Attacker of murdered Italian tourists in Ghana arrested
* Source: Daily Graphic


A Twenty-four-year old taxi driver, Fuseini Mumuni Gariba, is in the grips of the Ghana Police for allegedly being part of a group that robbed three Italian tourists, resulting in the death of one.

The suspect was arrested at Oblogo, near Weija, following the retrieval of his mobile phone from the crime scene.

Upon interrogation, Gariba confessed to the robbery and mentioned his accomplices as Baba Ayitey and two others whose names he could not recall.

According to the story, as narrated to the media by the Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbillah, the victims, Donnini Lorenzo, aged 52, Rossono Lungi, aged 48, and Poaloa Badalass, the deceased, aged 49, are Italian tourists and business persons who are in the country looking for business partners.

He said they arrived in the country on April 16, 2012 to look for distributors for their products and were initially residing at Ashaiman until June 17, 2012 when they relocated to their present residence at Teshie-Malik.

He said on June 18, 2012, about 12 midnight, the victims and a Ghanaian female friend, Angela Addic, arrived at the entrance of their house from Osu in their VW Passat saloon car No GT 6997-10 being driven by Donnini Lorenzo.

According to DCOP Timbilla, while at the entrance, three armed men who had laid ambush suddenly attacked them and made away with their bag containing travelling documents, three mobile phones, a laptop, and cash of GH¢695.00 and 1000 euros.

The robbers also opened the boot of the vehicle and took away some groceries.

One of the robbers shot Poala Badalass, who was seated in the front passenger’s seat, in the head, injuring her severely and she was rushed to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where she passed away on June 19 about 5:00 p.m.

The robbers, in their haste to leave, left a Nokia C2 mobile phone which was retrieved and traced to the suspect, Fuseini Gariba Mumuni.

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Philips Opens Office In Ghana
* Daily Guide


Royal Philips Electronics has announced its intention to establish its first West African office in Accra as part of plans to increase its presence in the sub-region.

The regional office is expected to be functional by the third quarter of 2012.

Philips currently has a project office in Ghana but intends to develop this into a West African regional hub to provide dedicated support to Ghana and the region for all its main three sectors of healthcare, lighting and consumer lifestyle.

Roelof Assies, Director and District Manager, Philips Healthcare Africa disclosed this to journalists when the third pan African Philips road show made its first stop in Ghana.

The road show started in Cairo, Egypt on May 14, 2012 and is expected to end in Cape Town, South Africa on August 16 2012 to raise awareness on how healthcare and lighting solutions can enhance life in Africa.

At part of the three-day stop over in Accra from June 12 to 15, 2012, a team from Philips held series of meeting with stakeholders from both private and public sectors and clinical training sessions.

Mr Assies explained that the new regional office would support the local channel partners across the West African markets and help bring Philips closer to customers and key decision makers as well as broaden the range of product offerings and customer services.

Philips has a long history in Ghana serving both the public and private sector with the healthcare arm engaging with the Ministry of Health to revitalize the healthcare infrastructure in a nationwide project that has seen substantial improvements in over 110 hospitals across Ghana.

“As a leading company in health and well-being, Philips aims to help transform the quality of healthcare in Ghana and other African countries through meaningful solutions, innovations and partnerships. Our expansion and continued growth in Africa is a testament to our unwavering commitment to the region, and is part of a strategic vision of Africa as an important growth market for the company,” said Mr Assies.

“The decision to develop Ghana as the West African Regional HQ is because of its stable economy, safe and peaceful environment, availability of human resources, good communications network and proactive and strong local Government”.

As part of the road show, Philips provided clinical training with the aim of increasing the quality of healthcare workforce and to help them accomplish safe childbirths and improve healthy motherhood.

The company is also displaying some of its new health and lighting products such as technology equipment for baby resuscitation, fetal monitoring and clinical ultrasound for obstetricians, among others.

Johanna Maach, an application specialist on ultrasound at Philips, who spoke after the company unveiled its latest ultrasound and monitoring products specifically designed for caregivers across the wide variety of clinical environments in Ghana, explained the functions of the new ClearVue 550, a ultrasound solutions that provide cost effective yet high quality imaging.

She explained that apart from its portability and user-friendly it is designed to provide clinicians examining patients with details that would enhance their decision-making process.


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Ghana's future bright - John Mahama
* Daily Graphic


The Vice-President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, has assured the international community and development partners that Ghana's economic fundamentals remain strong while the future prospects for accelerated development are bright.

He has, therefore, asked donor partners to work with the government on a home-grown transition plan to realise the country’s goal of becoming a strong middle-income country.

Mr. Mahama was speaking at the 2012 Consultative Group (CG) and Multi-Donor Budget Support (MDBS) annual partnership review meeting, which has since ended in Accra.

The meeting, which began on Monday on the theme : “Leveraging Partnership in a Transitional Middle Income Country for Sustainable Economic Growth & Development”, brought together Ghana’s development partners, civil society and government officials to review progress on the Ghana Share Growth Agenda (GSGA), a three-year development agenda initiated in 2010.

The Vice-President said steady progress had been made on various fronts, including macro-economic management and stability, addressing poverty and regional inequality, refocusing on health and ensuring equity in education.

Besides, he said, the government was accelerating agricultural productivity through rapid modernisation while making efforts to expand the energy sector.

Mr. Mahama said the trajectory towards middle-income status was becoming clear, with more prudent use and leveraging of oil and other revenues to promote and plan development in a more organised manner.

“Unlike the past, we are improving the linkage between longer-term plans such as the GSGA and definite sources of funding for robust infrastructure and social investments,” he said.

