The Chief Executive Officer of rlg Communications, Mr Roland Agambire, has announced the intention of the company to enter the rest of the West African market with the rlg brand of phones and tablets, as well as laptops.

FIFA has announced that it will investigate former Southampton captain Claus Lundekvam's claims that he took part in a sustained betting scam that also allegedly involved other Premier League stars.

The trial of Christian Asem Darkey in connection with the MV Benjamin cocaine saga was open to the public Tuesday when John Kobena Dawson, former Executive Director of Dashment company, the firm from which the vessel was chartered testified in the matter.

After a six month loan spell at QPR, Taye Taiwo reported for training on Tuesday at Milanello in hope of earning a permanent stay.

Testing for harmful substances within food or the food manufacturing facility serves an important role in verifying the safety of our food supply.

Akpene Mensah, described by the police as notorious criminal, and his accomplice, KorsiAhiadzese, a fetish priest from Santrokofi, have been remanded by a Hohoe magistrate court.

Education is often said to hold the key to the transformation of societies and give otherwise deprived generations the ability to lift themselves out of poverty.

Accra, June 11, GNA – Rabito Clinic has organised a free medical screening exercise on skin diseases and general medical care to commemorate Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle’s 40th anniversary of his induction as a Specialist Dermatology.   The exercise was organized by staff of Clinic to honor Prof Delle of the good work and service and achievement in his practice as a dermatologist in 40 years of his career.   Professor Delle said Rabito Clinic, which he established, was name after Prof Cologero Rabito who was a lecturer at the University of Padua, Italy, where he obtained his Doctorate in Medicine and Surgery in 1970.   He said his desire to provide quality and affordable health service for Ghanaians compelled him to form a Health and Human Rights non-governmental organization called “African Commission of Health and Human Rights Promoters”.   Prof Delle said, “As President of the organization, I have been providing medical and humanitarian services to people since its formation and periodically leads a team of medical experts to some prisons in the country to offer free medical and humanitarian services to the prison inmates.”   He said students from Italy, the Netherlands and Germany come to Ghana to attend clinical practical at Rabito Clinic, a place referred to as centre of excellence in the practice of dermatology.   Prof Delle said his contribution to health service in general and specialist care in skin and venereal disease had been recognized both nationally and internationally and the American Academy of Dermatology recently express its appreciation to him for his 25 years of continues membership and support.   “Since my return to Ghana in 1974, I have been able to train some young doctors in dermatology, some of them later specialists in Britain, Italy and Germany and through my assistance and support, some Ghanaian doctors had had the opportunity to receive training on care of torture victims in Copenhagen, Denmark, from International rehabilitation Centre for torture victims, where I also had some training.”   Profile      Prof Edmund Nminyem Delle was born the 18th of November 1943 at Nandom in the Upper West Region (UWR).   He started his formal education at Nandom Primary School in 1949 to 1954 and move to the middle school at Lawra also in the UWR in1995. He joined the Government Secondary School in Tamale from 1957 to 1962 for his General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (O Level) and Advanced level (A Level).   Prof Delle in 1964 was sponsored by His Eminence Cardinal Peter Poreku Derry to Italy at the University of Padua where he obtained doctorate in Medicine and surgery in 1970 and was awarded a scholarship from Medicus Mundi, an International Organization to study at the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Antwerp, Belgium, where obtained a diploma in tropical medicine in 1971 and was the first Ghanaian doctor to study in the institute.   Prof Delle was appointed a Resident Medical Officer and Lecturer in skin disease at the Padua University in 1972 to 1974, he then return back to Ghana in 1974 to establish the Rabito Clinic which currently have 24 branches dotted throughout the country with over 300 staff.   He is founding member and a National Secretary of the Ghana Society of Dermatologist and Foundation fellow of Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeon in 2005 and was appointed member of the Legal and Ethics Committee of the Ghana AIDS Commission.   Prof Delle spearheaded the formation of African Association of Dermatologist and become the Vice-President, later, he become the Secretary General form 1991 to 1997.   He is a member of the British Association of Dermatologist, which had elected him as honorary foreign member, Fellow American Academy 1986 and a commissioner for International Commission for Health Professional in 1989 and voted man of the year in 2000 by the American Biographical Center and awarded him a Prestigious Marie Award in 2006.   Prof Delle was a founding member and first National Secretary of the Ghana Society of Dermatologist and has served as Chairman of Board of Directors of the Standard Magazine and Newspapers Limited from 1976 to 1999.   He has also served as Secretary of Catholic Doctors Guilds of Ghana since 1984 and was able to organize the first Pan-African Congress of Catholic Doctors in Ghana 1984.   Prof Delle won a landslide victory to become the Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) in 2003 and has, with the support of the Ministry of Health started a programme for the “One Day Stop Cervical Cancer Project and currently an adjunct Professor of Dermatology at the University for Development Studies (UDS).   He is the Board Chairman of Catholic Center for Hope for the aged, the sick and the needy in society. He Speaks French, English, Italian and a Hausa and has served on numerous Boards in the country, and married with five children. He enjoys reading and gardening.              GNA...

