideline the government and do anything on our own. We have to consult, dialogue, and do all the various engagement before taking any decision. But the truth is that we cannot challenge the government if they insist football should still be on suspension till September or December”

    “We’ve given ourselves till the end of June. As an FA, we are dialoguing, consulting, taking views and exploring every single avenue or option which is available to us” He Otec FM.

    The GFA medical team led by Dr. Baba Adam met the Gov’t medical advising team on Thursday, May 21, 2020 to deliberate on the future of the football season under COVID-19.

    Source: footballghana.com

  • Friday Debate: Who is the best foreign player to have played in the Ghana Premier League?

    Ghanaian players doing amazing things in the major European Leagues across the world is not a new phenomenon.

    Abedi Pele, Tony Yeboah, Micheal Essien, Sulley Ali Muntari and Samuel Osei Kuffour are a few of the Ghanaian players who have left a mark on world football.

    But what about foreigners who have graced the Ghana Premier League?

    How many of them do you remember and which of them has impressed you the most?

    The likes of goalkeeper Abdoulaye Soulama (late), Ahmed Simba Toure, Ruben Gnane, Sogne Yacouba, and current GPL top scorer Victorien Adebayor are a few of the imports who have caught the eye in the last few years. But others blazed the trail in the past.

    Today on GhanaWeb’s Friday’s debate, we ask who in your opinion has been the best foreign player in the history of the Ghana Premier League?

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • 4 nabbed for large quantities of wee

    The police at Baatsona have arrested four persons including a lady they suspect were trading in dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp aka Wee.

    The suspects have been identified as Foli Emmanuel, Juliet Asempapa, George Dzamesi, and Prosper Tibo.

    The Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Effia Tenge, said the suspects were arrested by the police upon a tip-off.

    She said 138 slabs in 66 parcels of the suspected narcotic drugs hidden in an uncompleted building and a mini bus were retrieved during the operation.

    “The Baatsona police received intelligence report that some persons were dealing in narcotic drugs at Hydrofoam Estate.

    “Our investigations indicate that they were trading in the substance suspected to be Indian hemp, and so we are detaining them and send samples for forensic examination to aid our investigations,” she added.

     

    Source: Daily Guide Network

  • Former Kotoko star John Kuffuor granted bail after savage attack on lover’s nipple

    Former Asante Kotoko defender John Kuffuor has been granted a GHC 50,000 bail by a District Court in Ghana after a savage attack on his former girlfriend.

    The former Heart of Lions defender is facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery after bitten off the nipple of his former lover Dennisa Hagan in a brutal attack.

    The Ejisu District court Presided over by judge Kwaku Baah Frempong granted the footballer the bail on Friday with two sureties after he was arrested for disorderly conduct.

    He is expected to assist the former girlfriend – who is a hairdresser to under immediate surgery to correct the defect.

    The two have been an items for the past six years but a domestic issues escalated complaint opted to jump out of the relationship in 2017.

    The defender is alleged to have lost his cool after visiting her in her home in an apparent attempt to resolve the misunderstanding.

    Kuffuor is reported to have followed to the kitchen after the former lover refused to pay attention to his pleas.

    In the process, he held her dress and bit her nipple – leaving the complainant with multiple wounds.

    The former Kotoko star is expected to report to the court in seven days.

    Source: Ghana Soccernet

  • There is no life without football Albert Commey

    Chief Executive Officer of Techiman Eleven Wonders FC, Albert Yahaya Commey has bemoaned the effect of Coronavirus, saying that there is no life without football.

    The Ghana Premier League was suspended in March due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

    It is unclear whether the football season will be truncated or not due to the rapid spread of the novel virius.

    But Albert Commey in an interview with Angel FM in Kumasi lamented on the lack of football related activities in the country and is of the view that there is no life without football.

    “I miss the game a lot as an administrator. I have realized that without football there is no life. Most of revenue has been coming from the gate but with no football clubs are suffering”

    He adds that, most of the clubs have struggled to pay their players due to the pandemic and is hoping that the world get rid of the disease for the resumption of the most loved sports in the country.

    Source: footballghana.com

  • Halt operations to avoid prosecution Covid-19 Taskforce warns drinking bar operators

    The Sunyani Covid-19 Taskforce has called on drinking bar operators in the Sunyani East and West Municipalities to stop operating to avoid arrest and prosecution.

    Superintendent Haruna Alhassan, the Taskforce Commander, gave the warning following the arrest of nine persons, including two drinking bar operators who flouted the Coronavirus (Covid-19) directives, protocols and restrictions in Sunyani.

    In an interview with GNA on Thursday, Supt. Alhassan wondered why some people did not see “the pandemic as real and deadly” and expressed surprise that “some educated persons who are supposed to know better and assist in educating others are rather apathetic to the coronavirus directives”.

    He said there has been a number of instances where a medical doctor, a nurse, a teacher and even fellow security services personnel have had verbal exchanges with some of the members of the Taskforce whose only duty is to ensure the adherence to the social and physical distancing protocols to stem the spread of the pandemic.

    Supt. Alhassan expressed worry that some drinking bar operators in both municipalities are still operating, particularly in the night and violating the social and physical distancing and mask-wearing protocols, despite several reminders and warnings to desist from such activities.

    He said in spite of the continuous education and sensitization through one-on-one interaction in the markets and on local radio stations and community information centres within the Municipalities, “some individuals still claim they have not heard about the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

    Supt. Alhassan said “wearing nose masks in public places are now compulsory and people caught flouting this directive would be sent to the courts “.

     

    Source:  myjoyonline 

  • Lazio eyes summer move for Ghanaian youngster Mohammed Kudus

    Serie A side SSC Lazio are eyeing a summer move for Ghanaian youngster Mohammed Kudus.

    Kudus has had a breakthrough season at FC Nordsjælland, making 19 appearances and scoring nine goals before the suspension of the league due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

    His impressive performances have attracted interest from several clubs including, Borussia Dortmund, Genk, Newcastle United, and Rennes

    Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray are also ready to acquire the services of the 19-year-old, who is worth €3 million according to Transfermarkt.

    Kudus has already featured for the senior national team of Ghana, the Black Stars in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

    He scored on his debut in Ghana’s 2-0 win over South Africa in Cape Coast last year.

    According to reports in Denmark, FC Nordsjælland will take a fee in the region of 8 million to 11 million euros for the player.

    Source: footballghana.com

  • Sad video: Kumasi-based Abusua Fm owned by Bola Ray turns into an “Information Center”

    The atmosphere in the Ghanaian media space is not something to reminisce and laugh at considering how radio personalities who are loud behind the console are damn broke in the real world.

    Back to the subject matter, all is not well with Kumasi-based Abusua 96.5 FM, a subsidiary of Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network, taking into consideration the content of footage available to theBBCghana.com.

    According to Real Talk Tv, the current state of Abusua 96.5 Fm is no diffract from an “Information Centre” largely due to the fact that only 3 presenters are left at the one-time vibrant radio station in Kumasi.

    The source linked the current predicament of Abusua FM to the financial crisis faced by Bola Ray, owner of Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network.

    The source further added that Abusua Fm now runs their own programs only between the hours of 1 p.m 6 p.m on weekdays.

    The source (Real Tv) mentioned that one Austine Woode is now the livewire of the radio station who runs Abusua Fm from 1 p.m 6 p.m on weekdays. Therefore, if he resigns, the station might collapse.

