Senegal urged to stop clampdown on dissent as protesters shot dead

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Senegal urged to stop clampdown on dissent as protesters shot dead

LONDON, United-Kingdom, January 31, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Senegal’s security forces must stop their violent clampdown on dissent, Amnesty International said today after two people were killed during protests in the city of Podor.

One young male protester and an elderly female bystander were shot dead by the gendarmerie, who opened fire on a crowd demonstrating against the Constitutional Council decision to uphold President Abdoulaye Wade’s right to stand for a third term in next month’s election.

“Today’s bloodshed marks a dramatic escalation in the violence that has plagued Senegal in the run up to its elections,” said Salvatore Saguès, Amnesty International’s West Africa researcher.

“As further protests are planned for tomorrow, we call on the authorities to refrain from using live bullets against peaceful protesters”.

Mamadou Sy, aged around 20, and Bana Ndiaye, aged around 60, were shot during protests in Podor, some 500 km north of Senegal’s capital Dakar.

An eyewitness told Amnesty International: “We were walking peacefully when suddenly security forces dressed in blue and belonging to the gendarmerie fired at the marchers with live bullets. People fell in front of me.”

Protests have rocked Senegal since its Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that current President Wade would be allowed to stand for a third term. Today the council rejected an appeal by the opposition to overturn the decision.

Friday’s protests led to clashes between demonstrators and security forces in which one policeman was killed.

During the unrest, three journalists were beaten by the police. One was a correspondent for the French news agency Agence France Presse and the others were female journalists working for the Senegalese daily le Populaire.

One of the le Populaire journalists, Aminatou Ahane, told Amnesty International: “A policeman got out of his car and ran towards us. We shouted to him that we were journalists and we showed our press cards. He grabbed my colleague’s hair and slapped her in the face, then threw her to the ground. He also kicked me and threw me to the ground whilst insulting me. A policeman then came to rescue us.”

Amnesty International is also concerned by the detention of Alioune Tine, President of the African Rally for the Defence of Human Rights (Raddho) and national coordinator of the Movement June 23 (M23) that campaigns against President Wade’s third term.

“Alioune Tine has been in custody since Saturday 28 January and no one has seen him. He needs regular medical treatment and we fear that his detention conditions may endanger his health,” said Salvatore Saguès.

Another activist, singer Daddy Bibson, was abducted by unknown, plainclothed people early Saturday morning, a few hours after the first demonstrations. He was beaten and threatened.

Bibson says the men told him that rap singers could not decide the future of the country, before he was released about 10 hours later.

Bibson is one of the leaders of the M23 and recently published a compilation of songs against President Wade’s candidacy.

“Freedom of expression is under attack in Senegal at precisely the time when open dialogue is critical,” said Salvatore Saguès.

“All of these incidences must be properly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.”

“The Senegalese authorities and security forces must avoid using excessive use of force when dealing with protests,” said Salvatore Saguès.

“Such incidents may act as a deterrent and intimidate anyone else who may wish to voice legitimate criticism of the authorities in the run up to elections.”

SOURCE 

Amnesty International

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GQ Magazine’s 50 Best Dressed Men in Britain 2012.…

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2. Mario Balotelli 

 7. Idris Elba 


12.  Dizzee Rascal

44. Adrien Sauvage 

I’m compiling a list of the best dressed men of Ghanaian descent and whilst doing research, -stumbled across GQ magazine’s 50 Best Dressed Men in Britain 2012.… -And I’m chuffed to bits as it includes four of the men on my list….

Fashion designer Adrien Sauvage came in at number 44, Rapper Dizzee Rascal at 12, actor Idris Elba at number 7 and Ghana Rising fave, footballer Mario Balotelli at number 2. 

***Read more about all the men who made the best-dressed list, plus the ten worst-dressed men in the world, in the new issue of British GQ, priced £3.99, available from Thursday.

