Dr. Nduom was accompanied by representatives of Groupe Nduom (GN) companies based in Washington DC,  USA.

Also present at the meeting were the Trade & Investment and Economic Affairs Counselors at the Ghanaian Embassy.

Welcoming the celebrated Ghanaian business magnate, Dr. Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah expressed his appreciation to Groupe Nduom for initiating the meeting and providing valuable information about the activities of the company in the USA.

He said it was encouraging that a company with foundation in Ghana was growing and moving to the global stage.

This he said will help bring the necessary resources back to Ghana and help create the needed jobs at home as well.

Dr. Nduom on his part traced the history of Groupe Nduom to the Washington DC area to the late 1980s, and said it was only appropriate to have an office there.

He announced that Groupe Nduom will open a Liaison Office in Alexandria in the metropolitan area at the end of March, to provide information on how to do business with the company in Ghana and other parts of Africa.

Dr. Nduom also introduced a number of his outfit’s products and services including GN Bank’s Diaspora Account which allows Ghanaians to open and operate bank accounts in Ghana while abroad; Gold Coast investment and pension accounts; FD Mobile, which allows people to watch live television from Ghana; GN Radio USA programmes; life insurance products among others.

He promised to send samples of rice produced in Ghana for tasting by the Embassy’s staff.

The business mogul also announced the introduction of PayGlobal, a remittance product he said would provide total convenience to users and help the country with its foreign exchange needs.

Groupe Nduom, he said, was ready to support the programmes and outreach activities of the Embassy to promote Ghana and Made-In-Ghana products to Americans and Ghanaians in the USA.

–

By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom,” Mr Trump tweeted.

The US president had earlier retweeted three inflammatory videos posted online by a British far-right group.
Mrs May’s spokesman said it was “wrong for the president to have done this”.

The US and the UK are close allies and often described as having a “special relationship”. Theresa May was the first foreign leader to visit the Trump White House.
The speaker of the House of Commons has granted a request for an urgent question on the matter from Labour MP Stephen Doughty.

The videos shared by Mr Trump, who has more than 40 million followers, were initially posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a group founded by former members of the far-right British National Party (BNP).

Ms Fransen, 31, has been charged in the UK with using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” over speeches she made at a rally in Belfast.

Several leading UK politicians have criticised the president for retweeting her posts, as has the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who said it was “deeply disturbing” that Mr Trump had “chosen to amplify the voice of far-right extremists”.

And it has led to renewed calls for Mr Trump’s planned state visit to the UK to be cancelled, although Downing Street said on Wednesday that the invitation still stood.
In hitting out at Mrs May, Mr Trump first tagged the wrong Twitter account, sending his statement to a different user with just six followers. He then deleted the tweet and posted it again, this time directing the message to the UK PM’s official account.

After already condemning Mr Trump’s actions on Wednesday, Brendan Cox – whose wife, MP Jo Cox, was murdered by a right-wing extremist who shouted “Britain first” before committing the act – tweeted: “You have a mass shooting every single day in your country, your murder rate is many times that of the UK, your healthcare system is a disgrace, you can’t pass anything through a congress that you control. I would focus on that.”

TV presenter and journalist Piers Morgan, who has supported Mr Trump in the past, said the president “owes our prime minister an apology, not a lecture” after he “publicly endorsed the most extreme bunch of Islamophobe fascists in Britain”.

But American conservative commentator Ann Coulter – who is one of the 45 people followed on Twitter by Mr Trump and retweeted the videos first – defended her president’s words to Mrs May, saying he had “only given as good as he gets”.

–

Source: BBC

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The Starlets were undone by a 75th-minute goal from Ayo Akinola after they failed to put away the numerous chances created on the day.

The victory sends the Americans through to the second round while Ghana need to defeat hosts India on Thursday and hope for a favourable result between the USA and Colombia to progress as the second-placed team in the group.

Speaking to the team after the match, H.E. Ocquaye Jnr, urged the players to bounce back from the loss and he also shared his thoughts on what he felt went against the team.

“Things are not lost for you. I know a lot of teams which lost their first match in a World Cup and went on to win it ultimately. Spain is an example. You did not lose your first match so just keep working hard.

Usually, Ghana plays well against a tough team and Colombia is the toughest team in the group and you beat them. But somehow, there is a perception that we always beat the USA and that exists even among our senior team.

The word is complacency and it showed in the first half. In the second, you played excellently but against the run of play, you conceded the goal. You have done well but this is a big lesson.”

Ghana is hoping to excel in the U-17 World Cup ten years after its last appearance when the tournament was played n South Korea.

