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newstube24.com has learnt all doctors across the country will join in the nationwide demonstration by organized labour on Wednesday January 20th and subsequent actions to be declared by labour.

This was confirmed by the secretary general of the Trade Union Congress Kofi Asamoah, who said,” doctors are also workers and since we are calling for a demonstration, they will join”.

Organized Labour is demanding for a withdrawal of the close to 30% increase in prices of petroleum products following the passage of the energy sector levies Act.

According to organized labour the law was poorly written and has occasioned very high and unjustified increases in fuel prices.

Labour is also demanding that utility tariffs including water and electricity be increased by only 50 percent, after the PURC sanctioned a 59.2% increase in electricity and 67.2% increase in water tariffs which took effective December 14, 2015.

Labour is also accusing government of sneaking in another increase in utility tariffs this year with electricity tariffs increasing by another 10% and water tariffs increasing beyond 112% with the implementation of the energy sector levies law.

In August last year, a 17 day strike by doctors under the Ghana Medical association led to the death of about 500 people according to data provided by the Health Insurance Service Providers Association of Ghana (HISPAG).

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The Electricity Company of Ghana has said that all localized power outages in the country will be over by the end of March this year.

Power consumers in Accra continue to experience intermittent power outages daily in spite of assurances by government that the situation has improved.

Managing Director of ECG, Robert Dwamena has told Accra-based Joy FM, that the outages are as a result of faults with some distribution lines.

“We are mindful of ensuring that we have system reliability in all areas of operation. Because of the load shedding we were unable to measure the demand of customers …but now dumsor (load shedding) is not coming back. We have enough transformers in our system; over 2000 transformers to make sure that we able to overcome these challenges,” he said.

“We believe that within the first quarter we should be able to strengthen our network to make the system withstand the shortfalls,” he stated.

Speaking on calls for utility tariffs to be reduced, Mr. Gyamena said that is not impossible, as it would affect the power sector.

“The power sector needs to be robust. After these challenges that we experienced, we shouldn’t go back. The only thing we want to ensure that we do not go back is money,” he added.

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Barclays to sell shares in Barclays Africa

After being one of the few western banks to establish a presence in sub-Saharan Africa, Barclays is planning a retreat.

It is preparing to sell some of its 62 per cent stake in Barclays Africa, one of the continent’s largest banks, employing about 44,000 people with 1,267 branches, as Jes Staley, Barclays’ new chief executive, refocuses on a narrower range of business, according to The Wall Street Journal.

DKM Boss Charged For Fraud

The Chief Executive Officer of DKM Microfinance LTD, Martin K. Delle has been arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh for dishonestly appropriating GH¢40,000.

Delle however denied the charge of fraudulent breach of trust and was remanded into police custody until January 21.

Lamti Apanga, lawyer for Delle, had urged the court to grant bail to his client.

We go to the currency market now where

Currency                      Buying                         Selling

Dollar                             3.80                             4.1

Pound Sterling               5.43                             5.70

Euro                               4.14                            4.44

To updates from the stock exchange today

HFC were the biggest losers of the day, dropping 18p to close at 1.02p, whereas Benso Oil Palm Plantation recorded the biggest gain, gaining 1p  to close at 2.81 p.

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Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko has said the recent utility and fuel hikes may have a boomerang effect on the economy by forcing inflation up.

In an interview with Accra based Citi FM, Dr. Nyarko siad:“We are talking about utility and fuel prices, taxes, rent and all others, so the influence of utility hike reflect in high price of things, then we may as a country see high inflation rates so the policy makers will have to find a way of bringing down some of these tariffs and taxes so that the common man could have some form of relief.”

Electricity and water tariffs were increased to 59.2 per cent and 67.2 per cent respectively by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), last month.

Fuel prices also shot up by 27% occasioned by the passage of the Energy Sector Levy by Parliament.

Government’s inflation target for this year is 8%.

Government last year missed its inflation target of 11.5% to close the year on 17.7 percent, the highest rate since July 2015, according to inflation data from the Ghana Statistical Service.

At a media briefing to announce the inflation rate for December, Dr. Philomena Nyarko attributed the increase to the recent hikes in utility prices and projected a continuous rise in inflation rate for the first quarter of 2016.

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The number of civilians killed in violence in Iraq over the past two years is “staggering”, the United Nations said on Tuesday, with at least 18,802 people losing their lives and another 36,245 suffering injuries.

