Supporters of the ruling NDC and main opposition New Patriotic Party who were on a separate health walk Sunday clashed in the New Juaben Municipality leading to the injury of five, Starr News’ Kojo Ansah has reported from Koforidua.
Vehicles were also smarshed in the chaos while firearms were shot by the Police to separate the feuding supporters.
Five people who sustained severe injuries were rushed to the St. Joseph hospital for treatment.
It is unclear what triggered the exchanges.
The New Juaben municipal police commander Sup. Richardson kumekor who went to the scene ordered the leaders of the supporters to ask their members to stop the walk and go home immediately.
The development comes on the back of a similar clash between NDC members and the security detail of Nana Akufo-Addo in front of his Nima residence last week where gunshots were also fired.
Volkswagen has announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs worldwide with about 23,000 of the losses borne in Germany.
VW, still dealing with the aftermath of the emissions-cheating scandal, aims to rejuvenate its core brand, and develop new electric and self-driving cars.
VW says it will create 9,000 jobs as part of investments in new products.
The cuts should bring annual savings of €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $3.92bn) by 2020. VW and unions have been hammering out a plan to revive its fortunes since June.
Volkswagen chief executive, Matthias Mueller, said it was “the biggest modernisation programme in the history of the group’s core brand”.
“The VW brand needs a real shake-up and that is exactly what the future pact has turned out to be,” he added.
The car giant – which employs 610,000 people in 31 countries – wants to increase the brand’s profit margin from 2% to 4% and to do this it will need to improve productivity at its German plants by 25%.
It has 120,000 workers in Germany so the cuts represent a fifth of employees in its heartland.
Volkswagen has pledged there will be no compulsory redundancies and the top staff representative in Germany, Bernd Osterloh, said the new models would be built there: “The next generation of electric vehicles will be made here in Germany, not abroad.”
Costly settlement
Volkswagen has been battling a crisis caused by its attempts to dodge strict US emissions limits.
It was revealed in the US last year that VW’s diesel cars were fitted with software that “knew” when cars were being tested.
The company has agreed to pay $15bn in a settlement with US authorities and owners of about 500,000 vehicles.
Around 11 million cars worldwide have the software.
The VW group comprises 12 brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen passenger cars, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.
Professor Christian Stadler, from Warwick Business School, said Friday’s announcement about electric cars marked “a new strategy in a rapidly changing car market”.
China, the world’s biggest car market, is introducing an e-vehicle quota in 2018, where 8% of all vehicles sold will have to be electric. That quota rises to 12% in 2020.
Prof Stadler said: “It means VW would have to sell 60,000 e-vehicles in China by 2018, and hybrids only represent half a point. Even BMW, one of the pioneers of electronic cars has sold just 1,204 e-vehicles in China in 2016 up to September.
“Norway’s sovereign wealth fund holds a sizeable stake in VW and has been putting pressure on them to become more environmentally friendly.” he said.
The death toll following the derailment of a train in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state has now passed 100, with more than 150 injured, police say.
Fourteen carriages of the Indore-Patna Express derailed just after 03:00 local time on Sunday (21:30 GMT Saturday) near the city of Kanpur.
Rescuers are still trying to reach the injured and recover the dead from the twisted carriages.
The cause of the crash near the village of Pukhrayan is not yet known.
Krishna Keshav, who was travelling on the train, told the BBC: “We woke with a jolt at around 3am. Several coaches were derailed, everybody was in shock. I saw several bodies and injured people.”
Most of the victims were located in two carriages near the engine which overturned and were badly damaged.
By Sunday afternoon, rescue workers were still using heavy machinery to try to reach survivors.
Senior railway official Pratap Rai told Reuters: “We are using every tactic to save lives but it’s very difficult to cut the metal carriages.”
The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder, in Delhi, says rescuers have recently brought out some survivors, including two children, which brought cheers from onlookers.
One passenger whose carriage did not derail told the Associated Press the train was going at normal speed. It stopped suddenly, said Satish Kumar, then restarted shortly before the crash.
Passenger Ruby Gupta, 20, was travelling to Azamagarh to be married on 1 December.
She told the Times of India that most of the people travelling with her had been found but that her father was still missing.
She said: “I cannot find my father and I have been looking everywhere for him. I have a fractured arm and my sisters have also sustained injuries.”
Many anxious relatives gathered at the station in Indore, where the train began its journey, holding pictures of loved ones, the Times said.
