According to him, government’s ability to bring interest rates down coupled with the inflow of foreign direct investments are signs of prudent economic management.

“The cost of capital is extremely high in this country and I think this government has done wonderfully to be able to bring the interest rates down and of course, there has been a lot of foreign direct investments coming into this country this year, which has helped ensure that the stability is there in the country.”

Jai Mirchandani spoke to citifmonline. com on the sidelines during President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo’s visit to the company as part of his three-day tour of the Northern Region.

“Really, if the cost of capital comes down and as the government is taking very proactive force in terms of trying to build the the industrial sector, I think we will be home in no time,” the Avnash CEO stated.

He unveiled the company’s plan to establish three new investments in the north comprising edible oil refinery, soap manufacturing and rice milling.

He estimated that one million people will be employed within five years of the new companies’ take-off.

“This year, we estimate the livelihood of 32,000 farmers to benefit from this rice mill, while about 200,000 transporters, aggregators, mechanized service suppliers and their families will also benefit.”

The Ghanaian leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, urged farmers in Northern Ghana to increase their rice cultivation to feed the company.

He observed that the company has been underutilized for which reason farmers should increase their yields.

“I urge you farmers in this area to double your yields and use the opportunity to bring wealth to Dagbon. Let’s protect the Avansh investment.”

President Nana Addo emphasized the need for peaceful coexistence to attract investors willing to invest in the agriculture sector, which is the economic mainstay of the majority of Ghanaians.
–

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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One of the most senior members of the Turkish government sparked an outcry on Tuesday, after declaring that women should not laugh loudly in public.

The deputy prime minister, Bülent Arinc, one of the co-founders of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP), made the comment while lamenting the moral decline of modern society.

“A man should be moral but women should be moral as well, they should know what is decent and what is not decent,” Arinc said in a speech on Monday, in the western Bursa region for the Bayram holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

“She should not laugh loudly in front of all the world and should preserve her decency at all times,” he added.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP is accused by critics of seeking to erode Turkey’s strict separation of religion and state – the basis of the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Arinc went on to denounce a moral degradation that left society awash with drugs and prostitution, and lashed out at popular Turkish soap operas for encouraging lax lifestyles, in comments quoted throughout the Turkish media and online.

He denounced the excessive use of cars, saying that if even the “river Nile was filled with petrol”, there wouldn’t be enough to go around. Arinc also slammed the excessive use of mobile phones in Turkish society, with women “spending hours on the phone to swap recipes”.

Imitating a Turkish woman on her mobile, he said: “‘Is there nothing else going on? What happened to Ayse’s daughter? When’s the wedding?’ People should say these things face to face.”

His comments provoked a storm on social media, with political tensions riding high as Erdoğan prepares to stand in presidential elections on 10 August.

Erdoğan’s main rival in the polls, the mild-mannered former head of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, took to Twitter to poke fun at Arinc. “We need to hear the happy laughter of women,” he wrote.

Anti-Erdogan bloggers responded with even greater anger. One Twitter user, bturkmen, said: “Stop giving us moral lessons and instead count all the money that you have stolen,” referring to corruption allegations against Erdoğan and his circle, which surfaced last year.

A pious Muslim who does not drink and whose wife wears a hijab, Erdoğan has always denied any desire to erode Turkey’s secular principles.

–

Source: The Guardian

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The move comes after the country’s highest court ordered authorities to restore access, saying the ban violated laws on freedom of expression.

The ban was imposed in late March, soon after recordings alleging official corruption were aired on the site.

Turkey passed a controversial law early this year that let regulators cut off any site without needing a court order.

The government had also imposed a ban on social networking site Twitter, but that was lifted last month.

Authorities had continued to block YouTube until now despite decisions from lower courts calling on the government to lift the ban.

The ruling by the constitutional court is widely seen as a snub to the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has been a sharp critic of social media sites.

Both YouTube and Twitter were blocked after recordings of official meetings were leaked and widely circulated.

One recording involved senior army officers discussing intervention in Syria and others supposedly revealed corruption among people close to Mr Erdogan.

The block was imposed as a “precautionary administrative measure”, Turkey’s telecommunications regulator had said at the time.

YouTube was blocked previously in Turkey in 2007 but that ban was lifted in 2010.

The Turkish newspaper Millyet reported on Monday that another social network, Ask.fm, was blocked this week. It published a memo from the country’s Department of Telecommunications confirming the move.

However, the Latvian-based site indicated that any such restriction might have been short-lived.

“Today Ask.fm service in Turkey is stable and continuous,” Liva Biseniece, Ask.fm’s director of external relations, told the BBC.

“The traffic from Turkey to the site is at its usual level. On Monday, however, it was apparent that traffic from Turkey was slightly decreased.

“As of now, the company has not received any information from Turkish authorities regarding a possible ban of Ask.fm.”

