• 

The Bundesliga will resume behind closed doors on 16 May, becoming the first European league to restart following the coronavirus shutdown.

One of the games on the day of relaunch will be the derby between Schalke and Borussia Dortmund.

Champions Bayern Munich, who are four points clear at the top of the table, travel to Union Berlin on Sunday.

Most teams have nine games to play, with the final weekend of the season rescheduled for 27-28 June.

The German Football Association (DFB) said the season would resume under strict health protocols that ban fans from the stadium and require players to have Covid-19 testing.

About 300 people, including players, staff and officials, will be in or around the stadiums during match days.

The league has been suspended since 13 March. Clubs returned to training in mid-April, with players working in groups.

Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German Football League, said “it was crucial to resume play” despite empty stands and other restrictions.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel eased some restrictions, allowing shops to reopen after fewer than 7,000 deaths with coronavirus.

Seifert said: “The matches will feel different. After the first matchday, we will all know why we prefer games with fans. But that is the framework we have to operate in and I expect the best possible sport within this framework.”

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said he is “confident that Germany will provide a shining example” to the world of football on how to return to action.

“This is a huge and positive step to bringing optimism back to people’s lives. It is the result of constructive dialogue and careful planning between the football authorities and politicians,” he said.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the World Players Association, which represents 85,000 players and athletes across world sport, will meet next week to discuss medical protocols around the return to sport.

It said in a statement: “All proposals need to be calmly and rigorously assessed by relevant experts with a clear commitment that player health and safety is not negotiable.”

‘Community aspect’ has been lost

Union Berlin face leaders Bayern on the Sunday when the league returns but defender Neven Subotic has been critical of how the situation has been handled by the footballing authorities.

German football will continue despite France’s Ligue 1, the Netherlands’ Eredivisie and Belgium’s Pro League being called off.

Subotic told BBC World Service Sport: “It is a precarious situation for all of us. It is going to be impossible to come out of the league with positive remarks, it is just going to be a lot of risk management and trying to get to a finished season with the fewest casualties.

“We are not going to have games with fans and for me that is what makes it special. Playing football is fun and is challenging but what makes it exceptional is the community aspect of it. 

“That is gone and I don’t want to pretend like it is not a huge thing. It is a huge thing and it is what makes it special. 

“Therefore what I will definitely enjoy is the first game back with fans inside the stadium. I am looking forward to that and that is my end goal.”

Analysis

BBC World Service Sport’s John Bennett

It’s going to look, sound and feel very different but there is something very exciting about finally having a start date for the resumption of one of the best leagues in world football.

The German Football League (DFL) boss Christian Seifert sounded a note of caution though at his press conference, reinforcing the fact that this is quite a fragile situation, saying “we’re playing under probation” and adding that they almost have to prove that their health and safety concepts are working on every single match day.

A local derby between fierce rivals Schalke and Borussia Dortmund is a great way to start on paper but it will also highlight how much fans will be missed at these big games and how disgruntled some of the supporters groups in Germany will be about the Bundesliga being able to continue without them.

The eyes of the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A will be firmly fixed on these early games – because if Germany can make it work, maybe Europe’s other major leagues have a stronger chance too. 

Fixtures

Saturday 16 May

Augsburg v Wolfsburg

Borussia Dortmund v Schalke

Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach

Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn

Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin

RB Leipzig v Freiburg

Sunday 17 May

Cologne v Mainz

Union Berlin v Bayern Munich

Monday 18 May

Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen

Source: bbc

Musician Sista Afia has debunked claims which suggest that rapper Medikal wrote verse in her new new single ” You Got Nerves”.

The “weather” Hitmaker has been the talk in Showbiz circles with some flawless pieces of rape skills, something she has not been known for.

Related posts: Beefs: Ayesem picks Sista Afia over Eno , takes swipe at “unfit rappers ” Sista Afia , Freda Rhymz.

But Sista Afia in an interview said rap had always been part of her and refuted claims of Medikal writing her verses .

“I wrote the verse in my new song and Medikal played no part . I sacrificed my sleep to put all these verse together without no input from him”.

“The style might look similar to that of Sarkordie , Manifest or Medikal but that doesn’t mean it’s thier writings. I love these rappers so definitely there’ll be similarities when am writing my rap verse. If for nothing should be given credit it for that because I put in alot of efforts, “she told GNA”.

Sista Afia’s new song has aroused interest in the rap game among female artistes with the likes of Eno Barony , and Freda Rhymz expected to respond .