    Watch the short video below for more:

    Source: TheBBCghana.Com

  • Ghanaian youngster Najeeb Yakubu returns to training with FC Vorksla Poltava

    Ghanaian youngster Najeeb Yakubu and his team mates at FC Vorskla Poltava have returned to training after close to two months absence due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

    The 20-year old took to his social networks to share photos of his first training with the Ukrainian top flight side on Thursday captioning it “Happy to be back to work”.

    FC Vorskla’s return to training is part of the processes leading to the resumption of the 2019/2020 season in Ukraine and other Eastern European nations.

    President of the Ukrainian Association of Football, Andriy Pavelko promised to continue the Ukrainian Premier League matches and that of the Ukrainian Cup.

    Pavelko made this promise on his Facebook page while commenting on the decision made by the UEFA executive committee in April.

    “The Premier League and the Ukrainian Cup should be played just like all matches of the championships of other European associations should be played.

    “This was the position of the UEFA Executive Committee. The winners of national club competitions and participants in European competitions from Ukraine will be determined on the basis of sporting merit – this is the number one priority!

    “Only the extension by the government of the decision on the impossibility of holding football competitions or insurmountable economic difficulties can obstruct the completion of the Ukrainian Premier League and the Ukrainian Cup,” Pavelko wrote.

    Source: Ghana Soccernet

  • Abednego Tetteh to give out customised Hearts of Oak face masks to fans

    Abednego Tetteh is expected to give out a customised Hearts of Oak face masks to supporters in the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

    Tetteh will join a host of Ghanaian players to donate items to people in their hometowns, hospitals, and frontline workers.

    The former Al Hilal forward says his decision to give away free customized face masks to fans to help curb the spread of the deadly virus in Ghana.

    “I’m a graphic designer despite being a footballer, I opted to design customized face masks of Hearts of Oak and share it to football fans on all my social media account,” Tetteh told Kickgh.com

    “I’ll start the giveaways on Facebook. Twitter and Instagram will be next.

    “We can’t play football without the fans. We need everyone to be healthy to watch our games when football resumes,” he concluded.

    Tetteh joined Hearts of Oak on a three-year deal ahead of the second round of the 2019/20 Ghana Premier League.

    Source: footballghana.com

  • Work begins on neglected Anlo-Afiadenyigba-Havedzi road

    Construction work has resumed on the 26-kilometre Anlo-Afiadenyigba-Havedzi road in the Keta Municipality of the Volta region, after several years of neglect.

    Residents say the project is long overdue since they have constantly struggled to use the poor road network.

    Municipal Chief Executive for Keta, Godwin Edudzi Yao Effah said the project which is to be completed in some months, will improve the economic activities in the municipality and also help prevent accidents.

    “We are glad to have the contractor back to site and we hope that work will complete close of the year to give relief to the residents,” Mr Effah said

    For drivers who ply the road, this development is a relief as they spend a lot of money on repair of their vehicles.

    “We always go to the mechanic shop because of the very bad nature of the road and several appeals to the authorities to have the roads constructed proved futile,” a frustrated driver told Joy News.

    In 2013, the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration began construction of the  Anlo-Afiadenyigba to Havedzi road with plans to extend it to Weta and other communities.

    But the project, which was awarded to Kapra URC Company Limited, stalled for about 8 years due to lack of funds.

    Earlier this year, residents in the area this year hit the streets in protest over the abandoned road following the death of a six-year-old boy or girl who was run over by a vehicle.

    Work has already begun earnestly on culverts to provide easy access to motorists first on the 11-km Afiadenyigba-Havedzi stretch.

    Project Manager, Torgbui Kpemba III said the company is committed complete it as soon as possible.

    “We hope to finish the two-phase projects within 12 months and we promise to deliver on our promise by giving residents quality job,” he said.

     

    Source: myjoyonlime 

  • Lockdown gives Albanian beekeepers a ‘golden year’

    With factories and farms silenced by the coronavirus shutdown, Albania’s bees have been busier than ever, stirring excitement among farmers expecting an unparalleled honey harvest thanks to a respite from pollution and pesticides.

    “It’s a golden year for bees,” says 68-year-old Gezim Skermo, dressed in a protective suit as he inspects his rows of wooden hives, lined up along the verdant base of Morava mountain in southeast Albania.

    The bucolic bee farm, home to some 300 colourfully-painted hive boxes, is one of the biggest in Albania and the only operation in the Balkan state to export its honey abroad.

    During his 50 years in beekeeping, Skermo says he has “never seen a season like this,” hailing it as “rebirth for nature and the bees”.

    The beekeeper attributes the sudden buzz to the coronavirus measures, which froze public and industrial life after Albania detected its first cases of the novel coronavirus in early March.

    In the area around Morava, the restrictions have brought quiet, cleaner air and less pesticide-spraying from farmers who curbed production in the face of economic uncertainty from the virus, which has claimed some 30 lives in the Balkan state.

    “This year we didn’t have any losses, unlike in previous years when we found dead bees in front of the hives,” said Skermo.

    “There was no noise, no pollution, nothing that could disturb them”.

    Around him the pollinating insects performed their dance between surrounding flowers where they gather nectar, a water trough for refuelling and their hives, where the honey is made.

    In front of the entrance to each hive, four female bees stood guard to keep out intruders from other colonies.

    “Each bee has its own job and position, with the queen, the (egg) layer, in charge of all the inner life,” explains Ermal Benga, who oversees production, as he uses his bee-smoker to calm the insects down before opening a hive.

    Canaries in the coal mine

    The Morava farm normally produces between five and 15 tonnes of honey a year, in varieties ranging from white clover to pine, rapeseed, wild thyme and chestnut, depending on which flowers are in season.

    It also collects and processes tonnes of honey from beekeepers all over Albania, where there are some 360,000 registered hives.

    This year Morava’s beekeepers are planning to start collecting the sweet stuff earlier than normal in order to make two harvests instead of one.

    It is a huge turnaround from the devastation of 2016 and 2017, when 40 percent of Albania’s hives collapsed and losses topped 60 million euros.

    Experts blamed the ruin on an “epidemic” of the varroa mite parasite, whose rise was helped by deforestation, plus the use of neonicotinoids, a common class of insecticides used in agriculture.

    The chemicals, which attack the nervous system of insects, have since been banned in the European Union but not in Albania.

    Today, however, Albania’s “conditions are optimal for the bees, which are real ecological sentinels,” Skermo’s 44-year-old son Eugen told AFP, referring to species that can provide an advance warning of risks, such as canaries in a coal mine.

    In addition to the domestic market, Morava exports some 40 tonnes annually to the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and China.

    But although the company has an analysis laboratory donated by the EU, it is not allowed to export its honey to the bloc because of a ban on Albanian products of animal origin.

    Out of superstition, founder Skermo refuses to give specific figures from how much honey will be produced this season.

    But he insists the yield will be abundant and of the highest quality.

    “While people have been shut up at home, the bees have not been confined,” he said. “They have been working very hard.”

    Source: france24.com

  • Coronavirus: Toy and vegetable costs rise as fuel price drops

    The UK’s inflation rate fell in April to its lowest since August 2016 as the economic fallout of the first month of the lockdown hit prices.

    The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) fell to 0.8% from 1.5% in March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

    Falling petrol and diesel prices, plus lower energy bills, were the main drivers pushing inflation lower.

    But the prices of games and toys rose, which the ONS said may be due to people spending more time at home.

    However, there were 92 items in the ONS’s basket of goods and services that it could not measure in April because they were mostly unavailable. These ranged from haircut prices, lemonade, manicures, cinema popcorn, and leisure activities involving sport.