By: Nathan Quao/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Mr Arpaio, 85, was found guilty after he defied a court order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected immigrants. He was due to be sentenced in October.

The president had hinted at the pardon at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday.

Thanking the president, Mr Arpaio said his conviction was “a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department”.

“Thank you…. for seeing my conviction for what it is,” tweeted Mr Arpaio.

“I’m not going away,” he said, while declining to say whether he would run for sheriff again.
Mr Trump has frequently praised the former sheriff, who is known for his controversial hard-line stance on immigration.

Mr Arpaio appeared on the campaign trail with Mr Trump in 2016 – describing him as “the law-and-order candidate”.

In a statement announcing the pardon, his first, Mr Trump said: “Arpaio’s life and career, which began at the age of 18 when he enlisted in the military after the outbreak of the Korean War, exemplify selfless public service.

“Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.

“Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon.”

Joe Arpaio, who styled himself as “America’s toughest sheriff”, rose to national prominence for his sweeps of undocumented immigrants in Hispanic communities, and for detaining Spanish-speakers under suspicion of being undocumented migrants.

In July 2017, he was found guilty of violating a 2011 order to stop detaining migrants.

The decision to pardon the former policeman was condemned by Democrats and civil rights groups.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said it was “disheartening that [the president] set the bar so very low for his first pardon”.

Greg Stanton, the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, called the move a slap in the face for the Latino community and those who had been victimised.

Mr Arpaio, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, could have faced six months in jail at his sentencing in October.

He served in the US military before he became a police officer – where he quickly acquired a reputation for his anti-immigration stance and tough enforcement tactics.

The former sheriff lost a bid for re-election in Arizona’s Maricopa County in November 2016, after 24 years in office.

Mr Arpaio famously forced the prisoners to wear pink underwear and socks and old-fashioned black-and-white striped prison jumpsuits. The inmates lived outdoors while enduring sweltering Arizona desert temperatures.

He also revived chain gangs, including a voluntary one for female prisoners.

–

Source: BBC

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Mr Trump and North Korea have been exchanging hostile rhetoric, with the US president threatening to rain “fire and fury” on the North.

But China, North Korea’s only major ally, has been urging restraint.

A White House statement said the US and China agreed North Korea must stop “provocative and escalatory behaviour”.

Long-standing tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme worsened when it tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.

The regime was also angered by last week’s UN decision to increase economic sanctions against it.

According to Chinese state media, Mr Xi told Mr Trump in a phone call that “all relevant parties” should stop “words and deeds” that would exacerbate the situation.

Mr Xi also stressed China and the US share “common interests” over denuclearisation and maintaining peace on the Korean peninsular.

A White House statement on the phone call did not mention the apparent plea to the US president.

It stressed the two men enjoyed a close relationship, which will “hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem”.

President Trump has previously chided China for not reining in North Korea, saying it could do “a lot more”.

From ‘fire and fury’ to ‘locked and loaded’

Tuesday: “North Korea, best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr Trump tells reporters. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”

Wednesday: Mr Trump boasts that the US nuclear arsenal is “more powerful than ever”

Thursday: He says that his “fire and fury” warning maybe “wasn’t tough enough”. Asked what would be tougher than fire and fury, he replies, “you’ll see”

Friday: The US president warns that military solutions are “locked and loaded” should North Korea “act unwisely”.

On Friday he issued a fresh threat against North Korea, saying it should expect “big, big trouble” if anything happens to the US territory of Guam.

But he added: “Hopefully, it will all work out. Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump, that I can tell you.”

On Friday, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said America still hopes to solve the North Korea crisis using diplomacy.
He said war would be “catastrophic” and that diplomacy was gaining results.

North Korea has announced plans to fire missiles near the Pacific territory of Guam, but there is no indication an attack is imminent.

For its part Pyongyang has accused Mr Trump of “driving” the Korean peninsula to the “brink of a nuclear war”.
Moscow said the exchange of threats between Washington and North Korea “worry us very much” and Germany has also expressed alarm.

–

Source: BBC

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Whereas the telecommunication companies charge between GHp0.21 to GHc0.96 every minute for calls to Nigeria, they charge comparatively lower [between GHp0.12 to GHc0.21] for calls to the aforementioned countries.

The telecommunications companies also charge an average of GHp0.1620 per minute for calls to China and Canada.

This is according to data published by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

For calls to Nigeria, MTN according to the report charges the highest of GHp0.96, followed by Tigo, Airtel, Vodafone, Glo and Expresso in descending order.