Credit: http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2012-01/30/50-best-dressed-men-in-britain/2012

View the original article here

Ramsey Nouah Outshines Ghana Stars

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A new poster of Kobi Rana’s yet-to-be-released movie, ‘Hotel Babylon’, has been released. The movie, which stars Ramsey Nouah and other top Ghanaian actors some months ago generated attention with its appealing trailer on the internet.
News-One could not authenticate the reason for the delay of the release of the movie, but a new poster was released last week to further whet fans’ enthusiasm, Ramsey is the only character on the new poster and questions have been raised about it.
Nana Ama McBrown, Beverly Afaglo, Roslyn Ngissah and Naana Hayford are some of the Ghanaians in the movie but none of them was captured on the poster. The movie was previously in the news for a number of incidents.
One was the report about how Ramsey Nouah, who played the lead, almost met his death on the movie’s set in Kumasi.
Ramsey allegedly crash-landed on a concrete floor when he fell from a building whilst trying a stunt for the movie. Though official medical reports were not made available, it was feared the actor might have suffered internal injuries as he reportedly complained of acute waist pains.
Ramsey could not immediately get up on his feet as he remained on the floor for some time. The set had to break to allow him to recover.

Harry Potter mends relationship with parents after ditching booze

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Daniel Radcliffe has repaired his relationship with his parents since giving up booze, admitting his mum and dad were terrified of talking to him when he was drunk.
The Harry Potter star stunned fans after going public with his battle with the bottle last year, admitting he became reliant on alcohol to have a good time as a teenager.
Radcliffe has since quit drinking altogether and the Brit admits he feels much healthier and happier – and he gets along better with his parents Alan and Marcia too.
He tells the Telegraph magazine, “It’s lovely. I barely think about it, and I’ve got the most fantastic relationship back with my parents because they were worried about me. They found it hard to talk to me because they were so frightened.”
Now the actor relies on his mum to take care of his finances and his property portfolio, which includes two houses in New York, two in London and one in Australia.
He adds, “My mum handles all that. Occasionally she’ll say, ‘We’re being told to invest in stamps. Apparently stamps are going to be worth loads in 10 years. Do I do that?’ And I go, ‘Yeah!'”

Rihanna invests in blinging art

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Rihanna has added to her art collection by snapping up a £100,000 Marilyn Monroe portrait – made of 65,000 crystals.
The Umbrella hitmaker commissioned artist Claire Milner to create the giant piece, which took four months to complete and weighs 182 pounds (83 kilograms).
Milner tells The Sun, “I tried to show the glitter of the public life and then the sadness in Marilyn’s eyes. Because of who Rihanna is, everything had to be done through her interior decorators. But they told me afterwards that she loved it.
“A 100 per cent Swarovski crystal portrait is very luxurious – people stand and stare because it constantly changes colour, sending rainbows round the room.”
Rihanna has spent a fortune decorating her Los Angeles home, which features a gun-shaped chandelier and a Bob Marley tribute painting in her red, yellow and green ‘reggae room’.

