THE PARROTS

Ghanaian midfielder Emmanuel Agyemang Badu has agreed to a contract extension with Italian club Udinese. The 25-year-old has signed a four-year deal which will extend his stay at the club until 2020, the club announced. Badu was reported to be on the move this summer with Middlesbrough and stoke City showing keen interest in the box to box midfielder. This deal appears to have ended all speculations surrounding the player this summer. The U-20 World Cup winner joined Udinese in 2010 from Ghanaian lower division side Berekum Arsenal and has proven to be one of the most important players at the club. He has made over 120 appearances and scored 10 goals since joining the Zebras. He had loan spells with Ghana Premier League giants Asante Kotoko and Spanish side Recreativo de Huelva before joining Udinese in 2010.

                        ‘Beast of No Nation’ star Abraham Attah isn’t a tourism ambassador yet, his management has revealed. According to Mr Attah’s manager, Mawuko Kuadzi, the Ministry is yet to officially sign the actor on as an ambassador. The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, in March this year revealed that the ministry is looking at making Abraham Attah Ghana’s tourism ambassador. The Minister, speaking at the launch of the 11th Kwahu Paragliding Festival at the Odweanoma Mountains in Kwahu, noted that the young actor had made Ghana proud and deserved to be celebrated. Five months after the announcement, the Ministry is yet to put pen to paper. Mr Kuadzi speaking at a press conference to officially announce that the child star will start donating 10,000 pairs of Toms footwears, said Abraham is yet to be a tourism ambassador ...

A contempt case brought against the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Commandant and Commander of the Ghana Military Academy (GMA) will be heard on September 1. This follows an order by the Tema High Court that the three respondents be served personally before the case can be heard. The Court also directed the matter be brought to the notice of the Head of Directorate of Legal Service of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF). The plaintiff, Emmanuel Akabagre, is citing the respondents for contempt for their refusal to reinstate him into the GMA following a court order on March 24, 2016. The judge said the plaintiff is to be reinstated in the academy and subject to such academic and other qualification required for his commissioning. The legal team for the CDS and other two respondents made up of Mr Nelson Ayamdoo and Captain M Osman indicated that it will be making a preliminary legal objection to the hearing of the contempt application. Meanwhile, Mac-Diamond Nyamekor...

Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned as the 2015/16 Uefa Best Player in Europe. The Portuguese was named ahead of Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale and Antoine Griezmann to be acknowledged as the best player playing on the continent. Surprisingly, Lionel Messi was not nominated for the award, leaving the two Real Madrid stars and Atletico Madrid’s Griezmann to contest for the ultimate prize. The original 11-man shortlist included Messi, Gianluigi Buffon, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Pepe and Luis Suarez as well as the top three nominees. But it was Ronaldo who emerged triumphant in a year where he guided Real Madrid to Champions League glory as well as winning Euro 2016 with Portugal. It was an equally impressive year for Bale who took unfancied Wales to the semi-finals of the Euros on top of lifting the Champions League. However, it was a year of so close but so far for France international Griezmann who was a runner-up in Euro 2016 and also missed a...

A criminologist is criticizing the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for deploying what he describes as revolutionary tactics in the case of Bishop Daniel Obinim. Ken Attafuah says the Police acted unprofessionally when they cuffed the Bishop in the full glare of the public knowing too well the Bishop will not escape. The criminologist said the conduct of the police smacks of an old revolutionary tactic. "It is a throwback to primitivity. It is a moribund policing tactic which belongs to the medieval period," he said, adding, "this is the kind policing that was commonplace with the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) period." The leader of the International God's Way Church has been charged with assault and defrauding by false pretense of some GH¢11.6 million cedis. He was to be arraigned before the Accra High Court Thursday on charges of assault after days of interrogation and transfers b...

The death toll in the Italian earthquake has risen to at least 247 as thousands of rescuers continue efforts to find survivors. Dozens are believed trapped in ruined Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto, in mountainous central Italy. The search went on through the night, and there was a strong aftershock which rocked already damaged buildings. More than 4,300 rescuers are using heavy lifting equipment and their bare hands. Many of the victims were children, the health minister said, and there were warnings the toll could rise further. Amatrice: MJost of the pretty historic town is now rubble, blanketed in grey dust Amatrice residents spent the night outdoors Rescuers said they had pulled five bodies from the ruins of the Hotel Roma in the historic town of Amatrice. As many as 70 tourists were staying at the hotel when the quake struck. Many are feared to be in the rubble, though several were pulled out and given medical care. Late on Wednesday there were cheers in t...

Church activities at the headquarters of International God’s Way Church at Kenyasi-Bosore in the Ashanti Region have been put on hold in solidarity with the church’s leader who has been arrested. This follows the arrest and subsequent detention of the founder and leader, Bishop Daniel Obinim since Tuesday. He is being held for flogging two members of his church in the presence of a congregation and allegedly defrauding a man in GH¢11.6 million in a gold business. A few anxious church members, mostly relatives and others who are undergoing spiritual healing for various ailments were spotted mid-morning and in the evening outside the main auditorium. A scheduled evening service on the eve of Thursday’s prophetic and anointing service was cancelled. Members of a prayer team were engaged in a spiritual exercise in an obscured section of an extended part of the church building under construction. A male voice, believed to be that of leader of the about a ...