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Ama Official Has Been Arrested And This Is Why

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NANA KWESI COOMSON
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Kay Verli and Ama Official

It has been alleged that TikTok star, Ama Official has been arrested. According to multiple reports by Instagram blogger, @Mari Gyata, Ama was lured by her fellow TikToker, Asantewaa on a fake deal.

It was alleged that Ama was contacted by a fake company that wanted her to be a brand ambassador. They asked her to come to Accra to come and market some products. They promised to pay 5000 cedis for the deal.

As desperate as she was, Ama traveled all the way from Kumasi to Accra only to be arrested by the Amasam police.

She was accused of defamation and lying that Asantewaa’s brother, Kay Verli had impregnated her and leaked her n√de photos on social media.

Source: ghanacelebrities.com

Politics is serious business, focus on creative arts …Ola Michael advises Lilwin

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NANA KWESI COOMSON
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Ola Michael and Lilwin

Michael Kwaku Ola, an independent filmmaker, events producer, and on-air personality, has offered his advice to Kumawood actor and comedian Kwadwo Nkansah, popularly known as Lilwin, regarding his foray into politics.

Ola Michael emphasized that engaging in politics is a significant endeavor that requires seriousness and dedication, unlike the casual nature of a concert.

He urged Lilwin to reconsider his decision to enter politics and instead focus on his creative career.

Speaking on the UTV Showbiz Night, Ola Michael expressed concerns about the advice Lilwin is receiving from those close to him, suggesting that the encouragement to pursue a political career might ultimately backfire and yield unfavorable results.

He proposed that Lilwin should direct his resources towards his existing ventures or other worthwhile endeavors, rather than diverting them into the political arena.

“The truth might be uncomfortable, but being a member of parliament is a serious undertaking, not a mere concert. I believe it’s too early for him to be contemplating politics. He should concentrate on managing his school and nurturing his creative talents,” Ola Michael commented.

He further advised against Lilwin’s potential venture into politics and recommended that the actor take to heart the guidance provided by individuals such as former President Mahama, who cautioned against pursuing a political path.

“Even former President Mahama advised him not to go into politics, he should pay heed to that advice. I think he should not try venturing into politics, he should throw his resources into something worth spending on”.

Source; pulse.com.gh

Romania gas station hit by deadly explosions

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Fire fighters work as flames rise after an explosion at a LPG station in Crevedia, near Bucharest

At least one person has been killed and 57 others, including 39 firefighters, wounded after two explosions rocked a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) station close to Romania’s capital Bucharest on Saturday, officials have said.

The firefighters were injured in a second explosion as they were helping douse the fire in Crevedia commune, north of the capital, according to the government. At least 10 of those wounded were in critical condition, according to hospital representatives and local media.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the injured might be sent abroad for treatment.

“We think four of the patients will more than certainly be transferred tonight to hospitals in Italy and Belgium,” Ciolacu told reporters after an emergency meeting with the state agencies involved in handling the crisis.

Ciolacu attended a crisis cell meeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs after the explosion.

About 3,000 people within an 800-metre (875-yard) radius have been evacuated, according to the ministry.

Source: Aljazeera.com

US Marines killed after aircraft crashes during military drill in Australia

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Two V-22 Osprey aircraft during joint exercises between US and Philippine troops in April

A United States military aircraft crashed on a north Australian island on Sunday, killing three Marines and injuring 20 during a multination training exercise, officials said.

Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five of the 23 on board had been flown in serious conditions 80km (50 miles) to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed around 9:30am local time, a statement from the US Marines said.

Australia’s defence ministry said the accident happened during the annual Predator Run exercises involving the militaries of Australia, the United States, East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the crash a “tragic” incident.

“Our focus as a government and as a department of defence is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time,” he said.

Australian personnel were not involved, Albanese said.

Source: Aljazeera.com

Most wanted terrorist killed, says Mozambique

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The government of Mozambique says its armed forces have killed the leader of a jihadist group linked to Islamic State which is fighting in the north of the country.

The defence ministry said Bonomade Machude Omar – also known as Ibn Omar – had led the insurgents since the start of the conflict in 2017.

A statement said he was killed along with two other senior members.

There has been no independent confirmation of the deaths.

Two years ago, the US state department designated Omar as a terrorist leader, blaming him for attacks in Cabo Delgado province, including the killing of dozens of people at a hotel in Palma.