On the flip side, MTN charges the lowest tariff from calls placed to the USA and China followed by Glo, Airtel, Vodafone, Tigo and Expresso with GHpp0.21 in descending order.

Comparatively, it is expensive placing calls to the United Kingdom and Italy from Ghana.

The local telecommunication companies charge a GHc1.40 per minute to UK and Italy as against countries like South Africa, Germany and UAE.

Below is the data published by the NCA:

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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The sanctions, which were unanimously passed by the UN on Saturday, were a “violent violation of our sovereignty,” the official KCNA news agency said.

Separately, South Korea says the North has rejected an offer to restart talks, dismissing it as insincere.

The sanctions will aim to reduce North Korea’s export revenues by a third.

The UN Security Council decision followed repeated missile tests by the North which have escalated tensions on the peninsula.

In its first major response on Monday, North Korea insisted that it would continue to develop its controversial nuclear weapons programme.

The state-run KCNA news agency said Pyongyang would “not put our self-defensive nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table” while it faces threats from the US.

It threatened to make the US “pay the price for its crime… thousands of times,” referring to America’s role in drafting the UN sanctions resolution.

Speaking to reporters at a regional forum in the Philippine capital, Manila, North Korean spokesman Bang Kwang Hyuk said: “The worsening situation on the Korean peninsula, as well as the nuclear issues, were caused by the United States.

“We affirm that we’ll never place our nuclear and ballistic missiles programme on the negotiating table, and won’t budge an inch on strengthening nuclear armament.”

The remarks come after reports emerged that the North and South Korean foreign ministers had met briefly on Sunday evening on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Manila.

South Korean media reported that its Foreign Minister, Kang Kyung-wha, shook hands with her North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, in a brief and unarranged meeting at an official dinner event.

A South Korean official told the BBC that Mr Ri had dismissed Ms Kang’s offer of talks as “insincere”.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Ms Kang as saying that Mr Ri’s rejection of the talks proposal appeared to be connected to the new sanctions.

“I told him that [the two offers for talks] are an urgent matter that should be carried out immediately with any political agenda put aside and asked him to proactively react,” she was quoted as saying.

The foreign minister of China, which is Pyongyang’s closest ally, told journalists on Monday: “My feeling is that the North did not entirely reject the positive proposals raised by the South.”

Wang Yi added that China also supported the South’s initiatives, and was “100%” committed to enforcing the latest round of UN sanctions.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also at the Asean forum, where he spoke about North Korea.

Noting Russia and China’s participation in the unanimous vote, he told journalists it was clear there was now “no daylight among the international community” on their desire for North Korea to stop its tests.

“The best signal that North Korea can give us [is] that they are prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches,” he added.

Russia and China have previously differed with others on how to handle Pyongyang, but in recent months have joined calls for North Korea to stop its missile tests – while also urging the US and South Korea to halt military drills, and withdraw an anti-missile system from the South.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump spoke to his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in over the phone about relations on the Korean peninsula.

They agreed that North Korea “poses a grave and growing direct threat” and the two leaders were committed to fully implementing the latest round of UN sanctions, the White House said in a statement.

–

Source: BBC

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The bill is one of the first major pieces of legislation that was sent to Trump’s desk, and it represents a rebuke of the President by giving Congress new veto power to block him from removing Russia sanctions.

The White House announced the signing shortly after 11 a.m. ET, saying the bill includes “a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions” that “purport to displace the President’s exclusive constitutional authority to recognize foreign governments, including their territorial bounds.”
In a separate statement, Trump said he believed the bill to be “seriously flawed” but signed it anyway.

“Still, the bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate,” he said in the statement. “Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking. By limiting the executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people, and will drive China, Russia, and North Korea much closer together.”

He ended the statement by saying: “I built a truly great company worth many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.”

Even before Trump signed the bill, the measure prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to retaliate against the US over the new sanctions, which Congress levied over Russian interference in the 2016 US election, as well as Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression in Syria.

In addition to the new US sanctions on Russia, former President Barack Obama seized two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in December in response to the election meddling. Russia responded by ordering the US to cut staff at its diplomatic mission by 755 employees, as well as seizing two US diplomatic properties.

The new sanctions bill hits Russia’s energy and defense sectors, and also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

The measure was signed into law after it passed with overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate — which made the threat of a presidential veto a non-starter — but it was not an easy road to Trump’s desk.

After the Senate passed the sanctions on Iran and Russia 98-2, the bill languished in the House for more than a month amid a series of procedural fights. Then the House added North Korean sanctions before passing the measure 419-3, effectively forcing the Senate to swallow the new sanctions in order to get the legislation over the finish line before Congress left for its August congressional recess.

