Sun, 20 May 2012
Standings of Glo Premier League after Week 29 matches
Accra, May 20, GNA – Herewith the standings of the 2011/2012 Glo Premier League after Week 29 matches played on Sunday, at the various league centres;
Club P W D L GF GA GD PTS
Asante Kotoko 29 18 9 3 42 18 +24 60
Medeama SC 29 14 4 11 42 33 +9 46
AshantiGold 29 12 10 7 33 35 -2 46
Berekum Chelsea 29 11 11 7 29 22 +7 44
Hearts of Oak 29 11 11 7 27 17 +10 44
Edubiase FC 29 13 4 12 33 34 -1 43
Aduana Stars 29 10 12 7 24 16 +8 42
Liberty 29 11 8 10 37 29 +8 41
Wa All Stars 29 10 9 10 19 19 0 39
Tema Youth 29 9 9 11 32 32 0 36
Ebusua Dwarfs 29 9 9 11 23 24 -1 36
Heart of Lions 29 7 12 10 22 30 -8 33
Berekum Arsenals 29 7 9 13 24 36 -12 30
Bechem United 29 5 12 12 24 41 -17 27
Mighty Jets 29 5 12 12 22 31 -9 27
Wassaman United 29 6 8 15 26 42 -16 26
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Fallen tree kills mother and son in Cape Coast
Cape Coast, May 20, GNA - A mother and son met their untimely death on Saturday evening when a tree fell on a shop at Pedu junction, during a rain storm that hit the Cape Coast Metropolis.
Fausata Agboola, 35, a trader, and her 12-year- old son, Quduuz Agboola were killed instantly.
When the Ghana News Agency ( GNA) visited the scene on Sunday morning, a crowd was at the Pedu junction discussing what had happened the previous day.
Detective Sergeant Jacob Kumedzro, who confirmed the story to GNA, said the dead bodies were yet to be identified.
Mr. Joseph Addo, an eye witness, whose furniture shop was also affected by the fallen tree, told GNA that when the storm started at about 1600 hours, Madam Agboola, who operates a boutique, closed it but were in front of the facility with her son.
Mr Addo said the huge tree, which was situated across the street fell on the shop of Madam Agboola, and two other shops nearby.
He said fire service personnel and other rescuers, pulled the woman and her son from under the tree, and rushed them to the Central Regional Hospital at Cape Coast, where they were pronounced dead on arrival, and their bodies had been deposited at the hospital morgue for autopsy.
The situation had led to diversion of traffic on the main Abura-Cape Coast road.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Results of 28th week league matches
Accra, May 20, GNA – Herewith results of the 29th Week Premier League matches played on Sunday, at the various leagues centers.
Tarkwa: Medeama SC 2 – 1 Aduana Stars
Accra: Mighty Jets 1 – 1 Hearts of Oak
Berekum: Arsenals 2 – 1 Wassaman United
Kpando Heart of Lions 1 – 0 Edubiase FC
Bechem: Bechem United 0 – 0 Dwarfs
Obuasi: AshGold 3 – 2 Kotoko
Tema: Tema Youth 1 – 0 Wa All Stars
Dansoman: Liberty 1 – 1 Berekum Chelsea
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Atiwa Quarries to contribute to development of communities
Opeikuma (C/R), May 20, GNA - The Atiwa Quarries Company, operating at Opeikuma, near Budumburam, in the Central Region, has promised to provide boreholes and educational facilities to communities within its catchment area.
It had already held series of meetings with members of the communities to ensure that the company’s activities would be of reciprocated benefits to both parties.
Mr Kwame Gyan, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, announced these when he conducted journalists round the project site, for them to acquaint themselves with operations of the Quarries at Opeikuma near Budumburam in the Central Region.
The company, which produces granite chippings, has a total workforce of 54 of which 90 per cent has been drawn from communities around the Opeikuma area, and has invested about 9 million dollars in terms of equities and loans.
