This follows a Supreme Court ruling where the Justices unanimously overturned a high court ruling which ordered the residential and work permits of Mr. Sivaram to be restored after the Immigration Service and the Interior Ministry deported him.

[contextly_sidebar id=”T85wLRONuOzt7K2U1qYdCpnEsunHivCK”] According to the Justices of the Supreme Court, the High Court judge erred in granting the order that compelled the Immigration Service to provide the permit.

They also indicated that the judge exceeded her jurisdiction.

Citi News sources at the Ghana Immigration Service revealed that he was deported on Sunday after officials of the service stormed his residence.

Meanwhile, workers of his company Jai Mai Communication Limited on Monday staged a demonstration, protesting the deportation.

According to them, this could lead to job losses, a situation they fear will impact on them negatively.

Background

The GIS, following an order by the Interior Ministry in June 2017, deported Mr. Sivaram on the premise that he had forged his marriage certificate in an application for citizenship, which led his lawyer to contest his deportation by seeking judicial review.

The High Court, which first heard the case, upheld the businessman’s application and quashed his deportation order on July 31 on the grounds that the Interior Minister exceeded his jurisdiction.

The applicant, after the failure of the GIS to comply with the first order, sought an order from the court in September the same year to compel them to comply with the first order.

The High Court once again ordered the GIS to restore the Residence and Work Permit of Mr. Sivaram within seven days, and also ordered the GIS’s assigns, agents and servants to desist from harassing him until his application before the Service was duly processed.

The GIS, represented by the Attorney General’s office, after the second case, filed a stay of proceedings at the High Court which was subsequently dismissed.

They went ahead to appeal the ruling in the Court of Appeal which was also dismissed leading them to the Supreme Court.

–

By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Ghana has about 85.7 percent of its population without decent toilets and this equals about 23 million people who suffer the fear and indignity of relieving themselves in the open or in unsafe or unhygienic toilets.

[contextly_sidebar id=”EzaZflgPkkkd5FWbV5s9XKPr6EmFvJm5″]This is contained in a report entitled ‘Out of Order’ released by WaterAid, an international Non-Governmental Organization in its 2017 state of the world’s toilets.

According to the report, the lack of decent toilets around the world prevents women and girls from fulfilling their potential.

“Out of Order” is WaterAid’s third-annual analysis of the world’s toilets. It reveals that globally, one in three people still have nowhere decent to go to toilet, and demonstrates how women and girls bear the brunt of this global crisis. For more than 1.1 billion women and girls, this injustice results in an increased risk of poor health, limited education, harassment and even attack.

Among the other findings, all 10 of the world’s worst countries for access to basic sanitation are in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 28 per cent of people have decent toilet, and children are 14 times more likely to die before the age of five than in developed regions.

The statement indicated that in Djibouti, a major route for refugees from the Yemen war, has the worst figures for open defecation, with a 7.2% increase since 2000.

The report stated “Cambodia has emerged from decades of conflict to become one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. It comes second for progress in reducing open defecation as well as improving access to basic sanitation.”

Miss Nyaku recalled “Between 2000 and 2015, the number of people in the world defecating in the open dropped from 1.2 billion (20% of the global population) to 892 million (12%). Despite this progress, it is still a huge problem, resulting in enough faeces to fill seven bathtubs every second going into the environment untreated.”

She said Ghana recently launched a sanitation campaign aimed at addressing the poor sanitation situation, and that, WaterAid Ghana feared that, “without adequate funds, the plans outlined to fight the sanitation menace may not be fully implemented.”

The Communication and Campaign Officer said “in commemoration of World Toilet Day, WaterAid Ghana is calling on government to invest more money and spend it transparently and efficiently, paying particular attention to the needs of women and girls.”

According to her, the NGO further entreats government to promote the value of sanitation for gender equality and female empowerment, and involve women as leaders to ensure solutions address the challenges women and girls face.

“Improve coordination to create gender-friendly toilets in all schools, healthcare facilities, work environments and public spaces” She added.

She said WaterAid also calls on government to “combine plans to improve access to sanitation with efforts to redistribute water and hygiene work, which is predominantly the responsibility of women and girls.”

