BELIEVE

Ghana incumbent President John Dramani Mahama won a new term with 50.7 percent of ballots cast in the West African state's election, the head of the Electoral Commission announced. "Based on the results, I declare President John Dramani Mahama president elect," Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told a newsconference on Sunday in the capital Accra. Ghana's main opposition party declared electoral fraud after election results showed the candidate of the governing National Democratic Congress was holding a slim lead. The results came after the National Patriotic Party called on the electoral commission to delay the official announcement of the results, raising concerns about the conduct of the vote in a nation seen as a stable democracy in an unstable region. Privately owned Joy News television said John Dramani Mahama, 54, had 50.03 per cent of the votes against Akufo-Addo's 48.05 per cent based on provisional results from 261 of 275 districts. It said its finding...

The challenges that come with battling a chronic medical condition or developmental disability are enough to get a young person down. But being left out, ignored or bullied by their peers is the main reason youths with special health care needs report symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to a study to be presented`123 April 29, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston. Being bullied has been shown to increase students' risk for academic and emotional problems. Little research has been done specifically on how being a victim of bullying affects youths with special needs. In this study, researchers led by Margaret Ellis McKenna, MD, senior fellow in developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Medical University of South Carolina, investigated the impact of bullying, ostracism and diagnosis of a chronic medical condition on the emotional well-being of youths with special health care needs. Participants ages 8-17 years were recruited from ...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday rebuffed claims by President Goodluck Jonathan that the army invasion of Odi – a small community in Bayelsa state – in 1999 was a failure. During last Sunday’s presidential media chat, President Jonathan had said that the invasion of Odi ordered by Mr Obasanjo in 1999 was a failure. He had said: “After that invasion, myself and the governor entered Odi…and saw some dead people. Most of the people that died in Odi were mostly old men, women and children, none of the militants was killed. “If bombarding Odi was to solve the problem, then it was never solved. If the attack on Odi had solved the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta, then the Yar’ Adua government would not have come up with the Amnesty programme. So, that should tell you that the attack on Odi never solved the militancy problem and we had more challenges after that attack on Odi.” Reacting to these assertions, Femi Fani-Kayode, who served as Special Assistant on ...

A young man in Saudi Arabia was arrested on charges of rape and extortion. He was taken into custody after a young girl, 17, filed a police complaint against him. The two met for the first time after the man had initially got in touch with the teenager through mobile chat messenger application 'Whats App'. The man forced the girl to meet him the first time. He lured her into his car and took her to his apartment and raped her, reports Saudi daily Sabq. The 25-year old man raped her repeatedly and filmed those incidents and threatened to expose her by making images public on social networking sites. The girl fell deeper and deeper into his trap. He not only raped her himself in his car and at his friends' farm house but also passed her around to his friends for some further sexual assault. The girl called his bluff one day and the man uploaded an indecent (read: semi-naked) image on Facebook in a bid to make her submit to his demands. Finally, she approa...

Fellow Nigerians, 1. Over the past few weeks, unprecedented floods have ravaged many parts of our country, rendering tens of thousands of fellow Nigerians homeless, and causing massive destruction of property, farmlands, and infrastructure across the country. 2. I wish to express our deep commiseration with all those who have lost loved ones; those who have lost their property; as well as all the affected communities and institutions. 3. It is sad that this global phenomenon of devastating floods has come to Nigeria at this time. 4. I want to reassure all Nigerians that the Federal Government is prepared to do everything possible to mitigate the impact of this natural disaster. 5. I had earlier set up a Presidential Technical Committee to visit all affected areas with a view to properly assessing the impact of the floods.  The Committee has since submitted an interim Report. 6. The Report, which contained a number of recommendat...