Mr Gyan, also an environmentalist and lecturer of Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law, the University of Ghana, for eight years, commended the communities within their operational area for their cooperation.
He gave the assurance that the company would play its role responsibly, to ensure perpetual peace and understanding amongst the people.
Mr Gyan said in addition to compensations paid, the company would provide periodic financial support for the communities to execute development projects of their choice.
He said the company had acquired the necessary permit, and had extensive environmental impact arrangement from the Environmental Protection Agency that had to be satisfied, and promised that the company would comply with environmental statutory standards.
Mr Gyan said the company, which is 100 per cent Ghanaian owned, would continue to work hard to provide jobs for Ghanaians.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
NPP parliamentary aspirant unhappy about requirements to health institutions
Accra, May 20, GNA –The National Accreditation Board (NAB) has been asked to reconsider the new requirement of grade A’ to C in core subjects, for applicants seeking entry into health institution.
This is because it is preventing more applicants from gaining admission into health schools, leading to the production of inadequate number of health personnel in country.
Mr Mohammed Abdul Samed Gunu, New Patriotic Party (NPP), parliamentary aspirant for Savelugu, made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Saturday.
He noted that the National Youth Employment Programme module for health assistants had practically trained some youth, especially females, who were currently serving in some deprived communities.
Mr Gunu said some health assistants, combined work with studies to enable them to gain admission into nursing and community health training institutions.
He said students in the Savelugu/Nanton District expressed concern about the requirements, and appealed to the NAB to reconsider its decision.
Mr Gunu said the entry requirement should be relaxed and priority given to applicants to health institutions from the rural areas, majority who continued to apply with the hope of gaining admission.
He noted that the educational gap between the Southern and Northern parts of the country was wide, and that “this policy had the tendency of making the North backward in terms of development.”
Mr Gunu asked individuals, including students, chiefs and other opinion leaders to lobby or prevail on the NAB to reconsider the new policy.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Vice President commends Winneba people for settling differences
Winneba, May 20, GNA- Vice President John Dramani Mahama, on Saturday commended the chiefs and people of Winneba for settling their protracted differences, and consequently reviving the Abrokyir festival.
He said: “There can be no development without peace and I am therefore, happy to note that the protracted chieftaincy disputes that put the Aboakyir festival on the hold for sometime is over for us to once again enjoy this all important occasion.”
Vice President Mahama made the commendation when he joined the chiefs and people of Winneba to celebrate this year’s Aboakyir festival at Winneba, on the theme: “Peace and Unity- the key to development.”
The festival, which is celebrated annually by catching antelopes from the bush, attracted thousands of patrons within the country and beyond, amidst drumming and dancing.
The revelers, mostly dressed in red and black attire, engaged in numerous traditional dances to climax the occasion.
Apart from entertaining the patrons, Aboakyir festival also brings blessings and denounces pestilence, and provides the opportunity to foretell the future of the state during the ensuing year.
Vice President Mahama hoped the peace the people were enjoying would persist to pave way for growth and development.
He said apart from completing the emergency centre of the Winneba hospital, Government would also upgrade the facility to a strategic health centre in view of the central position it occupied between the Central and Greater Accra Regions.
He announced that Government was also on the verge of completing an agreement with Fidelity Bank to construct a market complex at Winneba junction, and advised the people against negative tendencies that could undermine peace and unity in the area.
Mr Mike Hammah, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, said Government had completed arrangement to establish a landing site at Winneba, and called on the people to support the project.
He said President John Evans Atta Mills had worked hard to provide adequate infrastructure throughout the country, and therefore deserved to be given another opportunity to complete his good work.
Neenyi Otubua Siripi II, Tufohen of the Effutu Traditional Area, congratulated compatriots, who fought hard for the reconciliation of combatants in the Effutu chieftaincy disputes, and said the settlement of disputes had stepped up development in the area.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Minister expresses concern about illegal mining
Gbane (UE), May 20, GNA - Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister, has expressed concern about the spate of land degradation due to illegal small scale mining, in the region.