Ghana must demand more favourable terms from future oil contracts now that its vast resource potential has been proven, and with one-and-a-half yearÂ’s experience in production, according to Prof. John Asafu-Adjaye, a senior fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

Accra, July 10, GNA - The British Government in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will on Wednesday July 11th hold a major international conference in London on contraception to refocus attention on the issue.   The Gates Foundation and the British Government whilst pressing the issue, are expected to pledge about 4 billion dollars to provide family planning services to 120 million women from the world’s poorest countries over the next eight years.   A new study conducted by researchers at John Hopkins University shows that fulfilling unmet contraception demand by women in developing countries could reduce global maternal mortality by nearly a third, a potentially great improvement for one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.   The study, published on Tuesday in The Lancet, a British science journal, prior to the major family planning conference in London, is an attempt to refocus attention on the issue.   The study indicated that the proportion of international population assistance funds that went to family planning fell to just six percent in 2008, down from 55 percent in 1995, while spending on H.I.V and AIDS represented 74 percent of the total in 2008, up from just 9 percent in 1995.   The Lancet study, which the Gates Foundation financed, draws on maternal mortality and survey data from the United Nations and World Health Organization to estimate the annual number of maternal deaths in 172 countries and the share that could be preventable by the use of contraception.   Birth control reduces health risks, the researchers said, by delaying first pregnancies, which carry higher risks in very young women; cutting down on unsafe abortions, which account for 13 percent of all maternal deaths in developing countries; and controlling dangers associated with pregnancies that are too closely spaced.   The authors of the Lancet study, researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, found that the number of maternal deaths in those countries in 2008 would have nearly doubled without contraception.   They acknowledged that maternal mortality record-keeping was weak in developing countries, a limitation of the study. They also found that an additional 29 percent of the deaths could have been prevented if women who wanted birth control would have received it, a concept called unmet need that is estimated using surveys of mothers in developing countries.   Population experts warn that developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, where fertility continues to be high and shortages of food and water are worsening, will face deteriorating conditions if family sizes do not shrink”.   The issue of family planning is burdened in the United States, where government assistance often gets caught up in political battles. Contraception has again become controversial this political season, though the United States remains a major donor.   According to Gary Darmstadt, Director of Family Health at the Gates Foundation, “We hear time and again from women out in the field that they want the ability to plan their families. We felt we needed to shine a light back onto the importance of this issue and get the conversation going.”   Maternal deaths have declined dramatically since 1990, down by a third, according to the World Health Organization. But about 16 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where fertility is still more than four children per woman.   The lack of birth control in poor countries has become an important issue for Melinda Gates, who argued in highly personal remarks in April that birth control should not be controversial, because it improves women’s lives.   GNA ...

THE MADINA police are investigating how some quantity of cannabis (wee) got into four packs of Kalyppo fruit juice meant for an inmate in their cells.

Accra, July 10, GNA - This year’s seminar series of the Food and Agricultural Show (FAGRO) is aimed to advocate measures to address weaknesses in Ghana’s agricultural value chain process.   The fourth edition of Ghana’s only Agric Expo, dubbed: "FAGRO 2012", is an international exhibition and conference designed specifically for agricultural stakeholders, entrepreneurs, students, market women, NGOs, and various agric trade associations.   This year's event, which is on the theme: “Linking farmers to the appropriate market: a value chain process”, is scheduled for August 25 to 27, 2012 at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra.   Mr. Sulley Adam, Chairman of FAGRO, said the event would help to establish and maintain a value chain process that has the farmer at heart.     He said it would also provide alternative measures in ensuring that all actors in the agric sector fully benefit from their hard work with a clear cut plan on how they could practicalize the knowledge they acquire and work with it effectively.   He added that this year’s free seminar series along with the main exhibition had been crafted with the needs of the smallholder farmer in mind, adding that issues of women participation in agric, farmers’ access to funds, fertilizer accessibility and efficient use, the role of farming organizations in linking Farmers’ to markets would be thoroughly debated by Farmer Based Groups, policy makers and NGOs.   “A 3-day seminar linked to the theme will run free of charge by experts drawn from various agric professions. The idea is to empower participants with requisite information and skills to improve the performance of their business from financing to marketing,” he emphasized.   Also given lots of attention at this year’s event is the utilization of Information Communication Technology in agri-business.   Mr Adam defined value chain system simply as the stages of agricultural production, which includes the acquisition of land, preparing and cultivation of crops, harvesting, storage, processing and marketing and warned that no policy on agriculture in the country would be successful if it failed to address all the aforementioned stages efficiently.   FAGRO for the next five (5) years will focus on the value chain process; by linking farmers to the appropriate markets, with the hope of creating a commercial platform, where growers come into direct contact with the other actors in the value chain process.     At the end of the day, they get to know who to contact, where to purchase or acquire the “appropriate machinery” and when to engage an “expert” service provider to help improve their farming operations.   FAGRO, an initiative of Infocus PR, has over the years created opportunities for local and international actors in agriculture to find a common platform to form strategic partnerships that have helped them in expanding their businesses.   It has also opened up Ghana’s agricultural potentials to investors who wish to better understand the dynamics and resource potentials of the country and how best to take advantage of them.   In addition, FAGRO has provided the platform for participating companies and institutions to receive valuable feedback from their potential and existing clients so as to help them re-strategize for the future.    GNA...

