We won’t get angry over bonuses – Gyan assures Nation

Black Stars captain, Asamoah Gyan has assured Ghanaians there will be no bonus row this time around when they play in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Equatorial Guinea.

His assurance comes days after the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) revealed an approved $5,000 bonus package for players of the Black Stars.

There were earlier reports that the players were dissatisfied with the amount, but in an interview with Citi News, Asamoah Gyan dismissed all those claims and assured fans they were ready to die for the nation.

“We are happy everything has been resolved. We are not thinking about any money issues now. What we are thinking about is the African Cup of Nations,” he said.

Ghana’s participation in the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil was fraught with near-player revolt due to the non-payment of bonuses due the players.

This forced the government to airlift about $3 million to the Black Stars to ensure their continuous participation in the tournament.

There were misunderstandings between the players and some officials of the GFA, which resulted in the suspension of two players.

Many football fans in Ghana and across the globe were disappointed with happenings at the World Cup, a situation which cost the team the needed support during their Nations Cup qualifications at home.

Nonetheless, the Black Stars captain says the players are ready to prove to Ghanaians and the world that “it is not about the money. We are just here to die for the nation because we are Ghanaians.”

He said the players are determined not to allow money issues to interfere with their work, “we are just playing with our hearts and then make sure we die for the nation.”

Asamoah Gyan was certain that the players “are happy with the money issues and everything has been resolved.”

source : ghanaweb

KKD rape saga: "May justice fall where it should" - Ablakwa

Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has waded into the raging controversy regarding the rape case against ace broadcaster, Kwasi Kyei Darkwah (KKD).

KKD has been charged with rape after a case was filed against him by a 19-year old girl.

The fashion icon was denied bail on his first court appearance on Tuesday December 30 following his arrest on the night of Saturday December 27, 2014.

The father of two – whose daughter is almost the same age as the alleged victim – has had a lot of bashing on social media for publicly admitting he had “consensual sex” with the teenager.

He, however denied raping her. The alleged rape took place in the bathroom of a suite at the African Regent Hotel.

Commenting on the development on Twitter, the former deputy information minister said it is his hope that the truth will emerge in the matter.


source: ghanaweb

BREAKING NEW : UCC Website Hacked

He was a  level 300 computer science student who was sacked for getting 3 E's and later gained a part-time job at T-poly where he created various software for their operations including their voting and internal networking interface . He was offered a  scholarship to pursue his  masters in Bangladesh Asia. He just hacked the UCC website as a payback to what UCC did to him and claims his next target is the schools student portal. The schools website remained hacked as at Sunday 4 January, 2014   3:38 pm







OFFICIAL UCC WEBSITE

Obama sanctions North Korea for movie hacking

New sanctions are in direct response to North Korea's suspected role in hacking Sony Pictures

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed an executive order Friday imposing new sanctions against North Korea in retaliation for that nation's suspected role in cyber attacks and threats against the movie industry.

In signing the new sanctions order from his vacation home in Hawaii, Obama cited "the provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies of the Government of North Korea, including its destructive, coercive cyber-related actions during November and December 2014."

Sony was the distributor of The Interview, a satirical comedy that involving a plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The studio received threats saying that theaters showing the film would be attacked. Sony initially canceled the premiere of the film, but later changed its mind. It is now available in certain theaters and online. Sony declined to comment on the sanctions Friday.




"Even as the FBI continues its investigation into the cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, these steps underscore that we will employ a broad set of tools to defend U.S. businesses and citizens," said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. North Korea has denied any involvement in the hacking of Sony.

The United States has used sanctions against countries that have cracked down on internal dissent on the Internet, but this is the first time a country has been sanctioned for a cyber attack against U.S. business interests.

The new measures come on top of previous sanctions designed to punish North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Indeed, three of the North Korean entities sanctioned Friday were already on the Treasury Department sanctions list: the spy agency Reconnaissance General Bureau, arms dealer Korea Mining Development Trading Corp. and defense research arm Korea Tangun Trading Corp.

In addition, 10 individuals — including North Korean agents operating in Namibia, Russia, Iran, Syria and China — were added to the list. Those sanctions go into effect immediately.

The Treasury Department would not publicly comment on whether it believed the targets of the sanctions had any direct involvement in the Sony hacking.

Indeed, the executive order is written so broadly that it can be used against any official or agent of the North Korean government, its ruling Korean Workers' Party, or anyone inside or outside of Korea who provides support to the regime. The sanctions allow the Treasury Department to block their assets or deny them entry into the United States.

There was no immediate response from North Korea, which has suffered its own Internet outages in recent days. The last story published by the party-controlled news agency reported Kim's visits to newly built vegetable greenhouses.