    The ONS said it would monitor the issue for any distortion in the overall picture. But Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, said: “While the coronavirus limited the availability of some goods and services, its effect on prices was more muted.”

    He said that food prices generally rose no more quickly than other goods and services, “though fresh vegetables did see stronger rises”.

    The ONS said average petrol prices dropped by 10.4p a litre between March and April – the biggest fall since unleaded petrol records began in 1990 – amid a slump in global oil prices.

    Energy prices also pushed inflation lower as regulator Ofgem reduced its default tariff cap.

    The ONS said clothes retailers, hit during the early days of the lockdown by weaker footfall and then the closure of outlets, resorted to more discount sales than usual to try to shift their stock.

    Goods seeing upward pressure on prices included video games and consoles, board games and children’s toys, the ONS said. And the price of knitting wool rose, another sign of the crafts and hobbies popular with people staying at home.

    Long-life products – such as cook-in sauces and frozen fish – also saw price hikes last month as consumers stocked up for life in lockdown.

    Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at investment platform AJ Bell, said it was likely that as shops start re-opening retailers would deeply discount prices, putting further downward pressure on inflation.

    She also pointed to positive news for savers. “For the first time in ages [savers] can now get above inflation interest rates on easy-access savings accounts – from more than one account.”

    Low inflation not always good

    CPI is now far below the Bank of England’s 2% target, used as general guidance to help businesses set the right prices and for people to plan their spending.

    But while low inflation reduces the need for rises in interest rates and gives people a feeling the pound in their pocket stretches further, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing.

    Low inflation minimises the erosion of debt over the years.

    People (and governments) with borrowing, such as mortgages, don’t see the benefit. That big loan you have doesn’t look so big if wages are keeping up with inflation. So-called deflation actually increases the value the debts.

    But low inflation discourages employers from raising pay (which hits the Treasury’s tax take) and may even encourage them to cut pay in troubled times.

    And if prices are falling, consumers can put off big ticket purchases in the hope the fall will continue – and this slows economic growth.

    Savers are also penalised. Low inflation generally means lower official interest rates – and that means banks and building societies keep their savings rates down.

    It’s why, when inflation remains one percentage point below 2%, the governor of the Bank of England writes to the chancellor to explain how the price index can be brought back on target. There’s a good reason a little inflation is good for the economy.

    Most economists had expected April’s inflation to fall to 0.9%, and have predicted the rate will fall further as the economic fallout of the pandemic continues.

    Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said inflation had taken a “big leap towards zero by the summer” as he said retailers were planning “further large price cuts”.

    He predicted inflation would recover next year but was likely to remain below 2% for much of 2021.

    “The inflation outlook, then, supports the [Bank of England’s] Monetary Policy Committee doing more to stimulate the economy at its next meeting in mid-June – we look for a further £100bn of quantitative easing to be announced,” he added.

    Core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, held broadly steady at an annual rate of 1.5%.

    Inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) – an older measure of inflation which the ONS says is inaccurate, but is widely used in bond markets and for other commercial contracts – dropped to 1.5% from 2.6%.

    Source: bbc.com

  • J&J to sell baby powder in UK despite stopping US sales

    Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it will continue to sell its talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the UK and the rest of the world, despite stopping sales in the US and Canada.

    It said North American sales had shrunk partly because of a “constant barrage” of advertising by lawyers seeking clients to claim against the company.

    J&J has been at the centre of claims for years that its talc causes cancer.

    It has always strenuously defended the product’s safety.

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay out billions of dollars in compensation, but has so far always successfully appealed against these verdicts.

    Almost 20,000 people in the US have so far lodged claims against the company.

    Talc is mined from the earth and is found in seams close to that of asbestos, a material known to cause cancer.

    The company said in a statement: “Johnson & Johnson remains steadfastly confident in the safety of talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    It said “decades” of study by medical and legal experts around the world supported its view, and all verdicts against the company that had gone against it had been overturned on appeal.

    Dampened demand

    It will continue to sell its talc-based products in the US and Canada until stocks have sold out.

    It also sells a cornstarch-based powder which it will continue to sell in North America.

    It said both types of Johnson’s baby powder, talc-based and cornstarch-based, will continue to be sold in other markets around the world where there is “significantly higher” consumer demand for the product.

    The firm said changes in consumer behaviour had also dampened demand for the powder.

    The firm added that the move was also part of a reassessment of its consumer products prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

    It said in October that its testing had found no asbestos in its baby powder after tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration discovered trace amounts.

    The firm is appealing against a 2018 order to pay $4.7bn (£3.6bn) in damages to 22 women who alleged that its talc products caused them to develop ovarian cancer.

    Source: bbc.com

  • “I want my children to fight over my properties when I die” Hon. Kennedy Agyapong shockingly reveals

    He is described by many people as controversial and I pretty sure Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, the member of parliament for Assin Central will not run away from the fact that he actually is.

    As typical of him, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong has yet again sparked a huge social media discussion after he disclosed that when he dies someday in the future, he would be glad to see his children fight over some of the properties he left.

    Speaking with Mamavi Owusu Aboagye on a yet to be aired interview on Joy News, the outspoken member of parliament revealed that for now he has made sure most of his properties are in the names of his 22 children.

    Hon. Ken also mentioned that he however is keeping a few in his name just for security reasons and shockingly added that he would be glad the children will fight over those ones when he dies someday.

    Watch the video below

    Source: zionfelix.net

  • Nana Ama McBrown causes stir with her to-match dress and nose mask [photo]

    Multi-talented actress and broadcaster, Nana Ama McBrown, has caused a stir on social media with a photo of herself as she flaunts her beautiful brown and white dress.

    Her beautiful dress also brought out her curvy body matched with her nose mask.

    In the post, she was seen wearing her white sandals to match a beautiful brown and white dress and her nose mask to complete it.

    Source: Adomonline.com

  • Woman with COVID-19 delivers premature baby at Tarkwa

    A COVID-19 patient has been delivered of a baby prematurely by doctors and nurses at the Tarkwa Apinto Hospital.

    According to the team of doctors led by Dr. Frank Baidoe-Ansah, the baby was delivered through caesarean section.

    After initial difficulties, Dr. Baidoe-Ansah said they “tried to use a vacuum to deliver the baby. It was not successful so eventually, we had to go to the theatre and do a caesarean section for her.”

    “It has boosted the confidence level for me and the staff as well. We are also excited that we have been of help to the mother and the baby.”

    The hospital is, however, awaiting results which will indicate whether or not the baby has contracted the virus.

    The news of this delivery in Ghana comes amid tragic reports from South Africa that a two-day-old baby has died with coronavirus.

    The Apinto Hospital has been managing COVID-19 cases for the past three weeks and currently has 20 patients undergoing treatment at the hospital.

    Dr. Baidoe-Ansah added that the hospital was in dire need of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

    “It [treating COVID-19 patients] requires a lot of logistics. PPE is a challenge for us. If you look at the amount of PPE the staff will use in a day, it is quite a big task for the hospital.”

    “So we are appealing to corporate organization, to churches and other philanthropic organizations to come to our aid so we get enough PPE to treat these patients,” he added.

     

    Source: ABC News 

  • Wilson Jerman: Ex-White House butler dies from coronavirus

    A former White House butler, who worked for 11 presidents in a career that spanned five decades, has died with coronavirus aged 91.

    It was Jackie Kennedy who noticed Wilson Roosevelt Jerman while he was working as a cleaner in the White House.

    The then First Lady had him promoted, and from then on he worked as a butler.