Those figures, which UN officials said were probably an underestimate, count casualties incurred from 1 January 2014 through to 31 October 2015, according to a report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN human rights agency which also accused the Islamic State (IS) group of committing acts of possible genocide and other crimes against humanity.

“Even the obscene casualty figures fail to accurately reflect exactly how terribly civilians are suffering in Iraq,” UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned in a statement.

“The figures capture those who were killed or maimed by overt violence, but countless others have died from the lack of access to basic food, water or medical care,” he pointed out.

The UN said about 3.2 million people have been internally displaced in Iraq since the beginning of 2014 when IS took over large parts of the country, including more than one million children of school age.

The UN gave specific attention to the atrocities committed by IS, detailing “numerous examples of killings… in gruesome public spectacles, including by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings.”

It also decried reports of IS murdering child soldiers who tried to flee, and lamented that the militants “continued to subject women and children to sexual violence, particularly in the form of sexual slavery”.

“These acts may, in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide,” the report said.

The experts also said numerous mass graves had been discovered in Iraq, including in areas that had been under IS control, but also some dating back to the rule of Saddam Hussein.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, said that the international community must step up efforts to back the Iraqi government in areas it had reclaimed from IS.

“I call on the international community to enhance its support to the government of Iraq’s humanitarian, stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in areas liberated from ISIL,” he said, using a different acronym for the militant group, “so that all Iraqis displaced by violence can return to their homes in safety and in dignity and that affected communities can be re-established in their places of origin.”

Recent weeks have seen a spate of attacks in and around Baghdad, with militants storming a shopping centre in Baghdad and a cafe district in Muqdadiya last week, killing dozens. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up inside a three-floor cafe building in the eastern Shia-dominated city of Muqdadiya, 90km northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 23 people, security and medical sources said.

Muqdadiya’s suicide attack was followed by violent responses in the town itself and the nearby town of Shahraban.

At least six Sunni mosques, seven houses and 36 stores were either burned or bombed late on Monday 11 January in Muqdadiya, local officials and residents told MEE.

Shia militias which have played a major part in fighting IS in Iraq since 2014 have also been accused of atrocities, although these did not feature in in the UNAMI report.

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A film is being made that will claim to reveal the untold lives of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, focusing on the claims of a Palestinian woman who says she was a secret wife of the late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

Janan Harb, 68, is a Palestinian-born Christian who says that, after a forced conversion to Islam in 1968 as a 20-year-old, she married the 47-year-old “dashing and immensely powerful” Fahd, who was at the time Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and first in line to the throne.

But the royal family didn’t like Harb and in 1970 she was forced to flee Saudi Arabia at two hours’ notice after Fahd’s brother Salman, the current king, told him to get rid of her and her family.

Harb, who now lives in London, says that Fahd promised to look after her financially for life. But she accuses Fahd’s son Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd of refusing to deliver on an agreement struck in 2003 when Fahd was ill, which was to give her £12m and two flats in London’s upmarket district of Chelsea.

Last November she won a landmark UK high court case and Abdulaziz was ordered to pay up, although the prince has until the end of March 2016 to decide whether to try and appeal the ruling.

In the interim, Harb has sold the rights to her extraordinary story to media relations consultant Damien McCrystal, who says funding has been secured in part to produce a film that will provide a unique insight into the inner workings of Saudi Arabia’s famously secretive royal family.

McCrystal told Middle East Eye that a two-minute trailer is currently being filmed in an undisclosed North African country. He said the clip will be published by the end of February in both English and Arabic.

The trailer will feature images of extraordinary claims including Fahd gambling at the Clermont Club casino in London; another showing him injecting himself with intravenous drugs to feed a claimed addiction to methadone; and another airing Harb’s allegation that Fahd forced her to have three abortions because he “didn’t want any little Arafats running about the palace,” in a reference to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Harb says she doesn’t regret marrying Fahd and in fact describes him as a “gentleman” who she has to thank because “he allowed me to escape Saudi rather than killing me”.

However, she admits that if Fahd were alive he “would not be very happy” about the film being made.

“But it has to come out,” she said. “No one in the whole world knows exactly how they live inside their palaces.” she told Middle East Eye. “It is part of history.”

Saudi Arabia is renowned for being a deeply conservative Muslim country, where alcohol and gambling are banned and women aren’t allowed to drive. Harb’s controversial claims will likely cause much debate in the kingdom, where Fahd was widely adored during his reign between 1982 and 2005.