LOMEX CONSTRUCTION, a construction firm, has had its contract with the Ministry of Roads and Highways terminated as a result of its ineffectiveness, according to the sector Minister Joseph Gidisu.

Accra, July 10, GNA – Sumsung Electronics Company Limited, a global leader in digital media and convergence technologies, has opened "Mobile Flagship Store" to bring the products closer to customers in Accra.   The flagship store is an ultra-modern phone store where you can experience and buy authentic Samsung Mobile devices and tablets.   The store, which is located at Osu, is one of the only three Samsung flagship stores in Africa, which Nigeria and Kenya are the only countries in Africa to have this kind of store.   In an interview with Mr Michael Bosompem, Head of Retail West Africa, said the store was unique from other Samsung stores due to its unique design to serve as a home of only Samsung tablets as well as some few featured phones.   He said the store had a Wi-fi connection where customers can connect their phones with all share features to a smart TV to have view on a large screen.   He said the store would also present Sumsung customers with all kinds of Sumsung accessories at anytime, adding that the store had trained promoters and product specialists to repair any of the devices.   He explained that Ghana is chosen as the third country to have such an ultra-modern shop due to the acceptance of Sumsung products in the country, saying ‘Samsung has sold over 5,000 of its Galaxy S III in Ghana since its launch last month’.   Mr Bosompem projected that about 16,000 to 20,000 Galaxy S III mobile phones would be purchased by Ghanaians by the end of the third quarter of 2012.   As part of the opening of the Store, Sumsung Mobile is offering all its customers an instant five percent discount and free gifts on every device purchased from the outlet from now till the end July.   GNA...

Twelve students of the University of Ghana, accused of sexually assaulting an alleged female thief on campus have been discharged by the Accra Circuit Court for want of prosecution.

Tamale, July 10, GNA – The Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) will soon complete its training in the energy sector aim at equipping beneficiaries with skills for the oil and gas job market.   A release issued in Tamale and signed by Mr Philip Assibit Akpeena, Managing Consultant of MDPI said, the phase one of the training, which ended successfully, saw all the 7,020 beneficiaries schooled in the foundation modules, overview of the oil and gas industry and health safety and environment.   He said the beneficiaries also received training in entrepreneurship and career development and natural gas, which was aimed at repositioning in the oil and gas industry.   “After our initial scan of the job market, it became apparent that the support services sector has a high potential of creating many more jobs than the direct job market, and this is buttressed on our study of the UK oil and gas industry where about 500,000 jobs were created as in 2010 alone of which 450,000 are absorbed in the indirect job market”.   He said MDPI/Goodwill developed the entrepreneurship and career development module to train all the participants to develop strategic entrepreneurial skills to equip them to set up their own business enterprises.   Mr Akpeena said, “Our interaction with the newly formed Ghana Gas Company Limited (GGCL) also suggests that lots of jobs are going to be created along the value chain of natural gas, especially when we start utilizing the Jubilee gas and the Bonyere Gas processing plants, which are to be built”.   He explained that the natural gas model was developed to equip all the participants with the necessary skills to have a very good understanding of natural gas.   Mr Akpeena observed that the feedback that the MDPI received from the participants was overwhelming and that majority of the trainees had already developed interest in setting up their own enterprises to sell products and services in the industry.   He said the second phase organised participants into various specialised disciplines within the oil and gas industry that covered both the technical and non technical aspects of the industry.   According to him, each discipline took 20 credit hours of training to complete where local and international consultants to MDPI were tasked to develop modules that conform to international standards, while reflecting the legal framework, value chain and policy leads of the industry in Ghana.   He said the third phase of the training was designed to introduce the participants to practical hands on field based projects where they shall underpin theory with practice.    This, according to the statement, would be achieved through case studies, internships, attachments and field based projects with oil companies structured in two parts.     The structures included practical case study on the oil and gas value chain and regulatory environment and respective topics pertaining to participant’s areas of specialization.   The projects would be supervised by MDPI’s local and international consultants and the studies and works on the projects would be based on practical cases on players and regulators of the industry.   Mr Akpeena said beneficiaries would be awarded internationally accredited certificates that could earn industry related jobs in Ghana and abroad, especially in Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa and the Middle East.   GNA...