Compensation
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Anguished beyond words on the loss of lives due to the derailing of the Patna-Indore express. My thoughts are with the bereaved families.
“Prayers with those injured in the tragic train accident.”
Mr Modi said he had spoken to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was “personally monitoring the situation closely”.
On his own Twitter account, Mr Prabhu warned that “strictest possible action will be taken against those who could be responsible for accident”.
He said an investigation into the crash would begin immediately and compensation would be paid to “unfortunate passengers who died and to injured”.
The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has bemoaned the politics of tribalism and ethnicity being waged by President John Mahama in his campaign in the North, with 16 days to the conduct of the December 7 elections.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, for want of a campaign message to the people of the North, and his inability to defend his 8-year record in office, evidenced in the scandals that have rocked the Savannah Acceleration Development Authority (SADA), President Mahama is embarking on a divisive and tribal-based campaign.
The President, whilst campaigning in Lawra, in the Upper West Region, is reported to have stated that “I pity Northerners who are calling for change”, adding the NPP hates the people from the North, stressing that “they will use you and dump you.”
These statements, in the view of Nana Akufo-Addo, are very unfortunate and characteristic of a President who has no plans of presiding over a unified country, and is willing to say and do anything to win an election.
The NPP presidential candidate was addressing thousands of residents at Akim Oda on Saturday, November 19, 2016, on the last day of his tour of the Eastern Region, when he made this known.
“With the signs clearly spelt on the wall that he (President Mahama) has lost the Presidency, he has begun using divisive language in his campaign. He is in the North telling the people that because he is from the North, the people should vote for him. This is sad,” he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo added that it was “sad and shocking that our President will prefer not to use language that brings people together, but is rather using language that will divide us. I will not come before you and tell you to vote for me because I am from the Eastern Region or from Okyeman. I will never do that. The policies I have outlined over the course of my campaign should be the basis of your voting for me.”
The NPP leader further stressed that “if this country is to progress, we need unity amongst us. We must understand that we are first and foremost Ghanaians, and should not allow people to set tribe against tribe, all in the name of politics and elections.”
What have you done for the North?
Touching on the track record of President Mahama in the North, Nana Akufo-Addo described SADA as one of the saddest developments in the 59-year history of Ghana, especially in the time of a leader of Northern origin.
“You (President Mahama) say you are from the North, and are asking people to vote for you on that basis. However, it is under your tenure of office that the people of the North have been further impoverished. The levels of poverty in the North are truly unprecedented. Monies from SADA have been squandered, monies which were to be used to develop the North have vanished,” he said.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, “when asked to account for the SADA monies, we are told that it was used for the rearing of guinea fowls. And when asked where the guinea fowls are, we have been told that they have flown to Burkina Faso. Is this your track record as a President from the Northern Region? It is under your tenure of office that Northerners have been robbed.”
The NPP flagbearer added that if the people of the Northern Region were truly dear to the heart of President Mahama, he would have ensured that SADA’s resources were used for their true objectives and not as a conduit for corruption and the theft of public funds.
Police at Wulensi in the Northern region have arrested the New Patriotic Party 1st vice chairman in the constituency Mr. Abdulai Abubakari and two other people after clashes erupted between supporters of the two rival parties over a piece of land.
Violence reportedly broke out on Thursday at Napkayili between some supporters of the NDC and the NPP after the NDC attempted to mount a makeshift structure on a plot of land belonging to an NPP executive in the constituency.
The incident was the second in the constituency in the same week after a similar one at different community.
The Wulensi police commander ASP Paul Aboagye told Starr News the opposition local executive was arrested Sunday morning at his home.
He explained that the suspect was being held for assaulting an innocent passerby during the scuffle.
“We are treating it us political clashes but we are investigating an alleged assault on a man who was taking his child to school on that day.”
The arrests could exacerbate an acrimonious political climate as scores of NPP members have besieged the police station to demand the immediate release of the chairman.
Starr News spoke to the party’s constituency research officer who accused the police of witch-hunting members of the opposition party.
Mr. Nayass Thomas could not comprehend the police action after the matter was appropriately resolved at the Chief’s palace and therefore believes the police are acting upon orders the of regional executives of the ruling NDC.
Mr. Thomas said the party in the constituency see the action of the police as political threats and intimidation and will henceforth resist any attempts to bully its members.
The police said the suspects after investigations will be approximately charged and prosecuted.
