Hussein executed, Iraqi TV stations report

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed, according to two Arabic language media outlets.

Hussein was hanged before dawn on Saturday in Iraq, at about 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), the U.S.-backed Al-Hurra television reported.

Al-Arabiya reported that Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awad Bandar, former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were hanged after Hussein.

All three were convicted of killings in the Iraqi town of Dujail nearly 25 years ago.
Earlier, Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator's death sentence, and an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki each confirmed the paperwork needed for Hussein's execution had been prepared late Friday.

"All the procedures have been completed," Haddad said.
At the same time, a U.S. district judge refused a request to stay the execution.
Attorney Nicholas Gilman said in an application for a restraining order, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, that a stay would allow Hussein "to be informed of his rights and take whatever action he can and may wish to pursue."

Haddad had called Gilman's filing "rubbish," and said, "It will not delay carrying out the sentence," which he called "final."
Haddad also said there is no need for a presidential decree for the implementation of the execution.

He said once the handover is completed, "the sentence will be carried out swiftly, without any delay. God willing."
Haddad, who will attend the execution, said he received a call from al-Maliki's office asking him and a prosecutor to be ready for it.

Haddad wouldn't disclose the location of the execution and said it won't be broadcast live on TV because of human rights issues.
Meanwhile, Giovanni di Stefano, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, told CNN the U.S. military officially informed him that the former Iraqi dictator has been transferred to Iraqi authorities for his execution and that a "credible source" told him Hussein will be executed "very shortly -- in the next couple of hours."

And di Stefano indicated that the move by lawyers in the U.S. court could mean Hussein is in U.S. military custody now.
"The United States may very well have had a cause to effectively take him back in the event" a judge "grants the temporary restraining order, in which case his life would then be spared at least for a period of time or until such further order of the court," he said.

Giving Hussein to the Iraqis despite a temporary restraining order would be contempt of court, di Stefano said.
Conflicting reports These latest developments come during a day of conflicting reports over whether Hussein was in U.S. or Iraqi custody. Throughout the day, U.S. officials have not wavered in their stance that he remains in U.S. custody.

There has been speculation that Hussein would be executed before Eid Al-Adha -- a holiday period that means Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world at the climax of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
There is a belief that the execution could be soon because the law does not permit executions to be carried out during religious holidays.

Eid begins Saturday for Sunnis and Sunday for Shiites and lasts for four days. Hussein is a Sunni Muslim.
Baha al-Araji, a member of the Iraqi parliament from the Muqtada al-Sadr bloc, said the government is seeking the "opinion of clerics, both Sunni and Shiite, whether they can carry out the death sentence against Saddam on Saturday since it's the start of Eid."

"The clerics would issue a fatwa saying that due to exceptional circumstances the death sentence can be carried out," said al-Araji, whose political movement represents Shiite Muslims.

Sheikh Jalaleddin al-Saghir, who is both a Shiite cleric and a parliament member from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said, "There is absolutely no problem from a religious standpoint to carry out the death sentence at the start of Eid."
Baghdad now is in its regular overnight curfew, and Iraqi and U.S. troops are bracing for protests and violence if an execution occurs.

Ministerial aides said government officials have been in "emergency meeting," and al-Araji confirmed that officials were still debating whether to execute the former Iraqi leader on Saturday.
Gallows in Green Zone Al-Araji said the scaffolding where Hussein is to be hanged is in Baghdad's Green Zone, the center of power for coalition officials.

He said he saw a judge, a cleric and a physician at the site. According to Iraqi law, these people have to be present at the execution.
"These people were told to remain there on standby waiting for orders for the government," al-Araji said.
Al-Araji told CNN that he and other parliament members and government officials have been cleared to attend the hanging.

"I would have wished for this to happen in Sadr City, where he has killed the most people," he said.
If the hanging does occur on Saturday, it will "most likely take place between 6 a.m. and noon," he said. Those hours translate to 10 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday in the Eastern United States.
Speaking from Doha, Qatar, Najib al-Nuaimi, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, said Hussein's "fate definitely [is] in the hands of God."

