Breaking News: Ghana Will Break Down If Mahama Wins......Kuffour

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said Ghana will grind to a halt if President John Mahama is retained in power.

According to the former president, since the beginning of multi-party democracy in1992, the NDC has had the lion’s share as far as governance is concerned, but anytime they are given the mandate, life in the country becomes unbearable.

“When we got the chance, there was real development, not the kids’ movies NDC is showing to people now,” he said.

Breaking News: Gay Legalized In South Africa

South Africa's constitution was the first in the world to protect people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

The country was also the first in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage. But after a spate of murders, gay people say more needs to be done to stop hate crimes.

Betty Melamu sits on a brown leather sofa in her living room in the township of Evaton, just south of Johannesburg. She's cradling a framed picture of her daughter Motshidisi Pascalina, known as Pasca.

In a quiet, wavering voice, she sings Pasca's favourite song. "Whenever she would listen to the radio or go to church she would sing that song," she remembers.

When I ask if Pasca was a good singer she says, "Yes," and laughs - apparently Pasca was more spirited than talented, constantly switching between parts as she sang.

She loved football too, studied hard at school and wanted to be a politician. "She wanted to do something good," says Melamu with pride.

But the laughter and happy memories are fleeting, and sadness is etched in her thin, drawn face. Pasca was a lesbian, something her family knew and accepted. She had just turned 21 and completed her final high school exams when she went to a party in December. "I don't know what happened after the party," says Melamu. "But she didn't come back." Two days later Pasca's body was found in a field in a neighbouring township. She had been beaten and mutilated. At the morgue her family couldn't recognise her face and could only identify her by a tattoo on her leg. "At that time I was strong," Melamu remembers. "But after that, I feel like I am a crazy woman." And as we talk, she repeats one question, over and over. "Why? Why did this happen to my child?" Pasca was was born in 1994, the year apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela was elected president - she was one of the first of South Africa's so-called born free generation.

In his inauguration speech, Mandela promised to "build a society in which all South Africans will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts... a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."

But 21 years later, this promise remains unfulfilled for the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.

In a country where crime rates, in general, are high, black lesbians in poor townships face particular risks and often suffer the most violent crimes. As women, they're vulnerable in a country with one of the highest rates of rape in the world. As lesbians in an often homophobic and patriarchal society, they face a further danger - the idea that they can be "changed" and "made into women" through what is known as "corrective rape".

It's suspected this may have happened to Pasca, although the post-mortem was unable to determine this.

And when crimes happen, there's no guarantee that the response will be adequate. Victims say they often face secondary harassment by police or health care workers.

Pasca's case was assigned to a police officer who was on leave at the time, only returning to work two and a half weeks later.

Frustrated at the delay in this and two other rape cases, in January activists took to the streets of Evaton with rainbow flags and banners. Chanting "Pasca is our sister," they marched to the local police station to demand justice.

"The police are not doing anything," Lindiwe Nhlapo told me several weeks later. She's part of Vaal LGBTI, one of the groups that organised the march. "The police are failing us big time."

Since then, the police have tried to address concerns about the investigation into Pasca's death, but frustration with the justice system is a common story.

In the nearby township of KwaThema, silver drapes and rainbow flags adorn the living room of the small house that's the headquarters of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee (EPOC).

There's also bar down one end and a sign on the wall - Divas and Dykes Lounge. Day or night, this is a safe place for gay and transgender people to socialise.

"I can't walk with my partner on the street and hold their hand," says Bontle Kahlo, from EPOC. "I can't go out at night and say 'I'm going to dance somewhere,' because I'm not safe. I might get killed because of who I am, because of who I love."

She points to a frame on the wall containing photos of dozens of LGBTI men and women.

"This is our memory wall," she says. Some of them died of natural causes, but many of the lesbians in the pictures were murdered because of their sexual orientation.

"Women are less than men," says Kahlo. "If you're a black woman, you are even less, and if you're a black lesbian woman you are basically nothing in this country."

Among the faces on the wall is Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian who was raped, mutilated and murdered in 2011.

But five years later, no-one has been prosecuted. "The feeling we got from the police is that they expected us to do all the work for them," says Kahlo.

"It's very tiring to be an activist but to also be a police officer and to try as hard as you can, and to have a government which is not supportive." Her partner and fellow campaigner Ntuspe Mohapi nods in agreement. "They're good at talking but not at acting," she says.