“A lot of our environment is degraded and if we do not protect the land from degrading, our children’s children will not have lands to farm and this will further aggravate the poverty situation in the Region, ” he said.
Mr Woyongo expressed the dismay at a sod cutting ceremony for the construction of a bridge at Gbane in the Talensi-Nabdam District.
He warned that the Regional Coordinating Council and the Minerals Commission would prevent people without licenses from operating as miners.
He noted that most of the lands that had been degraded had not been reclaimed, and called on the Shaanxi Manning Company Ghana Limited, which was constructing the bridge and other mining companies to reclaim land after their activities.
The Regional Minister commended the Shaanxi Manning Company Ghana Limited for its contribution to the development of the region.
He cited that the Company had donated 114 dual desks and four teachers’ tables to a basic school, a car to the District Assembly, extension of underground water and creation of jobs for the people, especially the youth.
Mr Woyongo noted that if construction of the “Oun Bridge” which is estimated to cost 1,000,000 US Dollars was completed it would facilitate socio-economic activities.
He said that plans were also far advanced by the Company to extend hydro electric power from the Pwalugu Sub-station to the Mining site.
“When this project is completed, many communities within the catchment area will be connected to the national grid. Additionally, plans are far advanced for the provision of a number of boreholes to the community to get access to good drinking water”, the Minister said.
Mr Wei Xing, Chief Executive Officer of the Mining Company, noted that though the Company was on its development stages, it viewed corporate social responsibility as a major vision.
The worse forms of illegal small scale mining in the region were found in the Talensi Nabdam District where many households had lost their farmlands.
Apart from that most school children had abandoned schooling and were engaging in illegal mining in violation of the country’s labour law and the International Human Rights Convention.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Prevention is less expensive than cure in sustaining health â Yendi MCE
Nayilifong (N/R), May 20, GNA - Bantibiti Youth Group (BYG) at Nayilifong, a suburb of Yendi in the have embarked on a clean-up exercise in Nayilifong.
The cleaned the choked gutters along some of the major roads within Nayilifong and cleared the rubbish around the toilet facilities.
Mr Issah Zakaria, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive, commended the BYG for leading the initiative to achieve a good sanitation in the area.
He said this effort will enable the area reduce its sanitation related diseases like malaria adding that prevention is less expensive than cure in sustaining their health.
Mr Zakaria said without peace there can never be development and called on the youth to channel their energy towards development and the prevention of poor sanitation in their communities.
He said currently government has a high expenditure on the health sector and that it was important the communities aided the effort by preventing poor sanitary environments from emerging such other developmental concerns would be given due attention.
Mr Zakaria said it was unfortunate that not many people participated in the clean-up exercise.
Mr Shaibu Abdul-Rahaman, speaking on behalf of the group, said the aim of the clean-up exercise was to reduce the high rate of malaria infection in the area which was mainly due to preventable reasons like choked gutters and insanitary environments.
He said as the rains are stetting in, there was the need for them to ensure that they had a clean environment and appealed to the Assembly to construct a fence around the public toilets to prevent people from defecating around the toilets.
Mr Shaibu said their group has no affiliation with any political and chieftaincy groups in the area but rather voluntary group to fight poor sanitation and expressed unhappiness about inability of the assembly members to join in the exercise which occurs every Friday.
Mrs Fati Sibidow called on the residents and non-residents of Yendi Municipality to take good care of the sanitation equipment and desist from destroying the containers so that together they build a healthy environment for themselves.
Mr Zakaria, on behalf of the assembly, presented large quantities of soft drinks and bags of pure water to the group.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
African biotechnology stakeholders asked to ensure sound scientific evidence
Pretoria, May 20, GNA - African biotechnology stakeholders have been called to ensure that approvals of Genetically Modified (GM) crops for food use were based on sound scientific evidence.