    “She was instrumental in ensuring that that happened,” his granddaughter, Jamila Garrett, told Fox 5.

    Decades later Mr Jerman was commemorated by another First Lady, appearing in a photo in Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming.

    Paying tribute after his death, Mrs Obama said her family were “lucky to have known him”.

    “With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of First Families, including ours,” she said in a statement to NBC News.

    “His service to others – his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched – is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit.”

    He died with coronavirus last weekend.

    Mr Jerman’s family members say he stood out not just to the Kennedys, who were in the White House during 1961-63, and the Obamas, who lived there from 2009 to 2017, but others he met in his roles.

    Mr Jerman’s career began in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration. In his last position, he served as a maître d’ in the Obama White House.

    He left his position in 2012, and President Obama honoured him with a series of plaques, one that represented each of the presidents he had served, Mr Jerman’s granddaughter Shanta Taylor Gay told CNN.

    He remains an important figure for those who study the history of African Americans and their role in political life.

    Like other African-American men of his generation, he showed dignity while serving in one of the few positions that was available to him at the time, said Ohio State University’s Koritha Mitchell, author of From Slave Cabins to the White House.

    She said he must have found it satisfying to end his career in the way that he did.

    He was working for Mr Obama, “a dignified president who was also African American”, she said, adding: “That must have felt like a victory.”

    Source: bbc.com

  • Joe Mettle is in his league . . . Patience Nyarko must tone down! – Fredyma

    Legendary music producer, Fred Kyei Mensah has expressed utter disappointment in gospel singer Patience Nyarko over her recent utterances and attack on Joe Mettle, a fellow gospel musician.

    Fred Kyei Mensah, popularly called Fredyma, wondered why Patience Nyarko should be worried if Ghanaian music enthusiasts are hyping Joe Mettle because the singer has worked hard and deserves every praise.

    Patience Nyarko, speaking on Onua FM on Saturday, May 16, 2020, switched into a frenzied mood when the name of Joe Mettle was mentioned in the radio discussion.

    Patience Nyarko’s attack on Joe Mettle stemmed from some assertions which were made by broadcaster O.B Nartey.

    O.B Nartey, sharing his opinions on why Ghana’s gospel music isn’t penetrating the international market, believed that some gospel artistes have not packaged themselves well and held that currently Joe Mettle happens to be the gospel singer with prospect to break through the international market.

    He continued to speak highly of Joe Mettle saying the musician has built a strong brand and is a marketable personality.

    O.B Nartey further opined that he would choose Joe Mettle to represent Ghana’s gospel music industry on the international level.

    But Patience Nyarko appeared to have had enough of the praises on Joe Mettle and so questioned on what basis is the 2017 VGMA Artiste of the Year the best among gospel singers in the country.

    “I don’t want people to think that Joe Mettle is the only Gospel artiste in Ghana. The way they are hyping him, I want people to know that he is not there yet. Sincerely, they are giving the guy a problem, I’m telling you,” Patience Nyarko fumed.

    “When we talk about English songs, how many songs does Joe Mettle have? Is it not Pentecost songs that Joe Mettle sings? If the church of Pentecost and Methodist church should ban people from using their songs, what will be Joe Mettle’s fate?”

    “What about those of us who write our own songs. Look at Nacee, Diana Hamilton, and Joyce Blessing who write their own songs. We have all been ignored because we don’t speak English. Is English food we eat?” she further asked.

    Touching on the issue on Peace FM’s ‘Entertainment Review’ with host Akwasi Aboagye, Fredyma berated Patience Nyarko for picking on Joe Mettle when the discussions on Onua FM had nothing to do with him.

    To Fredyma, Patience Nyarko’s reactions have something to do with Joe Mettle winning Artiste of the Year in 2017 because she believes her song ”Obi Nyanime” was buzzing during the time and consequently she hoped to bag home the ultimate award at the 2017 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA).

    Fredyma added that it appears Patience Nyarko has not yet got over the issue as she always feels uncomfortable and threatened by the name ”Joe Mettle” and so sends her anger upon him without any cause.

    Fredyma advised Patience Nyarko to tone down and focus on her music.

    ”I’ve been in the music scene for years. There is so much hatred in the gospel scene. There is love though but not as compared to the hatred…Competition has been with us since the day we started going to school. Competition is good but at least when a person is brilliant or does something better than you, acknowledge or commend the person for what the person is doing . . .

    ”In the reaction of Patience Nyarko to Joe Mettle, some of the words that came out wasn’t palatable in terms of a colleague artiste you work with…You can express your feelings without touching on the nerves of your other colleague,” he stressed.

    Source: Peacefmonline.com

  • A passenger plane carrying around 100 people has crashed near an airport in Pakistan

    A Pakistan International Airlines plane has crashed in Karachi on a flight from Lahore, aviation officials say.

    The plane, which was reportedly carrying around 99 passengers and eight crew, was flying from Lahore to Jinnah International Airport, one of Pakistan’s busiest airports.

    Pictures shared on social media show smoke rising from the crash site, a residential area in Karachi.

    Emergency services have arrived at the scene, where homes have been damaged.

    “The plane crashed in Karachi. We are trying to confirm the number of passengers but initially it is 99 passengers and eight crew members,” said Abdul Sattar Khokhar, the spokesman for Pakistan’s aviation authority.

    The crash comes just days after the country began allowing commercial flights to resume.

    What is Pakistan’s safety record like? Pakistan has a chequered aviation safety record, including a number of airliner crashes.

    In 2010, an aircraft operated by private airline Airblue crashed near Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board – the deadliest air disaster in Pakistani history.

    In 2012, a Boeing 737-200 operated by Pakistan’s Bhoja Air crashed in bad weather on its approach to land in Rawalpindi, killing all 121 passengers and six crew.

    And in 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines plane burst into flames while travelling from northern Pakistan to Islamabad, killing 47 people.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Son ‘kills father’ during Zoom video chat in New York state

    A 72-year-old man has been stabbed to death by his son in New York state during a Zoom video chat with 20 other participants, police say.

    Dwight Powers was attacked by his 32-year-old son, Thomas Scully-Powers, who then jumped out of a window and fled in Long Island’s Amityville village.

    He was held within an hour after chat guests had called the police. The motive of the attack was not yet clear.

    Mr Scully-Powers was later charged with second-degree murder.

    In a statement, Suffolk County police said further information would be provided once the suspect, who sustained minor injuries, was treated and discharged from hospital.

    Police said it had been alerted of the incident on Thursday afternoon after several of the chat’s participants noticed the man fall, but that it took some time for them to locate the house because the guests did not know where Mr Powers lived.

    Some of the people may have witnessed the attack, reports said. It was not clear what type of meeting was being held.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Patience Nyarko lied, she’s just full of hatred & jealousy – Whitney Boakye-Mensah

    Entertainment Pundit and event organizer, Whitney Boakye-Mensah has fired back at gospel musician Patience Nyarko for claiming that singer Joe Mettle only sings Methodist and Pentecostal songs.

    Patience Nyarko, in a fit of rage, exclaimed in a radio discussion that should both churches ask the artiste not to use their songs in his creative again, Joe Mettle will be left with nothing really to his credit as a gospel musician.

    ”I don’t want people to think that Joe Mettle is the only Gospel artiste in Ghana. The way they are hyping him, I want people to know that he is not there yet. Sincerely, they are giving the guy a problem, I’m telling you”, she lamented.

    She was addressing why gospel music in the country isn’t penetrating the international market and in the middle of her submissions turn guns blazing at the one-time VGMA Artiste of the year.

