SIXTY-FIVE people are reported dead in two separate gruesome motor accidents at Gomoa Okyereko,near Winneba, and Breku, near Nkawkaw, on Thursday night and yesterday, respectively.
Forty of the dead were victims of the Okyereko accident involving a Lome-bound Ivorian registered bus and two articulated trucks heading towards Takoradi from Tema.
Source: Ghanaian Times
World Vision donates medical supplies to Zabzugu Poly Clinic
Zabzugu,(N/R), May 13, GNA- World Vision- Ghana has presented a large quantity of medical supplies valued at 65.8 million cedis to the Zabzugu Poly Clinic in the Zabzugu/Tatale District of the Northern Region.
The medical supplies included, haemostatic forceps, maternity kits, emanation gloves, surgical towels, washing basins and extension sets. Mr. Richmond Apotiga, Programme Officer for Sponsorship of World Vision-Ghana who made the presentation to the Poly Clinic in Zabzugu on Saturday said the medical supplies were donated to complement government's efforts to reduce the incidence of maternal and infant mortality rates in the district.
He said World Vision-Ghana would continue to donate such medical supplies received from its donors to the health sector to cater for the health needs of the people.
Alhaji Yakubu Bukari, Zabzugu/Tatale District Chief Executive (DCE) commended World Vision for coming to the assistance of the assembly by providing boreholes to some of the communities facing water problems. He said the medical supplies donated would go a long way to improve upon health delivery in the district.
Mr.Jagri B. Mohammed MP for the area commended World Vision for its numerous interventions in the health sector in the district and urged other organisations to emulate the organisation. Mr. Emmanuel Maweh, District Director of Health Services called for inter-agency collaboration to support the health sector to provide quality health delivery and appealed to the people to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Source:
GNA
Cure for HIV/AIDS Found!
Kumasi, May 13, GNA - HIV/AIDS victims can heave a huge sigh of relief since there is now a potent herbal medicine which is reported to be capable of totally curing HIV/AIDS.
"Koankro", the herbal mixture prepared by Mr Kamara Agyapong, Director of Peace Herbal Clinic at Ejisu in Ashanti, has been confirmed by the Clinical Analysis Laboratory of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), as capable and potent in curing HIV/AIDS.
This follows the successful trial tests conducted on two HIV/AIDS positive patients who were put on the herbal preparations by Mr Agyapong two years ago. The tests have confirmed that the two patients are now HIV negative.
The test results which were made available to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi indicated that, the two patients have been tested negative of both HIV 1 and 2 viruses.
The results, which were released on May 4, this year, show that, the two male patients, aged 39 and 34 now have no HIV virus in their blood cells.
Their negative status has also been confirmed by further test results from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) laboratory and Medilab, a private medical laboratory in Kumasi.
A team of researchers from the Biochemistry Department of KNUST had been conducting a series of investigations into the efficacy and potency of the "Koankro" herbal mixture for some years now. They had already confirmed the efficacy of the preparation in the management of HIV/AIDS. The team initially confirmed that after three weeks treatment with "Koankro", there was significant improvement in the haemoglobin content, while the blood counts and weight of victims improved. That made Mr Agyapong to undertake further research to come out with additional 16 preparations, which are administered to the patients at different stages of treatment.
Speaking to the GNA on the test results, Mr Agyapong indicated that there were currently about 20 patients who were at various stages of treatment, adding that, the breakthrough in the test results had provided further impetus to the herbal preparations for the treatment of the disease.
Source:
GNA
Old cemetery turn into human settlement in Dixcove
Dixcove (W/R), May 12, GNA- Over 50 inhabitants living in parts of Dixcove in the Western Region have converted an old cemetery into a settlement, building houses in between tombs. A visit by the GNA to the town on Monday revealed that though most of the tombs have lost the names of people buried, inscribed in marble stones, the tombs were visible throughout the entire community. The security gate leading to the cemetery had been broken while the sexton's office was in ruins.
Over sixty tombs were counted in the community and some of them were located at door entrances, in rooms, behind windows and children without fear of the dead were playing in between tombs.
Madam Martha Cobbina alias Maame Debrim aged 90, a settler at the community, told GNA the inhabitants were compelled to occupy the cemetery due to scarcity of land coupled with sea erosion which forced them to vacate their old buildings for safer locations. She said "we do not fear the dead and even have most of the tombs in our rooms and we sleep comfortably on them."
Madam Cobbina said when she was about eight years old she saw the dead being buried there including 'whites" but when she grew up and things changed, the people decided to move into the cemetery.
She said a new cemetery had been created and therefore no new dead bodies were being buried at the old cemetery. Asked whether she would be pleased to have children playing on her tomb one day when she is dead, Madam Cobbina said "when I am dead and buried, whatever happens to my tomb or grave does not matter to me".
