Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday from the victims of clergy sex abuse as he held his first meeting with several abuse survivors — but another victim called the gathering nothing more than “a PR event.” The Vatican quoted Francis as expressing personal “sorrow” in his homily at a private Mass with six victims for the “sins and grave crimes” of clerical sex abuse against them. Francis pledged “not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and promised [....]

The Ministry of Roads and Highways says it has not received any complaints from the Progressive Road Contractors Association over the financing of their projects. The contractors have abandoned all road projects due to government’s failure to direct funds into the Ghana Road Fund for the payment of work done. However the Deputy Roads Minister, Isaac Adjei Mensah, in an interview with Citi News said the Ministry is yet to address the concerns of the contractors although they have not been served with [....]

The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association on Monday hit the streets of Accra to protest the non-payment of their allowances. The student nurses are also demanding the release of their clearance letters, the payment of book and research, clinical as well as transportation allowances due them for the past two years. The clearance form facilitates the release of their allowances. They demonstrated through the principal streets of Accra from the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle [....]

A woman slept with 10,091 men during her 15-year stint working in the sex industry and has written a tell-all book about her experiences. Gwyneth Montenegro worked as an escort in Australia and has penned a book entitled 10,000 Men And Counting that opens the lid on the truth behind the somewhat seedy industry. Despite being raised by devout Christians, Ms Montenegro was a high-end escort by 21, making between $500 and $1,000 (£290-£580) for just an hour’s work. [.....]

Singapore has begun talks with the government to secure a double-taxation agreement with Ghana in a move that is intended to deepen trade ties between the two countries. The Singapore government has since last year set up an office in the country for its investment promotion and facilitation agency, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, in a bid to promote and facilitate investment flow from Singapore into Ghana and other West-African states. According to IE Singapore, the Singapore government’s [....]

The crisis that has rocked Nigerian football occasioned by the sacking of the Aminu Maigari led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board has taken another twist as a major sponsor of the team has suspended its co-operation with Nigeria. Sports Wear giants, Adidas, has suspended it’s involvement with Nigeria with immediate effect and has also expressed displeasure with the furore pervading the Nigerian Federation. Supersport.com have gathered that Adidas, who have been kitting Nigerian national [....]

A two-year contract extension handed Black Stars’ coach, Kwasi Appiah, is expected to send the Ghanaian laughing all the way to the bank a windfall of $873,000 for the duration of the deal. According to aspects of the deal disclosed to the Graphic Sports by an inside source, Appiah will be placed on a new monthly salary of $36,500, a significant increase over the $20,000-a-month he was receiving since 2012 when he signed a two-year contract to handle the national team. In addition to the monthly [....]

Manchester United are the latest Premier League club to unveil their new home kit for the forthcoming season. The strip remains in the club’s traditional colours – red, white and black – with a new-look white collar. There is also a small label inside the back of the neck with the message ‘youth, courage, greatness’, which is said to signify the club’s values. Southampton, West Ham United and Liverpool appear to have embraced the past with their new designs. The Saints have returned to red-and-white stripes [....]

President John Dramani Mahama has asked Ghanaians to stop being pessimistic about the state of affairs and count their blessings instead. “Let us eschew pessimism, we must count our blessings and our successes and we must continuously ask God why are we so blessed; it is only with such a positive frame of mind that we can overcome any challenge facing us…,’’ he said. ‘’We have become a nation of pessimists; every day we are bombarded with everything that is wrong with our [....]

Ahead of this year’s edition of the prestigious Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) taking place in Calabar, the tourism hub in Nigeria, organisers are calling for film entries from African filmmakers, with a closing date now extended to July 24th, 2014. The event which enters its fourth edition this year, will resonate with film workshops, training programmes and thrills, from November 9th to 16th, at the popular Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, capital of Cross River state. AFRIFF, according to [....]