    “When we talk about English songs, how many songs does Joe Mettle have? Is it not Pentecost songs that Joe Mettle sings? If the church of Pentecost and Methodist church should ban people from using their songs, what will be Joe Mettle’s fate?”

    “What about those of us who write our own songs. Look at Nacee, Diana Hamilton, and Joyce Blessing who write their own songs. We have all been ignored because we don’t speak English. Is English food we eat?” she questioned.

    Patience Nyarko, who set the internet ablaze with her sudden outburst on Joe Mettle, has in return, received a barrage of criticisms.

    To the renowned event planner, Patience Nyarko’s assertion that Joe Mettle sings only Methodist and Pentecostal songs is a blatant lie and wondered what the ”Obi Nyanime” singer sought to achieve by peddling such falsehoods about her colleague artiste in the industry.

    Whitney Boakye-Mensah then took Patience Nyarko to the cleaners describing the latter’s attack on Joe Mettle as “unchristian and borne out of hatred and jealousy.”

    ”Unfortunately for her, she has become the antagonist of the story and so everyone is speaking their mind to her. She lied. To say that Joe’s songs are Methodist and Pentecostal songs that he has sampled to sing and that should Pentecost and Methodist decide to take their songs back, the Mettle that we have been hyping won’t be that Mettle again….it’s a blatant falsehood. I was disappoined in a Christian like her who says she is propagating the gospel but would make such statements out of hatred and jealousy. Then to go further and say that Joe doesn’t write his own songs, that was also a lie. She lied!”, she fumed on Peace FM’s ”Entertainment Review”.

     

    Source: Peacefmonline.com

  • Ahmaud Arbery: Third man charged over death of black jogger

    A motorist who filmed the shooting of an unarmed black man in the US state of Georgia has been charged with murder.

    William Bryan Jr was also accused of a criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment on Thursday, said the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI).

    Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was jogging when he was shot dead during a confrontation with a father and son in Brunswick on 23 February.

    Gregory McMichael, 64, and son Travis, 34, were charged with murder on 7 May.

    In the moments before the fatal confrontation, the McMichaels, who are white, armed themselves with a pistol and shotgun and pursued Mr Arbery in a pickup truck in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

    Gregory McMichael told police he believed that Mr Arbery resembled the suspect in a series of local break-ins.

    Mr Bryan’s 36-second video leaked online on 5 May, generating nationwide outcry that was swiftly followed by murder charges. It was filmed by Mr Bryan from his vehicle while he was driving behind Mr Arbery.

    The clip appears to show Mr Arbery running down a tree-lined street as the McMichaels wait ahead for him in their vehicle.

    A tussle follows and the younger Mr McMichael appears to fire a gun at point blank range at Mr Arbery, who falls to the street.

    The Arbery family welcomed Thursday’s arrest, with their lawyer Lee Merritt saying Mr Bryan’s alleged involvement in the killing “was obvious to us, many around the country and after their thorough investigation, it was clear to the GBI as well”.

    Mr Bryan is expected to be booked into the Glynn County jail, where the McMichaels are also being kept as they await trial.

    How was William Bryan allegedly involved?

    A prosecutor said Mr Bryan had been “in hot pursuit” of Mr Arbery.

    He is also mentioned in the Glynn County police report of the shooting, in which officers noted that Mr Bryan had unsuccessfully tried to block Mr Arbery’s path.

    However, Mr Bryan told a local TV station that he “had nothing to do with it” and was in “complete shock”.

    During the interview, he did not answer questions on why he was there or why he started recording, but his lawyer Kevin Gough said: “My client was responding to what he saw, which was someone in the community he didn’t know being followed by a vehicle he recognised.”

    Mr Bryan has since taken a voluntary lie detector test which law enforcement had not requested, his lawyer had said in a statement on Monday.

    He added that Mr Bryan had been in hiding with his fiancée because of death threats and accused the Arbery family lawyers of instigating them.

    “Contrary to speculation, the polygraph examination confirms that on 23 Feb 2020, the day of the shooting, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan did not have any conversation with either Gregory or Travis McMichael prior to the shooting.

    “Nor did William ‘Roddie’ Bryan have any conversation with anyone else that day prior to the shooting about criminal activity in the neighbourhood,” said Mr Gough, using Mr Bryan’s nickname.

    In a CNN interview, Mr Bryan said he had been praying for the Arbery family and hoped his tape would help bring closure.

    “If there wasn’t a tape, then we wouldn’t know what happened,” he said. “I hope that it, in the end, brings justice to the family and peace to the family.”

    There are no hate crime laws in Georgia law, but the US Justice Department has said it is examining the case to see if any federal hate crime charges are warranted.

    Meanwhile, the FBI said on Thursday it had opened an investigation into another case of a black American shot dead amid conflicting narratives.

    Breonna Taylor was fatally shot eight times on 13 March by police conducting a drug raid in Louisville, Kentucky. Police say they knocked on the door and were met by gunfire from within.

    But Ms Taylor’s family say the officers did not knock, wore plainclothes and that Ms Taylor’s partner opened fire because he thought they were burglars. The family also say the narcotics raid was targeting the wrong address.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Focus on finding local herbs to cure COVID-19 Annoh-Dompreh tells government

    Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has charged the government to focus on supporting local herbal practitioners to find a cure for the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    According to him, developing an effective local treatment; be it drugs or other treatment methods, can alleviate the conditions of sick persons and restore their health.

    He believes Ghana is capable of finding a traditional cure for the virus if all stakeholders come on board to support manufacturers of herbal drugs and called on the government to empower local producers of both traditional and modern medicine to work together in that regard.

    The NPP legislator said, “It is important to assess policies that will bring together our traditional herbal medicine experts and various stakeholder institutions like the Ministry of Health and the Food and Drugs Authority among others, to play a role in developing and enhancing local treatment methods backed by scientific evidence.”

     

    Citing the Madagascar COVID-19 drug as an example, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said Ghana can follow suit if we support our local treatment practices with confidence in their ability to produce results.

    He said, “This is also an opportunity to encourage our traditional medicine experts to work together with doctors and scientists in medicine for the purpose of providing more efficient treatment methods that will upsurge recoveries even further. In effect, we will eventually lighten the burden on healthcare services so that more efforts can be focused on securing an approved vaccine in the shortest possible time.”

    Source: ABC News

  • ICRC warns of dire humanitarian crisis in northeast Syria

    The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Thursday of a worsening crisis in northeast Syria, where water cuts, food shortages and depleted health services are proving as dangerous as coronavirus.

    Home to sprawling displacement camps hosting tens of thousands of people, including families of Islamic State group members, the Kurdish-held northeast has been hard hit by nine years of war.

    A COVID-19 outbreak, which the United Nations says has infected six people and killed one in the region, has only added to a litany of challenges in the area, the ICRC said.

    “For millions of people in northeast Syria, consequences of fighting, shortages of water, food and medicine, a lack of electricity, the economic downturn with job losses and price hikes are as much of a worry as coronavirus,” said Karim Mahmoud, ICRC office head in the city of Hasakeh.

    Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director, said “there’s a risk that profound crises will worsen, hidden in plain sight, while the world’s attention is on” the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Under pressure from Russia, the UN Security Council in January reduced the number of border crossings authorised to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Syria from four to two, both on the Turkish frontier.

    The Yarubiya entry point on the Iraqi border, used mainly to deliver UN-funded medical aid to the northeast, was one of those scrapped, causing an aid shortage.

    Only one out of 16 hospitals is fully functioning, while eight are partially operational and seven are out of commission, the ICRC said.