When they heard about Pasca's murder, there was a familiar sadness. "I think it's getting worse," Mohapi says. "And these are just the cases of murder that we are talking about. We haven't started with rape, or hate speech, and the bullying in schools, and the suicides of gay teenagers."

South African law doesn't classify hate crimes differently from other crimes, so there are no official statistics to turn to. The organisation Iranti-org is funded by the EU to document violence against LGBTI people - it has counted more than 30 murders and rapes in the country since 2012.

Pasca was just one of three LGBTI people killed in South Africa during a six week period late last year. The deaths barely received a mention in the mainstream media.

There hasn't always been a lack of interest though. After the murder of Noxolo Nogwaza and several other lesbians in 2011, there was a global outcry. 170,000 people signed a petition calling on the government to act. In response, the government set up a National Task Team and drew up a National Intervention Strategy to reduce hate crimes.

It also established a Rapid Response Team to make sure that hate crimes are properly investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted. This has had some success in clearing a backlog of murders and other crimes.

But the government is not doing enough says Mpaseka "Steve" Letsike, co-chairwoman of the National Task Team and head of LGBTI organisation Access Chapter 2.

"We are not getting it right. There's a huge gap. We need to invest our energies into prevention, into conversations, into dialogues."

The government is doing some of this - funding awareness campaigns and training police and health workers. But "it's still a drop in the ocean," says Letsike.

To get a sense of the challenge South Africa faces, I travel to the Johannesburg suburb of Yeoville. It's home to many migrants from more traditional, rural parts of the country.

In a tiny room, barely big enough for a bed and a fridge, I perch on an upturned bucket and speak to two men. The elder of the two speaks softly, but has a fearsome clarity when our conversation turns to homosexuality. "Homosexuality is a taboo to us," he says. "I'll go back to African traditions, there's no word for that in our language."

I ask what would happen if one of his daughters told him she was a lesbian. "I might kill her myself. That thing is unnatural, it's awkward, so I cannot accept something that is awkward in my house. "If someone said choose between keeping this child or killing it, I would kill it."

His views reflect the gap between the law and the attitude of many South Africans. It shows that the government has failed to create a truly rainbow nation, say activists.

"Conditions for LGBTI people in South Africa have improved substantially since 1994," says John Jeffery, deputy minister of justice and constitutional development. His department is responsible for the National Intervention Strategy.

"We are trying to educate people about LGBTI rights, that gay rights are human rights," he says and adds that he is frustrated with the criticism.

"There's no use complaining outside that government is not doing enough," he says. "I, unfortunately, have not heard proposals from civil society organisations about things we should be doing that we're not doing. They need to tell us where they think we should be improving."

While open to suggestions, he says there are limits to what he can do. "More could be done, but the extent to which we can run awareness programmes would depend on budget and what money we've got, and unfortunately government is facing budget cuts."

The government is currently in the process of preparing legislation to outlaw hate crimes and hate speech, which should allow better monitoring of crimes and, it's hoped, reduce homophobic abuse.

"There's no magic solution, it's a process and that process takes time," says Jeffery.

She prays that one day she will face the people who killed her daughter and find out why they did it.

"I want to know, that's the point," she says. "I want those who did this thing to my child to be arrested, all of them."

Almost 4 months after Pasca was murdered, no-one has been arrested. For many LGBTI people and their families in South Africa, safety, justice, and the promise of a truly rainbow nation still feel a long way off.

Breaking News: Pop Francis To Visit Lesbos

Pope Francis will make a short trip to the Greek island of Lesbos on April 16 to meet with refugees accommodated there, the Holy See said in a statement Thursday.

The Vatican said the pope accepted the invitation from the leader of the Christian Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and the Greek president, Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Bartholomew, as well as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Jerome II, will join the pope in Lesbos

Breaking news: Student Murdered At Egypt

The search for the truth about the brutal killing of Giulio Regeni, the 28-year old Italian researcher found dead in a ditch in the outskirts of Cairo two months ago, is turning into one of the most delicate diplomatic cases Italy has dealt with recently. It is also putting to a hard test the credibility of the Italian government.

Italian and Egyptian prosecutors are expected to meet in Rome on Thursday in what the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, described as a crucial meeting to reach a solution to the case. Gentiloni warned the Egyptians that Italy's patience was running out.

"Unless there is a change of pace [by Egypt], Italy is ready to react by adopting immediate and proportional measures," Gentiloni said on Tuesday, in what sounded like a direct threat to Cairo.

