Day: December 28, 2022

A basketball player, Kojo Asiedu Mensah, popularly known as ‘Changes’, has been allegedly murdered in coldblood by one Mr. Dennis Oppong Asamoah at Ofankor in the Ga North Municipal Assembly.

Kojo Asiedu, who is believed to be in his early 30s, was seen rushing out of the gate of the alleged murderer with blood oozing out of his chest and stomach.

According to eyewitnesses, residents and friends who were around rushed him to the Ga North Municipal Hospital where he was subsequently referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Snippets of unconfirmed information gathered indicated that a heated misunderstanding ensued between the victim (Kojo Asiedu Mensah) when a basketball he was playing with fell in the house of the alleged murderer leading to the inflicting of cutlass wounds on the chest and slashing of the stomach.

It is also believed that there could be an underlying hot blood or fierce rivalry between the two.

Before the arrival of the police at the scene, friends and sympathizers of the victim had destroyed almost every single property sighted in the suspect’s house.

The pregnant girlfriend of the suspect was held hostage by the “area boys” but later rescued by the security team.

Denis Oppong Asamoah bolted out of the house immediately after causing the harm before the arrival of the Police.

The police are on a manhunt for the suspect and inform the general public with information on his whereabouts to report to them.

Source: Ghana Web

Alex Carey struck a maiden Test century Wednesday to give Australia a vice-like grip on the second Test against South Africa at tea on day three in Melbourne.

After losing four wickets before lunch, the hosts were in charge during the second session, declaring at tea on 575-8 with an ominous lead of 386 after South Africa were bowled out for 189.

Wicketkeeper Carey was superb in reaching three figures for the first time in his 14th Test before he was caught and bowled by Marco Jansen for 111.

At the declaration, a battling Cameron Green was not out 51 despite having a fractured finger, alongside Mitchell Starc on 10.

Carey and Green piled on the misery in a 117-run partnership after South Africa had a glimmer of hope when they took early wickets, including David Warner first ball after he resumed on 200.

Australia began on 386-3 with Travis Head on 48 and Carey nine after a herculean unbeaten double century from Warner in his 100th Test in gruelling heat on day two.

The veteran opener retired exhausted with severe cramp after making his third Test double ton, but he resumed his innings when Head was out for 51, walking out to huge applause.

He told host broadcaster Fox before play began that he had a “rough night’s sleep”.

“I probably woke up six or seven times,” he added, and was bowled first ball by an Anrich Nortje yorker as Australia lost three wickets for five runs.

Temperatures were much cooler than the 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with conditions overcast and humid — generally favourable to the bowlers.

And the ever-dangerous Anrich Nortje took advantage, bowling Head in the third over before snaring a bewildered Warner next ball.

Pat Cummins fended off the hat-trick delivery, but he did not last long.

The Australian skipper fell to the third ball he faced when South Africa successfully reviewed a caught behind decision off Kagiso Rabada’s bowling that was initially denied by the umpire.

Carey was joined by Nathan Lyon and they steadied the ship.

Lyon made an entertaining 25 before holing out to Khaya Zondo off Lungi Ngidi

Ahead of play, Green, who took 5-27 in South Africa’s first innings, was ruled out of bowling again in Melbourne — and the third Sydney Test — with a fractured finger, but he bravely came out to bat.

After a slow start, he began playing his shots in an admirable supporting role to Carey, who counter-attacked after the early wickets fell to consolidate Australia’s advantage.

Carey was the first Australian wicketkeeper to make a Test century since Brad Haddin in 2013 and only the second at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after Rod Marsh.

Source: Modern Ghana

Joycelyn Adeline Egyakwa-Amusah, Head of Food Safety Management Department, Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has called on pre-packed food dealers to be extra vigilant to ensure that expired products do not get to consumers.

“As we always say food safety is a shared responsibility, the consumer has a role to play that is why all the information is on the pre-packed food and the seller ensures that what goes to the consumer is not expired,” she said.

She said, “any product that goes beyond its life span, that is manufactured expiry date, means that the safety and quality of that product have been compromised and anyone who consumed an expired product is putting his or her life at risk”.

The FDA Head of Food Safety Management Department called for a consistent check of expiry date on the part of consumers.

Mrs. Egyakwa-Amusah said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency that the continuous check-up by the traders would ensure that food products in the market were of high quality and safe for consumption.

“As a seller, you are expected to make sure a product on your shelves has their expiry or best before date largely displayed on it, when the expiry date is elapsing, you take the things off,” she stated.

She called on the public to contact the Authority and lodge a complaint of any expired products or visit the website for such a process, saying FDA would immediately follow up to ensure such products were taking off the shelves.

She cautioned sellers to check and withdraw all expired products from the shelves to prevent the consumption of unsafe foods.