Meeting with half-brothers Another defense lawyer, Badie Aref, told CNN that Hussein met with two of his half-brothers in his cell on Thursday and passed on messages and instructions to his family.
"President Saddam was just bracing for the worst, so he wanted to see his brothers and pass on some messages and instructions to his family," Aref said. The half brothers who visited were Sabawi and Wathban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, he said.
Another of Hussein's half-brothers, Barzan al-Tikriti, has been sentenced to death and is being held in Iraq under the same charges as Hussein.
Aref said the U.S. soldiers guarding Hussein on Tuesday took away a radio he kept in his cell so he could not hear news reports about his death sentence, which was confirmed that day.
"They did not want him to hear the news from the appeals court upholding the sentence," he said. "They gave him back the radio on Wednesday."
Aref said Saddam found out about the appeals court verdict "a few hours after it was announced."
Crimes against humanity Hussein was convicted on November 5 of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in the rown of Dujail after an attempt on his life.
The dictator was found guilty of murder, torture and forced deportation

Saddam Hussein 'executed in Iraq'

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location, reports say.

Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). It was witnessed by a doctor, lawyer and officials. It was also filmed.

US troops and Iraqi security forces are on high alert for any violent backlash.
Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town Dujail.

Ghanaians Asked To Adopt Development Attitude

Mr Mats Karlsson, World Bank Country Director, on Friday appealed to Ghanaian to assume an attitude that is oriented towards speeding up the development process of the country.

He said the opportunity for a faster development was here but there was the need to exhibit an attitude conducive to greater economic development and questioned why in spite of all the economic variables the country was not moving faster.

Mr Karlsson in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said: "All the elements for economic growth are here in the country - financing, political dialogue, the knowledge… why can't we make them gel even more?" The WB Country Director noted as a Ghanaian problem, "doing what we say we are going to do", adding that the issue was also about "moving on quickly with what we know is the best for us".

On the current energy crisis, Mr Karlsson said, the low rains were only a trigger of the energy crisis, whereas the actual reason was sluggishness to energy reforms that had long been envisioned. "But this is solvable, so let's solve it," he said. Mr Karlsson said to attain the target of a middle-income status, speed was part of the solution and the country would not achieve much with the slow implementation of policies, projects and programmes.

He said people in leadership positions, particularly at the grassroots, should not be afraid to make mistakes, which always resulted in them always waiting for decisions from the top. He said people at the grassroots must initiate moves and be prepared to learn from their mistakes, "local leadership should be paramount”.

District Chief Executives, opinion leaders and area council leaders should have attitudinal change that would not accept slow performance," he stated. On the performance of the economy, Mr Karlsson agreed with the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Paul Acquah that the economy in 2006 had performed well and was also ahead of most of its peers. Mr Karlsson said there were tall and challenging benchmarks that the country could set for itself.

He acknowledged that the year recorded some results that were improvement over previous years of consistent stability. These included downward trends in inflation and interest rates; higher growth rate; higher cocoa production and non-traditional exports; as well as improvement in the basic school enrolment and gender parity. In the 2004/2005 academic calendar, enrolment at the primary level was 3.28 million with a total gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 92.1 per cent.

The Gender Parity Index was 0.95. At the junior secondary level, enrolment was 1.12 million with a total GER of 74.7 per cent. Gender Parity Index was 0.94. Mr Karlsson was, however, not impressed with achievements in health and outlined three areas, nutrition, sanitation and early childhood development as key areas to tackle.

"Nutrition levels are very low in a country that can grow virtually everything and this is an attitudinal issue rather than one of income," he observed. He deplored a situation where people littered virtually wherever they walked and called for a major attitudinal change at all levels to deal with the problem of filth.

He said district assemblies, for example, could not pretend they could not find 50 million cedis to construct public places of convenience, as well as provide lavatories and hand-washing facilities for schools in their localities. Although he did not think local assemblies should rely on the Central Government and donor partners for such projects, he said the donor community had completed their framework for such a support and was only waiting for implementation.

