Veep orders investigation into missing cocaine exhibits

The Vice President of Ghana, John Mahama has directed the Inspector General of Ghana Police to initiate an investigation into the circumstances surrounding a missing cocaine exhibit.

The exhibit tendered in as evidence in court turned into sodium bicarbonate under controversial and mysterious circumstances.

The suspect under prosecution over the said cocaine has thus been acquitted and discharged.

The police and court officials have since been playing the blame game with each institution trumpeting its own integrity and blaming the other for the mysterious swap.

It is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In 2007, cocaine exhibits locked up at the Police Headquarters was also swapped with powdered Kokonte.

At a ceremony to present patrol vehicles to the police administration, the Vice President said a thorough investigation must be conducted to bring all perpetrators to book.

The Police Administration is scheduled to organize a press conference to officially react to the missing exhibit.

Joy News' Jefferson Sackey who is attending the conference lamented the two hour delay in the start of the conference but said prior information he had picked up indicated the police would not take responsibility for the swap.

The police administration had earlier argued that at the time the exhibit was sent to the court, it was verified to be cocaine and cannot therefore be responsible for the exhibit turning into washing powder.

Human Parts For Sale - Four Arrested

Ghana Telescope
New York - Accra - London


Four persons, including a 23-year-old woman, were last Sunday arrested by the Half-Assini Police for allegedly attempting to sell human parts to the priest of a reputed shrine in the Jomoro District in the Western Region.

The suspects — Juliet Nyamekeh, Charles Kweku, 30; Ebenezer Osei Yaw, 26, and Kwasi Dickson, 26, were said to have initially offered the parts, comprising two hands, two legs, a head and a waist, for GH¢100,000 but they later settled for GH¢60,000.

The victim is said to have been killed in the Eastern Region, from where the body was transported to the Western Region for sale.

Luck, however, eluded the suspects when the fetish priest, who had feigned interest in the transaction, tipped the police off, leading to their arrest.

The scene of the arrest is said to have been turned into a display of spiritual powers as the leader of the suspects, on seeing the police, started some incantations, ostensibly to facilitate their disappearance.

According to the Jomoro District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) John F. Dzineku, the human parts were packed in a bag, with the hands and the legs tied together, while the head and the waist were separated from the remaining parts.

He told the Daily Graphic that it was clear from interrogations so far carried out that the suspects knew the victim whose body parts they were offering for sale.

The district commander said the lady among the suspects told the police that although she was not among those who killed the victim, she had been asked to look for a buyer for the human parts.

According to the commander, Juliet had told the police that knowing very well that human parts were sometimes needed for ritual purposes, she had contacted the priest if he could buy the parts for ritual.

Mr Dzineku said the suspects were being prepared for court, while the body parts of the unidentified victim have been deposited at the Half-Assini Government Hospital.

Shoplifter chops off security guard's ear

Ghana Telescope
New York - Accra - London

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — Police in Washington state say a shoplifter with a hatchet sliced off most of a store security guard's ear.

Longview police Sgt. Doug Kazensky tells The Daily News that the shoplifter pulled a small hatchet out of his waistband Monday afternoon and swung, chopping off nearly the entire ear.

The guard was taken to a Portland hospital for emergency plastic surgery in an attempt to reattach the ear.

The attacker remained at large.

The assault took place just outside the garden center entrance of a Fred Meyer supermarket. Kazensky says two security officers were trying to apprehend the man, who was suspected of taking CDs, bike chains and other small items.

The man apparently brought the hatchet to the store with him.

Saudi Arabia executes woman convicted of 'sorcery'

Ghana Telescope

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery.

The Saudi Interior Ministry says in a statement the execution took place Monday, but gave no details on the woman's crime.

The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 per session.

The paper said a female investigator followed up, and the woman was arrested in April, 2009, and later convicted in a Saudi court.

It did not give the woman's name, but said she was in her 60s.

The execution brings the total to 76 this year in Saudi Arabia, according to an Associated Press count. At least three have been women.

