Two miners in South Africa die in accidents at Harmony Gold mines, as the search continues for another miner missing after an earlier deadly fire.

[Ghanaian Chronicle]"Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, thought you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin." - Psalm 17:3 (NIV)

[Ghanaian Chronicle]The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has increased the policy rate by 200 bases points, as result of the depreciation of the cedi against the US dollar, which is the major currency for import in the West African second largest economy.

[Ghanaian Chronicle]Tigo, the mobile network operated by Millicom Ghana Ltd. has had its subscriber base shoot up from 3,933,195 to 4,014,487 -representing 14.51 percent of the mobile voice market share in Ghana. This is contained in a Mobile Voice Market Share report for November 2013 released by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Kaizer Chiefs keen to do well as the Champions League kicks off this weekend after rivals Orlando Pirates reached last year's final.

Ugandan villagers want to be recognised by Rwanda

Luis Suarez practiced clearing the ball off the goal line with his hand during Liverpool’s training session ahead of Saturday’s big game against Arsenal.

The United Nations has designated February 6 as the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation to raise awareness among the general public of this traditional practice which severely violates the human rights of women and girls. The practice is still widespread in spite of a global commitment following the 2002 UN Special Session on Children to end FGM by 2010. In Africa, the World Health Organisation reports that every year, some three million girls face the risk of this inhuman act of violence, which exposes them to serious physical and emotional health challenges. In the 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East where female genital mutilation/cutting is performed, some 130 million women and girls have been affected. Studies Studies have shown that the practice of FGM, which is rooted in cultural and sometimes religious beliefs, exposed victims to prolonged bleeding resulting in death, extreme pain during child birth and HIV infection, among many others. It robs women of their self-worth and human rights. In addition, it can cause infection and infertility. Often part of fertility or coming-of-age rituals, FGM is sometimes justified as a way of ensuring chastity and genital "purity." The UN Secretary General's in-depth study on violence against women reported that, as of April 2006, 15 African states where FGM is prevalent had made it an offence under criminal law. The UN agency UNICEF is spearheading efforts to end FGM in 16 African countries by 2015, the target year for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. UNICEF's partners in this campaign include other UN agencies such as UNIFEM. ActionAid Ghana ActionAid Ghana in a statement on the organisation’s intensive action to end FGM in the country says its research shows that some communities in Bawku in the Upper East Region continue to subject young girls to this dehumanising practice.      According to the organisation, studies show that some communities in the Bawku area continue to practice FGM, although FGM is criminal and punishable by law. The study also found that 56 per cent of respondents reported that FGM had taken place in their communities, with 75 per cent reporting that in the last five years, they were aware of FGM being undertaken in their local settlements. It said what was even more disturbing was the fact that 61 per cent strongly supported the practice and 68 per cent reported that they had been subjected to FGM for a variety of cultural and moral reasons. Among many others, they reported FGM boost their chances of marriage, prevents diseases of the genitalia and also helps them avoid ridicule from rivals. Criminal Code Act 484, 1994, that amended the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29) makes FGM criminal in Ghana. The primary victims of FGM in the communities studied are usually girls between 10 and 15 years, the prime age of development for the girl child.  ActionAid Ghana, working together with a local partner, BEWDA (Belim Wusa Development Agency), is committed to fighting for a violence-free environment, where the rights of girls and women are respected and promoted. ActionAid has, therefore, called for the enforcement of the law with a call on government, the police, civil society and stakeholders in health and education to help end the practice.  

South Africa's SuperSport United aim to build on last year's campaign as the Confederation Cup starts again this weekend.

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[Ghana Govt.]Parliament has constituted a special committee to investigate the recent demolition exercise conducted by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) at Adjei Kojo, near Ashaiman.

[Ghana Govt.]A Regional and Sector Commanders' Conference of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), on Tuesday, began in Accra.

A sandman, centenarian and Maasai Olympian jump

Ghana goalkeeper Isaac Amoako claims he has lost 13 medals – including the one he won at the CHAN tournament – when his apartment was gutted by fire on Wednesday.

