The chief of Nangodi in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, Naba Joseph Asaga has said illegal mining otherwise known as “galamsey” is the source of poverty in Nabdam.
He said this at his palace on Wednesday, when the acting Upper East Regional Minister and his deputy paid a courtesy call on him as part of their familiarization tour of the region.
According to him, Nabdam is considered as one of the poorest communities in the region due to the fact that ‘galamsey’ operators, who are natives of the community with the support of some mining firms, destroy their farm lands which are their only source of livelihood thereby rendering them poor.
Naba Asaga added that some of the ‘galamsey’ operators also deceive the young girls in the community by engaging them in activities that breeds HIV/AIDS.
Acting Upper East regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohamed-Muniru pledged to help address the situation since it falls under his jurisdiction.
Former Black Satellites coach Fred Osam-Duodu has said he expects Sellas Tetteh to effect major changes to his Under-20 squad ahead of their World Cup tournament in Turkey.
Veteran Osam-Duodu, who won gold in Africa with the Black Satellites for the first time in 1993, advised Tetteh to strengthen his team with some new faces for the global test.
“Anyone who goes into a tournament in Africa and manages to win gold, and you are to represent the continent on the world’s stage; certainly there will be positions in the team you will have to strengthen,” Osam-Duodu told Joy FM.
“You can identify that some of the players were doing well before the period of separation and others too were also not pulling, so eventually you then substitute those who were not doing well with others.”
He added: “It could also be that perhaps during the tournament the coach wasn’t very happy with the output of some of the players so he can change them.”
The Black Satellites are one of four African sides going to the U20 World Cup in Turkey.
Asante Kotoko talisman Michael Akufo has said, they will go all out on Sunday against JSM Bejaia, purposely to ensure they win convincingly.
Akufo, widely known as Gadhafi, reveals his side-Kotoko, will attack their Algerian counterparts from all cylinders to ensure they win convincingly rather than defending, as they did in the first tie.
“When we went to Algeria our tactics was to get a point so we defended, this time round, we are going all out to ensure we win the game convincingly”-he told Bolgatanga based A1 Radio.
He also showered plaudits on his colleagues for their scoreless draw game against Wa All Stars in the Ghanaian Premier League, since it would serve as a motivating factor as they prepare to meet Bejaia
“The draw we got against Wa All Stars is a morale booster for us in our preparations towards our Champions League game on Sunday.”
“Our target is to get to the group stage of the competition and if possible qualify to the semi finals.”
Asante Kotoko will do battle with JSM Bejaia at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Sunday in a game touted by most pundits as “survival of the fittest.”
Most Facebook users now regularly access the site via their smartphone, the social network says
Most Facebook users now regularly access the site via their smartphone, the social network says
Facebook is releasing software that puts feeds from the social network on the home page of Android phones.
The software will act like a “wrapper” for the Android operating system and become the main way to use a phone.
Notifications, images and messages will appear on the main screen of the phone instead of being accessible via a downloadable app.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the change would put people, not apps, at the heart of the mobile experience.
Handset home
In a presentation given at Facebook’s campus, Mr Zuckerberg said phone apps were a legacy of the computer world in which people clicked on an icon to start a program.
While this worked well with desktops and laptops, it made less sense with phones, he said.
“Now there’s a new use case that’s more and more important,” he said. “We have our phones with us all the time and we want to know more what’s happening to our friends.”
Facebook’s Home software will hide apps and instead pipe all the content and chat carried on via the social network to the home screen.
The software “wrapper” will also change the way that people swap messages or content by letting them respond by tapping on pop-up images, known as chat heads, rather than opening up apps and navigating through menus.
The software will be available via Google’s Play Store as a download and will work only with phones running Android 4.0 or higher. Facebook home will be available from 12 April on six phones – three from HTC and three from Samsung. Only four of these handsets are available now. The others are set to launch alongside Facebook home.
No information was given about whether home would be re-developed to work with Apple or Microsoft phones.