A month before that, Mozambique’s military launched a major offensive against the Islamists with the support of hundreds of soldiers from Rwanda and several southern African countries.

According to the government, Omar and two associates from the Islamic State-linked group were killed in a forest in Macomia in an operation carried out with the army’s foreign allies.

It happened on Tuesday, said Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi during a news conference on Friday.

The UN says the violence in northern Mozambique has forced more than a million people to flee their homes.

The violence has also forced a multi-billion-dollar gas project to be put on hold.

Source: bbc.com

Zimbabwe’s President Mnangagwa wins second term, opposition rejects result

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Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has won a second and final term in office in an outcome rejected by the opposition and questioned by observers.

Mnangagwa, who took over from longtime leader Robert Mugabe after a 2017 army coup, was widely expected to secure re-election despite the country’s continuing economic crisis, with analysts saying the contest was heavily skewed in favour of the ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the country since independence and the end of white minority rule in 1980.

Mnangagwa won 52.6 percent of the vote compared with 44 percent for Nelson Chamisa, his main challenger, according to official results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) late on Saturday.

“Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo of ZANU-PF party is declared duly elected president of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” ZEC chairwoman Justice Chigumba told journalists.

The elections were marred by delays that fuelled opposition accusations of rigging and voter suppression but a small group of ruling party supporters celebrated the outcome on Saturday.

But Promise Mkwananzi, a spokesman for the Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) said the party had not signed the final tally, which he described as “false”.

Source: Aljazeera.com

Wagner boss Prigozhin confirmed dead in plane crash -Moscow

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Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been confirmed dead after genetic analysis of bodies found in Wednesday’s plane crash, Russian officials say.

The Investigative Committee (SK) said the identities of all 10 victims had been established and corresponded to those on the flight’s passenger list.

Prigozhin’s private jet came down north-west of Moscow on 23 August, killing all those on board.

The Kremlin has denied speculation it was to blame for the crash.

The SK said it was continuing a criminal investigation.

“Molecular-genetic testing has been completed,” it said in a statement.

“According to its results, the identities of all 10 deceased have been established, and they correspond to the list published in the flight manifest.”

The victims include several senior figures in Wagner, a Russian mercenary group set up by Prigozhin and involved in military operations in Ukraine, Syria and parts of Africa.

Among them was Dmitry Utkin, who managed Wagner’s military operations.

The others on the Embraer Legacy plane – flying from Moscow to St Petersburg – included Wagner members Valery Chekalov, Sergei Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin and Nikolay Matuseyev.

Source: bbc.com

GPHA Demonstrates Commitment to Fish Hygiene; Renovated Fish Market

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Management of Tema Fishing Harbour during meeting with Stakeholders at Fish Market Hall

As part of efforts to continue to deliver on the mandate of providing suitable, safe and hygienic facilities for fishing vessels and fish handling activities, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority has refurbished the Fish Market Hall at the Tema Fishing Harbour.

The refurbished Fish Market Hall which took 7 months to renovate cost the Port Authority 3 million Ghana Cedis.

During the reopening ceremony with the various stakeholders of the facility, the General Manager of the Tema Fishing Harbour, Ing. Kwabena Asamoah said the investment ties into the objectives of the Authority to ensure that fish brought to the harbour are handled in a hygienic and conducive manner.

“The fish market has been constructed many years ago and the situation was very deplorable. When it rains, the roof was leaking badly and the place was very unhygienic. Management thought it wise to invest in money to raise and renovate the whole market to bring it to a certain standard.

In fact, we used 0.8mm aluminium roofing sheet which is very difficult to find on the market and in fact that prolonged the project a little bit.”

The Operations Manager at the Tema Fishing Harbour, Adlina Amoyaw said the Authority will ensure that the rules and regulations governing the use of the facility are adhered to.

“We have formed a task force out of their executives. They are going to liaise with the operations unit and the security department,” she said.

Similarly, the Tema President of the Ghana Inshore Fisheries Association, Joe Kramo committed to play his role effectively to ensure that the activities of his members align with the expectations of the Port Authority.

“We intend that this year with the new edifice behind us that we shall make sure that we clean after we close. We will sweep and do everything to make sure that here becomes fit for fish business and even a tourist attraction like in Sekondi and Elmina.”

 

EPA, Norwegian Partners Impressed with GPHA’s Oil Spill Response

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The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority has once again demonstrated that it is capable of preventing oil spills and mitigating the spread of an oil spill during any unfortunate incident within the port environment.