“We need to encourage objectivity and consistency decision making to ensure the safe introduction of future GM food products”, Dr Nompumelelo Obokoh, Executive Director of Africa Bio, said at the end of a 10-day Biosafety Internship and Study Tour for African regulators in Pretoria, South Africa.
It was organised for participants, primarily regulators and researchers, drawn from West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa at various stages of the bio-safety regulatory process such as contained trials, confined field trials and commercialization of genetically modified crops.
The tour, organized by the NEPAD Agency, Africa Bio-safety Network of Expertise (ABNE) in collaboration with Africa-Bio, a non-profit organization serving as the voice for African bio-technology, gave participants the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences among themselves as they learned from the experiences of the South African Bio-safety System.
The tour has helped developed the capacity and expertise of participants in bio-technology and bio-safety regulations, its implementation and enforcement, to create an enabling environment for bio-technology to thrive in their respective countries.
The internship and study tour included workshop sessions that provided an overview of divergent and cross cutting issues related to the agricultural bio-technology applications, bio-safety regulation in South Africa, economic development potential for Africa's agriculture and food security as well as field and laboratory tours.
Dr Obokoh explained that though Africa was expected to move with the technological world, there was the need to get the required and appropriate regulations.
She noted that there were many developing countries that rarely got the minimum requirement of vitamins and as a result suffered from various health implications, citing lack of vitamin A, which caused blindness and lack of iron.
She said the application of modern bio-technology could address these health problems and added that “Scientists have discovered ways of adding vitamin A and more iron to rice to give the needed and required amount of these vitamins to protect us.”
Dr Obokoh noted that bio-technology was a new technology, which had been in use for centuries and with modern biotechnology, it will increase diseases and pest resistance, have more nutritious composition of foods with fewer allergens and allergenic compounds.
She asked Government regulators to ensure that food safety assessments were thoroughly carried out to allay the fears of citizens and also take the issue of communication seriously.
Dr Roshan Abdallah, Director of Technical Services, Tropical Pesticides Research Institute of Tanzania, commended the organizers of the programme for the knowledge impacted, and asked regulators not to hesitate to share ideas and experiences among themselves to ensure harmonization.
Mr Samuel Timpo, Senior Program Officer of the AU-NEPAD African Biosafety Network of Expertise, reiterated the need for Africa to build stronger linkages with national regulatory authorities and key stakeholders, to ensure successful regional harmonization of bio-safety regulations.
Participants were awarded certificates of participation and asked to put into practice knowledge acquired.
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Sun, 20 May 2012
Osu Traditional Council commends Nii Dowuona
Accra, May 20, GNA – The Osu Traditional Council (OTC) has lauded Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, Paramount Chief of the Osu Traditional Area for his tireless efforts which had culminated in the elevation of the Osu Stool to a paramountcy.
In a congratulatory message to the Osu Mantse on his elevation as a Paramount Chief and his subsequent induction into the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs on April 27, this year.
The OTC commended him for setting up the Osu Development Council to undertake commercial activities on behalf of the Osu Stool, launching the Osu Mantse Community Development initiative and for initiating moves to halt the indiscriminate selling of Osu lands.
They also praised Nii Dowuona for bringing meaning to the celebration of Homowo in the traditional area and for launching the Osu Community Development initiative.
The Council further commended the Osu Mantse who is also the President of the Council for initiating moves to rehabilitate the Osu Royal Mausoleum to turn it into tourists centre.
It also praised the Osu Mantse for ensuring that under his able leadership there was absolute cooperation between the two royal houses in Osu.
“You have worked tirelessly for the restoration of the Osu Stool to a paramount status within five years.”
Nii Dowuona was enstooled Osu Mantse in May 2007 and has within five years worked feverishly to restore the Osu Stool to a paramountcy.
On April 27, this year he was inducted into the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs.
The OTC and the entire people of Osu Traditional Area hoped with his elevation as a Paramount Chief, Nii Dowuona would bring his rich experience to bear on the activities of the Council to bring remarkable improvement and rapid and accelerated development to the traditional area.
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