• 

It is turning out that the two ‘killer’ fetish priests — Christian Lawoe Gameli, aka Power One, 36, and his accomplice, Famous Adukonu, aka Scorpion, 37, who have been detained for the alleged callous murder of at least two people at their shrine — were chased out of Suhum in the Eastern Region, where they were formerly practising, for a similar offence.

The fetish priests, who claim to hail from Afife in the Volta Region, were arrested on Thursday, April 30 by officials of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service at Adu Kwadwo, near Adeiso in the Upper West Akim District of the Eastern Region where their shrine, ‘Power 1 Herbal & Spiritual Centre’, was located.

Switching Places

DAILY GUIDE’s investigations at Adu Kwadwo and the adjoining town, Kwasi Nyarko at Maame Krobo Junction, confirmed that ‘Power One’ and his accomplice moved to their present location after residents of Suhum had chased them out of the place when their nefarious activities were uncovered.

A resident of Kwasi Nyarko told DAILY GUIDE that they had learnt that ‘Power One’ was originally operating at Suhum and was chased out for similar offences.

“We have heard that he was operating at Suhum and was chased out of the place by the angry residents,” she said.

The Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, COP Ken Yeboah, confirmed this revelation on Adom FM on Tuesday that the police received a call from someone that ‘Power One’ was originally operating in another town which he did not mention before relocating to Adu Kwadwo.

Chief Speaks

When DAILY GUIDE visited the area on Tuesday, the Chief of Kwasi Nyarko, Barima Opoku Affi Nyarko, who is also the supervising chief of the adjoining towns, told DAILY GUIDE they were shocked when they heard that ‘Power One’ and his accomplice had been rounded up for killing some people and burying them behind their shrine.

“As I am speaking to you, we are still in shock because ‘Power One’ looked so innocent, very gentle and calm so nobody would have suspected him of such a crime,” he said.

The chief praised officials of CID for being able to trace and arrest the culprits.

Chief’s Meeting

Barima Nyarko explained that there were complaints from residents of the area for being chased by some people when they go to the farm.

He said the complaints intensified so the chiefs in the area summoned all the fetish priests to his palace to tell them about those complaints and to find out whether they had a hand in those supposed persistent harassment.

Barima Nyarko pointed out that during the meeting there were accusations and counter accusations among the fetish priests numbering about 20 in the area.

“They, therefore, agreed to gather at the market square of Kwasi Nyarko with their deities to invoke curses on the people responsible for that,” he said, adding that they could not come back to execute their promise of invoking those curses at the market square.

“We are happy that the cover of ‘Power One’ has been blown otherwise many of our people could have disappeared and we will not know who is behind it,” he said.

The chief told DAILY GUIDE that he had decided to confiscate a large tract of land bought by ‘Power One’ at Kwasi Nyarko and hand it over to the government for development.

Kwasi Nyarko’s chief, however, pleaded with the government to come to their aid by constructing toilet facility for his people, constructing speed rumps on the main Nsawam-Asamankese road which passes through the town and also erecting a telecommunication mast in the town to help boost mobile phone reception in all adjoining towns.

Visiting Shrine

When DAILY GUIDE visited the shrine of ‘Power One’ at Adu Kwadwo, the place looked completely deserted with repugnant smell all over the place.

The paper met a man who only gave his name as Theophilus, whose house is located opposite the shrine of ‘Power One’.

He was sitting in front of his house with his wife, children and mother-in-law at the time of the visit. The looks on their faces were that of shock and awe, with their chins resting in their palms.

Theophilus, who was initially not prepared to speak, told DAILY GUIDE that he and his family had still not recovered from the shock of their neighbour being such a ‘callous murderer’.

Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE discovered that residents of Adu Kwadwo were going about with their normal life and duties, with children playing about as if nothing had happened in the town.

Shrine Exhibits

A special police team raided the shrine last Thursday and retrieved an assortment of tell-tale exhibits including gallons of suspected human blood, an idol made from human skull, human bones, human hairs and beads in shallow graves.

The police also retrieved two pump action guns, a single barrel gun together with 11 packets full of cartridges.

The weapons were found in the room of ‘Power One’.

During a news conference on Monday, the CID boss said the police uncovered graves that contained the remains of Edward Quartey Papafio, a biochemical consultant, and Kwashie Zormelo, a mason, at the shrine.

Source: Daily Guide Network

Freight Forwarders in Takoradi on Thursday, May 7th, 2020 picketed at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority offices in Takoradi to demand the suspension of UNIPASS which they say has been problematic to their business.