South Korean coastguard "killed by Chinese fisherman"

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean coastguard was stabbed to death by a Chinese fisherman Monday in an operation to apprehend a Chinese vessel operating illegally near South Korean waters, a South Korean official said.

Two South Koreans were stabbed in the operation in the Yellow Sea off the west coast near the border with North Korea, the coastguard said.

Chinese fishing boats are frequently caught fishing in South Korean waters, sometimes leading to violent clashes with South Korean maritime police.

"One officer is dead. There is another one injured. There are no other injuries," a coastguard officer said. "It happened in the EEZ (exclusive economic zone), outside the territorial waters, but it's still illegal fishing."

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the coastguard had seized the vessel and nine sailors on board.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

South Korea last month vowed a crackdown on illegal fishing by Chinese fishing boats in its EEZ.

Some 2,600 Chinese fishing boats have been caught illegally fishing in the South Korean EEZ since 2006 and nearly 800 Chinese fishermen have been arrested, Yonhap reported.

In the first 11 months of this year, some 440 Chinese fishing boats were caught illegally fishing in South Korean waters, up 46 percent from a year earlier, it said.

Israel PM plans Africa trip over migrant issue

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Africa to discuss illegal migration from the continent to the Jewish state, he said on Sunday, as his cabinet approved new measures to combat the problem.

Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting to approve ways to deal with an influx of illegal migrants, Netanyahu announced "I intend to travel to Africa later to discuss and advance procedures for returning them (migrants) to Africa."

The Israeli premier gave no indication of which countries he would visit or when he would travel, but he stressed that he considered the arrival of illegal migrants a serious issue.

"This is a national calamity, in every field," he said. "We have no obligation to accept illegal infiltrators, and I distinguish between them and the question of refugees, who are but a minuscule component of this human deluge."

On Sunday, the cabinet approved the allocation of 630 million shekels ($167 million, 124 million euros) for new measures to tackle the issue.

The programme approved includes stepped-up measures against Israelis employing illegal migrants and expedited construction of a security barrier along the border with Egypt.

It also provides funds for the construction of a new detention facility and extends the period that illegal migrants can be detained to three years.

According to data presented to the cabinet, there are currently 52,487 illegal economic migrants in Israel.

Netanyahu stressed his plan wasn't aimed at refugees, rather "entire populaces that are moving toward Israel, which is a very developed and humane country."

"If we don't stop this illegal flood, we'll be washed away by it," he warned.

Activists argue that the government figures misrepresent the number of migrants who are legitimate asylum seekers and accuse the authorities of turning away those in need.

But communities most affected by the influx, including the southern town of Eilat, have long lobbied the government to take stronger measures to stem the arrivals.

Iran says it will not return US drone

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will not return a U.S. surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, a senior commander of the country's elite Revolutionary Guard said Sunday.

Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Guard, said in remarks broadcast on state television that the violation of Iran's airspace by the U.S. drone was a "hostile act" and warned of a "bigger" response. He did not elaborate on what Tehran might do.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Salami said.

Iranian television broadcast video Thursday of Iranian military officials inspecting what it identified as the RQ-170 Sentinel drone.

Iranian state media have said the unmanned spy aircraft was detected over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan. U.S. officials have acknowledged losing the drone.

Salami called its capture a victory for Iran and a defeat for the U.S. in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.

"Iran is among the few countries that possesses the most modern technology in the field of pilotless drones. The technology gap between Iran and the U.S. is not much," he said.

Officers in the Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, had previously claimed that the country's armed forces brought down the surveillance aircraft with an electronic ambush, causing minimum damage to the drone.

American officials have said that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran neither shot the drone down, nor used electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky. They contend the drone malfunctioned. The officials had spoken anonymously in order to discuss the classified program.

But Salami refused to provide more details of Iran's claim to have captured the CIA-operated aircraft.

"A party that wins in an intelligence battle doesn't reveal its methods. We can't elaborate on the methods we employed to intercept, control, discover and bring down the pilotless plane," he said.