Oscar Pistorius’ defence team has condemned the airing of a video showing the athlete re-enacting the events of the night he killed his girlfriend. The footage shows Mr Pistorius shouting and running on his stumps as he simulates holding a handgun. It was aired in Australia only by broadcaster Channel 7 on Sunday. A spokesperson for Mr Pistorius’ said that the footage was filmed in order to create a “forensic animation”, but that it was “obtained illegally”. “For the family, the airing of this footage [....]

Sixty-three women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month in Nigeria escaped from their captors and have returned to their burnt village, a security source and a local vigilante fighting the militant group said. The hostages were seized from the Kummabza village in northern Borno state on June 18 after a four-day invasion of the village by Boko Haram insurgents. The militants killed 30 men and burned the entire village. The group is still believed to be holding over 200 schoolgirls abducted April 14 [....]

American officials have ordered some overseas airports with direct flights to the US to intensify screening of electronic devices. Transport officials said in a statement passengers could be asked to switch on devices, and equipment that does not power up would not be allowed on board. An official told the BBC that London’s Heathrow was among the airports. The US announced new security measures last week, apparently in response to a terror threat, but gave no details. Analysts say the changes appear [....]

The Mamobi branch of popular restaurant chain, Marwako, has been attacked by an angry mob. The attack took place at about 9 pm Saturday after the restaurant had hid a policeman, who was being sought by an angry mob for allegedly shooting a taxi driver to death. According to one eye witness, the mob of about 30 people on the scene of the incident immediately attacked the policeman upon hearing what had happened. The policeman was later rescued by some residents who placed him inside the [....]

Novak Djokovic ended his Grand Slam drought and Roger Federer’s hopes of a record eighth Wimbledon title with a thrilling five-set victory. The Serb, 27, came through 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-4 to win his second Wimbledon and seventh Grand Slam title. After letting a championship point slip in the fourth set, he won Wimbledon’s first five-set final since 2009. Djokovic had lost his previous three major finals, and will now reclaim the number one ranking from Rafael Nadal. “After losing the fourth [....]

Last week Friday marked exactly 5 months since the Bank of Ghana introduced the new forex rules. Citi Business News analysis shows that the cedi has depreciated by about 27 percent to major trading currencies from the beginning of the year and about 22 percent after the introduction of the new foreign exchange rules on February 4. Prior to the introduction of the new rules, the cedi had depreciated by about 8.1 percent to the US dollar, about 6.8percent to the British Pound and 6.4percent to the Euro [....]

The Northern Regional capital, Tamale has been hit by cement shortage. This comes at the back of Citi Business News report last week of a nationwide shortage of the cement product. Some major cement retailers in Tamale Township including Aspet and Yaamusah companies limited have empty warehouses. Not considering the shortage, the price of cement within a space of 12 hours skyrocketed from GHC28 to GHC35 in Tamale Township. The new price is fixed for any brand be it GHACEM [....]

Black Stars’ goalkeeper, Adam Kwarasey has described goalkeepers’ trainer Nassam Yakubu as lacking the requisite quality to propel the team. Kwarasey could be considering his international career three years after opting to star for the Black Stars unless the technical direction of the team is changed. The goalkeeper told GNA Sports that one does not need to be an astronaut to know Nassam is poor quality. “Honestly, the goalkeepers’ trainer is not good enough. He is not good enough to be in charge [....]

Vodafone Ghana has appointed Agnes Emefa Essah as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Her appointment took effect from the 2nd of July, 2014. Agnes Emefa Essah takes over from Uche Ofodile who resigned from that position last month. Agnes Emefa Essah holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Ghana Business School and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Ghana. Before joining Vodafone, Agnes was the Marketing and Innovation Director at Guinness [...]

Where and how should celebrities keep their secrets? Ghanaian A-List actress, Nadia Buari, has proffered the answer on social media. The actress, who literally caused uproar among her fans at the recently held Black Entertainment Television Awards (BET), Los Angeles, United States, with her stunning, jaw-dropping outfit, said she not only knew where to keep her secrets safe, she also knew where to keep other things enemies could be interested in and look for. “There is only one place where [...]