She noted that the reason manufacturers add expiry or best-before date to their products was to alert the consumers that they could not vouch for the safety of the product beyond that date.

The Food Safety Management Department’s scope of mandate includes regulating commercial facilities that prepare and/or sell cooked foods; undertaking foodborne disease surveillance and investigation, and being the contact point for the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) in Ghana.

As part of its mandate, it undertakes operational activities, including inspection of Food Services establishments – restaurants, food joints, street-vendor food, and catering facilities; surveillance for unregistered facilities; and issuance of Food Hygiene Permits for approved facilities.

Others are to undertake Consumer Complaints Investigations into food product safety and quality issues; Foodborne diseases surveillance; maintain a database on foodborne diseases; investigation of outbreak cases; carry out food safety awareness campaigns for consumers – educational institutions and public places.

It also collaborates with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to ensure Food Safety at the District Level; drafting bills, and drafting and review of guidelines and codes of practice.

The Department has two operational units; the Food Service Establishment Inspections Unit and Public Education and Foodborne Disease Surveillance Unit.

Source: Ghana Web

South Africa took four wickets, including David Warner first ball after he resumed on 200, but a half-century from Alex Carey strengthened Australia’s grip on the second Test in Melbourne on Wednesday.

At lunch on day three, the hosts were 479-7 in their first innings, leading by 290, with Carey not out 62 and a ginger Cameron Green, batting with a fractured finger, on 14.

They began on 386-3 with Travis Head on 48 and Carey nine after a herculean unbeaten 200 from Warner in his 100th Test in gruelling heat on day two.

The veteran opener retired exhausted with severe cramp after making his third Test double century, but he resumed his innings when Head was out for 51, walking out to huge applause.

He told host broadcaster Fox before play began that he had a “rough night’s sleep”.

“I probably woke up six or seven times,” he added, and was bowled first ball by an Anrich Nortje yorker as Australia lost three wickets for five runs.

Temperatures were much cooler than the 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with conditions overcast and humid — generally favourable to the bowlers.

And the ever-dangerous Nortje took advantage, bowling Head in the third over before snaring a bewildered Warner next ball.

Pat Cummins fended off the hat-trick delivery, but he did not last long.

The Australian skipper fell to the third ball he faced when South Africa successfully reviewed a caught behind decision off Kagiso Rabada’s bowling that was initially denied by the umpire.

Carey was joined by Nathan Lyon and they steaded the ship.

Lyon made an entertaining 25 before holing out to Khaya Zondo off Lungi Ngidi

Ahead of play, Green, who took 5-27 in South Africa’s first innings, was ruled out of bowling again in Melbourne — and the third Sydney Test — with a fractured finger, but bravely came out to bat.

Carey was flawless and brought up a superb fourth Test half-century off just 66 balls with a third consecutive four off Ngidi.

Source: Modern Ghana

The Midwife In- Charge of the Labour Ward at the Mother and Child Health Hospital of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Madam Evelyn Osei Sraha, says attainment of zero maternal deaths is possible if only all stakeholders would play their part in the promotion of maternity care and health in anywhere in the country.

One key means of achieving this, she noted, is the patronage of timely and regular Ante Natal Clinics by pregnant women from the onset of their pregnancy. According to the Midwife, it is by this that healthcare givers and other experts can timely detect and treat any unusual development with both mother and unborn baby for prompt treatment to avoid any possible but avoidable complications associated with pregnancy.

Mad. Sraha gave the advice in Kumasi when management of MTN Ghana donated a quantity of gifts to newborn babies and their mothers in commemoration of the Christmas.

The Mother and Child Health Hospital of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital recorded 50 newborns made up of both boys and girls on 25th December 2022.

Madam Sraha urged expectant mothers to prioritize their own wellbeing and that of the foetus or babies while fathers must as well provide the needed support during gestations to avert easily avoidable maternal and baby mortalities so as to save the families and society the pains and other socio-economic implications.

The Midwife In-Charge thanked MTN Ghana for the annual charity to women who deliver at the Hospital and their babies saying that the gesture inadvertently motivates pregnant women to deliver under professional care.

The MTN Ghana delegation at Hospital led by the Senior Technical Head of the Northern Business District of the telecommunication service provider, Charles Osei Akoto, presenter a total of 50 Hampers to the mothers and babies. Contents of the Hampers included baby cleaning products while each of the mothers received 100 Cedis worth of Airtime with the Labour Wards of the KATH also benefiting from a quantity of hand gloves.

Mr. Akoto explained that the donation, formed part of MTN Ghana’s an annual charity to congratulate the mothers and their babies for safe delivery and also share in their joy during the festive season.

Source: Ghana Web

Goviefe Todzi (V/R), Dec. 28, GNA – Forest fringe communities in the Afadzato South District of the Volta Region have called on the Government to consider traditional conservative practices in its policies towards the fight against climate change.

