Seth J. Bokpe's Ghana Newsreel

A Supreme Court judge, Mrs Justice Sophia O. Adinyira, has described some media comments and public debate on rulings by judges as sweeping, unsavoury and unwarranted. The Judiciary, she stated, welcomed academic criticisms and reviews of its judgements, as they were good for the development of the country’s jurisprudence and would also make the Judiciary accountable. some supreme court judges (left) Justice Adinyira (top) “Though our 1992 Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression and the freedom and independence of the media, there are some limitations on the expression of these freedoms in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purpose of protecting the reputations and rights and freedoms of other persons,” Mrs Justice Adinyira said when she swore in Mr Anthony Kodjo Batse, a government representative on the National Media Commission (NMC). The judge’s comment comes on the heels of recent criticisms and demonstrations that...

Fifteen per cent of Ghanaian children develop language or speech problems that affect their development and performance,  Dr Ebenezer V. Badoe, the Director of  Neurology/Developmental Services at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, has said. “The situation therefore calls for the country's  policy makers to identify the needs of such children and incorporate it into the country's health and educational sectors,” he said. Dr Badoe, who spoke  to the Daily Graphic in an interview on the fringes of the  2011 International Autism Policies and Practices Conference in Accra, said  the early childhood policy adopted by the country must seriously deal with screening children with language problems in order to develop the appropriate remedies for them. Autism is a condition that affect children before age three and leaves them unable to form normal social relationships or develop normal communication. A child may become isolated from human contact and absorbed i...

        Top: Vice-Chancelor of the University of Ghana, Prof Ernest Aryeetey) Main: The Great Hall of the Univ. THE University of Ghana, Legon, has restructured its undergraduate programmes in the Humanities and Sciences, with many new courses and programmes introduced and existing ones revised. The Vice-chancellor of the university, Prof Ernest Aryeetey, announced this at its congregation held at Legon on Saturday. He said the university had inaugurated a steering committee to oversee the process of creating a multi-disciplinary institute of applied scientific research to facilitate industrial transformation in Ghana and other parts of Africa. Prof Aryeetey said the work of the institute was expected to be in areas including food processing and the development of materials for various production process, including packaging and environmental conservation. In all, 4,408 students graduated, including 846 postgraduates, 21 doctoral candidates, ...

THE 2010 Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards were launched in Accra yesterday, with the introduction of six new award categories to honour individual and institutional media excellence in the country. The new awards, which are in the categories of Science, Oil and Gas, Anti-Narcotics, Social Security, Agriculture and Water, bring to 50 the number of awards up for grabs. This year’s awards, which are the 16th since their inception and scheduled for August this year, will receive entries from April to May 9, 2011 and cover works published and broadcast from January 1 to December 31, 2010. The awards to be contested for are Radio, Television and Print News Reporting, Features, Investigative Reporting, Photo-journalism, Sports, Arts/Entertainment and Domestic Tourism, the Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu Award for Business/Finance and Economic Reporting, Environment, Health, and Parliamentary Reporting. Others are Anti-Corruption, HIV/AIDS, Political Reporting, Disability, Telecommunicat...

GHANAIANS have been urged to ignore the negative political banter that has crept into the country’s politics in order to consolidate the country’s prevailing  peace and unity. “Peace, unity and stability are very important if we want to consolidate on the gains we have made so far, therefore, we must not allow politicians to derail that,” said Apostle Dr Stephen K. Amoani, the Chairman of the  Christ Apostolic Church International (CACI). Apostle Dr Amoani who made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic during the dedication service of a GHC 400,000- Odorkor Central branch of  the CACI said it was important that politicians  eschew actions that could divide the nation and place it on the path of other politically unstable countries in Africa. “We have so much to learn from the experiences of other countries that travelled the path of political instability,” he stated. He said as the 2012 general elections approached, the world would be looking forwar...

  Some of these painkillers can cause erectile dysfuction A urologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr J.E. Mensah, has cautioned the public, especially men, against the regular use of painkillers such as Ibuprofen and Aspirin because of their increased risk of causing erectile dysfunction. In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Saturday, Dr Mensah said "the side effects of the painkillers are so dangerous for those who take them for a long time." Commenting on a new research which has concluded that men who regularly take painkillers such as Ibuprofen and Aspirin may be at increased risk of erectile dysfunction, Dr Mensah said "those who take the painkiller once in a while when in pain are not so much at risk as those who take them regularly for a long time." According to the research commissioned by Kaiser Permanente, a United States of America health insurance provider, men who used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAlDs) three ti...

SHAREHOLDERS of Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) Limited passed a resolution at the company’s 2010 Annual General Meeting (AGM) to convert $14,087,120, which is part of its indebtedness to the Ghana Cocoa Board, to equity to recapitalise the company. The move, according to the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr Jacob S. Arthur, is expected to have a “significant and positive impact on the company’s liquidity”. In his statement to shareholders, he said the balance of the debt of US$32,002,146 had been rescheduled to be repaid over a 10-year period at concessionary interest rate. He noted that the year under review was a challenging one as a greater part of the year was devoted to completing the installation of complementary machinery at one of the company’s factories.  The rehabilitation, he stated was necessary to bring the factory up to modern industry standard after more than 40 years of existence without any major rehabilitation. He mentioned factors including the sh...