A journalist with Saboba-based Radio Gaakii Matias Acop, has been attacked in a street rampage allegedly involving a vigilante group – Azorka Boys – loyal to the Northern Regional chairman of the NDC, Chief Sofo Azorka.
Acop said he was attacked and beaten at a location near Saboba market when he went to witness a clash between supporters of the National Democratic Congress and Mr Joseph Amuzu the party’s First Vice chairman in the region who resigned to contest as an Independent candidate.
The regional chairman, according to reports, was in the constituency capital to chair a meeting between the leadership of the NDC party and some disgruntled members when his boys allegedly spun out of control and violently attacked supporters of the Independent candidate.
Reason for the clash remained unclear but the journalist claims the District Chief Executive Adolf Ali who physical engaged in the brawl ordered the Azorka Boys to attack him claiming he filmed the violence.
“It was the DCE Adolf Ali of Saboba ordering people to beat people, so he spotted me and told his boys that beat him and they rushed towards me before I realised I was unconscious”, Matias narrated.
He said his mobile phones and other gadgets including a tape recorder were seized and crushed in the attack.
The DCE has, however, denied the claim and before he dropped the line on Starr News, he said: “They can keep on accusing me, I didn’t go out for campaign today I only went out when Azorka and co came from the field and I took them to the community centre to take supper.”
The Saboba constituency has remained a flashpoint of political divisions after Mr. Amuzuh dumped the NDC executive position to run as an independent candidate.
He had said elsewhere that the NDC now see him as a credible threat and therefore has initiate vicious measures to discredit him and intimidate his supporters.
Source: Ghana/StarrFmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
Saboba: Journalist attacked as Azorka Boys rampage
Election 2016: Don’t be scared – Mahama to businesses
President John Mahama has urged the business community not to panic over election related rhetoric ahead of the December polls.
The President has assured government will do everything possible to safeguard the stability of the country.
There is some amount of uncertainty and tension regarding the impending elections. Recent clashes between supporters of governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and security detail of Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has left many wondering how the elections will pan out.
However, the President believes the polls will be as peaceful as all the others in the past.
“Often when we are getting to an election the political rhetoric raptures up. I urge you not to be afraid or frightened that it is going to lead to any blowup. I mean Ghana has a history of peaceful, transparent and successful elections and I believe that this 7th election under the 4th Republic is not going to be any different,” Mahama told CEOs and captains of industry at the GIPC quarterly Presidential breakfast meeting Monday.
He called for support for whoever comes out victorious at the polls in December.
“I will play my part as President and commander in chief to ensure that we have a stable, secure environment for people to cast their ballot. And I believe that, once the elections are over, the people of Ghana will decide who they want to lead them over the next four years and whoever emerges all of us must support the person,” Mahama admonished.
Ghana heads to the polls on December 7.
Source: Ghana/starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Ibrahim Alhassan
2016 Women’s AFCON: Basigi drops 9 players
Black Queens coach Yusif Basigi has dropped nine players in naming his 21-member final squad for the Women’s AFCON in Cameroon next week.
Alima Sadia Moro, the only foreign-based shot stopper was dropped from the squad as well as Deborah Afriyie who was touted the Lionel Messi of the side.
Another goalie Beatrice Nketsia and defenders Hillia Kobblah, Mabel Baffoe Eshun and Agnes Quaye as well as Rita Otchere and Alberta Asante were all dropped.
The squad for the tournament featured eight foreign-based players with 13 home-based stars.
U.S-based Florence Dadson and Swedish duo of Elizabeth Addo and Portia Boakye made it into the final 21 despite reporting late to camp.
In all, three goalkeepers, six defenders, eight midfielders and four attackers were selected.
