Togo bans Ghana poultry

Togo banned poultry from neighbouring Ghana on Wednesday after a case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu was detected there, the agriculture ministry said.A week ago, Ghana became the eighth African country to report a case of the H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry. Some 1,700 birds were culled after the discovery.

Togo authorities on Wednesday asked residents to notify veterinarians of any "sudden and massive poultry or wild bird deaths" and to avoid handling dead birds.The country put a national bird flu plan into action in February 2006, including a national alert system, the formation of medical teams and improved surveillance.In Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria have all reported cases of H5N1 in poultry.

The World Health Organisation has warned that while humans have so far only caught the H5N1 strain of bird flu through contact with infected birds or their droppings, it could claim millions of lives if it mutates into a form that can be spread among humans.
Source:GHP

China to help build Bui city

Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning on Wednesday said government had allocated 20 million dollars for the construction of a city at Bui in line with the Bui dam project.He said the money allocated for the construction of the city formed part of a 600 million dollars loan to be funded by the Chinese government through a mixed credit facility.

Mr. Baah-Wiredu said lessons from the construction of the Akosombo dam has necessitated that a well-planned city, the likes of Tema, be put in place to accommodate all those who would be displaced due to the construction of the dam."The Bui city with its own university is expected to accommodate over one million inhabitants in the next 30 years," he told Mr Zhang Keyuan, out-going Chinese Ambassador who called at his office to bid him farewell.Mr Zhang, who had been in Ghana for almost four years was being recalled to his home country.Thanking Mr Zhang, through whose effort Ghana was about to implement the Bui Hydro-Electric Power Project, the Minister expressed the hope that Mr Zhang could stay to witness the sod cutting scheduled for June 15.

The project had been on drawing board for more than 85 years. "With the engineering, procurement and construction contract already signed between the government of Ghana and the project contractors, the way is paved for work to start on the project soon," Mr Baah-Wiredu said.He said Mr Zhang's duty in Ghana had been one of the most active and fruitful periods in Ghana-China bilateral co-operation initiated in the early 1960s."Your term of office has witnessed an unprecedented expansion of the Chinese Government support to Ghana as China is now Ghana's third largest bilateral development partner," The Finance Minister said. He called for a better trade relationship with an increase in exports from Ghana.Mr Zhang expressed his appreciation to President John Agyekum Kufuor, Ministers of State and the people of Ghana for the hospitable and excellent relationship saying he had enjoyed the nearly four years stay in Ghana.He said he would have wished to stay much longer in Ghana to complete the projects that were initiated during his tenure of office, but promised to encourage his successor to be committed to the completion of all those projects.He named some of the projects as the construction of an office complex for the Ministry of Defence, the rehabilitation of the Peduase Presidential Lodge, the Kumasi Youth Centre project and the Bui Hydro-Electric Power Dam project.He noted that bilateral relations, as well as trade between Ghana and China had deepened over the last three years, including the signing of a number of financial agreements and contracts with the government on various projects."I hope the bilateral relationship would be enhanced to a new level with the new ambassador to be," Mr Zhang said.
Source:GNA

Enact law to check mishandling of the cedi

The Rev Robert Nelson Adayi, Executive Director of Treds Envitech Limited, an environment management company on Tuesday called on the government to enact a law to deal with the mishandling of the Ghanaian currency.This, he said, would curb the practice where citizens treated the currency with contempt by writing on it, mended it with black cellotape and soiled it with oil, defacing it.

Rev Adayi said this when he met with workers at Asamankese in the Eastern Region to educate them on the new currency and how to handle money. "No country mishandles money like Ghana," he said. "All the foreign currencies used in Ghana are always in good shape because the least defect will render the money useless," he added.He said a law to make tattered and defaced notes illegal tender was a sure way of giving the currency some importance and value.

a"This will put fear into the citizens and even the banks which sometimes issue such notes in the name of legal tender." Rev Adayi noted that with new notes to be introduced in July, it was appropriate for government to set up laws to protect the currencies to avoid spending huge sums on reprinting.He therefore advised the workers to handle the new notes with care and pay attention to the various advertisements in the media to enable them to understand the education campaign. 8 May 07
Source:GNA

Kufuor lauds Toure on Mali election victory

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday congratulated the Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure on his re-election for a second term. "I believe it is as much a testimony to the maturity of the country's political and democratic institutions under your presidency, as it is a tribute to your personal commitment to the tenets of democracy and transparency, very much appreciated by Africa and the wider international community at this critical period of the continent's history," President Kufuor said in a letter to President Toure.

A press release signed by Mr Andrew Awuni, Press Secretary to the President and Presidential Spokesman, said as President Kufuor, who is the current Chairman of African Union, prepares to welcome Heads of State to Accra for the forthcoming AU Summit, he believes that the overriding themes of debates, the personal and collective commitment of African leaders to the continent's renaissance would very much determine the destiny of the continent for years to come.

It said President Kufuor also looked forward to deepening the long-standing bilateral relations and expanding the frontiers of cooperation between Ghana and Mali to benefit both countries mutually.GNA