He said $62 million had been earmarked for sanitation under the Second Urban Sanitation Project for the provision of drainage, and liquid and solid waste management by the five largest metropolitan and municipal assemblies in Ghana but the project had encountered delays. A total of $10.8 million meant for a sanitary landfill and a liquid waste treatment facility has not been utilised because there is no land to accommodate these facilities.

Mr Karlsson commended efforts by the Ghana@50 Secretariat to make sanitation a key part of the celebrations. He encouraged all Ghanaians to take advantage of it to rid the country of filth during the 50th anniversary and beyond. He also commended religious bodies, who, with the support of the World Bank Ghana Office had established a best practice initiative to use the pulpit to preach to the minds and souls of all to change from the ungodly attitude of littering the environment.

Mr Karlsson said he had learnt a new phrase in Ghana which is "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". He encouraged all to use the Christmas period not only to do soul-searching but make concrete efforts to change their attitudes and get rid of filth forever. On early childhood development, he said it should be given serious consideration if the country was to see quality future leaders in about 25 years.

For the long term, Mr Karlsson proposed two policies on natural resource management; forestry and fisheries, both of which were being depleted. He also recommended that an urban policy should be enacted to engender the right responses to deal with the rate of urbanisation in Ghana.

"The rate at which urbanisation is occurring in the country required clear-cut policies and strong leadership to contain it, else the situation could get out of hand in 20 years," stressed Mr Karlsson. According to the 2000 population and housing census, Accra's population is growing at almost four per cent per annum and higher than the national average of 2.6 per cent, and Kumasi's population is growing at 5.6 per cent.

This means Accra's population will double in 16 years, while Kumasi’s will double in 12 years. Therefore, if these two largest cities do not plan in advance, there will be a catastrophe by the end of the next decade. Mr Karlsson also advised the country to maintain its grips on the macroeconomic achievements, since it had profited from it. "Greater ambition can get us there.”GNA

German Embassy Increases Visa Fees

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has announced an upward adjustment in the fees for application for all short-term visas valid for all Schengen countries beginning from January 1, 2007.

This is the result of the decision by the Council of the European Union to raise the fee for the handling of short-period visa applications.The Schengen countries in Ghana are Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and the Belgian Visa Office attached to the Embassy of The Netherlands.

From January 1, 2007, 60 euros (about �720,000) will be charged for airport transit visa (Category A), transit visa (Category B) and short-stay visa (1-90 days) instead of the current 35 euros (about �420,000).A release from the German Embassy said national long-stay visa (Category D) fees would, however, remain unchanged.

It said the new visa fees were also to apply in those cases where a particular Schengen mission issued visa on behalf of Schengen partners without resident missions in Ghana, such as when the Danish Mission issued visas on behalf of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland and France for Austria.

The release said the current fee of 35 euros for the processing of visa applications had proved not to be sufficient any more to cover the ever-increasing administrative cost of the issuance of such visas.It added that the problem would be aggravated further with the future introduction of the collection of the visa applicant�s biometrics data (fingerprints, among others).

The release explained that those measures were expected to put an additional financial burden on the Schengen partners� foreign missions for personnel, advance computer systems and other necessary changes to their respective visa sections.

It said, however, that the visa fees might be waived for the following groups of visa applicants, irrespective of their nationality:Children below the age of six years, pupils, students only when applying for student or education-related purposes, teachers who accompany pupils or students on educational journeys or training purposes and scientists who pursue specific research projects in one or more Schengen partner states.
Source:Graphic

Construction Union asks Ghana@50 Secretariat to seek technical advice

The Construction and Builders Materials Workers' Union of the Trade Union Congress (CBMWU) have cautioned officials of Ghana@50 Secretariat, not to pursue the execution of projects without professional advice, in order to avoid structural defects that may lead to disaster.

The Union, which gave the caution on Friday, said in view of the limited time for the execution of the projects to facilitate the Golden Jubilee celebration of Ghana's Independence on March 6, 2007, there was the need to avoid hasty works that may cost lives.

Mr Pious Quainoo, General Secretary of the CBMWU, who gave the advice while addressing a workshop for members of staff of the Union in Accra, said the celebration should be used to showcase the country as having matured in construction practices n consonance with international standards.