Source:
GNA
Many shop owners unable to convert figures into new Ghana cedi
Ho, May 12, GNA- Many shop owners in Ho have not displayed the conversion of the current denominations into the new Ghana cedi as directed by the Bank of Ghana.
They claimed they were finding the conversion difficult in the absence of brochures as guides.
As a result many could not display prices on their goods in both the old and the new Ghana Cedi.
They expressed dissatisfaction about radio and TV advertisements on the re-denomination exercise and said they were not educative enough. When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) went round major shops and supermarkets in the town, only Heve Supermarket, on the Polytechnic road had displayed prices in both the old and new denominations. Many appeared unaware of the directive to start displaying prices in both denominations from May this year prior to the commencement of the exercise in July.
Some told the GNA that the radio and TV advertisements were not explanatory enough and that they only add up to their confusion.
They therefore, requested the Bank of Ghana to provide pamphlets and leaflets to guide them gradually for a successful changeover to the new Ghana Cedi.
Source:
GNA
Juapong Textiles Factory Opens
Juapong (V/R), May 11, GNA - The Government's efforts at re-activating the country's distressed but viable industries to create jobs took a giant step forward on Friday with the re-opening of the Juapong Textiles Limited in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region by President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Now named Volta Star Limited, the refurbished factory is being operated as a joint partnership between the Government and U-Rich Limited, a Chinese textiles and garments giant.
Currently, it is employing 185 people including five management staff from China and at full capacity, the personnel would number 800. The Chiefs and people in the area defied a heavy downpour to witness the inauguration.
President Kufuor said the revival of the factory under the Government's District Industrialisation Programme was based on the company's strategic importance in terms of the utilisation of locally grown cotton and the extent to which it could accelerate the economic development of the district and the adjoining ones and help to resuscitate the nation's textile industry.
He said the partnership with the reputable Chinese Company was significant, because of the extreme competition in the international textile market in which, China is the undoubted leader. "This partnership is founded on the concept of win-win. Our partner comes with technical know-how and how to access the market, which should sustain the competitiveness of our factory."
President Kufuor said as opportunities for work returned to the area, it was important for the entire workforce to learn to cultivate the best work ethic that was crucial to the continued survival and success of the company.
The mindset must be that each individual's fortunes are tied up with that of the factory.
He stated that the Government would closely monitor the operations of the company to make sure that the investment put into its re-opening yielded the desired result.
Mr Allan Kyeremateng, Minister of Trade, Industry and PSIs, said the re-activation was significant as it would send a strong signal about the Government's commitment to revive collapsed industries that have the potential to give jobs to the people.
He said the restoration re-establishes the fundamental premise underpinning the Government's development agenda, which was to stabilise the economy to create the platform for job openings.
The Juapong Textiles Limited was established as a public-private partnership in 1968 to produce greybaft, but folded up about a year and a half ago, following the filing for liquidation by the Dutch giant Briscoe, that was operating it.
11 May 07
Source:
GNA
Death toll in Winneba accident now at 40
Victims were mainly foreigners
Winneba (C/R) May 11, GNA-Five more people died on their way to the Winneba government hospital following injuries they received in a fatal accident involving seven vehicles near Winneba on Friday morning, bringING the death toll to 40.
Thirty-five people died on the spot and several others received various degrees of injury, Mr. Nicholas Gasu, Winneba District Police Commander told the Ghana News Agency on Friday.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Gasu said the dead have not been identified and have been deposited at the Winneba government hospital mortuary for autopsy.
He said 28 persons, made up of 17 males and 11 females and a child who are on admission at the Winneba hospital are responding to treatment.
Mr. Gasu said an Abidjan-Lome-Nigeria bound passenger bus heading towards Accra crashed with an articulated truck loaded with cocoa to the Takoradi port, blocking the main Accra-Winneba highway and prevented the free-flow of vehicles.
He said while efforts were being made by some drivers and sympathizers to clear the road, another articulated truckload of heading towards Takoradi, ran into five passenger vehicles including a 207 passenger truck packed at the accident spot, causing serious injuries to some passengers and damaging several cars cars.
The Police Commander who described the accident as very horrible, said some of the victims have been rushed to the Korle Bu and other hospitals in Accra.
Meanwhile several people have besieged the scene to help with relief efforts. He said the police are investigating the cause of the accident.
Foreigners
Forty people believed to be mostly Nigerians, Beninoises and Togolese were killed in a motor traffic accident involving seven vehicles on Accra - Cape Coast road, near Awutu Beraku in the Central Region of Ghana on Friday. Thirty-five were killed on the spot while five others died on the way to hospital.