The National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu last Friday received a New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential hopeful and former Minister for Trade, Industries and PSI under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Mr. Alan John Kyerematen, who paid a courtesy call on him at his New Fadama residence in Accra. The National Chief Imam said that the visit of Mr. Alan John Kyerematen and members of his campaign team overwhelmed him. He stressed that ‘I consider Alan as my son and [...]

In the wake of the presidency’s recent announcement that it was undertaking a critical review of the official approval procedures that enabled the National Petroleum Authority to spend a colossal US$ 63, 000 monthly on the payment of office rent, similar reports of misuse of public funds by some state agencies may be making their way to the desk of Chief of Staff at the presidency soon. The General Telegraph can reveal that the Board of the Ghana National Gas Company spent a whopping Ghc148,000 [...]

Former Youth and Sports Minister, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has confirmed that the Black Stars players disrespected President John Dramani Mahama during the World Cup competition in Brazil. According to Afriyie Ankrah, President Mahama had wanted to talk to the team via Skype at one of their technical meetings in Brazil but they ignored the President. Speaking in a televised interview on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana with Paul Adom Otchere on Sunday, Mr Afriyie Ankrah said the [...]

An American (name withheld) has been quarantined at the Nyaho clinic in Accra for a suspected Ebola case. Citi News sources at the Health Ministry say the American who reported at the hospital with fever had previously visited Guinea and Sierra Leone. Hundreds of people have been affected and several others killed by the deadly disease in these two countries. Ebola kills victims within days, symptoms of the virus include severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea [...]

Ini Edo Loses Pregnancy Again: Actress Suffers Another Miscarriage 6 Years After Marriage. Less than 8 weeks ago, the news of Ini Edo’s conception was the most talked about story on the net with many of her fans including Me wishing her a safe delivery but as we speak, the reverse is the case. Ini Edo has suffered yet another miscarriage making this her third miscarriage since her highly celebrated wedding in 2008. A source who told me on a condition of anonymity claimed that Ini Edo’s [...]

One thing Kanye West and Kim Kardashian don’t seem short of is money, so it’s a little hard to believe that they left their honeymoon without paying a $20,000 tab. RadarOnline talked to a source who said Kimye and family checked into the family-run Castle Oliver complex in Limerick, Ireland, but left after dinner, reportedly complaining that the castle was “too big” and their cell reception was bad. So they went to the Ballyfin House instead. But hotel insiders told Radar the Castle Oliver [...]

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) reportedly killed and crucified eight men in a town near Aleppo, Syria. The independent monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men were executed for being too moderate as members of a rival rebel group. They were crucified on Saturday and will be on display for three days in the town square in Deir Hafer. It is not clear whether or not they were killed prior to the crucifixion. A ninth man in Al-Bab was nailed alive to [...]

This story will break your heart. The corpse of Ayahana Comb, a 9-year-old girl who suffered from cerebral palsy was discovered in the refrigerator of her family’s apartment in Houston, Texas. The little girl’s body was found by a neighbor who claimed to have become concerned after not seeing Ayahna Comb around the building for five months. The neighbor said that the apartment door was unlocked when he went in to check on the girl and instead found her body. According to KHOU, police and [...]

Staying relevant all the time has never been easy in any field of endeavor and in this case in an evolving music industry, it takes more than just music to stay on top. I remember once talking to Kwame Nsia Appau popularly known as Okyeame Kwame and asking what has kept him relevant in his ten year musical journey and his secret was worth sharing. He explained he saw himself as a brand and his music a product therefore at any point he did not have a great product to sell, the brand could [...]

PRESIDENT JOHN Dramani Mahama has empanelled a three-member committee to probe circumstances that led to Ghana’s abysmal performance at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The committee, to be chaired by Justice Senyo Dzamefe of the Court of Appeal, will have Lawyer and Sports Administrator, Moses-Foh Amoaning and Sports Enthusiast, Kofi Anokye Owusu Darko, as members, and is expected to present its report within 30 days [...]