The death of  64-year-old pensioner, Mr Charles Aheto Torkornoo, a former Night Editor of the Daily Graphic, has allegedly triggered the death of his wife, Mrs Antonina Eyivi-Sossou Torkornoo, 60, a businesswoman, barely an hour after news of his death got to her. Some bereaved persons who were at the mortuary, including the mortuary attendants at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, who heard about the death of the couple, are still dumbfounded because they claimed this tragedy, in which both husband and wife died within an hour, was very unusual. They further claimed they had heard of couples dying a few weeks/months after one partner had passed on, but never had they heard of one couple dying immediately after the other. One of the mortuary attendants, James Agozo, who said he had been working at the Korle Bu morgue for close to 30 years, claimed the death of Mr and Mrs Torkornoo was the first of its kind he had heard throughout his career. Incidentally, the last daughter of the couple got married on Saturday, February 1, 2014, and was followed with a thanksgiving service the following Sunday. According to Mr Romeo Ebenezer Torkornoo, a son of the departed couple who had been married for the past 33 years, he was at his workplace when he had a call from his uncle that his father, who lived at Kasoa and had been ill for the past three months, had passed on. He said he had to move to Kasoa immediately to help prepare his dad’s body for the mortuary. However, ‘not quite long after I had left the office, I had another call informing me that my mum, who was hale and hearty, had visited Tesano, a suburb of Accra, but had complained of being unwell after my dad’s condition was made known to her’. According to Mr Torkonoo, ‘I therefore changed my mind and drove to Tesano to pick my mum with the intention of sending her to a hospital in the vicinity, but she gave up the ghost a few metres after I had negotiated a curve towards the hospital.’ The grieving Mr Torkornoo said in that distraught state, he did not know what to do. He later decided to send his mum’s body to the morgue at Korle Bu. After depositing the body at the morgue, he and his sister continued to Kasoa to convey the remains of his father also to the same mortuary. According to Mr Torkornoo, most of the people he and her siblings and other family members encountered at the morgue expressed shock and wondered how cruel fate could be. The late Mr Torkornoo was employed by the then Graphic Corporation on December 1, 1974, and retired on April 21, 2009, after 35 years of service. He was one time the Assistant Production Editor, Assistant Head of Special Projects, Assitant Sub desk Editor, among others. The couple were survived by five children, Romeo, Gifty, Charleslene, Valentina and Mawumenyo Torkonoo.  

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The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Tony Aubyn, has identified the lack of transparency and the absence of an honest partnership between the government and mining firms as the major causes of mistrust and conflict between the two parties. He said the situation created suspicion between the government and the mining firms, in most cases leading to tension, noting that that should not be the case had the two partners been aligned. Lack of alignment Dr Aubyn, who was speaking to the Daily Graphic in Cape Town, South Africa, cited the example of Canada and Australia where their governments and the mining sectors were properly aligned. He said in their cases, any increase in taxes by the government did not result in agitation from the mining sector because both parties were in constant dialogue on policy decisions. “The gap between the government and industry has to be bridged in order to have a shared understanding of which areas we really need to channel the revenue from our industry,” he said. Panel discussion During a panel discussion dubbed, “Australia-Africa Mining Forum”, Dr Aubyn spoke on how mining could be used as a transformatory tool to improve the lives of the people. According to him, it was imperative for governments to have a clear vision of where to channel revenue from mineral resources, adding that the lack of partnership between governments and stakeholders in mining was not good enough. Dr Aubyn underscored the need for local content to be embraced by all mining companies. Resource nationalisation Speaking on resource nationalisation in the mining sector and what drove tax policy changes in the sector, Dr Aubyn identified two driving forces — internal and external. With respect to the internal forces, the CEO explained that following the rebasing of Ghana’s economy which had placed the country in a middle income category, the government needed to raise funds from other sources to support sectors of the economy as a result of limited budgetary support. “The exaggerated expectation of what mining and other natural resources can do for the country is also a major driver,” he said. Turning the spotlight on the external driver, Dr Aubyn observed that pressure from the international community, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Ghana to implement tax policy changes, without a recourse to their implications, was not in the interest of industry. Writer’s email: [email protected]   

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