Ghana is a step ahead of the United States of America when it comes to investment in social and economic infrastructure President Mahama has stated.
According to the President, both candidates in the just ended elections in the US Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump had promised “to invest massively in social and economic infrastructure,” a move he says Ghana is already doing.
“The American elections have just ended. Both candidates, a central plank of their economic policy is to invest massively in social and economic infrastructure. And if we have started that in Ghana already, it means we are one step ahead of the United States.”
He argued such investments expands the country’s economy and improve the living conditions of the people.
“Because, investing in social and economic infrastructure creates jobs and puts food on the table for Ghanaians. When you are building roads, the people who work on the roads are Ghanaians and they are being paid and they are feeding their families.”
The assertion of the President follows a similar one from the first lady who in her congratulatory message to US President-elect Donald Trump, added Ghana is already building the infrastructure Mr. Trump was promising Americans.
The statement from the first lady generated an uproar especially on social media, with some suggesting that the promise instead came from defeated Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton.
Mr. Mahama added a large majority of the infrastructural projects his administration is executing are being done by locals. This he believes ensures that the money for the projects stays in the country
“And the good thing is today as I speak to you, 95 percent of road contractors working in Ghana on our roads are Ghanaians. It means that the money that we are paying to them is ending up in this economy its circulating within the economy.”
Two of the four babies born in a day to a poverty-stricken couple and named after four celebrated doctors at the Upper East Regional Hospital have been reported dead.
The quadruplets- three boys and a girl- were delivered prematurely at 34 weeks at the regional hospital and christened Dr. Baffoe, Dr. Bogee, Dr. Apea-Kubi and Dr. Ellom at the couple’s request.
Whilst the babies were being looked after at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, their father, Abdulai Haruna, who owns only a little farm in a rural community in the Bawku West District, looked completely blue in obvious grief. He is poor and he now has nine mouths to feed, having brought forth five children with his only wife, Ramata Haruna, already. When doctors confirmed there were four babies in her womb ahead of a caesarian section, his wife, exhausted under the live weights in her belly, had said she was not afraid of the theatre but of the inability to provide food and clothes for the newborns.
The couple’s open plea for public support, channeled through the media space, did not yield much. A few months after the babies were discharged from the hospital, Dr. Baffoe and Dr. Apea-Kubi, born too soon in a labour room, died too soon in a bedroom.
Dr. Apea-Kubi was taken ill and passed away after a home-made concoction was fed to him “not with an intention to kill but to heal”. Dr. Baffoe is said to have died suddenly in his sleep at the time the quadruplets’ mother reportedly was anaemic. The head of the hospital’s newborn care unit, Dr. Gillian Bogee, disclosed this when the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) together with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) observed the World Prematurity Day in Bolgatanga, Upper East regional capital.
The premature quadruplets born to the poor couple.
“I was together with Dr. Baffoe,” Dr. Bogee said, referring to the former Medical Director of the hospital. “We were returning to the hospital from a training programme. He was driving. Then, I had a phone call from Samira (a relative to the couple) telling me Dr. Baffoe is dead. I was like- Dr. Baffoe is dead? I actually said it aloud. So, Dr. Baffoe slowed down and looked at my face (in panic). He didn’t get what was going on. Then, I told him it was the baby named after him who just died. He then understood and continued driving. It’s a sad story. But the (initial) look on Dr. Baffoe’s face was funny.”
The needless horror of prematurity
The story of the departed preterm babies, told by Dr. Bogee to a gathering of stakeholders, left a broken sword in the heart of the audience.
It became the tone of the event, but in the midst of it some thought aloud- why worry when there are facilities to cater for born-too-soon babies? In Dr. Bogee’s words, families should be worried about prematurity because only about three in every ten cases will come out alive from the critical care room.
“We should be very much worried about prematurity. The fact that we have a facility that is put in place to take care of preterm babies does not mean that they all survive. When you have let’s say ten preterm babies, three would survive and others wouldn’t.
“It’s difficult for preterm babies to survive. And some who survive have a whole lot of complications. Some of them can have hearing problems. Some of them wouldn’t be intelligent in school. Some of them can’t even school at all. We have systems in place to help them survive but in the end the child could be a burden to the parents,” she said.
High prematurity cases in Upper East
Doctors say because the Upper East Region has too many cases of teenage pregnancies, there are also mind-blowing incidents of prematurity everywhere in the region.