    Over 50 percent of the local population in northeast Syria is believed to be food insecure, which means they consume less than 2,100 calories a day, the World Food Programme says.

    That high proportion was “due to the heavy fighting that took place in this part of Syria over the past few years,” said WFP spokeswoman Jessica Lawson.

    Kurdish-led fighters for years battled IS, before Turkey and its Syrian proxies seized Kurdish areas on the Syrian side of the border last year.

    “Many households were displaced a number of times and frequently most of their belongings have been destroyed or looted, heavily affecting livelihoods in the area,” Lawson said.

    Source: france24.com

  • China rebuts Trump accusation of coronavirus ‘mass killing’

    China offered a low-key rebuttal to United States President Donald Trump’s accusation of mass killing on Thursday, with a foreign ministry official insisting the country did its best to protect lives during the pandemic.

    Tensions between the US and China have been on the rise as the deadly coronavirus, which first surfaced in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, ravaged the global economy.

    Trump has since made attacking Beijing a centrepiece of his November re-election bid, alleging it covered up the initial outbreak of the virus — a claim that China forcefully denies.

    Beijing’s latest response came a day after Trump blamed China for “mass Worldwide killing” in a tweet, which also referred to an unidentified “wacko”.

    Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing: “We have persisted in speaking the truth, presenting the truth and speaking with reason, doing our utmost to protect the lives and health of the people.”

    Zhao reiterated China’s stance that it has “always had an open, transparent and responsible attitude” as it battled the pandemic.

    He added the country has been doing its best to promote international cooperation against the pathogen.

    China has come under fire for its initial response over the outbreak, which has since claimed over 325,000 lives around the globe.

    As the virus continued its worldwide march, governments including the US and Australia called for an investigation into its origins, with US leaders pushing a theory that the pathogen had leaked from a Chinese maximum-security laboratory.

    China has since said it supports a “comprehensive evaluation” of the global response to the pandemic after it has been brought under control.

    Zhao, however, said earlier in the week that the draft motion currently under discussion at the World Health Assembly is “completely different from the so-called ‘independent international inquiry’ into the pandemic previously mentioned by Australia”.

    Source: france24.com

  • Michael Jordan’s Last Dance reminds of Thierry Henry – Ex-Arsenal star

    Like virtually every sports fan across America and the world, Carlos Vela developed a Sunday routine over the last five weeks.

    For the first time since Game of Thrones went off the air in summer 2019, the U.S. was united by a true television phenomenon: The Last Dance. The documentary, a 10-part event broadcast over five weeks, followed Michael Jordan’s rise to his place as the most revered basketball player of all time while focusing on his final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98.

    With American sports suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Last Dance became a phenomenon. The series of episodes offered deep dives into one of the greatest athletes and one of the greatest teams of all time, filling everyone’s Sunday with larger-than-life stories about Jordan and his six NBA titles.

    Vela, a massive basketball fan, was instantly hooked.

    “Of course. Every Sunday I was there,” Vela told Goal. “My wife wasn’t happy. But I said, ‘these two hours, these are for me’.”

    The Los Angeles FC star has long been a fan of the NBA. In the past, Vela has stated that he actually prefers basketball to soccer and, in his free time, he chooses to spend his moments away from his own sport by following the NBA.

    Vela recently uploaded a video of him, in full Los Angeles Lakers gear, dunking on his own hoop while the Mexican international also expressed excitement at starring alongside James Harden in a new ad for sports drink BODYARMOR.

    Over the last five weeks, Vela, like the rest of the country, was offered an insight into Jordan’s mindset as a leader, for better or worse. The series detailed the famous grudges and perceived slights that fueled his career. It discussed Jordan’s gambling, or as he calls it “competition”, problems.

    Most poignantly, the series revealed Jordan’s leadership style, which often pushed teammates to their limit physically and mentally. At the end of the seventh episode, an emotional Jordan reflected on criticisms of how far he pushed those that played alongside him before tearfully calling for a break in the interview.

    “When people see this they are going say, ‘Well he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything,” Jordan said.

    “I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win to be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I am only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.”

    Throughout his career, Vela has played with a number of big players. And, having watched Jordan’s leadership style and his ability to push teammates further than they thought they could be pushed, the Mexican star says he was reminded of former Arsenal star Thierry Henry.

    Henry and Vela never took the field together at Arsenal, as Vela was loaned out throughout his early years with the club due to a work permit issue. But the Mexican star says Henry’s leadership still stood out, giving him a Jordan-like presence.

    “Thierry Henry was a really hard guy,” he said. “He tried every day to be the best and he pushed the young guys to work more, to be professional, to try to bring everything to every training.

    “He would say, ‘if you train hard, you can play hard’. Thierry Henry was an inspiration to me and you can see the career he had. I’m proud to have said I can play with him. He’s a good leader.”

    Vela’s personality, meanwhile, is a bit more laid back, but he’s still found plenty of success since making the move to MLS ahead of LAFC’s expansion season.

    The winger smashed MLS records last season by scoring 34 goals in 31 matches, helping guide LAFC to a Supporters’ Shield and an MLS record for points in a season.

    But, as he looks to add an MLS Cup to his resume, Vela says he learned a lot from watching Jordan’s rise to NBA immortality.

    “I wasn’t surprised. You are not there to see it day by day, but when you see what Michael Jordan did, you feel something special, something different than the rest,” he said.

    “I feel like I have a lot of things to learn from Michael Jordan to try and be the best. I take it as motivation. Maybe I have to be more hard, do more things to help my teammates to be better so we can win more championships.”

    Source: 3 News

  • Over 660,000 displaced during pandemic despite UN plea – Aid group

    More than 660,000 people have been displaced from their homes in conflict zones around the world since March, despite a UN call for a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic, a top international aid group said Friday.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said its figures showed that armed conflict around the world had continued during the pandemic, even as much of globe went into lockdown.

    This was despite a call on March 23 by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire for the pandemic.

    The NRC said a total of 661,000 people have been displaced in 19 countries since then, with the highest number by far in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    “At a time when health experts tell us to stay at home, men with guns are forcing hundreds of thousands out of their homes and into extreme vulnerability,” said the NRC’s Secretary-General Jan Egeland.

    “This not only hurts those who are forced to flee, it seriously undermines our joint efforts to combat the virus.”

    The NRC accused the UN Security Council of failing to show leadership to encourage peace talks.

    “While people are being displaced and killed, powerful members of the UN Security Council squabble like children in a sandbox,” Egeland said.

    He called on world leaders to “rise to the occasion” and jointly push parties to put down their weapons and unite in protecting all communities from COVID-19.

    “Now is not the time for kindergarten politics,” he added.

    The NRC said it was appealing to UN Security Council members to issue a “clear call” to warring parties to halt the conduct of hostilities and to “settle their conflicts through talks and allow for a systematic response to the pandemic.”

    In DR Congo alone, clashes between armed groups and the country’s military forced 482,000 people to flee their homes, it said.

    Meanwhile fighting has continued in Yemen despite pledges to implement a ceasefire by Saudi authorities, resulting in the displacement of 24,000 people since March 23.

    Africa’s Lake Chad region has also experienced a surge of displacement, the NRC said, with Chad and Niger worst affected.

    Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Syria, Somalia and Myanmar all saw more than 10,000 people displaced in the same period, the group added.

    Source: france24.com

  • China military budget growth slows to 6.6%

    China will increase its military budget by a slower 6.6 percent this year, the government announced Friday at the opening session of its annual National People’s Congress.

