THE JFT EDIT

The Duke of Sussex has responded to speculation about a rift between him and his brother.

Prince Harry said, in an ITV documentary, that the two were “on different paths at the moment” but he loved William “dearly”

The leadership of the Ghana Airport Company Limited Workers’ Unions has served notice their members are prepared to fight with their blood to stop the alleged privatisation of the Airport.

It comes after the Aviation minister Kofi Ada accused the leadership of mischief and misleading their followers. He told Bola Ray on Starr Chat that the leadership of the association is deliberately feeding their membership with wrong information about the purported privatization of aspects of the airport in order to win support. Reacting to the claim, chairman of the union Issaka Bamba told Starr News any attempt to further privatize operations of the airport will be resisted by staff.

“If you gauge the mood of staff back at the airport I can tell you it’s not that safe. We can control it up to some level, we wish it doesn’t get there. Because we want to protect the jobs for our people and they shouldn’t try it. I can assure you we will fight with our blood to protect the job for our people,” he warned.

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Consumers of mobile telecommunications services are still being charged the 9 percent communication service tax upfront on recharges, more than a week after the Ministry of Communication demanded a halt to the practice.

The Minister of Communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful last week told a press conference the telcos are being disingenuous in their handling of the CST increment which they hitherto did not deduct upfront from recharges made by consumers. “The Ministry met mobile network operators and the regulator on 7th and 8th October 2019 on this unusual practice which flew in the face of industry experience and we were informed by MNOs that they took advantage of the 3% increase to pass on the entire tax to subscribers.

CST should be treated the same way VAT, GETFUND, NHI levy and all other taxes imposed on entities doing business in Ghana are treated. The extraordinary upfront deduction of CST and notification of same to subscribers must stop with immediate effect,” the Minister said. While the Minister demanded an immediate stop to the practice, the directive has not been met favorably by the telcos which are still in discussions with the government to decide on a number of issues surrounding the implementation of the CST.

Citi Business News sources say last week the telcos met with the Communications Ministry, the regulator National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ghana Revenue Authority over issues bordering on the CST. Apart from the government taking issue with the upfront deduction of the CST from the recharge of consumers, the effective start date of the tax has also been a matter of disagreement between the two parties. While the telcos have been implementing the CST since October 1, the Ministry of Communications insists that the actual implementation date should be backdated to September 4, 2019. According to the telcos, they are expecting a favorable outcome from the meeting held last week after which will stop charging consumers upfront for the nine percent communication service tax.

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Former President Jerry John Rawlings has bemoaned the growing lack of patriotism in the country, describing it as ‘Ghana’s biggest challenge’, adding ‘our patriotic sense and responsibility is lost’.

He made reference to the illegal mining (galamsey) menace in the country as a testament of the lack of patriotism by some Ghanaians. “Entire rivers have been destroyed by the senseless and unbridled abuse caused by greed, unpatriotic attitudes and the failure of mining supervisory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the security agencies to enforce the laws. “The problem of this brazen abuse is collective.

There is no doubt that institutions have been weak, and the commitment of successive governments even weaker because of shallow political will. Local people and traditional leaders are also complicit. “Until the average Ghanaian recognises the need to show responsibility, first to himself, family and environment, we will continue to experience economic, social and political poverty,” the former President said.

Flt Lt (retd) Rawlings was speaking at the 75th anniversary platinum awards ceremony of the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) in Accra last Friday, where he was honoured together with Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and other members of GMWU for their positive contributions towards the development of the mining sector in Ghana.

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Former President John Mahama has been dared to publicly swear by the dreaded Antoa Nyamaa that he does not intend to cancel the free Senior High School (SHS) if voted for in 2020 as Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.

A group calling itself the Alliance Drivers of Ghana (ADG) says it would resist any attempt to either have the policy reviewed or scrapped by any administration being it the implementing New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). Mr. Kwaku Boateng Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the association noted the association rather expect the former president to promise a free tertiary education than to criticize the already implemented Free SHS policy or indicate his readiness to review it

Mr. Boateng also insisted that, members of the association and for that matter, Ghanaians will only believe in what Mr. Mahama says, should he openly swear publicly that he will not cancel the policy when voted into office. “We are telling his Excellency former president John Dramani Mahama that he should rather develop good policies and sell them to Ghanaians. If he doesn’t have one he shouldn’t make any attempts to destroy what we are already benefiting”, he said in a statement. The warning of the association comes as a response to an earlier statement by the former president suggesting that, he will review the Free SHS policy and make it better than what is being implemented by the NPP government.

Some people especially leaders of the ruling governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) including the sector Minister, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh have heavily criticized Mr. Mahama claiming he is planning to collapse the laudable policy should Ghanaians vote him in 2020. But the NDC which Mr. Mahama is their flagbearer has said their leader has no plans or whatsoever to collapse the policy rather his plans are to make it a better one.

Before the implementation of the policy, the former president suggested a ‘progressively’ free and not ‘wholesale implementation’ of the policy. He, however, started building Community Day Schools across the country of which he did not complete before the exit of his government. But the Alliance Drivers of Ghana in a statement copied to MyNewsGh.com said “It is very sad and disappointing to see a former president who genuinely benefited from free education exhibiting undue bitterness towards the nationwide implementation of Free Senior High School by Nana Addo”.

“His Excellency John Dramani Mahama together with the national executive committee of the NDC have verbally declared their intentions to cancel free Senior High School when they win power come 2020”, the statement continued.

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About 16 months ago, Mrs. Matilda Amissah-Arthur lost her husband, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.