“The cause of preterm delivery is not known. But, then, there are some risk factors, some conditions that contribute to an expectant mother ending up having a preterm delivery or a preterm baby. You can have some vaginal infections that can actually contribute to preterm delivery. We have multiple pregnancy- that is when the woman is carrying not one baby, but two, three or four babies. If the mother is a teenager, the tendency of having a preterm baby is very high. The mother herself is not that mature to carry that pregnancy.
“A mother who has had history of preterm delivery and in less than six months is pregnant again has a high risk of preterm delivery. Women who smoke whilst pregnant, diabetic mothers, overweight mothers, pregnant women who have hypertension, mothers who are always beaten, insulted or stressed up and mothers who are into alcoholism have a high risk of having preterm delivery,” Dr. Bogee pointed out, and strongly advised pregnant women to pay regular antenatal care visits “before it is too late”.
UNICEF donates equipment to save premature babies
According to UNICEF, about 128,000 babies were born prematurely in Ghana in 2015 with an estimated 8,300 children under 5 years dead from conditions linked to prematurity that same year.
“Many of these deaths could be avoided by simple practices such as hand washing with soap and water, exclusive breastfeeding and keeping the newborn warm,” UNICEF’s Representative in Ghana, Susan N. Ngongi, remarked at the commemoration of the World Prematurity Day.
UNICEF also donated to the Upper East Regional Hospital’s newborn care unit some tools including autoclaves, incubators, baby warmers, delivery beds, an operation table, radiant warmers, oxygen concentrators, cardiac monitors, a pulse oximeter and phototherapy machines.
“UNICEF’s role is targeted at ensuring that the right of every single child is safeguarded and making sure that there is equity as far as healthcare is concerned. So, we reach those who are unreached and we want to make sure they also get access to quality healthcare. We don’t want to leave every child behind. That is why UNICEF has been supporting the three northern regions in the recent four years to improve on maternal and newborn care- particularly newborn care,” a UNICEF health specialist, Dr. Priscilla Wobil, told newsmen.
World Prematurity Day is observed annually to raise awareness of the “heavy burden of death and disability, the psychological stress and the pain and suffering that preterm birth causes to families, communities and nations” across the globe.
The newborn care unit at the regional hospital is said to be a centre of overwhelming referrals from northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso. Doctors say the facility now can accept more patients with UNICEF’s latest donation.
At least 150 students of the Koforidua Technical University have been rusticated over poor academic performance.
The students failed to obtain the average cumulative grade point of 1.5 hence their withdrawal from the institution during the 2015/2016 academic year.
“For the previous academic year, over 150 students were withdrawn for poor performance according to NABPEX regulation which stipulates that any student who obtains a cumulative grade point average of less than 1.5 should be withdrawn,” the Vice Chancellor of Koforidua Technical University Prof. Smile Gavua Dzisi revealed during the 21st Matriculation Ceremony of the Institution.
A total of 2417 students out of the 3,617 applicants offered admission successfully registered to offer various courses in Bachelor in Technology, Higher National Diploma and Non-HND programs purging the total population of the University to 6,338.
Prof. Smile Dzisi advised the students to take their studies seriously to avoid dismissal “while providing the best opportunities for our students to excel, Koforidua Technical University will not hesitate to withdraw any student who fails to meet the minimum required standards of performance.”
She said the university has a reputation for academic excellence, community outreach and groundbreaking innovations targeted at solving societal challenges hence it has strengthen its collaboration with industries to tailor courses to meet industry demand.
According to her, fresh students are expected to enroll in entrepreneurial programs aimed at providing entrepreneurial skills training for a start-up businesses.
Prof. Jerry Samuel Yaw Kuma, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology expressed his disagreement with persons rebuking the conversion of Polytechnics to Technical University status.
Three points from Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace as Yaya Toure netted a brace on his return to the side.
Yaya Toure’s time at Manchester City looked like it was over, but the man who has won so many games for them in the past returned to Pep Guardiola’s side and claimed both goals as City moved above Chelsea and level on points at the top with Liverpool.
Toure, who hadn’t started a Premier League game under Guardiola since the Catalan arrived in the summer, showed moments of his old magic to give City a first-half lead, then after Connor Wickham had equalised for Palace, the midfielder slotted home a winner in the closing stages.
Seeing Toure back in the Manchester City side was joyful, even as a neutral. In the opening stages the Ivorian did not look like he was moving especially freely, the creaking of his joints almost audible from the back of the stand. His passes were similarly rusty, just a yard or so awry from where they were supposed to be, but it was enough to disrupt City’s play and make you think that this might be a slightly sad encore, a former great wheeled out after his time had gone.
