Author: Publisher

Ghana Ready For World Cup – Ankrah

{{Ghana Sports Minister Elvis Ankrah is confident the team will prepare in the right way for a successful World Cup.}}

The Black Stars reached the quarter-finals in 2010, where they lost in penalties to Uruguay, and are tipped to do well in Brazil this summer.

Ankrah says, “Preparation determines everything and the players know what is at stake -they are ready to bring honour to the country.

“The team is unified and I believe they will make Ghana and Africa proud.”

Kwesi Appiah’s side were emphatic 7-3 aggregate winners over Egypt in the African play-offs to reach Brazil and many are expecting the team to make a big impact at the finals.

But they face a difficult task to emerge from Group G, having been drawn against Germany, Portugal and United States.

Ankrah, though, believes Ghana’s fate lies in their own hands and insists the determining factor in whether they are successful will be the the work they put in before the tournament begins.

“We are doing everything possible to ensure that the team is in good shape,” he said. “We will camp in Holland and the USA, play four friendlies and then proceed to Brazil.

Everything is on course, the spirit of the team is very high.

“Input determines output and I have been saying this right from the beginning. Success is not automatic, you don’t just achieve because you wish to. You must put in the effort, you must pay the price and I have been drumming this home right from the time we qualified.

“I believe that the message has got through to every player, the technical team and the Football Association.

“A lot of people are looking to Ghana as representatives of the continent. A lot will depend upon the effort an input we put into the preparation. Through hard work, sacrifice and input we will get results.”

One issue that might derail Ghana is the persistent rumour that the FA is planning to appoint a foreign technical director to assist Appiah at the finals – a scenario that would unsettle and undermine the coach.

Ankrah said he had only “heard it and also read it in the papers – so I cannot confirm or deny it” and added that “I need to be properly briefed before I can make any comment on that”.

However, he is adamant that Ghana are completely behind Appiah.

“We have a Ghanaian coach – an African coach – in Kwesi Appiah and we have confidence in him” he said.

“We have stated that we are ready to give him all necessary support, the best in the world, for him to be able to deliver. So in principle that is our position, that we will offer him all he needs technically, tactically and financially, to ensure he delivers.”

And the future for the Ghanaian team is bright, according to Ankrah – as long as they follow his mantra of “preparation, preparation, preparation, hard work, hard work, hard work, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice”.

He added: “The difference between the winner and the rest is simple: preparation and practice. There is no magic, there is not any weird formula – a little bit of luck comes into it but you create your own luck through preparation.

“It is possible for an African country to win the World Cup – the sky is the limit.”

March 11, 2014
US Army Sex Crimes Case in Doubt

{{A US army judge has said the military may have improperly pushed for the sex crimes trial of a US army general.}}

Judge Col James Pohl did not dismiss the case, but has offered Brig Gen Jeffrey Sinclair’s lawyers another opportunity for a plea deal.

Gen Sinclair, 51, is accused of sexually assaulting and threatening a female captain with whom he was having an affair.

He has admitted the affair but denied assaulting or threatening the woman.

The US military has come under heavy pressure amid what the Pentagon has called an epidemic of rape and other sex crimes.

On Monday, Col Pohl said he had found evidence, in newly-disclosed emails, of unlawful influence from senior military echelons in the decision to reject a plea deal before the trial.

Gen Sinclair’s defence has argued the former deputy commander of the elite 82nd Airborne Division was the victim of overzealous prosecutors under political pressure.

His lawyers now have until Tuesday morning to decide whether to submit a plea bargain proposal to a different set of military officials, or let the court martial proceed.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” lawyer Richard Scheff said. “It’s a mess created by the government. It wasn’t created by us. We have so many options, we don’t even know what they all are.”

Earlier, Gen Sinclair pleaded guilty to three lesser charges against him, including adultery, which is illegal in the military. He faces up to 15 years in prison on the guilty pleas.

Military prosecutors had no comment after Monday’s hearing.

Gen Sinclair’s accuser took the stand on Friday, alleging the Army general had threatened to kill her and her family if she ever told anyone of their three-year affair.

Prosecutors have alleged he twice ended arguments about their relationship by forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

The Pentagon has estimated that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted in 2012, based on an anonymous survey.