Medvedev orders Russia poll inquiry after protests

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation Sunday into allegations of fraud in Russia's parliamentary election, one day after tens of thousands of protesters demanded it be annulled and rerun.

Medvedev responded on his Facebook site to the protesters' complaints that the December 4 election was slanted to favor of his and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, but did not mention their calls for an end to Putin's rule.

"I do not agree with any slogans or statements made at the rallies. Nevertheless, instructions have been given by me to check all information from polling stations regarding compliance with the legislation on elections," Medvedev said in a post on the social media site.

"Citizens of Russia have freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. People have a right to express the position that they did yesterday. It all took place within the framework of the law," he added.

His statement was a sign that the Russian leadership feels under pressure after the biggest opposition protests since Putin rose to power in 1999. The protesters themselves used social media to organize their rallies.

In a further sign of recognition that the people's mood has changed after years of tight political control by Putin, city authorities across Russia allowed Saturday's protests to go ahead and riot police hardly intervened.

State television and other Russian channels also broadcast footage of a huge protest in Moscow, breaking a policy of showing almost no negative coverage of the authorities.

But Medvedev had already indicated before the protests that he would call an inquiry, and a statement from Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, gave no indication that the prime minister was about to make big concessions to the protesters.

"We respect the point of view of the protesters, we are hearing what is being said, and we will continue to listen to them," Peskov said in a statement released late Saturday.

That is unlikely to appease protesters who issued a list of demands at the Moscow rally, which police said was attended by 25,000 people and the organizers said attracted up to 150,000.

PROTESTERS LIST THEIR DEMANDS

The demands included much more than just an investigation in the conduct of the election, which international monitors and the United States said was slanted to help United Russia secure a majority in the State Duma lower house.

The protesters demanded a rerun of the election, the sacking of Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov and the release of people they define as political prisoners. The organizers also called for a new day of protests on December 24.

"I am happy. December 10, 2011 will go down in history as the day the country's civic virtue and civil society was revived. After 10 years of hibernation, Moscow and all Russia woke up," Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, wrote in his blog.

"The main reason why it was such a big success is that a feeling of self-esteem has awakened in us and we have all got so fed up with Putin's and Medvedev's lies, theft and cynicism that we cannot tolerate it any longer ... Together we will win!"

It may not be that simple. The opposition has long been divided, most mainstream parties have little or no role in the rallies and keeping them up across the world's largest country is hard at the best of times but especially in winter.

Most Russian political experts say Putin, the former KGB spy who has dominated the world's largest energy producer for 12 years, is in little immediate danger of being toppled, despite anger over widespread corruption and the gap between rich and poor.

But they say the 59-year-old leader's authority has been damaged and may gradually wane after he returns as president in an election next March that he is still expected to win.

Although opinion polls show he is Russia's most popular politician, the protests indicate how deep feelings are over the December 4 election. The biggest were in Moscow and St Petersburg, the two biggest cities and the main centers of Russia's middle class, but smaller rallies took place across the country.

TOUGH TASK AHEAD

"Putin has a formidable task. He has lost Moscow and St Petersburg, crucial cities where everything usually starts," said political analyst and author Liliya Shevtsova. "He looks out of touch."

Putin, as president for eight years until 2008 and as prime minister since then, built up a strongman image by restoring order after the chaos in the decade after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. But he no longer seems invincible.

He could release the state's purse strings to satisfy the financial demands of some critics but many of the protesters in Moscow are middle-class people demanding more fundamental changes, including relaxing the political system he controls.

His charges last week that the United States encouraged the protesters and financed them provoked scorn on the Internet.

Answering calls to protests on social media sites, a huge crowd gathered in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square Saturday, many carrying white carnations as a symbol of protest. Some waved pictures of Putin and Medvedev saying: "Guys, it's time to go."

Felix, 68, a retired military officer who declined to give his surname, said in Moscow he wanted Putin out, but had no hope this could be accomplished through elections. "There is no way to change those in power within the electoral system they have set up, so we need to use other methods," he said.