President Akufo Addo

President Akufo-Addo says he has slashed his salary by 30 percent in the face of economic challenges confronting the country. Expenditure of MDA’s has also been cut down by 30 percent while salaries of political appointees has been reduced by 30 percent.

Speaking at this year’s Eid-Ul Adha prayers in Accra, the President also announced a 50 percent cut on fuel for Government machinery, adding that all other expenditures have been suspended.

 He urged Ghanaians to bear with Government as it puts measures to ameliorate the plight of citizens.

GBC

 

           Sri Lanka protesters in action

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says he is willing to resign and make way for an all-party government to take over after protesters reportedly breached his official residence in Colombo during a demonstration over the country's worsening economic crisis. 

Protesters also set fire to the private resident of the Prime Minister. They broke in at the end of a day of unrest during which the crowd stormed the official home of the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

Mr. Wickremesinghe’s statement came after a meeting of party leaders held by Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker, agreed to ask both the President and Prime Minister to resign per an overwhelming request. 

He has however not yet submitted his letter of resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

CNN

 

Shinzo's Killing: Police Admit Flaws In Security

 Japanese Police have admitted there were flaws in the security for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead in the southern city of Nara yesterday. Nara Police Chief Tomoaki Onizuka who made this known, said problems in the security are glaring. 

A gunman opened fire on Mr. Abe at a political campaign event, a crime that has profoundly shocked Japan.

 Police say the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, held a grudge against a "specific organisation", which he believed Mr. Abe was part of. Yamagami has admitted shooting him with a homemade gun.

BBC/GBC

Update : Eid-Ul-Adha at Ho

In Ho the Volta Regional Capital, scores of Muslims from the Municipality converged on Nfodjo Park and Ho-Fiave Zongo to observe the Eid-Ul-Adha to give thanks to Allah for a successful year. They also prayed to Allah to grant the leadership of the country divine wisdom to execute their constitutional mandate.

 Alhaji Muniru Ali Mohammed who led the prayers at the Nfodjo Park, urged Muslims to use the occasion to reflect on the obedience and dictates of Allah and the Holy Prophet. He appealed to the elderly to allow the youth to have a say in the affairs of their communities. Alhaji Muniru also encouraged Muslims to feast with their neighbours irrespective of one’s religious persuasion.

 At Ho Fiave, Imam Alhaji Alfa Anas Hamid, who led the Ummah in prayers, urged Zongo communities to support Government's campaign against terrorism and religious extremism by reporting suspicious moves by strangers to the security agencies for prompt action. 

He also urged Muslims to educate their wards particularly females to enable them assume their rightful place in society.

Source: GBC

 

CHASS Irritated by Food Shortage

 

The Upper West Regional Chapter of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary School, CHASS, has warned that students and parents will take up the cost of feeding if government fails to provide food supplies by Friday July 15. 

Candidates who are writing the WASSCE will also be compelled to feed themselves or come from home to write their examinations if the situation becomes dire. This comes after food shortages have been reported in some Senior High Schools across the country. 

The shortages are as a result of non-payment of monies owed suppliers contracted by the National Food Buffer Stock Company to provide food to the schools. At a meeting, the Upper West Chapter of CHASS has resolved to suspend a number of activities as the remaining food stock cannot last up to a week. 

Some of the activities suspended with immediate effect include all sporting and cultural activities at the school’s District, Regional and National levels and all workshops and other activities which involve the payment of monies. 

In a statement signed by the Regional Director, Razak Abdul-Korah, it noted that the Upper West CHASS is being confronted with unavailability of Maize, Rice, Sugar, Palm oil, Soya Beans, Sardines and other food items which is greatly hindering their operations. 

The statement is therefore urging government through the GES to help resolve the challenges facing the Upper West Regional CHASS to forestall any irreversible damages to the students and the Educational Sector as a whole.

Source: GBC NEWS                                                 

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗖 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

 

Midwives and surgeons living around Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria perfected the procedure hundreds of years ago. When a baby couldn’t be delivered vaginally, these healers sedated the laboring mother using large amounts of banana wine. They tied the mother to the bed for safety, sterilized a knife using heat, and made the incision, acting quickly as a team to prevent excessive blood loss or the accidental cutting of other organs. The combination of sterile, sharp equipment and sedation made the procedure surprisingly calm and comfortable for the mother.