The film is being made by British director Malcolm Walker of the London-based production company Itasca and McCrystal estimates that it will require a budget of between five and 15 million pounds.

Its working title is “The Weaknesses of King Fahd” and beyond making salacious claims about Fahd’s personal life, it will also prominently feature the current King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

Harb says she knew Salman back when she lived in the palace with Fahd, but she doesn’t speak highly of him.

“He is not one of the nice people. I called him the ‘Butcher of Riyadh’ because of how he executed so many people,” she said, in a reference to Salman’s governorship of Saudi capital Riyadh.

“He didn’t have a good reputation, he was very aggressive. He was the one behind me being told to leave. But, he was a very handsome man – handsome and a dictator!”

Harb has a broad disdain for the Saudi royal family, although much of her dislike is reserved for her late husband’s son Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd, who she defeated in the compensation case in November 2015.

Harb described Abdulaziz as having “no shame” and said: “He is ungrateful. Fahd was such a nice man but he went cuckoo when he had that boy.”

Abdulaziz, 43, was revealed by a New York court in 2012 to have a $1bn property portfolio and he is also known to own several super-yachts.

The prince’s wealth comes from him being one of Fahd’s favourite sons, and as part of this legacy he receives 50 percent of the profits from Saudi media company the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation.

Harb claims that Abdulaziz travels the world with an entourage of at least 100 people and spends at least $6m a week on his lifestyle.

The prince has hit the headlines in the past year after his convoy of 10 cars was robbed in Paris of $335,000. He has also been accused of drugging one of his cousins in Switzerland.

His highflying controversial lifestyle has caused much anger among his fellow royals in Riyadh, according to Harb.

“He is shunned by the family,” Harb said. “The family is very happy I took him to court because they don’t like him. He’s not allowed to go to Saudi Arabia now.”

Harb’s autobiography, telling the full story of her life as Fahd’s secret wife, is planned to be published by the end of 2016. No date has been set for when the film will be completed.

In Saudi Arabia it is fair to say Harb’s story is given short-shrift.

When contacted by Middle East Eye for comment prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a former advisor to the royal family, said: “I prefer to stay away from such gossip stories.”

Despite her controversial claims, Harb doesn’t fear any retribution from Saudi Arabia.

“I am Palestinian, I don’t get frightened,” she said.

– See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/film-set-reveal-secret-lives-saudi-arabias-royal-family-1503896297#sthash.l7hERowb.dpuf

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Mali twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Uganda while Zambia edged out neighbours Zimbabwe 1-0 in the opening Group D games at the African Nations Championship.

Uganda captain Farouk Miya set-up and scored a goal before going off injured at half-time.

While Isaac Chansa scored the only goal of the game to give Zambia their win.

The next Group D games are on Saturday as Zimbabwe play Mali and Uganda face Zambia.

Uganda opened the scoring after just 11 minutes against Mali in the Rwandan city of Rubavu when Joseph Ochaya headed home a freekick from Miya.

Miya has impressed for Uganda in recent months in World Cup qualifying and at the regional Cecafa tournament.

Mali dew level 12 minutes later through Sekou Koita, whose control in the area took him past a defender before he fired past Ismail Watenga in the Ugandan goal.

Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic

Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic has already lead Uganda to the final round of 2018 World Cup qualifying

Then four minutes before half-time Miya scored from the penalty spot for Uganda after Erisa Ssekisambu was fouled in the area.

However there was bad news for Uganda coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic at half-time when injury forced Miya to be replaced by Muzamiru Mutyaba.

There was another injury blow for Uganda shortly after the break when goalkeeper Watenga pulled a muscle while taking a goal kick, with Mathias Kigonya coming on in his place.

Mali equalised on the hour mark through striker Hamidou Sinayoko as he managed to get his foot on the ball and divert it into the net from a Mamadou Coulibaly pass.

Two players who helped Zambia win the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012 combined for their win over Zimbabwe earlier on Tuesday.

Veteran midfielder Chansa broke the deadlock just before the hour, stretching to convert Chris Katongo’s free-kick to the back post.

Although Zambia had more possession, Zimbabwe spurned a chance to equalise.

Edmore Chirambadare was through one-on-one with the keeper just before half-time, but shot wide from eight yards.