–

Source: GNA

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So, an experiment under way in a few countries, where the social media giant appears to be making it harder for users to see news stories, has caused something akin to panic.

The new feature Facebook is trying out is called Explore.

It offers all sorts of stories it thinks might interest you, a separate news feed encouraging you to look further afield than just at what your friends are sharing.

Meanwhile, for most people, the standard News Feed remains the usual mixture of baby photos and posts from companies or media organisations whose pages you have liked.

Sounds fine, doesn’t it? Except that in six countries – Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala, and Cambodia – the experiment went further.

For users there, the main News Feed was cleared of everything but the usual stuff from your friends and sponsored posts – in other words, if you wanted to have your material seen in the place most users spend their time you had to pay for the privilege.

In a Medium post entitled “Biggest drop in organic reach we’ve ever seen”, a Slovakian journalist Filip Struharik documented the impact. Publishers in his country had seen four times fewer interactions since the change, he said – what had become a vital and vibrant platform for them was emptying out fast.

Other journalists around the world have looked into the future and hate what they see. Their organisations have become addicted to Facebook as the one true way of reaching audiences and going cold turkey would be very painful.

Facebook is of course a business – and a hugely successful one – that makes its money from advertising. So, why would it not want publishers to pay to reach its gigantic audience?

But Peter Kafka, a journalist from Recode, tweeted an even more depressing thought: “Conspiracy angle: fb wants more $ from publishers! More accurate, and dispiriting angle (for publishers): fb doesn’t care about publishers.”

Facebook responded as it often does by saying calm down, dears, it was just a bit of fun.

As the wave of panic rolled around the news media world, the social network’s head of newsfeed Adam Mosseri put up a post with the title Clarifying Recent Tests.

It explained that the experiment is aimed at understanding whether people prefer to have separate places for personal and public content.

“We currently have no plans to roll this test out further,” he added.

This has not helped much – that word “currently” seems to stick out ominously.

But at least Facebook has done publishers big and small a service. They knew the risks involved in innovations such as Instant Articles – where their works live on the social network – or Facebook Live – where a broadcaster’s brand might be less visible to many users.

Now they know that Facebook is at least thinking about a future where news plays a smaller role in the social media experience.

Given Facebook’s role in last year’s US elections, some may think that’s a good thing. But for thousands of struggling media organisations that thought they had found a route forward, it is a chilling prospect.

–

Source: BBC

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At the start of 2016, single coins were only worth around $435 but their value has climbed steadily all year.

The steady upward progress has continued despite regular hack attacks on virtual currency exchanges in which coins have been stolen.

Experts said the rise in value was linked to the long-term depreciation of the Chinese Yuan.

Stolen coins

The Chinese currency has dropped about 7% in value during 2016, said Reuters. The majority of Bitcoin currency trading takes place in China as it allows people to skirt restrictive local laws that limit how much money Chinese people can swap.

Charles Hayter, founder of the Cryptocompare website that watches virtual currencies, said global political uncertainty and Indian moves to control paper currency were also driving people to buy Bitcoins.

If those trends continued, he told Reuters, many more people may be tempted to buy Bitcoins as they could be seen as a “flight to safety”.

Hackers have also been tempted by the rising value of the virtual coins. In August Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex suffered a major hack attack in which bitcoins worth $65m were thought to be taken.

Bitcoin values dropped about 10% when the news of the hack attack was made public

The virtual currency has yet to reach the heights it managed in late 2013 when each coin was worth more than $1,000. The total value of all bitcoins in circulation has now surpassed $14bn.

–

Source: BBC

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Her husband, Zofino Muiuane has been arrested by police, the Diario de Noticias newspaper reported.

The shooting is said to have taken place on Wednesday.

Ms Guebuza, who was 36, is said to have been shot several times and died of her wounds on the way to hospital.

Mr. Muiuane was arrested in one of Maputo’s city squares, the newspaper said.

Ms Guebuza was listed as the seventh most powerful young woman in Africa by Forbes magazine in 2013 and held a strong of positions in telecommunications companies and family businesses, Sapo24 reported.