The stormy exchange of statements between Rome and Cairo, the unproductive string of visits and documents between the investigative teams as well as the Egyptian authorities' ever changing versions on how Regeni was murdered came to a climax on Tuesday when Gentiloni issued his strongest statement since the start of the case.

"We will not let Italy's dignity be trampled on," he said, addressing the Italian Senate.

"We are at a turning point. We are not sure how much closer to the truth we'll get, but the decision to send the prosecutor and police officials to Rome on Thursday marks a change of direction by the Egyptian side," said Stefano Stefanini, columnist at the daily La Stampa and a former diplomat.

Regeni's death, according to analysts, has turned into an issue of national pride that the Italian government can no longer afford to neglect.

The indignation of the Italian public opinion has been growing proportionally to the inability - or unwillingness - of the Egyptian authorities to provide answers to the Italian prosecutors investigating the case.

The shocking details about the torture, and the week-long ordeal suffered by the Italian student sparked public outrage and disgust, prompting spontaneous protest campaigns throughout Italy that are not yet abating. 

Regeni, a Cambridge student, went missing on the evening of January 25, on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 popular uprising, as security forces were raiding Cairo's landmarks in an attempt to abort possible protests.

Regeni's body, half naked and mutilated, was found a week later on the desert road between Cairo and Alexandria. Human rights organisations said the burns and wounds on the Italian were consistent with the methods of torture used by Egyptian security services to repress the opposition.

However, the Egyptian authorities have always denied the involvement of its security officers and never questioned them. For weeks, the public prosecutor and investigators shared as little information as possible with their Italian counterparts, while the interior ministry started offering different versions of the story.

The first was that the researcher had been killed by drug dealers; another version stated that the killing had occurred within Regeni's research field, the Egyptian unions; a week ago, Egyptian police claimed they had killed Regeni's kidnappers, apparently common burglars, in a shootout and found his bag with all his documents.

All versions presented blatant inconsistencies that were promptly rejected by the Italian authorities as attempts to provide a "convenient truth".

"The truth might be uncomfortable, but we cannot ignore it," Stefanini said.

"Italy, not only Regeni's family, deserves the truth while Egypt cannot lose its face. The dialogue starting in Rome is based on this delicate balance. The justice that Italy asks for, won't happen through the humiliation of Egypt."

Italy, according to its foreign minister, was still expecting to receive key information that the Egyptians have refused to share so far, including data on Regeni's phone traffic and video of the underground metro stations in the area from where the student allegedly disappeared.

If the Egyptian delegation failed - in the expected meeting on Thursday - to present these two important chapters of the dossier, dialogue between the two sides will be - most likely- seriously compromised and it will be difficult for the Italian investigators to ever reach the truth.

So far Rome had put up with the lack of cooperation and shunned a more aggressive tone in an attempt to prevent a breaking point.

But the constant diplomatic pressure, while helping the dismissal of improbable versions on the death of Regeni, hasn't brought the prosecutors closer to the truth.

"We expect a strong reaction by the Italian government," said Regeni's parents, who had earlier set the deadline of April 5 to demand a "final word on the case".

But how far is Italy willing to go in a case that has already strained relations between the two countries, remains to be seen. "Italy can take a series of significant diplomatic measures, like recalling its Ambassador, discourage researchers and students from going to Egypt, or issue a travel ban," Paolo Valentino, an editor of Il Corriere explained.

Other measures might include a downgrading of diplomatic ties, a cancellation of the intergovernmental meetings that were agreed upon by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2014.

"However, nobody would like to invoke economic measures. It is difficult to think of a possible embargo that would compromise Italy's role as second commercial partner of Egypt after Germany," Valentino added. 

Italy has strong economic interests in the Arab country, where last year the state-owned Italian oil company ENI discovered a giant offshore gas field that might be the largest of the Mediterranean.

Economic ties are not the only ones at stake. Egypt is deeply involved in Libya, where Italy is supporting a strong diplomatic push for the creation of a national unity government supported by all factions.

Egypt is a negotiating partner in stabilising a region that poses huge security challenges to Italy and Europe alike.

Breaking News: ISIS Sieze 300 Syrians

More than 300 staff at a cement factory near Damascus have been kidnapped after an attack earlier this week by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), Syrian state TV said on Thursday.

Hundreds of employees at the Al Badia Cement company were taken by ISIL fighters from a factory in the town of Dumeir, 50km east of the Syrian capital, the report quoted the industry ministry as saying.

