Ghana vs Germany Tickets Sold Out

Tickets for Ghana’s final group D match against Germany at the 2010 FIFA World Cup have sold out.

An advice from FIFA to the Ghana Football Association says there were no more tickets for the Black Stars’ match on June 23 in Johannesburg’s Soccer City.

The Soccer City has a capacity of 88,460 and will host the opening game between hosts, South Africa and Mexico on June 11 and the final match.

With key matches sold out, Ghana is now left with a limited number of tickets for the other two games between Serbia and Australia.

Only category one tickets are available for the Black Stars’ first two games – against Serbia and Australia.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Football Association has set a deadline, Friday, 19th March, 2010 for payment by all ticket applicants who were successful during the first phase of the 2010 World Cup Tickets sales.

According to the FA, failure to pay within the deadline would result in the applicant’s allocation expunged from the records.

Fans have until April 7 to bid for the second sales phase for tickets at the tournament, which runs from June 11-July 11.

Pacquiao Dominates Clottey For Decision

Fighting on the star, Manny Pacquiao showed once again why he is the star.

With the biggest fight crowd in the U.S. in 17 years cheering him on at Cowboys Stadium, Pacquiao dominated a strangely passive Joshua Clottey from the opening bell Saturday night to retain his welterweight title and cement his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

The fight wasn’t close, and it was never in doubt. It was so one-sided that even those in the cheap seats among the crowd of 50,994 could tell without looking at the giant video screens over the ring that Pacquiao was in total command.

One ringside judge gave Pacquiao every round, while the two others gave him all but one. The Associated Press scored it a shutout for the Filipino sensation.

It wasn’t as flashy as his knockout of Ricky Hatton or as savage as the beating he gave Oscar De La Hoya, but there was no doubt Pacquiao was in command the entire way against a fighter who kept his gloves up high in front of his face and chose to engage him only in spurts. Clottey’s strategy worked to keep him upright, but he was never competitive in the biggest fight of his career.
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Phase three of Kotoka International Airport project begins

Accra, March 11, GNA – The Minister of Transport, Mr. Mike Hammah on Wednesday cut the sod for the commencement of the phase three of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) development project, estimated at 51 million dollars.

He noted that the construction of a new fire station which formed part of the project was expected to be completed by the end of the year. “The construction of a modern fire station will enable the airport achieve the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended response time of not exceeding two minutes to the end of the operational runway in optimum visibility during an emergency,” he said. Mr. Hammah observed that the rehabilitation of the KIA had improved upon the aviation industry in Ghana, adding that the number of airlines at the facility had increased as a result.

He charged contractors on the project to do a “qualitative job that would ensure value for money”.

Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko, Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Ltd (GACL), said air traffic projections in Ghana indicated growth in aircraft movement from 15,225 in 2009 to 27,882 in 2024, with its accompanying passenger growth from 980,468 to 2,021,291 in that order, representing an average annual growth of 18 per cent.

She said cargo would grow from 60,550 in 2009 to 130,170 tonnes in 2024, representing 47 per cent growth over the projected period.

Mrs Owusu Fianko said against this back ground, it was necessary to continuously improve technical systems and infrastructure to match growth in the industry.

Touching on an ultra modern fire station under construction as part of the phase three project, she said the GACL placed high premium on rescue and fire fighting service, as enjoined by the provision of Annex 14 to the Convention of ICAO to which Ghana was a signatory.

The KIA phase three development project includes reconstruction of the taxiway pavements, apron pavements, installation of aeronautical ground lighting systems and fuel mains to the new aprons. The rest are construction of a new fire station aswell as apron drainage facilities. 11 March 10

Spanish Government donates computers to Ghana Immigration Service

Accra, March 10, GNA – The Spanish Government on Wednesday presented 26 computers with accessories and anti counterfeiting machines valued at about 58,000 Euros to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in Accra to boost it’s
operations.

Mr. Vicente Garcia Sanjuan, Head of Migration Desk, Office of the Director-General, Migration and International Relationship, Ministry of Interior, Spain who presented the items lauded the excellent and effective collaboration between Ghana and Spain in the fight against illegal immigrants and organised crime.

He noted that while legal migrations opened door to a world of opportunities, illegal immigration was dehumanising and helped groups engaged in human trafficking.

Mr. Sanjuan said criminal groups that engaged in organised crime usually left victims especially women and children in sexual exploitation, marginalisation, social exclusion and slavery. “The migrants sometimes make outrageous commitment, with members of organised crime that tie them or their families for many years,” he added. Mr. Sanjuan contended that it was the duty of authorities to fight against illegal immigrant and reduce the action of organised crime by ensuring that law enforcement agencies enforced laws on migration.
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Ex President Kuffour Hails Pres. Mills

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has hailed the commitment of President John Evans Atta Mills to invest in the education of the youth and said that would guarantee the country’s future.