Mr Muiuane is a businessman who once worked with British American Tobacco.

The couple married in 2014 at a ceremony with 1,700 guests including South Africa leader Jacob Zuma, the King of Swaziland Mswati III and Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the Angolan president.

They had a daughter last year.

Armando Guebuza stepped down as president in 2014 after serving two terms.

–
Source: BBC

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Three people died in North Carolina, said Governor Pat McCrory, who called Matthew “a very, very serious” storm.

In Georgia, three people died, including a wheelchair user after two trees fell on his home. Four people were earlier killed in Florida.

Matthew has been the most powerful storm to make US landfall in more than a decade.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes, and more than a million left without power.

The storm also brought heavy flooding to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina.

Matthew has already caused nearly 900 deaths in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic as it travelled northwards over the past few days.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has downgraded Matthew to a Category One hurricane, with maximum sustained winds having decreased to 75mph (120km/h).

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley warned people to stay in shelters and not to try to go back home over the weekend.

“Between downed power lines and trees, and then just unsafe structures – bridges, all of those things.

Officials said emergency responders have carried out multiple water rescues from cars and homes.

The NHC said: “The combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.”

Nearly 1.6m homes and businesses in the south-east of the US were left without power.

Hurricane Matthew first made landfall in in the US in South Carolina but its edges had previously battered the coasts of Florida and Georgia.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which is the UN’s weather agency, had warned that the hurricane would remain dangerous regardless of whether or not it made landfall in the US.

Parts of the city of Savannah, Georgia have been submerged in several feet (one foot = 30cm) of water.

Hurricane Matthew left up to 90% of some parts of Haiti destroyed, officials say.

–

Source: BBC

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New York officials have identified a suspect wanted for questioning over Saturday’s blast in the Chelsea area in which 29 people were injured.

The man has been identified as Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, a naturalised US citizen from Afghanistan.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has released a photograph.

Early on Monday, a backpack containing up to five devices exploded in Elizabeth, New Jersey when a bomb disposal robot tried to deactivate it.

Investigators have warned the suspect, whose last known address was in Elizabeth should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

“Anyone who sees this individual or knows anything about him or his whereabouts needs to call it in right away,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN.

Both the bomb that went off in New York and a device found nearby were shrapnel-filled pressure cookers, according to US media.

It is not clear who was behind the devices found in New Jersey, at the railway station in Elizabeth.

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Residents in Atuabo, Anokyi and Asemda in the Ellembele district, where the gas facility is stationed, are upset that their concerns about the facility have not been addressed.

An elder of Anokyi, James Annor Afful, told Citi News’ Obrempong Yaw Ampofo, that they have been complaining about the bad smell emanating from the pipes at the facility.

“When you walk around the coast, there is this foul smell, like rotten eggs,” he said.

“The stench is really bad, yet nobody knows what it is, they haven’t told us what they are doing.”

Mr. Afful also stated that the residents were unsure as to how much land the Ghana Gas Company had acquired to complete the project.

“Ghana Gas said they had acquired the land compulsorily for the project. We have no objection against that. All we want to know is, how much land have they acquired?”

There have also been issues with compensation packages given to residents who have been affected by the project.

The government, in June,  acquired lands on which the gas processing plant at Atuabo would be situated

The Minister of Lands and Forestry signed an Executive instruments (EIs) to ensure that lands in seven sites where the gas project is situated would be owned by government.

By the acquisition, the lands in dispute at Atuabo, the metering station of the gas project and the right of way for gas pipelines to Aboadze all become the property of the state.

The move affected many farmers  in the area, whose lands were also seized as part of the project.

A few of the farmers who spoke to Citi News complained that they were not fairly compensated by the government, arguing that they deserved more than they got for their lands.

The National Gas Company confirmed earlier in August that the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant has finally been completed after the successful hydro-testing of the pipelines from offshore to the facility.

The Head of Communications at the company, Alfred Obgamey, has revealed that the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant will generate about 150 million standard cubits of gas per day when completed.

He stated that “ the plant will start operations with about 30 million standard cubits of gas per day and graduate the process” to about 150 million as time goes on.

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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