FULL LIST:
Goalkeepers: Nana Ama Asantewa , Patricia Matey and Fafali dumehashi
Defenders: Janet Egyir, Rosemary Ampem, Linda Eshun, Cynthia Adobea, Cynthia Adjei and Regina Antwi
Midfielders: Juliet Acheampong, Mary Essiful, Priscilla Saahane, Priscilla Otchere, Safia Abdul Rahman, Alice Kusi, Elizabeth Addo, Grace Asare
Strikers: Samira Suleman, Portia Boakye, Florence Dadson, Faiza Ibrahim
The tournament will be held in Cameroon between 19 November and 3 December 2016.
Oscar Pistorius moves to prison ‘better adapted’ for disability
Jailed South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been moved to another prison at his request.
Pistorius asked to move to the nearby Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, South Africa’s department of correctional service said.
The centre, just outside Pretoria, is better adapted for disabled offenders.
The former Paralympian, known as the Blade Runner, is serving a six-year prison sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
The double amputee had been serving his time in Kgosi Mampuru II prison, a large facility in Pretoria which houses about 7,000 inmates.
In comparison, Atteridgeville is far smaller, and houses offenders serving up to six years and has rehabilitation and development programmes for inmates.
“The transfer was in line with his special needs,” department spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo told the AFP news agency.
“The new prison caters for people with special needs, it has been revamped to include facilities like bath tubs.”
Prosecutors are currently appealing the gold medal-winning athlete’s six-year sentence, increased from the original five-year sentence in July, which they say was too lenient and does not fit the crime he committed.
Ms Steenkamp died after Pistorius fired four shots into a bathroom door on Valentine’s day.
Pistorius, 29, has always maintained he thought she was an intruder.
source: BBC
FIFA U-20 WWC: Black Princesses concede late to NZ
Ghana’s Black Princesses made a false start to their FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup campaign after conceding a late goal to lose 1-0 to New Zealand on Monday.
Substitute Tayla Christensen scored a dramatic last-minute winner to help New Zealand to a hard-fought win over the Black Princesses.
The match was an entertaining affair played at a good tempo throughout, but New Zealand’s Nadia Olla was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers and produced several key saves.
The Oceania side started brightly but Ghana took a clear stranglehold as the first half wore on.
New Zealand spurned two good opportunities within quick succession early on via Isabella Coombes and Martine Puketapu, the former set-up by the ever lively Paige Satchell.
But suddenly Ghana sprung to life. The Black Princesses were lively in possession and made numerous successful forays down the flanks, constantly looking dangerous from crosses and corners.
By half-time New Zealand goalkeeper Olla had made half a dozen saves. The best chance of the opening half saw Jane Ayieyam volley a cross over the crossbar from close-range, narrowly failing to convert what would have been a spectacular goal.
Ghana kept knocking at the door but their efficiency in the attacking third was poor. The clearest opening of the match saw Wasilla Diwura-Soale latch onto a midfield turnover and run clear, but Olla came out to make a brave diving block at the feet.
New Zealand forward Jasmine Pereira fired a volley inches wide late on, but the Junior Football Ferns finally broke the deadlock a minute from time.
Substitute Christensen pushed her way through a static back four and rounded the keeper to score a much-celebrated winner.
‘Running among bullets’: Mosul families tell of desperate flight from ISIS
The crowd surges for the truck as soon as it arrives.
Children are crying as they’re passed along a production line of strangers up into the back of the vehicle’s high-walled metal tray. Mothers, sisters and grandmothers scramble after them, carrying their few possessions.
It’s standing room only. Watching them all squashed in as the doors close, it’s hard not to think of cattle.
But these people are now safe. Only a few hours earlier they were making the hazardous walk through Mosul’s eastern neighborhoods where Iraqi forces are trying to advance through the ISIS-controlled city.
Before Hasnaah Mohammed was helped up into the truck, she sat in a wheelchair. The 56-year-old says she’s now in too much pain to walk after her desperate escape from Mosul with four children.
“I was running among bullets. Walking and crying. Running and crying,” Mohammed says.
“We’ve been suffering from explosions for the past eight days and every day I prayed for God to save us. And then mortar rounds started hitting our home. Half of the home was destroyed.”