Over the course the week, the Port Authority participated in the ongoing National Oil Spill Equipment Inventory Exercise, where the Environmental Protection Agency and their Norwegian technical partners are assessing capabilities and preparedness of on-shore and off-shore facilities and resources in-country to tackle oil spills.

Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency and their partners from Norway expressed satisfaction at the Authority’s human and technical resources available to fight oil spills.

Larry Koteo, Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency said, “annually, we have been having some national exercises at the Tier one and Tier 2 levels with GPHA for some time now.

We are very much impressed about the capabilities that they do have and then getting some additional information from them that they are getting some more of these capabilities in terms of the response equipment. We find that very impressive and it is an assert for the country.

EPA is happy about it because once there is any oil spill anywhere within our marine waters we can fall on GPHA to support.”

Helge Andersen, Special Advisor, Environment Emergency Response, Norwegian Coastal Administration intimated that his outfit is happy to see the seriousness attached to environmental threats in Ghana’s maritime setup.

“If you see all these ships around here anything can happen. They can go grounding, they can collide and then spill oil in the sea. It’s important to have equipment available within short time to try to get the oil off the water before it hits the shore line, harms wild life or pollutes the beaches and all these kind of things. So to have equipment available close to harbour like this is very important.”

According to GPHA, the organisation will continue to upgrade its capacities in order to remain a reliable point of call for Ghana so far as oil spill response is concerned.

Capt. Daniel Quartey is the Deputy Harbour Master and on-scene commander at GPHA.

He explained that the Authority conducts these inspections in-house regularly and conduct necessary drills quarterly to ensure they stay on-top of the job at all times.

“Because of the hard work we put in and the effort of the management seeing the wisdom behind all these things, giving us the resources, the backup, the confirmations and all that. We were able to prove to them that it is not just having the equipment but we have the men as well,” he added.

VAT on betting was practically flawed – GRA

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Lottery Tax Implementation Project Manager at GRA, Thomas Agosor

The Ghana Revenue Authority has intimated that the new betting taxes being implemented are in line with global practice. The Revenue Authority has also said that these new taxes are in line with government’s goal to ensure that every income earner is brought into the tax net.

This message was resounded by the Lottery Tax Implementation Project Manager at GRA, Thomas Agosor who was interacting with the public live on the Eye on Port program.

He said the Authority deemed it necessary to discontinue charging bettors Value Added Tax (VAT) as it was practically flawed, thus replacement of those tax laws.

Mr. Agosor said “VAT is one of the efficient ways of mobilizing revenue and per the data I have reviewed, it contributes more than half of the total revenue we collect from the gaming sector so for government to replace with a new tax, it must be a tough decision.

For any tax policy that is introduced, compliance is key and we have noticed that because of the unique nature of the gaming operation, the industry has not been able to implement the VAT as per the law.”

“VAT had been operational in the sector since 2013 and that meant that any gaming operator that has set wager or stakes in any game of chance has to charge VAT and this had been in the books for a long time. The gaming operators were required to pay corporate tax on their net profit.

But we have reviewed the literature and realised that Ghana had been one of the few countries still taxing the industry like any other industry. The new taxes will have gaming operators pay tax on gross gaming revenue and a token withholding tax has been imposed on the winnings for players,” he continued.

Indeed, as recalled, the GRA from the 15th of August began the implementation of a 10% withholding tax exacted from gross winnings from all betting, gaming, lotto and other games of chance.

This means bettors will now pay a withholding tax of 10% of the profits accrued on wins, and this replaces the existing 15% VAT that is charged.

In addition to this, operators of gaming will pay a 20% tax on Gross Gaming Revenue to replace Corporate Income Tax.

According to the GRA a sum of 1.2 Billion Ghana Cedis is expected to

be collected during the initial stages of implementation.

Mr. Agosor stated that his outfit through its mystery shopping and other monitoring tactics and tools, will ensure that the new betting tax laws are complied with.

He revealed that stakeholders in the gaming sector have expressed mixed reactions with a majority of bettors excited.

“At the GRA we are not excited because we are losing so much, but industry is excited and players are happy. The only thing we are trying to manage is the tax on the winning and we are sure after these media engagements we will come to accept this over time.”

The Ghana Revenue Authority is therefore encouraging all betting operators to collaborate with government to ensure full compliance to avoid facing the full rigors of the law.

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