He thereforlge called on the government to initiate investigations into reasons why some public buildings collapse soon after construction, adding that the anomaly is detrimental to the interest of the nation and the tax payer in general.

Mr Quainoo also called on government to oust employers in the construction industry who cunningly adopts measures to evade tax, exploit workers through low wage and use casual labour system to avoid payment of social security through permanent employment.

Mr said unregulated, unprotected, insecure and indecent practices which did not guarantee the health and safety conditions at construction sites must be reversed.He said the practice whereby employers did what they pleased with the fate of workers, irrespective of the Labour law was "at variance with the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights".

Mr Quainoo asked workers who do not belong to trade unions to join to enable them assert their rights.He said employers should associate themselves with various Employers Associations so that they would be abreast with basic employment standards.

"The conditions under which construction workers were treated right in the capital and major urban cities under full glare of public authorities on major public projects are worrisome."He called on the Government, Parliament, the Media, development partners, and civil society organisations to join hands with CBMWU to improve the lot of casual workers in the country.
Source:GNA

Churches urged to pay fines for convicts

Churches should consider paying fines imposed on convicts by the courts as a means of decongesting the prisons, Mr Ambrose Imoro Salifu, Ashanti Regional Commander of Prisons, has suggested.

Mr Salifu said the major problem facing the prisons was the large numbers of remand prisoners, which had overstretched facilities thus compelling inmates to sleep in turns, a situation he described as injurious to their health.

The Regional Prison Commander was speaking when the Most Reverend Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, paid his 36th annual visit to the Kumasi Central Prisons on Boxing Day to share the word of God with the inmates and the prison officials.

Mr Salifu explained that some of the inmates were in the prisons just because they were unable to pay minor fines imposed on them by the courts and if churches paid such fines it would help to decongest the prisons. He commended the Catholic Church for its regular support to prisons in the Ashanti Region and appealed to the Government to increase the feeding allowance of 4,000 cedis per day for every inmate.

Most Reverend Sarpong appealed to the Government to grant mass amnesty to some prisoners in the country to mark the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence. He explained that such a gesture would not only decongest the nation’s overcrowded prisons but would also reconcile the nation as well as heal the wounds of affected families.

Archbishop Sarpong called on the inmates not to see themselves as outcasts, who have come to the end of the road but to use their period of incarceration to take stock of their lives; forgive themselves and to plan towards life after serving their jail terms. He commended the prison authorities for allowing him to adopt the prisons in the Region ever since he became Bishop, which had enabled him to preach and interact with the inmates.

The Most Rev Gabriel Justice Anokye, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese, preaching the sermon, called on Christians to pray for both the inmates and the prison personnel to enable them to work and live peacefully. He lamented over the increasing spate of injustices in the country as a result of some law enforcing agencies not doing the right thing which in turn sent some innocent people into prison.

Bishop Anokye appealed to the society to avoid condemning people in prison custody since as he put it, not all of them have committed crimes, as some were thrown into jail due to false accusations.GNA

The IFJ Condemns the Brutal Murder of a Journalist in Nigeria

The International Federation of Journalists, (IFJ), on Wednesday condemned, in strongest terms, the brutal murder of the Chairman of the Editorial Board of "This Day" Newspaper, Godwin Agbroko, on Friday night, December 22, 2006. Godwin Agbroko was shot while on his way home after leaving his office.

"The nature of the killing suggested that Agbroko was specifically targeted for murder, as all his personal belongings in the car were not touched," Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ, Africa Office said.

"We call on the Nigerian Government to launch a thorough investigation into this inhumane act and to ensure that those responsible for this heinous act are brought to justice." The IFJ is deeply concerned with the growing number of journalists murdered with impunity in Nigeria.

It could be recalled that Omololu Falobi, former editor of the Punch Newspaper and chairman of the network of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) was also shot and killed in October 2006. His killers are yet to be brought to justice. In the same vein the murderers of Dela Giwa are still at large, 20 years after his murder.

The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countriesGNA