Families separated at screenings
The women and children in the truck are leaving behind the adult male members of their families. The men will be screened at another location to check they’re not ISIS members hiding among desperate civilians.
Um Noor has three young children and she doesn’t want to go without her husband.
“We are all families here who fled battles in Mosul and Daesh,” she says using the common Arabic acronym for ISIS.
“I don’t want to spend the night in the camp alone with my kids. I won’t feel safe.”
Um Noor’s concerns also point to a persistent lack of trust in the Iraqi security forces, who famously fled when ISIS swept through Mosul in June 2014.
“Of course I am worried about my husband,” she says. “What if they decide to arrest him for no reason?”
As soon as the women and children are gone, the Iraqi soldiers gruffly order the men to sit in rows. They’re huddled quietly up against an abandoned row of shops, sheltering in the shade.
One of the nervous, crouching figures looks too young to be with this group. Dawood Ali is only eleven years old.
He tells us he would never have anything to do with ISIS because he saw first hand what they’re capable of.
It’s an horrific story to hear from a young boy: “They slaughtered three men and called us to come watch. One of them, the poor guy, wasn’t beheaded properly. So another man came with a knife and finished the job.”
Source: CNN
Otumfuo gives Kyei 3-year mandate to handle Kotoko
Life Patron of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has handed Kwame Kyei a three-year mandate to run the affairs of the club.
A statement signed by the Chief of Staff of Manhyia Palace, Kofi Badu said the renowned businessman will “Constitute a new administration” for the club.
This comes just two days after the Paul Adu Gyamfi-led Board of Directors and the Management team headed by General Manager, Opoku Nti was dissolved.
“Dr. Kyei has been given a three-year mandate to steer the affairs of the club and to raise it to new heights. He will lead Executive Board members of which will be appointed by His Majesty on the advice of Dr. Kyei,” the statement added.
It further stated that, “Dr. Kyei has been mandated to reshape the administrative structure of the club to infuse professionalism and competence at all levels of its operations.
“The ultimate objective of the mandate is to consolidate the position of Kotoko at the top of the domestic league and advance further to take its rightful place among the elite clubs of continental African soccer”.
Dr. Kyei is one of the “Country’s outstanding entrepreneurs with a strong position in the downstream sector of the petroleum and gas industry. He also has interest in the media and hospitality industries”.
2016 ‘very likely’ to be world’s warmest year
2016 looks poised to be the warmest year on record globally, according to preliminary data.
With data from just the first nine months, scientists are 90% certain that 2016 will pass the mark set by 2015.
Temperatures from January to September were 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The body says temperatures should remain high enough for the rest of the year to break the previous record.
El Nino has had an impact, but the most significant factor driving temperatures up continues to be CO2 emissions.
The provisional statement on the status of the global climate in 2016 has been released early this year to help inform negotiators meeting in Morocco, who are trying to push forward with the Paris Climate Agreement.
The document says the year to September was 0.88 above the average for the period between 1961-90, which the WMO uses at its baseline.
The whole of 2015, which broke the previous record by a significant amount, was 0.77 above the 1961-90 average.
While there are still a couple of months to go this year, a preliminary analysis of the October data indicates that 2016 is very much on track to surpass the 2015 level, which in turn broke the previous high mark set in 2014.
“Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.
“In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6C to 7C above the long-term average. Many other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada were at least 3C above average. We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different,” said Mr Taalas.
The report highlights the fact that other long-term climate change indicators are also breaking records. The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continued on its upward march in 2016.
Arctic sea ice continued to melt in significant amounts, while the Greenland ice sheet displayed very early melting this year.
Experts believe that the El Nino weather phenomenon played a role in the record warm temperatures seen in 2015 and 2016.
They quantify it as roughly 0.2 of a degree – but the bulk of the warming is coming from the accumulation of greenhouse gases. And the impacts of that warming are being widely felt.
“Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen,” said Petteri Taalas.
“‘Once in a generation’ heatwaves and flooding are becoming more regular. Sea level rise has increased exposure to storm surges associated with tropical cyclones,” he said.