It was a first defeat for coach Kalisto Pasuwa with the Zimbabwe team, having a record of three wins and three draws going into the match.

And Zambia’s experience told in the end, with Chansa and Katongo combining to strike the decisive blow.

The pair will have boosted their chances of a recall to the full senior team.

Before the match Zambia Football Association president Klausha Bwalya told BBC Sport he believes the pair still have a lot to contribute to the team.

He said a good showing from them at CHAN – the tournament for locally-based players – could revive their international careers.

Credit: BBC

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Angry workers are converging at Obra Spot in central Accra today, to protest the recent tariff hikes and tax increases.
Pulse.com.gh reporters are at the protest, filling live updates.

The protest is to register Organised Labour’s displeasure about government’s refusal to reduce the increase in taxes that have heightened the prices of petroleum products and the cost of utility tariffs.

Since December, water bills have increased by 67.2 percent and power by 59.2 percent.

Ahead of the protest, the Accra Regional Police Commander, COP Dr George Akuffo Dampare, cautioned police officers assigned to the demonstration to desist from any acts that may mar the exercise.

General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU), Solomon Kotei  told Pulse.com.gh “everything is on track  We have been able to clear with the police the routes. hosting Tema and Accra is clear the various regions feedback is that everything is set.”

He is hopeful the protest will be very peaceful.

The protesters will move from Obra spot through to Adabraka and then to the TUC, Tema station, Ministries and then to the Independence Square where a petition will be presented.

“This is not a  strike , it is a demonstration we are not shutting down machines or offices” Kotei said

Yesterday, Organised Labour warned  political parties whose intent is to capitalize on the demonstration to stay away from infiltrating the protest march, stating the demonstration was specifically for workers and not political parties.

Organised Labour has also threatened to strike this week over the increases.

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Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared: The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the ISIS terror group’s relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical.

St. Elijah’s Monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for U.S. troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches, prayed in the chapel, worshipped at the altar. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance.

This month, at the request of the AP, satellite imagery firm DigitalGlobe tasked a high resolution camera to grab photos of the site, and then pulled earlier images of the same spot.

Before it was razed, a partially restored, 27,000-square-foot stone and mortar building stood fortress-like on a hill above Mosul.

Although the roof was largely missing, it had 26 distinctive rooms including a sanctuary and chapel. One month later photos show “that the stone walls have been literally pulverized,” said imagery analyst Stephen Wood, CEO of Allsource Analysis, who pinpointed the destruction between August and September 2014.

“Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of gray-white dust. They destroyed it completely,” he said from his Colorado offices.

On the other side of the world, in his office in exile, in Erbil, Iraq, Catholic priest Rev. Paul Thabit Habib, 39, stared in disbelief at the before- and after- images.

“Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled,” he said in Arabic. “We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.”

ISIS, which now controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has killed thousands of civilians in the past two years. Along the way, its fighters have destroyed whatever they consider contrary to their interpretation of Islam.

St. Elijah’s joins a growing list of more than 100 religious and historic sites looted and destroyed, including mosques, tombs, shrines and churches. Ancient monuments in the cities of Nineveh, Palmyra and Hatra are in ruins. Museums and libraries have been pillaged, books burned, artwork crushed — or trafficked.

U.S. troops and advisers had worked to protect and honor the monastery, a hopeful endeavor in a violent place and time.

“I would imagine that many people are feeling like, `What were the last 10 years for if these guys can go in and destroy everything?”‘ said U.S. Army reserve Col. Mary Prophit, who was deployed there in 2004 and again in 2009.

Built in 590, tragedy struck at St. Elijah’s in 1743, when as many as 150 monks who refused to convert to Islam were massacred by a Persian general. In 2003 St. Elijah’s shuddered again — this time a wall was smashed by a tank turret blown off in battle. Iraqi troops had already moved in, dumping garbage in the cistern. The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division took control, painting over ancient murals and scrawling their division’s “Screaming Eagle,” on the walls. Then a U.S. military chaplain, recognizing its significance, began a preservation initiative.

Roman Catholic Army chaplain Jeffrey Whorton, who celebrated Mass on the monastery’s altar, was grief-stricken at its loss.

“Why we treat each other like this is beyond me,” he said. “Elijah the prophet must be weeping.”

Source: Fox News

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Momentum is gathering ahead of Organised Labour’s demonstration on Tuesday.