    The budget will be set at 1.268 trillion yuan ($178 billion) for the year – the second-biggest in the world after the United States – continuing a downward trend in military spending and lower than last year’s increase of 7.5 percent.

    Beijing’s defence budget pales in comparison to the $738 billion allotted for this year’s US military budget.

    The announcement comes as Sino-US tensions rise due to the coronavirus pandemic and as China remains locked in territorial disputes with neighbouring countries including India, Japan, and Vietnam over the South China Sea.

    In recent years, China has poured trillions of yuan into the modernisation of its military, which it aims to transform into a world-class force rivalling that of the US and other Western powers.

    In 2018, China announced its largest military budget increase in three years at 8.1 percent, to 1.1 trillion yuan.

    But growth in defence spending has slowed since, with China and the US embroiled in a bitter trade war that has put pressure on the domestic economy, now further battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

    “As China’s economic growth slows, its no surprise that military spending growth will also come down,” said Adam Ni, an expert on China’s military modernisation at Macquarie University in Sydney.

    He pointed out that despite mounting tensions with the US, “defence spending has not risen sharply”.

    The People’s Liberation Army reached two major milestones last year, unveiling both China’s first homegrown aircraft carrier and its first intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

    China also built its first overseas military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, in 2017.

    Beijing is designing a new generation of destroyers and missiles to strengthen its deterrent against Asian neighbours and the US Navy.

    “The PLA has achieved great strides in terms of long-range artillery, electronic warfare and cyber capabilities, and also improved on its maritime and aerospace operations,” said James Char, a military expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

    “But if we compare it with other advanced militaries, the PLA still lags behind due to its limited experience in conducting combined arms operations and joint operations at battalion level.”

    Source: france24.com

  • I was a dickhead to my Inter players – Mourinho

    Jose Mourinho has admitted that he was a “d*ckhead” to his Inter squad during his time with the treble-winning side of 2009-10, but that ultimately he felt like the club was all part of one big family as he revealed he still speaks to his former driver 10 years after departing San Siro.

    Mourinho, now in charge of Premier League outfit Tottenham, led the Nerazzurri to their most successful season in history, clinching the Serie A title, the Coppa Italia and lifting the Champions League, beating Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final.

    While the Portuguese coach can look back fondly on that chapter of his life, he admits that he made mistakes in Milan and that it was not always rosy behind the scenes.

    “There are relationships: I coach, you play. Empathy depends on the ability to accept me as I am it’s like a puzzle,” Mourinho told Gazzetta dello Sport. “At Inter, there were people waiting for someone like me to complete that puzzle. I’m never fake, I’m original: it’s me and that’s it. I was also a d*ckhead, but that was me.”

    Asked to elaborate on his comments, the Portuguese pointed to a 3-1 loss in January of 2009, after which he lost his cool and would eventually have to apologise to the squad.

    He said: “Especially after the defeat against Bergamo. I was very violent with the players I told them they had won the Scudetto of sh*t. It was only afterwards that I understood I had hurt them and I apologised.”

    Mourinho once famously claimed that leading a disjointed Manchester United squad to second place in the Premier League was the greatest achievement of his career, but he admits that he has never felt as comfortable as he did when he was in the dugout at the Giuseppe Meazza.

    “I was at my best when I felt at home, where I could feel the emotions of the group, where I was 200 per cent invested with my heart,” he said. “That’s why, on May 22 in Madrid, I was content to experience the happiness of others, all the way from [president Massimo] Moratti to the people working in the warehouse.

    “I had already won a Champions League title I used to always think of myself first and then others. At Inter, it was never like that.

    “In a family, when you become a father, you understand that someone is more important than you and that you move into second place.

    “Ten years later, we are all together again. Just the other day I spoke to Alessio, my driver from my time at Inter. Where and when does it happen that a coach who leaves, ten years later still talks to the driver? Never. That’s Inter for me. These are my people.”

    Source: pulse.com.gh

  • Korle Bu’s poor quality of service; Management initiates investigations

    The management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) says it has initiated investigations into an allegation of poor quality of service and staff attitude at the Polyclinic.

    A press statement signed and issued on Thursday, May 21, 2020, by the Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr Daniel Asare said the management had taken note of the allegation made on social media.

    In a post on Facebook on Tuesday, Selorm Branttie described how he witnessed a poor quality of service when an 82-year-old patient got to the polyclinic [See post below].

    Reacting, the management of Korle Bu said “the issues raised in the report have been given top priority by the Board and Management of the Hospital and a Committee has been constituted to begin investigations.”

    “Authorities of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital wish to inform the general public that it has taken note of a report on social media that borders on quality of care and staff attitude at the Korle Bu Polyclinic.”

    It added:

    “The public will be duly informed of the outcome of the investigation and any actions taken as soon as a decision is reached.”

    “Korle Bu is committed to providing excellent care to patients and stakeholders and will do its best to make the patient come first all times”

    Below is a copy of what Selorm Branttie posted

    Yesternight, I witnessed two very opposite ends of Healthcare in Ghana.

    Case 1:

    An 82 year old man suffers a stroke and is sent to Korlebu Polyclinic. He is in a faulty wheelchair at the OPD.

    The doctors refer him to the stroke unit at Korlebu teaching hospital. But here’s the problem: the stroke unit closes at 2pm and it’s 3pm.

    The patient has low blood pressure although he’s hypertensive. They insist they need to monitor his heart rate and he must be detained till this morning where he will then be sent to the point of referral once its open.

    For some reason, the wards have been closed, so there are currently only 2 patients at the OPD, a doctor and about 4 attendants and the cash office. The 2 patients are all elderly men confined to wheelchairs.

    One has an oxygen tank connected and some infusions and is sitting a meter away from this patient.

    The patient is offered NO SUPPORT OR ENCOURAGEMENT APART FROM THE FACT THAT HE HAS TO SIT IM A BROKEN WHEELCHAIR AT THE MOSQUITO INFESTED OPD SECTION FOR ABOUT 17 HOURS!!!!

    By the time I get there, while talking to the doctor on duty, he shows an attitude of a devil may care nature, almost like hey u can’t bother me…. I ask him what can be done he says we have to wait till morning. No advise, no assistance….

    The other patient slumps in his wheelchair and his son and 2 daughters are standing by.

    Note the OPD is in the outside corridor. He dies right in front of me and a couple others. The nurses remove all the tubes and infusions and LEAVE THE DROOLING DEAD MAN STILL IN THE WHEELCHAIR FOR AN HOUR!!!!

    No, there’s only 2 patients at the OPD. The clinic isn’t overwhlemed. Nothing of that sort. Yet the doctor sits behind his PC doing whatever and 3 other nurses just chit chat while the man’s kids weep. The son who seems to be the eldest starts on some paperwork while the daughters cry silently.

    The man is slumped and drooling. No attempt to screen him or cover him or anything of the sort. Anyone entering the OPD will see him even before the doctors.

    Our patient is still just a meter away in the other wheelchair and gets agitated. We ask the doctor if he can change the referral to another facility where we have made enquiries and they are ready to receive him. He goes like we have to call the national ambulance and minds his business.

    We call. They respond and tell us they need to be sure said facility is ready for us. We say they are. They say we should wait 30 minutes. All this time the patient speech slurs more, he is semi conscious and begins to weep.

    All this time, nobody has even done as much as touch him. We begin to get pissed off as to why they aren’t even facilitating the referral and insist that we have 3 cars outside that can transport the patient. They then want to explain something about them wanting to monitor him…. In the mosquito infested corridor? One of us starts to scream and the doctor goes like lemme just sign the thing for these fools to go away.