According to the members, although they raised several challenges with the UNIPASS throughout the training and piloting of the system a month ago in Takoradi, the problems were not addressed leading to its suspension after it was extended to Tema.

Speaking to Citi News in Takoradi, a Freight Forwarder who is also an importer, Henderson McCarthy has called on the government to bring back GCNet to Takoradi just as it has been done in Tema until the UNIPASS challenges are fixed.

“All we are saying is that if I have a machine that I’m working with and it takes me ten minutes to do a job and you bring me a new one and a better machine in this 21st Century but this machine is going to take me three hours to do the same job, then what are we talking about? Are you taking me back or into the future? The government has to take a look at this. We the importers and the clearing agents in Takoradi are not happy. It is taking us long to clear, it is taking us more time and more cost.”

“And if you happen to clear a vehicle on this UNIPASS, you get to the licensing office and it is not even in their system. Our call on government is for government to suspend this UNIPASS system and then they should better it up and come back. Let’s use the GCNet because the government needs revenue and let’s give the government the revenue. Before they extended the UNIPASS to Tema, we had reported every problem happening here in Takoradi. So Tema stood on those grounds and said no we don’t want it but in fortunately for us in Takoradi because of the quantum of goods coming here, they didn’t listen to us.“

Paul Ato Benson who is an Executive Member of the Takoradi District of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders said the problem goes beyond importers to shipping lines.

“It has really affected us in the sense that even the shipping lines and other stakeholders are having a lot of challenges. We felt it was just an ordinary glitch but now we have noticed that it is taking a seed that is really worrying us.”

“For instance if you want to even send your declaration or CCVR which was previously taking us some short time, now it can even take more than three weeks and they are still having it in their system.“

The Chairman of the Takoradi District of GIFF, Derick Prince Abodjan-Chairman, while associating leadership with all the concerns expressed said once they have worked with a similar IT system [GCNet] that they are used to, “It is appropriate to go back to it for say three months with Tema until all issues are solved.”

Source: Akwasi Agyei Annim | citinewsroom.com | Ghana

• 

Reports reaching GhanaWeb indicate that the marriage between award-winning gospel musician Joyce Blessing and her husband Dave Joy has hit the rocks.

A trusted inside source close to the couple confirmed this to GhanaWeb on condition of anonymity. 

Speaking to GhanaWeb in an interview, the source disclosed that Dave Joy, husband of the Zylofon Media Signee who doubles as the manager of the musician is the one seeking to quit the marriage. 

Though reasons for his divorce intentions were not made known to GhanaWeb, the source revealed that the ‘I swerve You’ hitmaker has been doing everything possible to save her marriage. 

The process has caused lots of misunderstandings between the musician and her now estranged husband.

Additional reports indicate that there is struggle for custody of their kids between the couple. 

It is reported that the musician allegedly stormed the house of her husband’s sister this morning, to pick her children amidst tight security. 

The confrontation led to an exchange of words between the two women. 

Attempts by GhanaWeb to reach the couple have however been unsuccessful.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

• 

Leader of Ghana Freedom Party, Madam Akua Donkor takes her turn in addressing the nation via  Kofi TV.

The female politician in a poster circulating on social media is hinting Ghanaians to brace up for ‘comic’ relief on Thursday 7th, May, 2020, as she addresses the nation on coronavirus.

Per the information making the rounds Kofi Adoma of Kofi TV is providing Ghana Freedom Party founder to address Ghanaians in her own language of Twi.

The address is expected to take place at 7pm.

• 

Ghana is to receive quantities of Madagascar’s highly publicized Covid-19 remedy and preventative herbal mixture, the Ghana Health Service has revealed.

According to Director of Public Health at the Ghana Helth Service Dr Badu Sarkodie, Madagascar has made an offer to Ghana concerning the herbal solution but the FDA will have to assess the product.

As to whether the remedy will be circulated for use, Dr. Sarkodie said he could not confirm.null

Countries like South Africa have begun examining the drug for possible use.

Dr Sarkodie said at a Ministry of Information press briefing on Covid-19 on Thursday “I believe that a quantity might be made available to the country and we will ensure collaboration with FDA. They have to do some assessment and then we take it from there.”

“So, I will not be able to say whether it will be used or not. But I think they have made an offer and we can take a look at it,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the WHO has dismissed the Madagascar president’s claims that the herbal tonic produced within the country can cure patients of COVID-19.

Other African countries such as Tanzania and Guinea-Bissau have made plans to import the tonic, which contains the artemisia plant, which is normally used to treat malaria.

