Author: Krobea

US President Donald Trump has met Pope Francis for a short private audience on the third leg of his overseas trip. The Vatican said after the meeting that there had been an “exchange of views” on several unspecified international issues, and spoke of the need to continue good bilateral relations. The two men have already clashed at a distance on issues including migration and climate change. Mr Trump is also meeting Italy’s president and prime minister. Later, he will fly to Brussels for a Nato summit. He earlier vowed to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace, as he ended the…

Do you ever think of the heights arts can reach unhindered? It offers opportunities that have often been unimaginable. Think of the many ways you can express your thoughts through the arts. In drama, music, painting, poetry, pottery, sculpture, sketches. It could be represented in architecture, illustrations, landscaping or weaving. That is the opportunity FRTR offered budding Egyptian artists. Mashrabia’s Invisible Presence for instance, created the platform to open sensitive discourses about the body through visual arts, without a verbal proposal. Yes, you could have your most erotic thoughts represented pictorially without a word. Be they nudity, shape, colour or…

Former National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament and one of the frontrunners in the party’s presidential race Professor Joshua Alabi has categorically rejected claims that he has endorsed a candidate for the 2020 contest. A former minister of state, Professor Alabi says reports making rounds in the media about him endorsing Former President John Mahama are misleading as they are messages of solidarity for the former NDC leader prior to the 2016 polls. But after the elections, he says what he has said about Mr Mahama is that the results of the 2016 elections should be seen as the…

The 22 students recently rusticated by authorities at University of Cape Coast (UCC) have secured an injunction on the decision. A Cape Coast High Court on Tuesday, May 23 placed the interim injunction on the several suspension of the students. Presided over by Justice William Boampong, the Court ordered the school not to restrain the students from writing their end-of-semester exams. University of Cape Coast rusticated the students as per the recommendation of an eight-member disciplinary committee chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor. The students, most of whom are executives of Atlantic Hall, where the violence took place, were rusticated between…

Convicted fraudster and former Nigerian state governor James Ibori has been awarded £1 ($1.30) for being unlawfully detained for 42 hours in the UK. Ibori was jailed in the UK for fraud totalling nearly £50m in 2012. He was due to be released on 20 December but instead was held in immigration detention. After he was released he launched his claim against the Home Secretary Amber Rudd for damages for false imprisonment and breach of his rights. On Monday Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the home secretary had been “wrong throughout her dealings with Mr Ibori over the weeks leading to…

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, has revealed that one of the impediments confronting the fight against illegal small-scale mining popularly called galamsey has been military protection the miners get. The Minister asserted that at some of the illegal mining sites, one will find out that the military are present in full operation, protecting the mining companies. On Onua 95.1 FM’s morning show Yensempa, Mr Amewu said on Monday when he and his team visited some of the sites, where two Ukrainian and two Russian nationals were arrested, both the military and the police were in…

Minister of Energy Boakye Agyarko has dismissed suggestions that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will be privatized under Compact II of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). He explained that the country’s major energy-distribution body will have its assets rather leased for 20 years under the Compact. Mr Agyarko made this known on Tuesday, May 23 at a bidders’ conference for ECG’s concession in Accra. The conference is aimed at selecting a final concessionaire for ECG. The Energy Minister insisted that government will continue to own 100 per cent of the assets of the Company. Government is under pressure to…

Former President John Dramani Mahama on Monday, May 22 addressed a session at the 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank held in Ahmedadab, India. Speaking on the theme: ‘Agriculture is Cool: Engaging Africa’s Youth’, Former President Mahama made a case for governments on the continent to transform the sector to attract the youth. He said his father was one of the early farmers to go into large-scale production in Ghana but he, like many others, would not have succeeded without support from governments. “There is a huge potential in agriculture both for providing food and providing jobs,” he…

Two men have been caned 83 times each in the Indonesian province of Aceh after being caught having sex. The men stood on stage in white gowns praying while a team of hooded men lashed their backs with a cane. The pair, aged 20 and 23, were found in bed together by vigilantes who entered their private accommodation in March. They have not been identified. Gay sex is not illegal in most of Indonesia but it is in Aceh, the only province which exercises Islamic law. It is the first time gay men have been caned under Sharia law in…

The US Ambassador, Robert Jackson, has launched the 2017 Primary School Insecticide-Treated Nets distribution campaign. The launch was on Monday, May 22 at the Southern LEKMA Cluster of Schools in Accra. Ambassador Jackson joined officials from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, representatives from the health and education sectors, and primary school teachers and children at the event, which celebrated the beginning of a US government-supported campaign to distribute 1.3 million nets to Grade 2 and Grade 6 students throughout Ghana. The US government has supported this campaign, in partnership with the Ghanaian government, since 2013. It is…