On Monday, the US Senate approved a bill changing how the US military justice system deals with sexual assault, including prohibiting the use of the “good soldier defence” to raise doubts that a crime has been committed and giving accusers a greater say in whether their cases are tried in a civilian or military court.

A more wide-reaching bill on the issue was rejected by the Senate last week.

March 11, 2014
US Firm Buys 2.5% Man United Stake

{{An American investment firm has acquired a quarter of all the Manchester United shares available on the New York Stock Exchange, the club announced on Tuesday.}}

Baron Capital now owns 24 percent of all the shares that were sold by United’s owners, the Glazer family, in 2012, although that represents only a 2.5 percent stake in the club.

The Glazers, who purchased United in 2005, released 10 percent of the club onto the stock market in August 2012, but they still retain a 90 percent stake.

Analysts believe that Baron Capital’s move, announced on United’s investor relations website, represents a long-term investment rather than a bid to one day acquire a controlling interest in the club.

The news comes with the United team struggling following the departure of long-serving former manager Alex Ferguson in May last year.

Under his successor, David Moyes, United have fallen out of contention for domestic silverware and are on the verge of elimination in the Champions League after a 2-0 loss to Olympiakos in the first leg of their last 16 tie.

Baron Capital said that reports of a new multi-million dollar contract with US sportswear manufacturer Nike had encouraged it to increase its stake in the club despite United’s on-pitch troubles.

“Shares of Manchester United dropped due to a delay in the signing of a new global merchandise deal with Nike and the team’s poor performance on the field,” the firm said in a statement on its website.

“The Nike deal is still expected to be signed, but has been pushed out from this fiscal year. We remain positive on the company’s prospects going forward.”

United’s share price closed at $15.84 (11.44 euros) on Monday, which was its highest level since November.

{wirestory}

March 11, 2014
Kenya:10 Killed in Nandi Hills Car Crash

{{At least 10 people were killed on Tuesday morning after a matatu plunged into a valley on the Nandi Hills-Chemelil road, police said, and warned motorists to exercise caution whenever driving on the route which is known to have numerous black spots.}}

Four others, including two children whose ages could not be ascertained immediately sustained serious injuries and were rushed to the Nandi Hills District Hospital for emergency treatment.

Police said the 14-seater matatu was ferrying passengers from Eldoret through Kapsabet to Kisii when the accident occurred at Chepsangor shortly after 10am.

“We have a very bad accident in Nandi Hills where 10 people have died,” national traffic police chief Samuel Kimaru said on telephone from Salgaa, on the outskirts of Nakuru town where he was attending a road safety campaign.

Salgaa, located on the Nakuru-Eldoret road is one of the country’s black spots, with many road accidents occurring there.

Several accidents have occurred at the spot, the latest being on Saturday night when 11 members of the same family perished on their way back from a dowry-paying event.

“We are stressing the need to observe road safety regulations. That is what we are doing here at Salgaa,” Kimaru said. “Witnesses have told our officers that the (Kisii-bound) matatu was going down the hill at dangerously high speed.”

While police said 10 people had been killed, Kenya Red Cross officials whose volunteers were reported to be at the scene coordinating rescue efforts, placed the death toll at 16.

“16 feared dead and 3 casualties evacuated to Nandi Hills district hospital,” an update on the society’s Twitter handle stated.

Police however, insisted that the matatu was carrying 14 people.

It was not immediately clear if the dead included people outside of the matatu.

Kenya’s road safety record is one of the worst with 3,200 people having been killed in road accidents in the country last year according to statistics from Traffic Police headquarters.

Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau has assured Kenyans he is determined to minimise road accident fatalities after initiating various measures – including the use of alcoblow – which aid police to identify and prosecute drunk drivers, both during the day and at night.

The government also imposed strict guidelines for night travel which many transport operators have failed to meet.

In the meantime, two cases challenging the implementation of alcoblow will be heard on Monday next week.

March 11, 2014
Elephants Can Tell Difference Between Human Languages

{{African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat, a skill they have honed to survive in the wild, researchers said Monday}}.

The study suggests elephants, already known to be intelligent creatures, are even more sophisticated than previously believed when it comes to understanding human dangers.

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are the largest land animals on Earth and are considered a vulnerable species due to habitat loss and illegal hunting for their ivory tusks.