MPs Broke After Spending Millions On Primaries

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Months of investigation has unearthed worrying levels of illegal cash payments made by candidates trying to influence voting patterns in their constituencies.
This practice is a violation of Ghana’s electoral laws, unethical and in many cases goes unnoticed. It is also a gamble, often leaving the loser in financial ruin.
A recently ousted lawmaker, who pleaded not to be named for fear of being cited for breach of the nation’s electoral laws, was left with a drained bank account but lost the ticket by what he called “embarrassing margins”.
“You should not be surprised to hear I committed suicide,” the defeated lawmaker said.
“Universities are reopening within the next few days. I am broke to the extent that I may not be able to pay for my daughter to go,” the MP said. He said he hopes his confession, albeit on condition of anonymity, will “provoke a national debate which will lead to complete elimination of vote buying in our body politic.”
Worried by the vicious cycle of cash for votes during interparty elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Jirapa has called for an end to primary elections.
Hon Dr Dakora, who retained the NDC Parliamentary ticket for Jirapa in the January 21 primaries of the party, told The Globe newspaper that although one of his opponents chose to pay as much as GHC50 each to delegates, with the promise of paying GHC 200 more if he won, “I can tell you from here that I never put even a single Ghana cedi note in an envelope for anybody. Primaries are killing our democracy because of the amount of money people spend just to get elected,” he said.
He argued there is need for political parties to devise more acceptable ways of choosing candidates to represent their parties.
The Jirapa MP said his own experience during the recent election to elect a parliamentary candidate for his constituency was a “very sad” one.
Before the election, he said, “I told the delegates. .. I said in this hall today; truth versus lies; purchase of votes verses objectivity …is going to be on challenge and I know that a lot of you sitting here, even if out of poverty you would have to take this money, would resist the influence of the money and vote for me because you believe that I have been working hard for this constituency. And they came out massively and did that.”
Delegates who spoke to The Globe from Jirapa confirmed the MP’s claims but refused to give details.
The incumbent NDC MP for Sege, who lost his re-election bid just this past weekend, echoed Dakora and called on government to establish the truth.
“I would be glad if audit will be carried out on some of the companies in the area – those who used company money to give out…to do their campaign,” he said, denying that he was broke after a failed attempt to match the financial prowess of his opponents.
“I am not broke,” he told The Globe. “God is my provider. He provides my needs. And so far as the Lord is on my side he meets my needs every time…”
“Vote buying is real, my brother. The sooner we fight to eliminate it, the better,” one majority MP confessed. “We have all along been behaving as Ostriches. I think the time has come for a national debate on how we can end this canker,” the MP said.
Over the weekend, the ruling NDC held parliamentary primaries in the Greater Accra region. A week earlier, the party held similar polls in other holding constituencies around the country, excluding those areas the Electoral Commission has reportedly earmarked for possible division into two separate constituencies.
Last April, the opposition New Patriotic Party held similar elections in constituencies around the country to elect candidates to contest parliamentary elections on the party’s ticket this December. The primaries of the two parties, The Globe found were replete with heavy doses of vote buying through the sharing of cash and free distribution of free cars, motor bikes, television sets, laptops, mobile phones, refrigerators, roofing sheets, iPADs, wax prints, bicycles, shoes, etc.
As much as GHC 1.6 million has made its way into the pockets of party delegates who made receipt of cash gifts part of the preconditions for voting for candidates seeking their votes in one constituency alone.
Although the issue of vote buying has become a major drain on the pockets of MPs, whose meagre monthly salaries are within the region of GHC 2500, almost all the lawmakers were unwilling to speak on the record without first pleading anonymity.
“I spent more than GHC 600 million just to convince delegates to vote for me,” one lawmaker said.
“This is senseless. It just does not make sense,” another worried lawmaker added, outraged about what she called “a very dangerous trend that has virtually put our democracy on sale.”
“We cannot continue like this”, another MP said. “Many of my colleagues are broke. I mean they do not have a pessewa in their bank accounts,” the lawmaker added.
“The delegates told us in the face they will not vote for us if we did not pay,” one MP said.
“It is as simple as that. You pay, you win; you refuse to pay, you lose. The simple fact is that our votes are not for free these days. In fact nothing is given out for free in Ghana these days,” a delegate, who gave his name as Abu said.
“The reason why we insist in being paid before voting is that once the votes are over, these MPs leave for Accra and we hardly see them again,” another delegate said.
“You cannot blame us because we need to survive you know,” another delegate from the Lower Manya Constituency of the Eastern region added.
During our investigations, The Globe spoke to agents of various banks whose banks have given huge loans to MPs to run their campaigns. Some of these agents either refused to comment on the issue, citing confidentiality rules in banking, or pleaded anonymity as precondition to speaking to this reporter.
“My bank for instance supported many of the MPs with loans. Some of them took as much as 600,000 Ghana cedis. Other daring ones received as much as GHC 800,000,” one agent said.
“Almost all the MPs who took loans from us used their ex-gratia or end of service benefits as collateral. It is serious, my brother,” another agent said.

Sudan progress as Angola fade

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Sudan registered a spot in the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 42 years after a 2-1 win over Burkina Faso.
The victory saw Mohamed Abdalla’s side progress from Group B at the expense of Angola, who were beaten 2-0 by Ivory Coast.
Entering the match three points in arrears of Angola and needing a goal difference swing of three, Sudan scored twice through Eltaib Mudather in either half to complete a remarkable turnaround.
The east Africans still managed a quarter-final berth despite a late strike from Issiaka Ouedraogo.
Their qualification was secured after group winners Ivory Coast eased past Angola, who only needed a draw to secure a passage into the next round.
With the likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and Gervinho watching on from the bench, the second-string Ivory Coast outfit took the lead in the 33th minute through Emmanuel Eboue.
Wilfried Bony tapped in a second 19 minutes after the interval to maintain his side’s perfect record in the tournament and send Lito Vidigal’s side crashing out.