It added the workers' employer had lost all contact with them.

Breaking News: Ecowas Banned Visa To Ghana

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says citizens within the ECOWAS sub-region won’t have to obtain visas before entering Ghana. According to the Ministry, there were some media reports in Nigeria misinterpreting a statement made by President John Dramani Mahama about a move to grant citizens within the African Union traveling to Ghana, visas on arrival, meaning that those in the West African sub-region will also be affected by the policy. But a statement signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh,

Breaking news: ECOWAS Is Broke

The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) is facing SEVERE “financial difficulties” and can no longer fight terrorism and other threats in the sub-region.

According to the ECOWAS Commission, member states have continually failed to honor the payment of their mandatory community levies.

Breaking News: Asantehene Saved Kotoko

The Asantehene says his club Asante Kotoko's position at the bottom of the Ghana Premier League led to him panicking which led to him storming the club's training ground unannounced.

HRH Otumfuo Osei Tutu II stormed the training grounds of the crisis-ridden side on Tuesday after pressured piled on the Ashanti King following the dwindling fortunes of the giants.

Breaking News: Minister Of Foreign Affairs Fraud Again

Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has been hit with another fraud with the quantum of money involved running into thousands of United States dollars.

The country’s Mission in Luanda, Angola, is reported to have been misappropriating funds the unit has generated internally, with the Accounting Officer, Mr. King Pratt Ainooson and the Consular, Hon. Madam Mandy said to be at the center of the controversy.

Breaking News: Ghanaian Join ISIS Again

One of the several youth who announced their decision to join the terrorist group, Islamic State, is facing prosecution.

Eliasu Alhassan was arrested upon his return to Ghana recently and has been detained by national security operatives.

The national security has been on high alert after declaring that Ghana was vulnerable to terrorist attacks in the wake of attacks on neighboring countries.

Last month news broke that one of the Ghanaian ISIS recruits, Mohammed Nazir Nortei Alema, had died.

Documents available to Starr News suggest that the returnee-recruit is a former student of the St. Augustines Senior High School and currently a final year medical student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Starr News' court correspondent Wilberforce Asare reports that the case has been adjourned to April 20.

Breaking News: Otabil University CUC Under Pressure

The Central University College (CUC), owned by Reverend Dr. Mensah Otabil and the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) is under intense pressure from parents and pioneer students of its Communication Studies department over the status of their certificates.

The students are yet to receive their Bachelor of Arts certificates since they completed school in 2015. The General Telegraph has gathered that the graduation class of 2015 did not receive their certificates on the day of their graduation (December 5, 2015) because their mentoring university, the University of Ghana (UoG), insists that the department of Communication Studies at the CUC change the wide courses that were being offered.

Breaking News: WAEC Papers Linked In Ghana

The recurring leak of West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination papers is far from over as three of the papers in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been leaked.

The Daily Graphic can authoritatively say that some students in some schools in the Greater Accra and the Eastern regions had access to the examination papers between 12 midnight and 4 a.m. on the day the papers were written.

Breaking News: AngloGold Ashanti Shut Down Completely

Classified information reaching Obuasitoday.com indicates that, the AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi mine will formally shut down in the next few days for what it believes to be the inability of government to help secure their concession against illegal miners.

A top brass officer in the mine who spoke to Obuasitoday.com on condition of anonymity, said Management of the Obuasi mine are to shut down the mine indefinitely until further notice from the International Headquarters in South Africa.

Breaking News: NDC Blast NPP Over Demo

The first Vice Chair of the ruling NDC has accused the opposition NPP and its allies of increasing political temperature in the country with series of what he describes as needless demonstrations and agitations.

Samuel Ofosu Ampofo said he is surprised to see the NPP demonstrating over the voter’s register when the country has a respected and competent Electoral Commission (EC).

“I don’t understand. It beats my imagination that the NPP and its allies are on the streets demonstrating while they have members on the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to voice their challenges during meetings,” he said.

Breaking News: Ghana Electoral Commission Disobey Supreme Court

The Electoral Commission has renewed its pledge to conduct a credible election in November, with an assurance that it has started implementing some recommended reforms to enhance the transparency of the country’s electoral process.

The EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, gave the assurance hours after a massive demonstration dubbed the ‘Baamu Yadda’ was staged in Kumasi by pro-opposition groups to demand a credible voters’ register for the November general elections.