The House and Senate struck a deal to make some changes to the bill at the urging of a host of US industries and European countries, but Congress did not consider making the change that the White House wanted: removing the congressional review on Russia sanctions from the bill.

White House officials lobbied to weaken the section giving Congress a veto on the easing of sanctions, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Congress the administration should have “flexibility” to negotiate with Russia and improve relations.

But key Republican and Democratic lawmakers said that weakening congressional review was not on the table when they were finalizing the legislation.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, who initially was hesitant to pass a Russia sanctions bill before he was a key driver to get it done in July, said he has spoken to the President about the review process to try to ease the White House’s concerns.

Corker said that Congress would only veto an attempt to lessen sanctions on Russia if the administration took an “egregious” step to try to remove sanctions.

“I’ve walked the President through the process of how congressional review works,” Corker said. “The administration — knowing that unless it’s way out of bounds — likely they have the flexibility to do what they need to do.”

Corker noted that Trump has refused to believe his intelligence leaders that Russia interfered with the election, and said that may have helped push Congress to get the bill done quickly.

“I do think that the lack of strong statements in that regard probably effected the outcome,” he said.

–

Source: CNN

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The Black Starlets are set to commence preparations for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup to be hosted by India from October 5-28, 2017.

Most of the players who have been invited for Monday’s camping were part of the squad that qualified Ghana to the World Cup after placing second at the African U-17 Championship in Gabon earlier this year.

Below are the players who have been invited to camp:

1. Kwame Aziz – Mandela Soccer Academy

2. Gideon Acquah – Bofoakwa Tano

3. Isaac Antah                    – Accra Young Wise

4. Kingsley Owusu           – Dreams FC

5. Michael Acquaye         – WAFA

6. Eric Ayiah                        – Charity Stars

7. Mohammed Iddriss    – Cheetah FC

8. Kwadwo Opoku           – Attram De Viser Academy

9. Samuel Mone Andoh                – Zein FC

10. Ibrahim Sulley            – New Life FC

11. Bismark Terry Owusu – Mandela Soccer Academy

12. John Otu                       – Still Believe

13. Edmund Arko-Mensah – Wa All Stars

14. Nathaniel Opoku Onyinah – Sporting Club Accra

15. Aminu Mohammed                 – WAFA

16. Rudolf Blagogee        – FC Mamobi

17. Evans Sarfo                  – Asokwa Deportivo

18. Kudus Mohammed – Right to Dream Academy

19. Kelvin Ofori                                 – Right to Dream Academy

20. Isaac Atanga                – Right to Dream Academy

21. Emmanuel Danso      – Right to Dream Academy

22. Kamal Sowah              – Right to Dream Academy

23. Jamal Haruna              – WAFA

24. Inusah Adams            – WAFA

25. Francis Boateng         – WAFA

26. Ernest Boahene         – Vision FC

–

Source: Ghana FA

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The report, themed “Enhancing Criminal Accountability and Addressing Challenges in Prosecution Efforts,” is an effort to encourage global efforts to end human slavery around the world.

It includes profiles of 187 countries and territories.

[contextly_sidebar id=”JYGEnb0CZA6MnH3D9E00i2yN7r9xzoes”]Ghana did not meet the full standards to end human trafficking in 2016, but has shown that it is making significant efforts in that direction.

The country completed a written plan of action to end national trafficking, that if successful, would meet the minimum standards to maintain its rank. Therefore, it was granted a waiver that prevents it from being downgraded to Tier 3. If downgraded in next year’s report, it will be subjected to restrictions on U.S. assistance.

The U.S. funds several projects in Ghana to end human trafficking, including the Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership signed by former President Mahama and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Gene Cretz.

The Partnership is a multi-year plan to improve Ghana’s current efforts to address child sex trafficking and forced child labor within Ghana. It awarded $5 million in U.S. foreign assistance to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and NGO Free the Slaves to combat forced child labor and child sex trafficking in the Volta, Central, and Greater Accra regions.

But comments from the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Robert Jackson drew attention to more than just financial aid.

“The theme of this year’s report says it all: traffickers must be held criminally accountable. Unless Ghanaians work with law enforcement and the courts to bring traffickers to justice, they will continue to commit these horrific crimes. This isn’t about what the United States wants Ghana to do. It’s about Ghanaian men, women and children who are suffering because traffickers are allowed to violate Ghana’s laws and morality,” the ambassador said.

The annual report also describes the scope of human trafficking in each country, the efforts of each government to end trafficking, and discusses important issues related to human trafficking.

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By: Joy Notoma/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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