Source: Starr FM

• 

Researchers in the US and UK have identified hundreds of mutations to the virus which causes the disease Covid-19. 

But none has yet established what this will mean for virus spread in the population and for how effective a vaccine might be. 

Viruses mutate – it’s what they do. 

The question is: which of these mutations actually do anything to change the severity or infectiousness of the disease? 

Preliminary research from the US has suggested one particular mutation – D614G – is becoming dominant and could make the disease more infectious.

It hasn’t yet been reviewed by other scientists and formally published. 

The researchers, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, have been tracking changes to the “spike” of the virus that gives it its distinctive shape, using a database called the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). 

They noted there seems to be something about this particular mutation that makes it grow more quickly – but the consequences of this are not yet clear.

The research team analysed UK data from coronavirus patients in Sheffield. Although they found people with that particular mutation of the virus seemed to have a larger amount of the virus in their samples, they didn’t find evidence that those people became sicker or stayed in hospital for longer. 

‘Mutations not a bad thing’

Another study from University College London (UCL) identified 198 recurring mutations to the virus.

One of its authors, Professor Francois Balloux, said: “Mutations in themselves are not a bad thing and there is nothing to suggest SARS-CoV-2 is mutating faster or slower than expected. 

“So far, we cannot say whether SARS-CoV-2 is becoming more or less lethal and contagious.”

A study from the University of Glasgow, which also analysed mutations, said these changes did not amount to different strains of the virus. They concluded that only one type of the virus is currently circulating.

Monitoring small changes to the structure of the virus is important in understanding the development of vaccines. 

Take the ‘flu virus: it mutates so fast that the vaccine has to be adjusted every year to deal with the specific strain in circulation. 

Drug development

Many of the Covid-19 vaccines currently in development target the distinctive spikes of the virus – the idea is that getting your body to recognise a unique element of the spike will help it to fight off the whole virus. But if that spike is changing, a vaccine developed this way could become less effective. 

At the moment this is all theoretical. Scientists don’t yet have enough information to say what changes to the virus’s genome will mean. 

Dr Lucy van Dorp, UCL study co-author, said being able to analyse a large number of virus genomes could be “invaluable to drug development efforts”. 

However, she told the BBC: “I love genomes, but there is only so much they can say.”

Source: bbc

A 2-year-old boy lost his life after fire gutted two tanker trucks and about a dozen container shops at “Aben be bom” (Apremdo market) near Kwesimintsim in the Effia Kwesimintsim constituency of the Western Region on Wednesday.

An eyewitness account indicates that a taxi which was being repaired in the vicinity caught fire and spread to the two diesel tankers which were stationed behind the Apremdo filling station. The tankers exploded burning about a dozen container shops in the area. 

The two-year-old boy (name withheld) who was sleeping in one of the containers, according to eyewitnesses, got burned beyond recognition whilst the mother, a mobile money vendor sustained some burns in an attempt to save the son.

Eyewitnesses say personnel from the Ghana Fire Service arrived about 15 minutes to the scene after the fire started.

As at the time of filing this report at about 4pm, they were still grappling with the fire.

Smoke from the scene had darkened the Kwesimintsim skies whilst a crowd of onlookers had gathered at the scene disregarding the danger.

Source: 3 News

• 

Former President John Dramani Mahamahas petitioned the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate murder allegations made against him by the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe popularly known as Abronye DC.

In a letter sighted by GhanaWeb, his lawyer, Tony Lithur said Abronye DC has accused his client, John Dramani Mahama and some members of the NDC of planning to assassinate some members of the NPP.

“My instructions are that in a recording on a TV programme on Net 2 TV, Madina, Accra which has been circulating on various social media platforms including Facebook and Whatsapp platforms, Abronye made certain false claims alleging a plot masterminded by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama to assassinate some NPP personalities including he, Abronye DC, himself…”.

Abronye DC is said to have accused Mahama of killing the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

Labelling all the statements against his client as false, Mr Lithur said “John Dramani Mahama has firmly instructed me to say that the allegations are, of course, false and for the avoidance of doubt, would like to state that neither the NDC nor him has planned to hire, hired or cause to be hired or instructed any person or person to murder or assassinate anybody. Regarding the rather irrelevant and despicable allegation that he killed the late president John Evans Atta-Mills, he would not dignify it with any answer, except to say that the allegation could only have come from an unhinged mind”.

Below is Mahama’s letter to the CID

: Source: www.ghanaweb.com