Researchers played recordings of human voices for elephants at Amboseli National Park in Kenya to see how they would respond, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Some of the voices were from local Maasai men, a group that herds cattle and sometimes comes into conflict with elephants over access to water and grazing space. Occasionally, elephants are killed in clashes with Maasai men, and vice-versa.

Other recorded voices were from Kamba men, who tend to be farmers or employees of the national park, and who rarely represent a danger to elephants.

Still other voices tested on the elephants included female Maasai speakers and young boys.

All were saying the same phrase: “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming.”

The recorded voices were played for hundreds of elephants across 47 family groups during daylight hours.

When elephants heard the adult male Maasai voices, they tended to gather together, start investigative smelling with their trunks, and move cautiously away.

But when elephants heard females, boys, or adult male Kamba speakers, they did not show concern.

“The ability to distinguish between Maasai and Kamba men delivering the same phrase in their own language suggests that elephants can discriminate between different languages,” said co-author Graeme Shannon, a visiting fellow in psychology at the University of Sussex.

That is not the same as understanding what the words mean, but still shows that elephants can decipher the more sing-songy Maasai language from the Kamba tongue, perhaps based on inflections, use of vowels, and other cues.

“It is very sophisticated what the elephants are doing,” said Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist and member of the scientific advisory committee of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project.

“A lot of animals will take flight at just the general threat posed by people, but a smart animal doesn’t do that,” he told media.

“Their response to hearing Maasai men talking was to be alert, to move away, but not to run away in total fear,” added Lindsay, who was not involved in the study.

“It is suggesting that elephants are capable of thinking, (of) recognizing that if Maasai men are talking, they are not likely to be hunting because if they were hunting, they would be quiet.”

Elephant groups with older matriarchs in their midst did best at assessing the threat from different speakers, further bolstering the presumed role of learning in the animals’ behaviour.

The elephants also did not act the same way as they did when recordings of lions were played, as was shown in a previous study.

In those scenarios, they bunched together so that juveniles – those most at risk from a lion attack – were in the centre, and moved toward the sounds as if to scare the lion away.

When it comes to recognizing people, elephants may not be alone in this ability. Other research has suggested that wild bottlenose dolphins in Brazil have become so familiar with humans that they engage in cooperative hunting with artisanal fisherman.

Great apes, crows and even prairie dogs have also been shown to differentiate between humans on some level.

A separate study published last month in the journal PLoS ONE showed elephants even have specific alarm calls for when humans are near, suggesting the relationship between people and elephants has reached a troubling point and that conservation efforts are more important than ever.

“We have become a formal enemy of the elephants,” said Lori Marino, an expert on animal intelligence at Emory University.

“They can not only make some distinctions between us, but we are now on their list of species to watch out for.”

AFP

March 11, 2014
Conflicting Local Laws Hampering Execution of EAC Protocol – Official

{{The different legal regimes in East African Community member states are a new restriction to the implementation of the East African Community treaty and protocol.}}

According to Ms Allen Asiimwe, the Uganda country director Trade Mark East Africa, despite the elimination of non-tariff barriers previously thought to be the problem, conflict among the laws governing professional associations and services in member states is a new obstacle to the implementation of the treaty and protocol.

{{Restrictive laws}}

While addressing officials at a breakfast meeting about the integration process in Kampala yesterday, Ms Asiimwe observed that despite recent developments such as the introduction of EAC single tourist visa last month and the single customs territory last year, the integration process in East Africa is still finding challenges because of the laws governing professional associations and services.

She said such laws are proving restrictive and protective rather than facilitating the smooth coordination of the integration process.

March 11, 2014
Ousted Ukrainian President Announces Return

{{Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday said that he remained Ukraine’s legitimate president and commander-in-chief, saying he believed he would be able to return to Kiev soon.}}

“I remain not just the sole legitimate president of Ukraine but also commander-in-chief,” he said in his first public appearance in a week in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

“As soon as the circumstances allow — and I am sure there is not long to wait — I will without doubt return to Kiev.”

AFP

March 11, 2014
Pistorius Had ‘Big Love For Guns’

{{A friend of Oscar Pistorius has told his murder trial that the athlete “had a big love” for guns.}}

Darren Fresco said that he had been with him on two occasions when a gun had been fired in public.

Mr Pistorius once accidentally fired a gun in a restaurant but made him take the blame, Mr Fresco said.

The Paralympic athlete denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and says he mistook her for a burglar.