Workers have started gathering at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra where the protest march is will set off.

The demonstration which comes of today will be followed by a nationwide strike on January 21 and 22.

Government, on the face of the pressure mounted by labour said on Monday at a News Briefing that it can only adjust the utility tariffs, however the energy sector levy, it claimed will remain unchanged, Labour Minister Haruna Iddrisu said.

But Organised Labour has rejected this, insisting that the current economic situation in the country does not merit the levels being imposed on Ghanaians, adding that this will cripple them.

Government has increased water by 67.2% and electricity by 59.2%.

In addition, it has also introduced the energy sector levy which saw a rise in the prices of petroleum products.

By: Newstube24.com

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Hearts of Oak have completed the signing of mercurial striker Samuel Yeboah.

The 29-year-old signed a two year deal on Tuesday with the Phobians after passing a routine medicals and he is expected to start training with the club on Friday.

Yeboah, who was the top scorer in the Ghana and Israeli top-flight leagues before moving to Belgium where he played for Gent, is the big name acquisition meant to draw crowds for the struggling Accra-based side.

Yeboah is now the Hearts’ fifth signing following the arrival of Wa Allstars duo Ebenezer Adjei and Richard Akrofi, free agent Mustapha Essuman, and goalkeeper Samuel Akurugu from Hasaacas.

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The Attorney General and the Minister of Interior have been dragged to court over government’s decision to host two ex-detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison in the country.

Margaret Banful, a former conference officer at the Foreign Affairs Ministry and one Henry Nana Boakye filed the suit on Monday at the Supreme Court.

They are are praying the court to declare that the continued stay of Mahmud Umar Bin Atef and Muhammed Salih Al Dhuby unlawful.

The legal suit follows  fears by some Ghanaians that the presence of the two poses a threat to the country’s security.

The two ex-detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, arrived in Ghana on Thursday January 7, 2016 for a two-year stay as part of a deal reached between the United States of America and the Government of Ghana.

Seeking 11 reliefs, Margarat Banful and Henry Nana Boakye argue President John Mahama breached Article 58 (2) of the 1992 constitution and also broke his presidential oath under Schedule 2 in which he pledged to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of Ghana.

Reliefs:

1.A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana, by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby (both former detainees of Gunatanamo Bay) to the Republic of Ghana, required the ratification by an Act of Parliament or a resolution of Parliament supported by the votes of more than one-half of all the members of Parliament.

2. A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana acted unconstitutionally in his failure to obtain the requisite ratification by an Act of Parliament or a resolution of Parliament supported by the votes of more than one-half of all the members of Parliament when he agreed with the Government of the United States of America to transfer Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby to the Republic of Ghana.

3. A declaration that the reception of the said detainees into the Republic of Ghana by the Parliament of Ghana is in excess of his powers under the constitution and hence unconstitutional.

4. A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 58(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana is under the obligation to execute and maintain the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2008 (Act 762) and the Immigration Act of 2000 (Act 573), both being laws passed under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

5. A declaration that on true and proper interpretation of chapter 5 of the 1992 Constitution the President by holding Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby under restricted conditions without a valid order of a court of competent jurisdiction is breaching their fundamental human rights and thus acting in a manner that is unconstitutional.

6. A declaration that the President of Ghana breached Article 58(2) of the 1993 Constitution of Ghana by agreeing with the Government of the United States of America to have Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby transferred to the Republic of Ghana.

7. A declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of the 2 schedule of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic, by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby to the Republic of Ghana, has broken the Presidential Oath.

8. A declaration that the reception of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby and their continuous stay in the Republic of Ghana is unlawful.

9. An order directed at the Minister of Interior for the immediate removal and return of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby from the Republic of Ghana to the United States of America.

10. Such further or other orders as the honourable Supreme Court will deem fit.

11. Cost for Court expenses and Counsel fees.

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The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations says the government’s recent utility hikes were to protect their jobs.

Speaking to a jeering crowd at the Organiser Labour protest this morning, Haruna Iddrisu said he had received the Organised Labour petition and would pass it on to President John Mahama.

“I will try to convince him to meet as soon as practical this afternoon,” Iddrisu said.

He spoke at Independence Square to the 3000 plus protesters, thanking them and the demonstration’s leadership for ensuring a “peaceful and incident-free” protest. He said he noted the crowd’s anger at the government in respect of the tariffs and the introduction of the Energy Sector Levy.