The White House had been threatening action for two weeks, with Obama telling reporters at an end-of-year news conference, "We will respond proportionally, and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose."

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the sanctions were only "the first aspect of our response."


Source:usatoday

Sonar detects two large objects on sea floor

Ndonesian officials were hopeful Saturday they were honing in on the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 after sonar equipment detected two large objects on the ocean floor, a full week after the plane went down in stormy weather.

Teams equipped with a remote-operated vehicle were battling high waves and strong currents as they tried to capture images of the suspected chunks of the plane for confirmation, said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

An Indonesian navy ship detected the objects early Friday, and by midnight, searchers had zoomed in with a Geological Survey vessel to take dimensions

One of the objects was measured at 9.4 meters by 4.8 meters (31 feet by 15 feet) and a half-meter (20 inches) high. The other, found nearby, was 7.2 meters (24 feet) by a half meter (20 inches).

"I'm confident this is part of the AirAsia plane," said Soelistyo.

The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew crashed last Sunday, halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.

Indonesian authorities announced the grounding of AirAsia flights from Surabaya to Singapore, with the Transport Ministry saying the airline did not have a permit to fly on Sundays, the day of the crash.

AirAsia, which began operations in 2001, quickly becoming one of the region's most popular low-cost carriers, said it was reviewing the suspension. The crash on Dec. 28 was the airline's first.

So far, only 30 corpses have been recovered, a few still strapped in their seats. Bad weather and waves, sometimes 4 meters (13 feet) high, have slowed efforts, scattering bodies and debris farther and farther away. An emergency exit door and slide were among the discoveries, as a backpack with food, camera and children's food.

It remains unclear what caused the plane to plunge into the Java Sea, though bad weather appears to have been a factor, according to a 14-page report released by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

"Flight 8501 appears to have been trapped in bad weather that would have been difficult to avoid," the report said.

As part of the investigation into the crash, autopsies will be carried out on some of the bodies, including the pilot and co-pilot, whose remains have not yet been recovered, said Budiyono, who heads East Java's Disaster Victim Identification unit and uses only one name.

Generally, aviation experts say the more passengers, luggage and parts of the aircraft that remain intact indicate the plane hit the water in one piece. That would signal problems like a mechanical error or a stall instead of a midair breakup due to an explosion or sudden depressurization.

For family members, the seven-day wait has been agonizing with local media covering every development and theory, many of which have proved to be untrue — including a false report that a body was found wearing a life jacket, which would have indicated passengers had time to prepare for the impact or miraculously were able to put them on after hitting the water.

As more corpses start to arrive in Surabaya, some relatives said they were simply worn out. But they were encouraged by reports that parts of the plane had been found and hoped that everyone on board would be retrieved.

"Let's hope the news is true," said Ongko Gunawan, whose sister was traveling with her husband and their child. "We need to move on."

Vessels involved in the search for debris included at least eight sophisticated navy ships from Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and the U.S. equipped with sonars for scouring the seabed to pinpoint the all-important black boxes and the wreckage.

The U.S. Navy said it was sending a second vessel, one of the newest in the fleet, to help in the search.

The hope, officials say, is that the body of the plane will still be largely intact, speeding the investigation.

"Many of passengers believed to be still trapped inside the plane's fuselage and could be discovered soon," Supriyadi said, "God willing, we would complete this operation next week."

source: usatoday

Shanghai New Year's stampede : 35 dead, 43 injured

New Year's revelers jammed along Shanghai's historic riverfront stampeded about a half hour before midnight Wednesday, killing at least 35 people and injuring 43 others, Chinese media reported.

City officials said they had not yet determined what triggered the stampede about 11:35 p.m. in Chen Yi Square on the Bund, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported early Thursday. Many of the dead and injured were students.

A brief report on Xinhua's English-language site said celebrations "went astray" and "a stampede resulted in casualties."

A witness said people had scrambled to grab coupons resembling U.S. dollar bills that were being thrown from a third-floor window near the Bund.

It is the worst disaster in Shanghai in recent years.



The English-language Shanghai Daily noted that the stampede occurred near where a New Year countdown show was being held in the Bund Origin, a relatively enclosed area. Last week, officials canceled the scheduled 3-D laser show in an open area of the Bund because of crowd concerns.



Nearly 300,000 turned out for last year's laser show. Authorities relocated the New Year celebration to the smaller area and limited attendance to 2,000 invitation-only guests . The local government had said the show was relocated "to improve traffic flow."

The Bund -- meaning embankment -- runs along the Huangpu River and features buildings from the city's pre-revolution heyday, when it was a financial center for Asia.

Video from CCTV America, the U.S. version of state broadcaster China Central Television, showed piles of shoes amid the debris. Photographs showed bodies lying on the streets and attempts to revive victims.



source : usatoday