The Vice-President said the government was expanding existing social opportunity interventions and introducing new ones to reduce poverty among the vulnerable and poor lower classes.

For instance, he said, the School Feeding Programme had been retargeted to cover one million children in deprived schools, while the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) was being converted into a skills development programme.

He indicated that the World Bank had decided to give a $40-million loan to the NYEP for skills enhancement.

Additionally, Mahama said, the Metro Mass Transit had seen 100 per cent expansion, more than 1,300 schools constructed to get rid of schools under trees, while the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme was being expanded from about 2,000 households to cover 60,000 households and the monthly stipends increased from GH¢12 to GH¢36.

“These initiatives are generating a positive impact on the lives of many Ghanaians and the government will continue to explore other means to accelerate poverty reduction,” he said.

The Vice-President reiterated the government’s commitment to funding all development projects appropriately to avoid the phenomenon of uncompleted roads, bridges and buildings that had disrupted productivity and become the bane of sound budgetary control.

He said the country’s internal debt recovery policy for commercial projects would allow the government to channel future dwindling grants and non-concessionary loans into social infrastructure.

The Vice-President gave the assurance that the government would not make any unplanned expenditures this year as had been the practice in past election years.

Consequently, he said, President John Evans Atta Mills had directed ministers and heads of departments and agencies not to begin any new projects not captured in this year’s budget.

Again, the government had demanded commencement certificates from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning before any projects were started, he said.

“We [the government] understand the political costs of these decisions, but must take them for the economic health of our country. The cost of correction and adjustment after election years has been disruptive of the economy and also burdensome to most Ghanaians,” he said.

Mr. Mahama gave the assurance that the government would implement the revamped investment and funding policy, and indicated that it would start off with the China Development Bank loan.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, said the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth had picked up strongly, reaching a provisional rate of 14.4 per cent in 2011, making Ghana the fastest growing economy in the world.

He said the fiscal deficit had been reduced from 8.5 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 4.0 per cent of GDP in 2011 on cash basis, the exchange rate stabilised for most part of 2010 and 2011 and inflation reduced to single digit levels in the last 24 months.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to Ghana, Mr Andrea Semadeni, who spoke on behalf of development partners, said Ghana’s vision of becoming a regional economic hub had “real prospects to materialise due to the country’s sustained political stability and the enactment of important laws.

He gave promised that the development partners would continue to support Ghana to grow her economy, improve infrastructure and improve the living standards of the people.

A communiqué issued after the meeting called on the government to invest more in poverty reduction initiatives and increase domestic resource mobilisation in a bid to meet the country’s widening infrastructural deficit.

The communiqué will, among other things, serve as a guideline towards the continuous implementation of the programme in the coming years.


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Death toll in Axim tanker explosion increases to 7
* Joyonline



Three more persons have been confirmed dead from Friday’s premix fuel tanker explosion at Axim in the Western region.

This increases the death toll to seven. The three were part of seven victims flown from the Effia Nkwanta Regional hospital to the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital after sustaining severe burns from the explosion.

Hospital authorities say they cannot guarantee the lives of the remaining four.

Director of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre at Korle Bu, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, told Joy News the hospital facility for treatment is limited to care for the four people in critical condition.

According to him, the victims are suffering from 65-90 percent burns which are difficult to treat with the facility they have at the moment.

He said they need an intensive care unit to be able to treat such expensive burns.


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President Mills arrives Monday
* Samuel Ablordeppey


After a successful routine check up in New York, in the United States of America (USA), H.E the President of the Republic of Ghana is expected back home on Monday 25th June, 2012.

Impeccable information from N.Y indicated the President has gone through a successful normal check and coming back stronger, refreshed and energized.

‘’The President is doing very fine. His normal check up was successful and we are all excited that we are coming home to continue with our agenda of making Ghana a better place,’’ a source said.

*President Mills left Accra for the U.S of A for a routine medical check on Saturday i6th June 2012,amidst pregnant controversy that he was ‘critically ill or dead’’ and being fanned by elements of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), to the extent that Kumasi in the Ashanti region went Gaga on hearing the supposedly ‘’sad news.’’*

Prior to his trip to the U.S of A President Mills in an interaction with the media at the airport indicated that he was going to see his doctors for some examinations then he will come back to continue with the better Ghana agenda.

It is expected that thousands of party supporters, sympathizers and fanatics of the ruling NDC will throng the Kotoka International Airport to welcome the second coming of the ‘magnetic’ President of the republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

‘’He is in good spirits and coming back to continue with the responsibility that Ghanaians have given him, to build a better Ghana. President Mills will not betray the trust that the people have reposed in him,’’ the source said.


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Woman found dead in Tefle 'serial murders'
* Citifmonline


One more person has been murdered at Tefle in the Volta region bringing the current number of such deaths to six. The recent body is that of a woman and was found in a lavatory earlier today.

There has been a disturbing trend of deaths in similar fashion over the last two months with one of the bodies found right around the Tefle residence of the former president Jerry John Rawlings.

The residents have been living in fear in the wake of what has been described as serial murder. The latest body that was found had every part of her body intact but that of the other victims had certain parts cut off.

Some of the residents say they suspect foul play but cannot immediately lay the blame on anyone or they do not have any suspects yet.

One of such residents who spoke to Joy Fm, Enoch Ezewudzi, indicated that “the woman (deceased) was found in a lavatory when someone went there to use the place. We suspect that it is someone from inside (Tefle) here who is controlling the activities.

“We know that some people are using it for money making ritual that is why they cut away parts of their bodies but this woman had not been cut. May be her blood was sucked out – we don’t know yet but this is very disturbing.