Many others, who received various degrees of injury, were rushed to the Winneba Hospital and Korle-Bu and 37th Military Hospitals in Accra.
Source:
GNA
Fourteen passengers identified in the Winneba accident
Winneba, May 11, GNA - Fourteen people who died in an accident on Friday near Winneba have been identified, Ms Millicent Quampah, Environmental Officer at the Winneba Government Hospital, said on Friday.
Ms Quampah said the victims, who were identified through identity cards and other travelling documents on them, were nine Liberians, two Nigerians, two Togolese and one Beninoise.
Thirty-five people died on the spot and the rest later on admission on the Winneba government hospital.
Mr. Nicholas Gasu, Winneba District Police Commander, said an Abidjan/Lome/Nigeria bound passenger bus on its way to Nigeria crashed with an articulator truck loaded with cocoa heading towards Takoradi Port, killing 35 people on the spot.
He said this made some drivers and other sympathizers travelling to pack their vehicles to assist in clearing the road to ensure the free-flow of vehicles to and from Accra.
Mr. Gasu said in the process another articulator truck loaded with cocoa to the Takoradi port ran into five vehicles including and injured some passengers.
Source:
GNA
35 killed on the spot
...and several injured in accident near Winneba
Winneba (C/R) May 11, GNA-Thirty-five people were killed on the spot in a fatal accident involving seven vehicles near Awutu Beraku in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya district in the Central Region on Friday. Several other people who received various degrees of injuries were rushed to the Winneba, Korle Bu and 37 Military hospitals in Accra. Deputy Superintendent of Police Nicholas Gasu, Winneba District Police Commander and Mr. Solomon Quarshie Abam-Quaye, Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Chief Executive, who are among the people assisting to convey the victims to the hospital disclosed these to the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
According to them an articulated truck loaded with bags of cocoa from Accra to Takoradi Port crashed with an Abidjan-Lome-Nigeria passenger-bus, blocked the main highway and prevented the free flow of vehicles.
They said this resulted in vehicles coming from both sides of the road to pack, while the cocoa bags were being cart from the road to enable vehicles to pass through.
The Police Commander and the DCE said all of sudden, another articulated truck, fully loaded with bags of cocoa ran into five packed passenger vehicles, including a 207 bus injuring some passengers. Mr. Gasu told the Ghana News Agency later that the accident was very "horrible and (it was the) first time an accident has claimed such a high number of people in the history of the district."
He said the police are continuing their investigation.
Source:
GNA
Traffic in African prostitutes to Europe is thriving
Dakar - Trafficking of women from West Africa to Europe for sexual exploitation is thriving amid inaction from African governments, experts at a regional conference on the issue in Senegal have said.
"The trafficking of women is difficult to identify, but it is a phenomenon that is not on the decline. It is growing in volume," Babacar Ndiaye, a specialist consultant with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said yesterday.
"The trafficking of women is less visible, more difficult to identify," he said on the sidelines of the three-day Dakar forum looking at ways at tackling human trafficking.
Specialists at the conference, gathering representatives from 12 west and central African countries and from international and national non-governmental bodies, estimated that thousands of African women were forced into prostitution rings abroad every year.
In January, Italian police smashed several human-trafficking rings involving African and eastern European females and netted about 800 suspects.
Nigeria was the worst culprit in human trafficking, with "pedlars working quietly and in the open", unfazed by law enforcement agents, said Ndiaye.
The treatment of women "has not been seriously taken into account by (African) authorities", he said.
Outside Nigeria, other main sources of females for prostitution were Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Togo.
A French police expert, Philippe Barbancon, said the trafficking of women and African prostitution networks had become complex in recent years because "the roles are superimposed and some prostitutes are also pimps".
"Once they pay back the traffickers the money they owe them (for fares and relocating expenses), the victims are transformed into pimps," said Barbancon.
"It becomes very difficult to identify the traffickers when everyone is prostituting."
Before they graduate into "mamas" - a moniker for pimps - each victim has to reimburse around $50 000 (about R350 000) to the pedlars, he said. After that, they can buy their own women at between $7 000 and $10 000 each.
Philippe Thelen, co-ordinator of a French non-governmental organisation, ALC, a support group for victims of trafficking in southern France, estimated that about 25% of prostitutes in France were Africans.
Trafficking for the regional market in Africa was also not uncommon.
Bernadette Ouedraogo, who heads a Burkinabe NGO, said the majority of prostitutes in Burkina Faso come from the sub-region.
She said girls were lured with fraudulent offers of jobs in Europe, only to end up being violently forced into prostitution.