They said taboos, beliefs and cultural practices being observed by the local people to protect water bodies, forests and sacred groves have, to a larger extent, proven more successful than policies and laws aimed at protecting the environment.

Togbe Tsoble Adoka, the repesentative of Togbe Sakrafu, Paramount Chief of the Goviefe Traditional Area in the district, said the Togbe Weto Sacred Grove, located at Goviefe Todzi, had served as climate buffer not only to the immediate residents but the entire Akwapim-Togo-Atakora range, over the years.

He made the call on Tuesday at a meeting of community members with the Accelerated Rural Development Organisation (ARDO), a non-governmental group focusing on environmental protection, to discuss effective ways to deal with climate change threats.

Various ecosystems exist on the Weto Range, including watersheds, mountain forests, savanna grassland, rivers and streams (headwaters).

He noted that in 1983 the wildfires that “swept across country” destroyed many forests, including the Grove.

Notwithstanding that predicament, the people, based on the belief that the mountain was the source of their socioeconomic development, continued to protect it until it regained the original spiritual, cultural, and environmental significance.

Togbe Adoka explained that the Traditional Authority was vested in the chieftaincy institution, which was highly respected in the communities.

“The influence of chiefs and queens in our communities present a potential force for mobilisation of the people for development and protection of the environment against bushfires and other negative practices that destroy biodiversity,” he said.

The Weto Grove is made up of diverse flora, fauna, avifauna (the birds of a particular region, habitat, or geological period), and invertebrates that help in boosting the ecosystem, thereby serving as a barrier against climate change.

The range can boast of antelopes, duiker, headgehog, rats, bushbuck, snails, and warhugs.

Togbe Adoka said the diversity of medicinal plants – Lianas (climbers), seed and nuts, flowers, buds, weeds and leaves, shells of tortoise and snails serve as food sources and for the treatment of ailments.

“The deity in the sacred grove is considered very powerful who we believe cures our various ailments, protects us during conflicts, and gives children to women considered to be barren,” he said.

“The grove also serves as an alternative for orthodox medicine. It is herbarium for the treatment of snakebites, fracture, and mental disorders usually costly to treat at the hospitals.”

To ensure strict compliance to traditional ways of protecting the grove against bushfires, the elders of Goviefe Todzi sent emissaries to present local gin to the other sub-chiefs in the seven adjoining communities to seek their support and consent in ensuring that no one set fire in the forest.

The presentation of the drinks, in addition to the clearly spelt out punitive measures, served as a bond between the people to protect the environments, especially the grove.

These communities include Goviefe Kowu, Woadze, Goviefe Agordome, and Agate, where the youths have been trained as fire volunteers to safeguard the forests for their collective benefit.

Togbe Adoka appealed to the authorities to provide firefighting equipment and skills for the volunteers to effectively deliver on their mandate.

Mr Pascal Benson Atiglah, the Executive Director of ARDO, said his organisation had intensified sensitisation of the people on the need to conserve the forests and sacred groves.

He said it had promoted the planting of economic trees such as Monodora Myristica as income generation activity as well as provided some protective gears for the safety of the fire volunteers.

He called for a ban on chainsaw activities, which affected efforts to conserve the forests.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Netherlands defender Daley Blind has agreed to terminate his contract with Ajax six months early, the club confirmed on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old, who joined Ajax’s academy aged eight, played 333 times during two spells with the Dutch side.

He has won seven Eredivisie titles with the club and scored 13 goals.

“Over the course of the last few days, we reached an agreement with Daley to terminate his contract,” Ajax president Edwin van der Sar said.

“I hope he can find another club to end his successful career with.”

Blind, who has played all but one league game this season, moved from Ajax to Manchester United in 2014 and spent four years with the Premier League side before returning to the Amsterdam-based club.

“Together with Daley, we have decided on a match in the ArenA where he can say a proper goodbye to the supporters,” Van der Sar added.

Source: Modern Ghana

Ghanaian songstress Wendy Shay turned heads online after videos of her stellar performance at the recently held concert of Shatta Wale and Medikal.

Ghanaian dancehall musician Shatta Wale and rapper Medikal successfully held the second edition of their Freedom Wave Concert on Sunday, December 25.

The well-attended music event saw staunch supporters of the duo thronging the Accra Sports Stadium in their numbers to have fun watching their favourite musicians perform.

Before the main acts ascended the stage to thrill fans, music lovers who turned up at the 40,000-capacity stadium had their money’s worth with back-to-back performances from the music pair.

Kofi Kinaata, Kofi Jamar, Wendy Shay, OV, Larruso, Keche, Edem, DopeNation, La Meme Gang, FBS, Fotocopy, and Captan were some of the musicians who took to the stage to perform.

Source: Modern Ghana