After the baby was delivered, antiseptic tinctures and salves were used to clean the area and stitches were applied. Women rarely developed infections, shock, or excessive blood loss after a cesarean section and the most common problem reported was that it took longer for the mother’s milk to come in (an issue that was solved with friends and relatives who would nurse the baby instead).

In Uganda, C sections were normally performed by a team of male healers, but in Tanzania and DRC, they were typically done by female midwives.

The majority of women and babies survived this, and when questioned about it by European colonists in the mid-1800s, many people in Uganda and Tanzania indicated that the procedure had been performed routinely since time immemorial.

This was at a time when Europeans had only barely started to figure out that they should wash their hands before performing surgery, when nearly half of European and US women died in childbirth, and when nearly 100% of European women died if a C section was performed.

Detailed explanations of Ugandan C-sections were published globally in scholarly journals by the 1880s and helped the rest of the world learn how to save mothers and babies with minimal complications.

So if you’re one of the people who wouldn’t be alive today without a C-section, you have Ugandan surgeons and Tanzanian and Congolese midwives to thank for their contributions to medical science.

#blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #blackhistorymonth2022

#𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 #𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝗢𝘂𝗿𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 🤎 ✊🏾

World Market Prices on fuel determines pricing at the local pumps: NPA

 Story by GBCs Isaac Asare

NPA Boss and his entourage in a pose with staff of UE Reg Coordinating Council

The Head of Pricing at the National Petroleum Authority, NPA Abass Ibrahim Tasunti says in the face of perpetual hikes in the prices of petroleum on the world market, his outfit as a concerned regulator will continue to play its monitoring role in ensuring that Oil Marketing Companies give fair pricing to petroleum products so that consumers are not cheated. 

He noted that since the pricing of petroleum products in the country was deregulated in July 2015, government has been handicapped in determining the pricing of petroleum products because as prices go up on the international market, imported refined products such as petrol, LPG and diesel are indirectly affected at the local pumps. 

Mr Tasunti made the revelation during a media interaction in Bolgatanga as part of a two day day working visit to the Upper East Region by the management of the NPA led by its CEO, Mustapha Hamid. Areas visited by the NPA team includes the Regional Police Command where discussions were held with the Regional Police Commander, on matters of security for staff of the NPA and as well as protection of the region’s territorial borders against fuel smuggling. The last point of call was at the Paga border where the CEO and his entourage met with officials of the Ghana Immigration Service.

 The visit forms part of a 5-day familiarization tour to offices and installations that come under its jurisdiction. The CEO of the NPA, Mustapha Hamid in the company of other directors from the downstream industry made their entry into the region with a visit to the Bulk Oil Storage, BOST facility in Bolgatanga to familiarize himself with their operations, know their challenges and chart the way forward in making the strategic stock location a preferred hub in the constant supply of adequate petroleum to neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and other Saharan markets. 

CEO of NPA, Mustapha Hamid 

The Bolgatanga BOST depot is a strategic stock location that receives supply of petroleum products from Buipe, through a pipeline of over 260 kilometers. The facility which is among the six operational depots stretched across the country is expected to ensure constant supply of petroleum products both within and outside the country.  Meanwhile, the team earlier made a brief visit to the Regional Coordinating Council to announce his presence and were met on arrival by the Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Mahamadu Azonko who seized the platform to brief them on happenings in the region.

The CEO of the NPA, Mustapha Hamid for his part said the NPA was bent addressing the security and safety concern of its staff and more importantly deal with the fuel smuggling among other illegalities. At a media briefing to round up the tour, some directors at the NPA were subjected to questions from the media that border on hikes in petroleum prices, illegal citing of fuel stations and smuggling among others.

 On the increasing rise of fuel products, the Head of Pricing at the NPA, Abass Ibrahim Tasunti said since the country was exposed to the changes on the world market with regards to petroleum, there was little government could do to determine fuel pricing. However, his outfit is working in tandem with government to help cushion consumers. One of such interventions, he stated was the implementation of the energy sector levy.

Head of Pricing at the NPA, Abass Ibrahim Tasunti

Among the top officials that accompanied the NPA boss include the Head of Gas, Madam Intiwaa Kwakye, Director of Corporate Affairs, Maria Ocquaye, Director of Monitoring and Inspection, Esther Awuku and the Regional Manager of the NPA, Osman Mahama and a host of other directors. The team is scheduled to tour the Northern, Upper West, Bono and Ashanti Regions.

 

GBC NEWS                   END