    The Doctor on duty last night, I know your name but my wife has begged me not to write it. But you are a horrible example of our health system. I hope you change.

    When we decide to leave, NOT ONE OF THE HEALTH WORKERS BOTHER TO ASSIST US TO PUT THE PATIENT IN A CAR. THEY PUT THEIR HANDS IN THE POCKETS OF THEIR SCRUBS AND JUST LOOK HAPPY TO GET RID OF US

    Five minutes before that, they wheel of the poor dead drooling man off, with one of his feet dragging on the floor… It’s sad how thean died in such indignity….

    We get to this other facility. It was like watching an episode of ER. They wheeled a bed to the front, they assist and put the patient on a bed, within a few minutes he’s on triage, they aksk for his entire medical history and current drugs on treatment, a thorough one hour session where they had a bed, clean sheets and asked every question imaginable. Within that time frame, the patient even begins to speak better and doesn’t slur as much.

    We assist for him to be wheeled into a ward… They put a pulse oxymeter on him and string him to monitors. All relevant info is shown on these monitors and they have a nurse stay with him all night at the ward. This morning they indicate to us that they have a kitchen and cooks so we don’t need to bother bringing him food.

    Indeed, the University of Ghana Medical Center is an awesome hospital with a totally different and pleasing attitude to patient care. I rate the personnel there with a 5 star rating.

    If you ever need to go to Korlebu Polyclinic for anything, note that you will die and not even be dignified in death.

    I still respect all the personal sacrifices health personnel are making, and I thank them and will continue to suppodt them. I wish to think of raising funds for the polyclinic to get just 3 wheelchairs for them to be able to simply wheel in patients properly. While I condemn their attitude, their lack of respect and professionalism, I believe they could do with at least 3 wheelchairs.

    If you want to support let’s do it together.

    We just don’t criticize people cos we hate the govt or whatever, if we win individually, Ghana wins.

    Thank you for reading this long post…

     

    Source: myjoyonline 

  • Is the politicization of COVID-19 necessary?

    As things continue to unfold in a global pandemic era, political big wigs and some party faithful refuse to let go of petty politicking.

    People are beginning to question the essence of needless political arguments in the wake of a global health crisis.

    It looks as though the world is facing a two-fold crisis: first, a pandemic threatening to ravage public health systems around the globe if governments and individuals fail to enforce and adhere to strict social distancing; second, an epidemic of false information, in which anyone gets to say anything, credible or not, to advance personal agendas.

    Certainly, political parties are doing a terrible disservice to the public by politicizing the pandemic. As we all know by now, COVID-19 is a life and death issue, and not a fodder for scoring political points.

    This is in contrast with the World Health Organization (WHO) directives, as the Head of the global body has advised that the COVID-19 pandemic should not be politicized because unity is the “only option” to defeat the disease.

    WHO has also recommended, it is important for nations to work across party lines and across religious lines, instead of unnecessary finger pointing.

    The opposition National Democratic Congress has accused the ruling party, NPP, for taking some decisions in the political interest of the party. One of such, (as claimed by the NDC) was the President’s decision to lift the three week lockdown at a time when it was absolutely needless, considering the fact that we were recording higher figures of the novel coronavirus.

    The decision to call off the partial lock down had a wrong timing as many Ghanaians felt the ruling party was exercising a high level of selfishness in its quest to compile a new voters register, a move met with great opposition.

    The opposition NDC have also been hitting hard at Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for claiming the NPP and President Akufo-Addo were better managers of crisis than the NDC.

    In response to the claim, ex-President Mahama said, “From 3,091 to 4,012 COVID19 cases within 24 hours; Government is certainly failing the people of Ghana. Fear gripped many homes last night when the latest confirmed cases were released.”

    One other political figure who has kept the criticisms coming is Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, General Secretary of the NDC. He believes the Nana Addo-led government is being “untruthful” to Ghanaians. According to him, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and some of his appointees were all exposed to the virus after their visit to Norway.

    He said, “We the NDC will not stop politicizing the issues until Nana Addo and his appointees are tested and make public their result just as other leaders in the world are doing. They are all exposed to the virus…the government cannot say our first case was recorded on March 12th.”

    Meanwhile, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has admitted that the nation stands a real risk of losing focus and degenerating into partisan political banter while the real key issue of managing the pandemic is relegated to the background.

    By; Satsyi Esene Courage

  • Ex-Ajax star Anthony Obodai wants to coach boyhood club Hearts of Oak in future

    Ex-Ghana international Anthony Obodai has stated that it is his dream to coach his boyhood club Accra Hearts of Oak SC in the future.

    Obodai hanged his boots in 2016 and has since sets his sight on getting the requisite licenses to be able to coach the Phobians in the near future.

    “Life after football has been very good. I have a lot of projects coming up very soon.” he told Adamu Muftawu.

    “I am looking at how the system works in Ghana and I will surely come up with something special in Ghana.”

    “Yes I will love to be a coach.”

    “However unless I have all the necessary licenses and qualifications before I will be able fully go into coaching.”

    “If you ask me, I will love to coach Hearts of Oak one day because I am a Hearts of Oak fan.”

    Obodai joined Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam in 2001 from Ghana Premier League side Liberty Professionals.

    The former Ghana U17 and U20 star later had spells at Belgian side Germinal Beerschot and Dutch sides Sparta Rotterdam, RKC Waalwijk and also Houston Dynamos in the USA.

    The now 37-year-old also played for Cypriot outfit Magusa Turk Gucu and MLS sides Phoenix FC and Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

    Before calling it quit on his footballing career, Obodai spent a season at Swedish side Ange IF.

    Source: Ghana Soccernet

  • Sister Afia finally reveals why she wanted to beat the hell out of Freda Rhymz

    Highlife singer Sister Afia has told Zionfelix in a fresh interview about why she wanted to pummel former Black Avenue Muzik signee, Fred Rhymz.

    The duo squared it off after being invited to TV3 by TV host MzGee for an interview session bordering on the same theme when hell broke loose at the premises of the TV station.

    The two ladies got embroiled in a heated confrontation and looked set to exchange blows before they got separated by the security men.

    Sister Afia said Freda the physical confrontation started when Freda mentioned her name directly when their paths crossed and started aiming shots at her, reason why she retaliated.

    She revealed this while talking to Ghanaian blogger Zionfelix on the Uncut Show.

    She also promised to beat the hell out of the rapper wherever she meets her.

    SOURCE: www.Ghgossip.com

  • Armed gang inflicts cutlass wounds on Deputy Upper West Regional Minister

    The deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, has been attacked by unknown armed gang Thursday night.

    The incident happened just before 9pm at a walking distance from his Sombo residence in the regional capital, Wa.

    The attackers, who were on a motorbike approached and inflicted cutlass wounds on the Deputy Minister without any provocation.

    He was rescued by police motorbike patrol officers and sent to the hospital after sustaining injuries on the right arm, Police in the Upper West Region said in a terse statement.

    No arrest had been made at the time of filing this report but the police told Dailymailgh.com that investigations have commenced.

    Attacks on notable political figures have been rampant in the Upper West Region. On May 9, 2019, the chairman of the Daffiama-Busie-Issah constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was shot and killed by armed gang.

    The late Mr Richard Bayiviala Polibong was returning from official party duties in one of the electoral areas in the constituency when the incident happened.

    Investigations are yet to uncover the circumstances behind the attack as the NDC continues to push for justice for the deceased.

    No arrest has yet been made.

    Source: Daily Mail GH | Ghana