A man who wanted short-cut to wealth has allegely been swindled by three Nigerian pastors who fleeced of him GH¢12,000.

From Linda Asante Agyei: A GNA Special Correspondent, Kampala, Uganda   Accra, July 10, GNA - Journalists have been asked to see themselves as the mirror of society relating issues to both government and the general public, especially when the world is advancing in technological development.   “With the emergence of biotechnology, which has received a lot of negative perceptions and fears, you need to equip yourselves with the facts and help allay the fears of our people”.   Dr James .A. Ogwang, Director of the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) of the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organisation, said on Tuesday when a group of science journalists from Africa and Europe paid a courtesy call on him as part of a media study tour to Uganda’s biotechnology laboratory facilities.   The media tour was sponsored by the Uganda’s NARO, Africa Harvest, a Biotech Foundation International and the European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBio).   The tour was aimed at offering the journalists, including those from Europe, an insight into the challenges and opportunities that Africa is facing in terms of food security. It was also to enable these journalists see how African researchers, farmers and the collaboration between public private partnerships to address the challenges, including biotechnology.   Dr Ogwang noted that Africa is faced with challenges of food security despite the widespread of cultivation, and mentioned climate change, emergence of pest diseases and drought among others as key examples.   “We therefore need to move from our traditional way of farming to the use of biotechnology and genetically engineering to address food security and improve our crop varieties”, he added.   The NaCRRI Director expressed the concern that many African politicians were not aware of the dangers our current traditional agricultural practices could pose in the near future and “We as research scientists and journalists have to help them understand and appreciate the need to embrace this whole idea of biotechnology”.   Uganda, which has the best biotechnology laboratory facilities, is undertaking Confined Field Trials for seven of its main food crops. These are different varieties of bananas, cassava, cotton, maize and sweet potatoes.      “All what has been done is on Confined Field Trials whilst our biosafety bill is currently being discussed in parliament and we will go straight into commercialization”.   Uganda’s testing of biotech cassava is to fight the cassava brown streak virus, which causes deadly streaks in the roots, whilst biotech corn would be resistant to drought, cotton to bollworm and banana to wilting.     Journalists earlier toured NaCRRI biotechnology laboratories, Bio sciences laboratories, the greenhouses and sweet potato experiments sites, the virus resistant cassava confined field trials as well as the farms of some Ugandan farmers.   GNA...

The Electoral Commission has denied media reports that it has rejected the colours submitted by the National Democratic Party for registration as a political party.

Accra, July 10, GNA - The Tema Metropolitan Assembly has elected a 37-year old Mr. Romeo Elikplim Akahoho as its new presiding member.   Mr. Akahoho polled 37 out a total of 46 votes to occupy the seat. He had five more votes than the required minimum of 32 votes to qualify for the position.   The position of Presiding Member for the Tema Metropolitan Assembly became vacant when the former presiding member, Mr. Jonathan Otu Okunor, had to leave his position to become an Assembly member in the newly created Kpone District.   Mr. Akahoho's only contender, Captain Ben Edmund Duah (retired), lost with the remaining nine votes.   A third contestant, Mr. Baba Abdulai, in his introductory speech before the commencement of voting, dropped from the contest, saying "We need a Presiding Member who is capable. I am stepping down because that person is right here. That person is Romeo Akahoho. I urge my supporters to vote for him."   In his acceptance speech, Mr. Akahoho, who had lost to Mr. Okunor two years ago, when he first contested against him for the position, noted "It has never happened before in this Assembly for a contestant to win within the first round of voting so easily. It is a sign of unity and we will keep it going."   He said there was the need to create more revenue to develop the Tema Metropolis.   "The main thing is to identify areas of revenue generation that we have not tapped."   He also promised to work hard towards improving the lot of members of the Assembly.   The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Robert Ofosuware, congratulated the Assembly members for conducting themselves well without any partisan behavior.   "We have done it without going through any rigorous processes. What is left ahead now is what is most important. We would ensure that areas that lack development are promptly tackled," he said.   GNA...