Source:
AFP
Taxi drivers in New Juabeng increase fares
Koforidua, May 11, GNA- Taxi drivers in the New Juaben Municipality, have increased their fares, despite a directive form the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) that fares should remain the same after the announcement of new petroleum prices.
A survey conducted in the Municipality on Monday by the Ghana News Agency(GNA), indicated that, the taxi drivers plying various routes in the New Juaben Municipality, had increased their fares by 25 per cent. However the fares for long distance buses had not changed.
For instance, taxis from the market square taxi-rank to the Ministries, Galloway, old estate, and SSNIT flats-Akwadum Road, had been increased from 2,000 cedis to 2,5000 cedis.
Some of the drivers who spoke to the GNA explained that, since the introduction of the new petroleum prices it has become difficult for them to make their daily sales when they charge the old fares, hence the increment.
When the Eastern Regional Industrial Relations Officer of the GPRTU, Mr Alhassan Salifu was contacted, he explained that the increment of fares had not been sanctioned by the GPRTU because the Road Transport Coordinating Council had issued a directive to all transport unions not to increase their fares.
According to him, all the GPRTU station vehicles such as the Urvan and Mini-buses had not increased their fares in accordance with the directive.
Source:
GNA
Ghana to host Financing conference
Accra, May 11, GNA - Finance and Energy Ministers from across Africa are to meet in Accra to find sustainable solutions for financing the energy sector and its contributions under the Millennium Development Goals. The Accra Financing for Development conference, which is under the theme "Infrastructure for Growth-The Energy Challenge ", is scheduled for May in Accra would bring together members of the donor community as well as some civil society groups.
It would provide the platform to discuss more results oriented ways of effectively delivering the commitments made by Africa's development partners during the 2005 G8 Gleneagles meeting, and propose new strategies for follow up action. A release from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said, the meeting followed a series of meetings including the Abuja, Singapore and Maputo conferences which brought together African Finance, education, energy ministers international financial institutions, development partners and the IMF to deliberate on issues pertaining to the achievement of the MDGs.
It said the Financing for Development meetings came about when it dawn on both African countries and their development partners that, Africa was unlikely to meet the MDGs unless aid was increased substantially.
Though the development partners responded through unprecedented aid commitments, aid inflow has been slow. The meeting would therefore give the development partners and African countries a platform to produce concrete next steps in converting the commitments into development outcomes. 10 May 07
Source:
GNA
257 teachers redundant in eight districts
Cape Coast, May 11, GNA - Overstaffing in 165 public and private primary schools in eight districts in the Central Region has rendered a total of 257 teachers redundant.
However, 171 schools within the same districts need a total of 252 more teachers.
The Assin South District has 62 redundant teachers, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese 52, Cape Coast 44, Mfantsiman 25, Upper Denkyira 22, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa 20, Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam 17 and Agona 15. These are contained in the region's 'preliminary education sector performance report' presented at the first 'regional education annual review meeting' which ended at Cape Coast on Wednesday. District chief executives, coordinating directors, district education directors, chiefs and NGOs, attended the meeting.
The report centres on equitable access to education, quality of education, education management, science and technical and vocational education and training and financial management.
It shows a drop in the number of trained teachers in both private and public basic schools in the region, with trained teachers in public basic schools dropping from 63 percent in the 2004/2005 academic year to 59.2 percent in 2005/2006, and private schools from 19.8 percent to 15.4 percent within the same period.
Cape Coast, Agona and Mfantsiman districts have an appreciable percentage of trained teachers in their public schools and seven other districts had less than 50 percent, during the 2005/2006 academic year. It showed that 43 percent of teachers in the eight districts with redundant teachers are untrained and that 37 percent of them are pursuing a diploma in basic education programme in the two training colleges in the region.
On study leave, the report shows that of the quota of 3,000 teachers approved to proceed on study leave nationwide, 406 teachers representing 34 percent are teachers in the region. On school enrolment, it said the school feeding programme has impacted positively on teaching and learning and that the total number of pupils in the six beneficial districts, increased from 4,566 in 2005/2006 academic year to 6,227 in 2006/2007 Despite the improvement, about 25 percent of children of school going-age is still not in school. On the state of primary schools in the region, the report shows that 1,976 of the 3,219 school blocks are in good condition, representing 33 percent.
Eight percent are dilapidated and that about two and less than one percent of schools held their classes under sheds and trees respectively.
The report expresses concern that science resource centres and workshops in the region, are also not as functional as expected, and lack equipment, while the existing ones, are not maintained, thereby making it impossible to meet the needs of their satellite schools. In his address Mr Ato Essuman, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education Science and Sports, said district education directors will soon be provided with laptop computers hooked to the internet to enhance their work.
Source :
GNA