Facebook said users could try the software rather than have to commit to use it all the time. Initially, the code will only be available for phones but a version for tablets is under development.
Cory Ondrejka, Facebook’s head of engineering, said the company started its push to make everything it did centre on mobiles in early 2012. Figures from Facebook suggest that users spend about 25% of their time on their handsets looking at their feeds and chatting with friends.
Facebook’s fourth quarter earnings revealed that about 23% of the money it made from advertising came from adverts shown to mobile users.
Prior to the news conference, many people speculated that Facebook would announce a branded handset. Mr Zuckerberg said the firm shied away from doing this because even the best selling phones would only reach a small percentage of its user base.
“This can start to be a change in the relationship that we have with how we use these computing devices,” he said.
Jan Dawson, senior telecoms analyst at Ovum, said: “To Facebook, this is about becoming more deeply embedded in the operating system on mobile devices, and creating a broader platform.
“Since Facebook doesn’t make an operating system for mobile devices, this is the next best thing,” he said.
Mr Dawson added that the change would let Facebook track more of a user’s behaviour on devices and to serve up ads.
“That presents the biggest obstacle to success for this experiment: Facebook’s objectives and users’ are once again in conflict,” he said. “Users don’t want more advertising or tracking, and Facebook wants to do more of both.”
The Premier League Board has approved a recommendation to fine Real Tamale United for their failure to play a Reserve League match.
RTU did not honor their match-day-18 fixture against Asante Kotoko on March 23, 2013 at the Len Clay Stadium.
“After careful study of the report of the PLB Match Summary Schedule Officer, the PLB has approved the recommendations stated in the report on the above-mentioned match as follows;
“i. RTU failed to honour the Reserve League Match with Asante Kotoko contrary to Article 34(h).
“ii. RTU is hereby fined Gh¢2,500.00 per Article 34(5)(a) and Article 39(8)(a) of the GFA Regulations,” a PLB statement said.
King Faisal have been fined a total of GH¢750.00 for various violations of the GFA Regulations during their match-day-17 Glo Premier League game against Asante Kotoko on March 20, 2013.
The Premier League Board has accepted a recommendation for the disciplinary action against the Kumasi-based side.
“After careful study of the report of the PLB Match Summary Schedule Officer, the PLB has approved the recommendations stated in the report on the above-mentioned match as follows;
“i. King Faisal is fined GH¢500.00 for sprinkling liquid substance on the field which contravenes Article 35(3) of the GFA Regulations.
“ii. The Club (King Faisal) is also fined GH¢250.00 for flouting Article 17(1)(a) of the Regulations,” said a PLB statement.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative is worried President John Mahama is yet to declare his assets, four months after he assumed office.
The GII had earlier called on President John Mahama, Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the Speaker of Parliament and all Parliamentarians who were sworn into office on January 7, to declare their assets as constitutionally mandated.
But four months down the line, President Mahama is yet to declare his assets after he filed his tax returns for the 2012 fiscal year.
Executive Director of the GII, Vitus Azeem says President Mahama’s declaration of assets is way overdue.
“Whether he files his tax returns or not he is required by the constitution and the Assets Declaration Act to declare his assets upon assumption of duty. He should have done that by now.”
He said he is disappointed by the president’s failure to declare his assets.
The Chief Executive of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Mrs Bertha Sogah, has been directed to proceed on leave to pave the way for investigations into allegations of conflict of interest made against her.
Sources close to the Board of Directors of the Centre said that the Office of the President had directed the Board to ensure that Mrs Sogah proceeded on leave with immediate effect.
It said the directive followed allegations of conflict of interest in the dealings of the Chief Executive with companies such as Amisgold Microfinance Service Limited, which is alleged to be owned by her husband.
Finally, R&B bad boy Chris Brown has opened up about his alleged public smoking on stage during the Chris Brown Live In Ghana- “Hope City Concert” at the Accra Sports stadium on eve of independence Day March 5, 2013.
