Ghana’s election as chair of the African Union has been welcomed by the Darfur Consortium, a coalition of civil society groups campaigning against the ongoing conflict in Darfur which was recently described by the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Farmers in Ghana will soon be introduced to an innovative agricultural market information service which will help them sell their produce across Africa. The new service known as TradeNet will enable farmers and traders across the continent to share and fix prices of various agricultural products through the use of mobile phone text messages. Farmers who sign up for the service will receive SMS alerts on whatever commodity they are interested in and also where the product is available.

Ghana has been elected, by consensus, as the new chair of the African Union. Ghana is set to host the next AU Heads of State summit scheduled for July. Ghana’s election averted a potentially embarrassing moment for the AU after Sudan failed to relinquish its bid in spite of widespread disquiet and opposition over its complicity in the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Kumasi, with a population of one million, is the second city of Ghana and the capital of the Ashanti Region. The city is growing rapidly both in area and population. This is affecting the natural environment and the livelihoods of the people living in rural areas around the city.

Refugees face many challenges living in camps, but these difficulties vary amongst different groups. Young Liberian refugees in the Buduburam camp in Ghana deal with their problems in specific ways. Studying the social resilience of these groups may help generate strategies for their improvement.

The Executive Secretary of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas has disclosed that work on the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), is at the completion point and would start discharging natural gas from Nigeria's Niger Delta as an alternative source of fuel to Togo, Benin and Ghana by the first quarter of 2007.

The Students Loan Trust Fund, which is expected to replace the SSNIT loan scheme, would begin its operations in the next academic year. According to the trustees, the fund intends to issue loans amounting to ¢875.6 billion to students within the next three years. It will be financed through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

Ghana found itself in a quagmire of choosing to get rid of blood diamonds or risk its Kimberly Process status. After a careful thinking, Ghanaian representatives at the just ended international Kimberly Process plenary meeting in the Botswana capital Gaborone have agreed to get rid of blood diamond trafficking in its territory.

Former president of the republic of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, last week attacked the administration of his successor John Kufuor, during a lecture in London. He claimed the administration was destroying gains he made as president and accused the west of propping up a corrupt regime in the west African nation.
He was speaking at a Black History Month symposium organised by London Southbank University’s students’ union.

The coordinating Director of the Mpohor Wassa East District Assembly, Mr. Alex Obeng Gyabaa has observed that there were disastrously worse forms of child labour in society, especially in cocoa growing areas. To this end, he has called on parents to protect their children from the bondage of child labour and take advantage of the capitation grant and other government policies to help nib in the bud the problem of child labour in the country.

Guinea worm, also known as "the fiery serpent", is contracted by drinking water contaminated with microscopic water fleas carrying larvae. Global efforts to eradicate the waterborne parasite have seen the number of cases fall from an estimated 3,5-million in 1986 to 10 674 reported cases last year, according to the Carter Centre.

The administration of President John Kufuor has begun paying reparations to about 2,000 Ghanaians who suffered human rights abuses under former governments. Individual payments, which began on Monday (16 October), range from about US $217 to US $3,300 depending on the extent of abuse or violation, according to the attorney general's office.

Moslem women have been charged to exude effective 'Dawah' (calling towards the truth) in the ongoing month of Ramandan by exhibiting the characteristics of good deeds and dealings as mothers. This was in a day's seminar organized by the Federation of Moslem Women Associations in Ghana (FOMWAG) on the theme 'Effective Dawah in the month of Ramadan; the role of the Moslem woman".

Thousands of Ghanaian senior secondary school teachers have been on strike since classes resumed in September, but in a twist of roles students are taking the podium. Teenagers are lecturing classes, have formed study groups or follow individual daily school plans as their teachers stay home to demand better pay and other benefits. The strike is affecting 360,000 senior secondary students nationwide.

Judge Akua Kuenyehia's office, on the top floor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, is filled with Africa. There are maps of the continent, African art on the walls and a shelf of beautiful African carvings. Judge Kuenyehia, one of three female African judges at the ICC, is first vice-president of the court. And because all the cases currently at the ICC are African, the Ghanaian judge feels that her knowledge of her home continent serves her well.

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, (KAIPTC), will be situated in Accra Ghana, where it will be West Africa’s Operational Level Focus on Conflict Prevention and Peace Studies. Delivering courses to Military and Civilian Personnel involved on Peace Support Operations throughout the world, it will lead original and challenging research into the causes and subsequent management of Conflict and the promotion of sustainable Peace.

President John Agyekum Kufuor’s expected exit from the political scene is bringing tumultuous change to the New Patriotic Party (NPP). With campaign 2007 heating up, some old faces are in retreat, as new figures stake their claim to the NPP leadership. Hackman Owusu, Nana Akuffu-Addo, Osafo Marfo, Apraku, Dr. Addo Kuffour, Effah- Dartey, Kwabene Agyepong, and others, are all gunning for the post of presidential candidate of the NPP.

When 45-year-old farmer Fefe Dari decided to perform genital excision on three girls in 2003, with the consent of their parents, little did she know that the tradition would land her a five-year jail sentence. Few of those who perform excision have been jailed under Ghana's 1994 law against the practice - as is the case in other African countries where excision is outlawed.

The provision of telecom services in most countries was provided by either public administrations, departments in the civil service or state-owned enterprises. While others, especially, USA opted for a system of issuing licences to private companies to operate as monopolies in specific geographic areas. Developments in the 1980s and the 1990s changed the landscape of the telecom industry.

A former lecturer in criminal law, gender law and international human rights law at the University of Ghana, Judge Kuenyehia has co-authored several books and influential papers on how law is interpreted and implemented throughout her continent. She has sought to encourage African women to gain a better understanding of the law, setting up networks of female professionals who go out into communities to promote awareness of legal rights and issues.