Source: BBC
‘Crazy’ to say Facebook helped Trump win – Zuckerberg
Facing criticism that fake news on Facebook aided the rise of Donald Trump, founder Mark Zuckerberg has strongly defended his network.
Speaking on stage at Techonomy, a technology conference in California, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook should not be held responsible.
“The idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea,” he said.
“If you believe that then I don’t think you have internalised the message Trump supporters are trying to send in this election.”
Some data has shown that fake stories were being far more widely shared on the platform than follow up stories debunking the claims.
For an increasing number of people, particularly Americans, Facebook is becoming the primary source of news coverage.
The site’s News Feed is specifically designed to show users content it thinks will be of most interest, creating what some describe as a “filter bubble” that reinforces a person’s view without injecting differences in opinion.
‘Work to do’
Earlier this year, Facebook was accused of being anti-Trump after it was alleged its human moderators were favouring liberal stories appearing in people’s “trending stories” box.
While denying that claim, the site did sack its human team, instead relying solely on an algorithm to determine which stories were shown to be most popular.
As a consequence, stories which were later proved entirely false appeared on the timelines of a large number of users.
When asked about checks and balances needed to keep a company like Facebook in line, Mr Zuckerberg said it was about “listening to what people want”.
“My goal, and what I care about, is giving people the power to share so we can make the world more open and connected. That requires building a good version of News Feed. We still have work to do on that. We’re going to keep improving it.
“On the community guidelines, I think as norms change and people want to see more news, I think we’ll have to continue to evolve the guidelines to reflect the value that the community holds.”
At the same event, Mr Zuckerberg offered an optimistic view of Mr Trump’s presidency, saying that his goals of improving global healthcare and connectivity did not necessarily require the co-operation of government.
Source: BBC
Airtel Ghana CEO Quist inspires young coders
Airtel Ghana’s CEO Lucy Quist has encouraged pupils of La Wireless Cluster of Schools, who have signed up to learn coding and programming to use the knowledge and skills garnered to solve challenges in their communities.
She said this at the launch of a coding club for the school under the company’s Evolve with STEM initiative in partnership with the Ghana Code Club.
Thirty pupils from the school who have signed up for the club were being introduced to coding for the first time. They were taken through examples of technology solutions birthed through coding and programming.
Sharing her thoughts on the importance of introducing young people to STEM, Lucy Quist said “Empowering young people through STEM is one of the surest ways to guarantee a better future for them, our country and continent. STEM inspires curiosity in young people and empowers them to be problem solvers and innovators. These skill sets are critical for success in any profession.
At Airtel, we believe in empowering young people to fully realise their potential. This initiative, as part of our wider CSR programme, continues to shape minds and build the confidence of our future leaders to think outside the box and to question the status quo”.
She shared examples of young Ghanaians who have developed solutions, through coding, to solve the challenges that confront the country. She made references to Car Care, Bisa and Passco, all of which are mobile based applications.
She encouraged the pupils to believe in themselves and take inspiration from these examples as they progress in their coding and programming course.
The coding session was led by Ms. Ernestina Appiah from Ghana Code Club, a non-profit organization committed to exposing all elementary school kids especially girls to computer science activities in Ghana.
Children between the ages of 8-16 gain basic computing skills while learning to make their own games, animations and build their own websites.
Airtel Ghana recently commissioned a multipurpose state of the art Library and ICT centre which will be used for the coding and programming lessons for the La Wireless Cluster of Schools. The facility was sponsored under the company’s ‘School Adoption Programme.
In September 2016 the Centre for CSR West Africa recognized Lucy Quist for her dedication, commitment and leadership in driving an integrated and strategic CSR agenda for Airtel Ghana.
Airtel Ghana has won multiple awards for its CSR programme including recently being adjudged the ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative’ at the Africa Carrier Awards held in Kampala, Uganda during the annual Capacity Conference.
Source: Ghana/starrfmonline.com/103.5FM