“While your concerns are legitimate, the actions of government is necessary,” he said.

“We could have chosen a more peaceful path for political expedience so not to do this even in an election year. That is what you should appreciate. We need to improve the health of the economy, the health of our energy institutions for sustainable development of our country.

“So with the decisions we have taken, as difficult as they may be, we do it to protect your jobs in the immediate and foreseeable future,” he said.

The minister told the crowd the government was available for continuing negotiations.

“Let me assure you, the government will not take interest in inflicting pain on the Ghanaian worker. We know our decisions hurt, it hurts our nurses, it hurts our workers, [but] we have done so in order to protect jobs.”

The protest was to register Organised Labour’s displeasure about government’s refusal to reduce the increase in taxes that have heightened the prices of petroleum products and the cost of utility tariffs. Since December, water bills have increased by 67.2 percent and power by 59.2 percent.

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President John Dramani Mahama will on Thursday co-chair a Forum on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the sidelines of the on-going World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Davos event, which will be attended by world leaders, will launch the new SDG Advocacy Group appointed only this week by the UN Secretary General, and will set the tone for a strong level of global engagement for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Group’s future activities.

President Mahama and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway are co-chairing the 16-member SDG Advocacy Group put together to support the Secretary-General in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

A statement from the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau said President Mahama would leave Accra on Wednesday and return on Friday January 22. Accompanying the President is the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna S. Tetteh (MP).

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A major systems collapse caused the nationwide blackout Thursday morning, officials of the Electricity Company of Ghana say.

However, ECG said its engineers are working earnestly to resolve the problem that led to thick darkness around 5:30 in major parts of the country.

“We’ve just been informed by our engineers that there is a system collapse so all our lines are down which we are actually working on to resolve and restore power,”
“…all our lines are down, it’s nationwide. As at now we unable to tell the particular time we will be able to finish work to restore power but we are working on it,” an ECG official told Citi News.

The nationwide blackout may affect productivity across the country.

By:Newstube24.com

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President Mahama has indicated that he is humbled by his appointment to the UN as one of the eminent advocates for the new Sustainable Development Goals, which seeks to secure political commitment for sustainable development.

He said the appointment attests to Ghana’s leadership commitment to ensuring sustainable development, and also shows the country is on track the right track regarding the Goals.

The president in a Facebook post on Thursday, January 21, 2016, said “I am Co-Chairing, together with the Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, a group of sixteen Sustainable Development Goals Advocates to support the Secretary General of the UN in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

“I am humbled by this appointment. To me, it speaks volumes about Ghana’s leadership on the path of sustainable development. It proves not only that we are on the right track, but also that we lead the way. The world is proud of us, and this makes me extremely proud of each and every one of you!”

President Mahama was appointed by the UN General-Secretary as Co-Chair for a group of eminent advocates for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The 16-member group will support the UN Secretary-General in advocating for effective implementation of the SDGs and achievement of the goals by 2030.

President Mahama is scheduled to co-chair a forum on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the sidelines of the on-going World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The SDGs adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015 represents a commitment by all nations to work together to end poverty, achieve shared prosperity, build peace, and secure a life of dignity and a healthy planet for present and future generations.

He said, “My appointment as co-Chair of this select UN group also means that Ghana will be able to attract more foreign investments, which in turn will help boost the economy thus, significantly more jobs will become available for Ghanaians,” he added.

He noted that, “This is the future we all fought for, and I am honoured to be your leader in this fight! God bless you all! God bless our Mother Ghana!”

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The acting Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, says party vigilante groups may be permitted to work only at party head offices.

He said once they venture onto the streets and try to act as a police force, they will be stopped.

The IGP was reiterating an earlier warning that the service will soon clamp down on vigilante groups of political parties in the country.

The move, the police says, is part of efforts to ensure a peaceful and incident free elections this year.

According to the police, the activities of the numerous ‘paramilitary’ forces of political parties in the country including the Azoka Boys, the Invisible Forces and Bolga Bulldogs, are “unlawful and illegal”.

Mr. John Kudalor, speaking in an exclusive interview with Joy FM Thursday, said activities of these groups are a “looming threat” to the country.

He said the police started tackling the issue from last year and are currently engaging the leadership of the various political parties on the matter.

According to him, the police will, after the talks, set a deadline after which they will “declare them illegal and disband them.”

Source: Myjoyonline

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