The death of the former Vice President, saw his family receive much sympathy from many in the political and public circles. Much of this sympathy was described as hypocritical and dishonest in a tribute by the widow, that was widely discussed, following the funeral. In an interview with David Ampofo, on Time With David Mrs. Amissah-Arthur is taken back to the moment she quizzed, “Is this Ghana?”, at her husband’s funeral.

She explained that she veered off the initial tribute and was “led by the spirit” to deliver the message she gave. During the discussion, the veteran Broadcaster asked Mrs. Amissah-Arthur about the nature of the relationship she had with her husband and sought details of his final moments. She disclosed that they were married for 40 years and 5months and enjoyed a very close relationship.

Speaking about the fateful day Mr. Amissah-Arthur passed on, the widow recalled arriving at the gym in the early hours of the morning and finishing their workout, before he passed out and was resuscitated, prior to finally giving up the ghost. Chatting with David Ampofo, Mrs. Amissah Arthur opens up about dealing with the grief and authoring a book from her experiences.

In the book titled “Strength in the storm”, she discusses the silent culture around death and the subconscious victimization of the bereaved. Characterising her husband, she describes him as a technocrat who was always a part of the National Democratic Congress. She recounted the early days when their flat at Legon, was a hub for party big guns like J..J. Rawlings and Kojo Tsikata. Commenting on the conduct of politics in Ghana she states that “Hypocrisy and Dishonesty will not take this country anywhere”.

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Protests raged for a second day in Lebanon despite the government backtracking on plans to tax WhatsApp calls.

The government had announced a $0.20 (£0.16) daily charge on voice calls made through WhatsApp and other apps. But it scrapped the plans hours later amid clashes between security forces and protesters. Thousands have protested, calling on the government to step down over its handling of an economic crisis.

Dozens were reported injured on Thursday as protesters burned tyres and security forces fired tear gas. The demonstrations were the biggest seen in Lebanon for years.

Chants of “the people want to topple the regime” echoed around Beirut’s Riad al-Solh square on Thursday. Many also expressed anger over perceived inaction by authorities to tackle the country’s worst wildfires in decades.

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US President Donald Trump has compared the deadly conflict between Turkish forces and Kurds in north-eastern Syria to a fight between children.

“Like two kids in a lot, you have got to let them fight and then you pull them apart,” he told a rally in Texas. Turkey has agreed to a US request to suspend operations so long as Kurdish fighters leave the border area. But fighting appeared to continue on Friday despite a denial by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Concern is growing about possible war crimes by Turkey and allied militias since the offensive began on 9 October. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron complained he had only learned about the US withdrawal from Syria via a tweet from Mr Trump. “I understood that we were in Nato, that the United States and Turkey were in Nato,” Mr Macron told reporters at an EU summit.

“Like everyone else, I learned by tweet that the United States had decided to withdraw its troops.” Mr Erdogan moved against Kurdish forces in Syria after Mr Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of Syria’s border region. the Turkish leader’s aim is to push Kurdish militants – regarded by Turkey as terrorists – away from northernmost Syria and create a “safe zone” for resettling up to two million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

Between 160,000 and 300,000 people are reported to have fled their homes since the fighting started, and there are fears the Turkish operation may lead to the ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population.

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At least 62 people have been killed and dozens injured by a bomb during Friday prayers at a mosque in Afghanistan, according to a provincial spokesman.

The force of the blast, in eastern Nangarhar province, destroyed the building’s roof, eyewitnesses said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast came the day after the UN said the number of civilian deaths in the war-torn country had reached unprecedented levels over the summer. According to the UN, 1,174 civilians were killed between July and September, the deadliest quarter since UN records began a decade ago.  Meanwhile, a BBC study which attempted to document every killing during the month of August found a fifth of all those who lost their lives were civilians.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman, told the BBC that the 62 people killed and 36 more injured in Friday’s attack were worshippers. The mosque sits in the district of Haska Mina, about 50km (30 miles) from the provincial capital Jalalabad.

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An Accra High Court has slapped a GH¢300,000 fine on Ernest Owusu Bempah, Communications Director of Ghana Gas Company Limited and Despite Group of Companies in a defamation suit.

The Court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah Datsa ruled that the comments of the outspoken politician were defamatory used on UTV which is a platform of Despite Group. Business Mogul, Ibrahim Mahama had sued both GH¢2 million for the defamatory comments but judge awarded GH¢300,000 instead and directed the defendants to publish a retraction and apology in the Daily Graphic and on the same platform those defamatory words were used against the plaintiff.

They have also been directed to remove the said defamatory material about the plaintiffs from all archives. The judge also warned communicators who go on media platforms to malign innocent people to desist from such acts because that will not be tolerated. “Ernest Owusu Bempah by publishing those words directed at the person of Ibrahim Mahama, he has defamed him. I shall proceed to grant judgment in favour of the Plaintiff, Ibrahim Mahama. As we move towards next year’s election, we need to be guided.” Justice Georgina Datsa advised

The CEO of Engineers and Planners, Ibrahim Mahama, last year sued the Communications Director of the Ghana National Gas Company, Ernest Owusu Bempah, along with the Despite Group of Companies – owners of private TV station UTV last year for defamation. Mr Ibrahim Mahama was represented in court throughout the proceedings by his Aide Rafik Mahama. The judge cited his absence as reason for not awarding the full amount of GH¢2 million against the defendants but she concluded by saying she understands the busy schedule of the plaintiff hence his absence in court. The legal team of Mr Ibrahim Mahama was led by Lawyer Reindorf Twumasi Ankrah and supported by Gloria Amoah and Makafui Dzimabi.

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