Source:BBC

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A block was imposed in late March, soon after recordings alleging official corruption were aired on the site.

Now Turkey’s constitutional court has said the block violated laws governing freedom of expression.

The court is now informing telecom authorities of its decision and is telling them to lift the block.

The decision is widely seen as a snub to the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has been a sharp critic of social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube.

Both sites were blocked earlier this year after recordings of official meetings were leaked and widely circulated. One recording involved senior army officers discussing intervention in Syria and others supposedly revealed corruption among people close to Mr Erdogan.

Complaints

The block on Twitter was lifted last month but the limits on YouTube have stayed despite decisions from lower courts calling on the government for them to be lifted.

It is not clear whether the order to lift the ban will be effective since the authorities said those earlier calls were ignored because offending material was still available on the site.

The constitutional court was looking into the validity of the block after complaints from Turkish citizens about it.

Many people have used special software to get round the ban and ensure they can still see videos on the site.

The block was imposed as a “precautionary administrative measure”, Turkey’s telecommunications regulator said at the time.

Turkey passed a controversial law early this year that let the regulator cut off any site without needing to get a court order.

YouTube was blocked previously in Turkey in 2007 but that ban was lifted in 2010.

Source: BBC

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The Istanbul giants’ players wore helmets ahead of their league game against Kayseri Erciyesspor at the weekend to show their support and the Cote d’Ivoire international has gone one step further in his role as U.N. ambassador.

“I am a U.N. ambassador of goodwill and I will do all that I can to help the people in Soma,” Drogba told reporters.

“But I don’t want anyone to use my name. I’m not someone who will promote himself in such issues. I don’t need this sort of a self-promotion.”

On May 13 an explosion at a coal mine in Soma, Turkey, caused an underground mine fire, which burned until 15 May.

In total, 301 people were killed in what was the worst mine disaster in Turkey’s history

Source: Goal.com

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Union officials said the recent privatisation of the mining sector had made working conditions more dangerous.

Three days of mourning for the victims began on Thursday.

Anger erupted against the government in several cities on Wednesday after the disaster in the western town of Soma on the previous day.

An explosion caused the pit to collapse while more than 700 miners were underground.

Government officials said 363 miners were rescued in the hours after the explosion, but no survivors have been brought out since dawn on Wednesday.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said eight more bodies had been recovered overnight into Thursday, taking the toll from 274 to 282. Around 150 miners remain missing.

But rescue operations had to be halted for several hours as high gas concentrations underground needed to be cleared, and Mr Yildiz said a fire in the mine was still hampering recovery efforts.

Tearful families wait for news, as James Reynolds reports

The head of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey told journalists that several major groups of unions had agreed to the strike.

Arzu Cerkezoglu also called on citizens to wear black and march on the Ministry of Labour.

“Those who pursue privatisation… policies, who threaten workers’ lives to reduce cost… are the culprits of the Soma massacre and they must be held accountable,” said a statement by another group, the Public Workers Unions Confederation.

The Soma mine was privatised in 2005.

An MP from Turkey’s opposition CHP party has accused the government of rejecting a recent proposal for a parliamentary inquiry into mine accidents in the area.

However, Reuters news agency quoted the Labour Ministry as saying its officials carried out regular inspections at the mine, most recently in March.

The disaster sparked angry protests on Wednesday in Soma, where people kicked Mr Erdogan’s car and called for his resignation after he gave a news conference on the disaster.

He was booed as he emerged from his car. Some arrests were made amid the scuffles and pictures showed the prime minister, surrounded by bodyguards, seeking refuge in a shop. Protesters also attacked the town’s ruling AK party offices.

Meanwhile police in the capital, Ankara, fired tear gas and water cannon at about 800 protesters who tried to march from a university to the energy ministry.

In Istanbul police used water cannon to disperse protesters in the main shopping street Istiklal.

Mr Erdogan has faced criticism on social media for being insensitive, after he cited numerous mining accidents throughout the world, including in Britain in the 19th Century, in defending the Turkish government’s record.

He said every effort would be made to find the missing miners, and promised a full investigation.

The BBC’s James Reynolds in Soma says Mr Erdogan will see this tragedy as a test of his reputation, and he will be aware that the previous government lost an election after being seen to have mishandled the 1999 earthquake.

Electrical fault

When an electrical fault triggered the blast soon after midday on Tuesday, there were 787 workers in the mine. Many of them died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The electrical fault triggered a power cut, making the mine cages unusable. Those caught up in the explosion were reported to be 2km (1.2 miles) below the surface and 4km from the mine entrance.

Turkey’s worst mining disaster until now was in 1992, when 263 miners were killed near Zonguldak, on the Black Sea.

Coal mining is a major industry in the Soma area, helping to supply a nearby lignite-fired thermal power plant, but safety has long been a concern. Nearly 40% of Turkey’s electricity production depends on coal.

Source: BBC

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