The “Don’t Judge Me” hit maker indeed admitted he smoked on stage adding that the substance he lighted and smoked was not real weed “It’s a fake light like the way they have the pre-rolled tobacco.. so at every show I fake it…now that I gave the secret away”, Chris said as he smiled.
He however admitted smoking real weed on stage in Amsterdam and LA “But in certain cities like Amsterdam and LA I definitely did. But as far as in places where I can get into trouble I avoid it”.
Chris thinks it is really not a big deal for him to have smoked on stage in Ghana as part of his act, blaming the Ghanaian media for blowing the whole issue out of proportion making him look like a bad person. . “It was the press over there that made a big fuss about the whole thing, everything else was cool. It was just the press, so it made it seem like it was a situation but it wasn’t”, Breezy stated.
Chris Brown (Real name: Christopher Maurice Brown) made this revelations during a recent interview on Power 105.1 ‘The Breakfast Club Show’, in America.
Exclusive information reaching Peacefmonline.com indicate that Rapper Kwaw Kesse aka Abodam had a showdown this morning at TV3 and he as a result walked off a program he was scheduled to appear on as guest on Wednesday morning April 3, 2013.
According to Peacefmonline.com investigation, Kwaw Kese had made prior arrangement with the Directors and Producers of TV3’s breakfast show “Sunrise” and both parties agreed that Kwaw would appear on the show this morning with two other artistes Bra Kweku and Buda who is also his younger brother under his Madtime Entertainment label.
A source told Peacefmonline.com that Kwaw and his artistes got to TV3 studios as early as 7am this morning only to be told that he can’t appear on the show with the other two artistes and that he would only be allowed to appear on TV with one of the two new artistes or just him.
Kwaw Kese got infuriated because the Production team wouldn’t allow him to go on air with his artistes and reportedly walked out of the set angrily, called his artistes to come along and he never returned to appear on the show.
Meanwhile speaking to Mr. Gabriel Bosompim, Production Manager for Content Creation Group (Entertainment and Magazine Department of TV3), he confirmed the incident Peacefmonline.com adding that he was very surprised how events unfolded this morning.
However, Mr. Bosompim emphasized that Kwaw Kese is a great performer, a crowd puller at any given time and a very close friend to TV3 so he does not really have anything against him for his behavior this morning.
He rather blamed his management or whoever made the prior arrangement for not given the production team prior information that Kwaw Kese would appear on the show with two other artistes.
According to Mr. Bosompim nobody mentioned at the pre-production meeting that Kwaw would come with other two people and that the only information they had was that he (Kwaw) was coming to talk about his upcoming album, his new videos and to premiere the video for his new single “Kalabuley”.
He also stated that in a letter sent to Production team which outlined the number of things Kwaw Kese was going to talk about in the interview did not mentioned that he would come with any other person. According him the names of the two artistes were only mentioned in a line of the letter that reads: “His record label is also signed on 2 new promising artists namely Bra. Kweku and Buda”, which does not mean he was coming along with them.
He said they didn’t have any information about the two new artistes and they didn’t even know what kind of questions to ask them aside the fact that they were a crowd.
According Mr. Bosompim even though it was not part of their plans they tried to put all three of them on TV “But watching from the control room, the three of them were looking over crowded on screen in addition to the host. So we agreed that Kwaw can only go on air with only one other person but he decided to walk out”.
Meanwhile Akusua Danquah who made the prior arrangement with TV3 on behalf of Kwaw Kese said she dealt directly with the Director of the program Kwame Adom who was very much aware that Kwaw Kese would come with two other artistes.
She added that Kwaw Kese’s Management and TV3 are already in talks to settle the misunderstanding and TV3 has agreed to reschedule Kwaw Kese’s interview for Saturday April 6, 2013 on the same program.
The chief of Nangodi in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, Naba Joseph Asaga has said illegal mining otherwise known as “galamsey” is the source of poverty in Nabdam.