Buruli Ulcer Cases Rise In Dormaa Municipality

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Suspected Buruli Ulcer (BU) cases in Dormaa Municipality rose from 26 in 2010 to 49 in 2011.
Madam Florence Iddrisah, Municipal Health Director, who announced this during her outfit’s annual performance review meeting at Dormaa-Ahenkro, noted that stakeholders, including MAP Ghana, non -governmental organisation(NGO), were locked up in strenuous efforts to ensure early detection of the disease.
She announced that the NGO has drilled one borehole each for Danyame and Kwadwo Kumikrom to improve the potable water availability in the two farming communities.
She said MAP-Ghana has also offered to sponsor all Buruli Ulcer patients in the Municipality to undergo skin grafting adding that the NGO had already sponsored the restoration of the skin of a 15-year-old who had stopped schooling due to the disease.
Madam Iddrisah said the NGO has also supported her outfit’s efforts by providing relevant Buruli ulcer drugs as well as non-drug supplies and equipment towards the treatment and upkeep of patients of the disease.
She commended the NGO for its support and appealed to families, health volunteers, traditional and religious leaders and school authorities to assist the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to access such cases in time as their early detection could off-set complications and possible amputation.
The Municipal Director urged society not to stigmatize carriers of the ulcer but rather give them the necessary support to lead more meaningful lives.
She stressed that though there was no known cause for Buruli Ulcer, medical experts were of the opinion that it could have something to do with filthy and muddy water bodies as most of the cases tended to emanate from such water bodies.
“It is therefore important for us parents to control our children’s contact with dirty water bodies to stop them from catching Buruli Ulcer and other water borne diseases” the Municipal Health Director stressed.

Ghana Unfazed By Guinean Threat

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Ghana and Guinea were in supreme form over the weekend at the 2012 African Cup of Nations as they enjoyed victories in Franceville ahead of tomorrow’s final group clash at the Stade de Franceville.
Leading on six points and three points clear ahead of Guinea in Group D counts almost for nothing with Caf’s announcement on Sunday of the qualification mode from the group stages.
According to Caf’s regulations, Article 72, in the event where two or more teams are tied on points after the conclusion of the group matches, the ranking of the teams shall be established according to the greater number of points obtained in the matches between the teams in question; the best goal difference in the matches between the teams; greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned; goal difference in all group matches; greatest number of goals scored in all the group matches; fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards and drawing of lots by CAF Organising Committee.
Quite a tall list to determine who qualifies from Ghana’s group with Guinea and Mali both in contention as Botswana’s debut crashes in the first round.
The Black Stars’ opponents raked in six goals and conceded one against Botswana while Ghana bounced from a slow first half performance to beat Mali 2-0 with goals from Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew.
However, ahead of the decisive final day meeting, Ghana’s quality and history in African Cup of Nations competitions is serving as a reminder of the responsibilities for the present Black Stars squad.
Assistant Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah says Ghana, though wary of the threat the opposition can pose are unfazed by the high scoring result that Guinea secured to enter the record books.
“The next game, playing against Guinea is very, very important for us. Fortunately we had some tapes on them before the tournament. And after our game with Botswana [last Tuesday], we stayed over to also look at them,” Appiah said after Ghana beat Mali.
“We have assessed all this tapes before our game with them on Wednesday. We would treat it us we did with our two games.”
The responsibility of ensuring qualification is the only thing on the minds of the Ghana players. And Appiah adds that: “I believe we have got quality players and really don’t care who we meet. We would go all out to play and get a win over Guinea and whichever team comes second, we would be prepared to play them.”
Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer, after reviving Guinea’s tournament hopes with the 6-1 thrashing of Botswana, is setting his sights on beating Ghana. A game he describes like a ‘final’.

Abacha Aide To Hang Over Killing

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A close aide to former Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha has been sentenced to hang for killing the wife of politician Moshood Abiola in 1996.
Major Hamza al-Mustapha has been in detention since 1999 over the killing.
Mr Abiola is widely believed to have won the 1993 election, which was annulled by Nigeria’s junta. His wife Kudirat was shot dead in 1996.
Abacha and Abiola both died in 1998, paving the way for the end of decades of military rule the following year.
Mustapha, Abacha’s security chief, had denied the charge.
After declaring himself the victor of the 1993 election, Mr Abiola was arrested and charged with treason.
He was in prison when his wife was killed.
Abacha seized power shortly after the 1993 elections were annulled and went on to become one of Nigeria’s most notorious military rulers, accused of stealing billions of dollars from the oil-rich nation.
After Abacha died, Abiola was due to be released from prison when he too died in his cell while meeting US diplomats.
A team of international pathologists says he died of natural causes but many of his supporters continued to blamed the military authorities.
BBC
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