Then came his first goal, against the run of play: not that Palace were noticeably better than City. Toure, having looked like a man who hadn’t started a league game since April, played a one-two with Nolito and his shot was taken into the roof of the net via a deflection.
Palace looked better after the break as Wickham hit back but there he was Toure again, in the second-half, completely free on the edge of the six yard box to flick home the winner. One wonders what Dimitri Seluk, Toure’s agent who has seemed to be his client’s main barrier to the City first-team (thanks to his curious feud with Pep Guardiola), made of it all.
This was not the Toure of old, the man who could suddenly decide he was going to win a game whenever he fancied, and then do it. That version is gone, but this game, in which he largely sat deep and let his younger, sparkier colleagues ahead of him do the creating, showed that he is not just a viable option for this City side, but a match-winner too.
It also displayed that, while Guardiola remains a stubborn man, he’s not that stubborn. Joe Hart will presumably have noted that with interest.
Former Minister for Trade and Industry Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, says every government, since 1957, has undertaken infrastructural development, and should, therefore, not be the trump card of any government defending its record in office.
According to Mr. Kyerematen, the most important thing required of any government is to create a vibrant economy which will create jobs for the people, and will result in the improvement in the living standards of Ghanaians, as well as prosperity for all.
He was therefore at a loss as to why President Mahama’s “only message” in the run-up to the December 7 elections was about infrastructural development, and not about the policy initiatives that have been put in place to improve on the wellbeing of the citizenry.
“Their message is that in the last eight years, they have been able to construct roads, school buildings and hospitals. It is a good thing. But, let me ask you one question. Have you seen any government, in Ghana’s history, which has never constructed roads, schools or hospitals?” Alan asked.
In spite of the NDC’s message of infrastructural development, Ghanaians, Alan Kyerematen noted, “are saying that their living conditions are worse off. Ghanaians are saying they cannot make ends meet; they cannot afford to live in these hard times. This is, clearly, a sign that the NDC has failed. Ghanaians are saying they want Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP.”
The former Trade Minister was addressing a rally at Akim Swedru in the Eastern Region on Saturday, November 19, 2016, the last day of Nana Akufo-Addo’s tour of the Region.
Job creation is Akufo-Addo’s focus
Alan Kyerematen told residents of Akim Swedru that the creation of jobs to solve the country’s crippling unemployment crisis will be the number one focus of an Akufo-Addo government, God-willing, from January 2017, assuring that “we, in the NPP, have the formula for job creation.”
He noted that in addition to rapid infrastructural development for every part of the country, “Nana Akufo-Addo’s message everywhere he goes is that he is coming to create jobs for all Ghanaians. The creation of jobs is what Ghanaians must look at before voting.”
The “1-District-1-Factory” policy, he stated, will be one of the programmes for the creation of thousands of jobs for the teeming masses of unemployed Ghanaian youth across the country.
“If we have 216 factories in this country, it would mean that some of the items imported from outside of the country will be manufactured right here in Ghana. When we produce these items here, it would mean the appreciation and strengthening of the Ghana cedi. If there’s a factory in every district, why would our young men and women leave their respective homes for non-existent jobs in the city centres?” he asked.
In addition to the ‘1-District-1-Factory’, Alan Kyerematen noted that the creation of an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish will be a priority area for the government of Nana Akufo-Addo.
“With many Ghanaians engaged in their own private businesses, the NPP will make sure that there is availability of capital, at significantly lower lending rates, for the growth of businesses. 90% of jobs currently created in Ghana are through small businesses. The NPP is coming to assist the private sector, so they can create more jobs for the people,” he assured.
Alan Kyerematen further revealed that to complement the ‘1-District-1-Factory’ policy and the strengthening of the private sector, “Nana Akufo-Addo’s government is going to make sure that strategic anchor industries are created to provide more jobs for Ghanaians. These industries will include iron and steel, cement, bauxite and aluminum, petrochemical industry, vehicle assembly and the manufacture of machine parts and equipment.”
He, therefore, noted that “if you are NDC supporter, and after listening to all these interventions, you will make a choice for the future of Ghana, which is voting for Nana Akufo-Addo”, stressing that “if President Mahama and the NDC had any plan for the creation of jobs, they would have rolled it out by now.”