Commenting on President Mills’s address to a parade of schoolchildren to mark the 53rd independence anniversary in which the President had assured the nation that the government would motivate teachers and provide the necessary condition to improve teaching and learning, former resident Kufuor said investing in children could “guarantee a responsible and brighter future for the country”.

He stressed that the country’s generation chain would be strengthened if it invested in youth development.
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Ghana Celebrates 53 Years Of Independence

As Ghana celebrates 53 years of Independence this Saturday, the ambassador to the United States is hailing the strong bilateral relations between Accra and Washington.

Ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum said Ghana is serving as a shining example envisioned by the founding fathers to all of Africa with its embrace of the true tenets of democracy.

“We will be celebrating 53 years of our independence, and this marks quite an important milestone in our history. It is important because Ghana is now at the crossroads of building a society that is democratic and in which each and every individual member of the society is encouraged to play a role,” he said

Led by first President Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and the other founding fathers, the then-Gold Coast attained its independence from Britain on 6 March 1957, becoming the first black African country south of the Sahara to do so. The name Ghana (warrior king) was legally adopted shortly after independence. Ambassador Agyekum expressed gratitude to the countries that have supported Ghana’s efforts to strengthen its democratic institutions.
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Government Urged To Promote Culture And The Arts

Mr William Addo, Volta Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture (CNC) on Wednesday appealed to government to give attention to the promotion of arts and culture in the country.

He said if a fraction of the attention given to the promotion of football is extended to arts and culture, it would help spice up the country’s tourism sector.

“Our culture determines our value as a nation in the eyes of the world,” Mr Addo said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Ho.

He said the arts and culture were legacies bequeathed to us by our forebears, but regrettably successive governments seemed to have placed less value on them.

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STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS 2010

STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN EVANS ATTA MILLS PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA

INTRODUCTION

Madam Speaker, Vice President, Honourable Members of the House,

Just over a year ago, the citizens of Ghana elected this Government to take over the administration of our beloved country.

They elected us because we promised an Agenda of Change for a better Ghana – Change that would advance the cause of democracy and renew our faith in the future of this country even as we take on a new set of development challenges.

As part of that challenge, I made a commitment to do away with the style of politics that mistook democratic transfer of power as an opportunity to wreak vengeance.

I made a commitment to take a different political path to strengthen belief in ourselves and in our nation – the kind of belief exemplified by those gallant players of the Black Stars who did us proud in the Africa cup of Nations finals in Angola.

I am confident they will reach for the stars at the World Cup tournament in South Africa in June 2010.

I also wish to salute the Black Satellites who took on the mighty Brazil in the finals of the World Under-20 Football Tournament and beat them with 10 men against 11 to bring home the cup.

And how can we forget the exploits of our gallant local players who fought all the way to the finals of the maiden CHAN tournament in Cote d’Ivoire and returned home with the silver?

Ghana football is on the ascendancy and like our footballers, we, as Ghanaians, should also believe in Ghana and in ourselves, and I don’t mind if I am plagiarising somebody’s campaign slogan.

Madam Speaker,

In my ‘State of the Nation’ Address last year, I promised to create an atmosphere of inclusiveness, respect and courtesy in our national discussion and debate.
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Ex-President Kufuor: Africa’s Best President?

The Kufuor Foundation claims that former President J.A Kufuor is Africa’s best President ever. The claim is contained in a document made available to Executives ad Staff of the African Development Bank at a meeting in Tunisia recently.

Former President Kufuor is seeking a grant of US$1.5 million for his Foundation from the ADB. The document states categorically that “President Kufuor built an impeccable record on governance, unrivalled in Ghana and on the African continent.”

The Foundation rates former President Kufuor above Osagyefor Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Abdul Gamal Nasser of Egypt. The document lists former President Kufuor’s achievements as follows;

Poverty & Hunger

*People living on one dollar a day or less has declined from 45.9 per cent to 41.1 per cent since 1999.

*The number of extreme poor has increased only 296 million in 1999 to 298 million in 2004.

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Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong – The Snow Leopard

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, nicknamed the Snow Leopard, is on the prowl for a gold in the 2010 Winter Olympic games.  He has drawn a lot of interest as an African skiing in the Olympics after his introduction to snow 5 years ago.  The Alpine Slalom race is scheduled to take place on February 27, 2010.  He will make history as the first Ghanian skiing in the Winter Olympics.

Quite the athlete, he also represented Ghana in the West African Student Games in tennis.  Kwame took ski lessons when he got a job as a receptionist at a ski center.   In an interview with BBC, he stated that , “The only thing we [Africans] have to overcome is the cold.”  He credits his family and his faith in God for his success.

Dedicated to encouraging Ghanian youth to ski, he has set up the Ghanian Winter Olympic Association and is working on building an artificial ski slope in Akuapem Hills, Mamfe, Ghana.

He supports Sabre, a British charity that builds schools in deprived areas of Ghana, and donates his spare money to a charity that is working on help save the snow leopard from extinction.

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