Mr Fresco said that on another occasion, he was driving when Mr Pistorius fired a gun out of a sunroof after police stopped him for speeding.

He said Mr Pistorius became angry after a police officer handled his gun, which was on the back seat of the car.

“You can’t just touch another man’s gun,” said Mr Pistorius, according to Mr Fresco.

“Now your fingerprints are all over my gun. So if something happens, you’re going to be liable for anything that happens,” Mr Pistorius reportedly said.

Mr Pistorius’ ex-girlfriend described the same incident in court in the first week of the trial.

March 11, 2014
EAC Sec.Gen. in Brussels For Development Meeting

{{The Secretary General of the East African Community Dr. Richard Sezibera is in Brussels, Belgium to take part in the Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, and Indian Ocean’s 11th European Development Fund (EDF) regional programming taking place from 13-14 March 2014. }}

Sezibera, who is in Brussels at the invitation of the European Commission and European External Action Service, will join the other CEOs of RECs in the Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, and Indian Ocean Union region to finalize the Rules of Procedures, Memorandum of Understanding on the governance of the Regional Indicative Programme; and a list of actions to be financed under the cross-regional envelope.

The Secretary General and his colleagues will also report on the state of play of the programming of the sub-regional envelopes, on the strategic priorities as well as programming process of the infrastructure envelope, and on the way forward.

The presence of the CEOs of the RECS at this material time will go a long way to define the best possible support from the European Union to regional integration and cooperation in East and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile the Secretary General met and held talks with the Rt. Hon. Sabine de Bethune, President of the Belgian Senate and the Rt. Hon. Andre Flahaut, Speaker of the Belgian Parliament.

Sezibera briefed his hosts on the latest development at the EAC and the key milestones being made. He informed the senior Legislators that the EAC has been building a Customs Union since 2005, implementing the Common Market since 2010, and had signed the Monetary Union Protocol in November 2013, and was now laying the foundations for a Political Federation of the Countries of East Africa.

He also briefed them on functions and roles of the East African Legislative Assembly and the East African Court of Justice in the regional integration process.

The Secretary General is set to meet H.E. Didier Reynders, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, External Trade and European Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium on Wednesday 12 March 2014 in Brussels.

March 11, 2014
Militias Allied to Janjaweed Preparing To Attack

{{The Sudanese government has rushed military reinforcements to the north Darfur state following reports that militias allied to the feared Janjaweed militia are preparing an attack.}}

Last Saturday, the governor of North Darfur state, Mr Mohamed Yousif Kibir, called on the central government to urgently intervene following clashes in the area.

Sudanese minister of Defence Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussien arrived in Elfashir, the capital of the state, on Monday to chair urgent top level security meetings.

The minister confirmed the government has sent heavy military reinforcements to support the local government in North Darfur, in addition to aid.

Mr Hussien told reporters after the meeting that they had discussed how to prevent any extension of the current conflict.

Suspected Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal has declared war on President Omar Al-Bashir’s government.

Hilal is said by the US State Department to be the leader of the famous pro-government Janjaweed that fights in Darfur.

Heavy fighting has been reported in Saraf Omra area in the state considered as a Hilal stronghold.

Meanwhile the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has said that thousands of people fleeing the widespread fighting were seeking refuge at the UN compound in north Darfur.

UNAMID said in a press release Monday that thousands of displaced from the town of Saraf Omra, are currently seeking refuge in the vicinity of UNAMID’s base.

{{Looting}}

“The Mission is providing protection and water to those affected, as well as medical treatment for more than 30 wounded people. It is working with the humanitarian community in taking the necessary steps to provide further much needed assistance,” the statement said.

UNAMID “patrols have observed looting around the town and the destruction of the local market. Reconciliation efforts among the tribes are taking place, however the situation remains tense and those displaced are in need of critical of food and proper sanitary conditions.

“The incident in Saraf Omra comes in the wake of other recent episodes of violence in Darfur, most notably in El Taweisha and Alliet areas in North Darfur, and in South Darfur, where thousands were displaced following the looting and destruction of villages in the areas of Um Gunja and Hijer.”

“We continue to call upon the authorities to allow it unhindered and immediate access to these areas, so that it can carry out its core activity for the protection of civilians as mandated by the AU and the UN, and as consented to by the Sudanese government.”

NMG

March 11, 2014