GRi Newsreel

Roger Allotey-Regional Manager of Ghana Airways, London

London (UK) 29 September 2003 - Several parts of Italy are still without power this morning after the worst blackout in the country's history. Power was restored last night to the north of Italy, but parts of the south, including Sicily and the province of Puglia, in the heel of Italy were still without power today.

The blackout occurred at 3am on Sunday morning and continued for most of yesterday affecting 50 million of Italy's 57 million people. The recriminations arising out of the blackout continued this morning with the left-wing press in Italy blaming Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister.

Corriere della Sera, the best-selling newspaper, blamed the cut on policies "that did not know how to govern an (electricity market liberalisation) that was so complicated and delicate."

La Stampa issued a plea to the Government: "Don't tell us now that it's the fault of the Swiss and the French and at the end of the day it could have been worse, and thank God it was a Saturday evening.

"No, say it clearly. The breakdown reminded us of a reality for which we are absolutely not prepared," it said. It is believed that the power cut occurred because of a fallen tree in Switzerland that caused a local loss of transmission.

A simultaneous loss of transmission in France, which supplies 15 per cent of Italy's power, caused a near total blackout across Italy which affected everywhere except the island of Sardinia.

The authorities have promised that there should be no further power cuts for the bulk of the country today, even though "programmed" electricity interruptions could take place later in the day.

The sweltering heat during the summer caused a huge upsurge in demand for electricity during the summer that led to local blackouts across Italy. "Our system is vulnerable because we depend on foreign supply," said Andrea Bollino, president of GRTN, the company in charge of Italy's power supply.

Signor Bollino said it would take until Tuesday for the situation to return to completely normal, and that the utility would remain on a heightened state of alert.

At least three people were killed by yesterday's power cuts. Two elderly victims were killed after falling down their stairwells in the dark, while a third died after her clothes caught fire on a candle.

Accra (Greater Accra) 29 September 2003 - The Governing Council of the African Youth Command (AYC) on Sunday congratulated members and new leadership of the Convention People's Party (CPP) for the successful congress held last week.

In a statement signed by Alhaji Yakubu Salley, General Secretary of the AYC in Accra, the Command advised the new CPP leadership to be "upward looking". Members of the party should sacrifice individually, severally and jointly to create the seed funds for the CPP to contest in the 2004 elections, it said.

The statement said AYC believes that the mainstay of the CPP could effectively provide the missing link for the promotion and defence of good governance, rule of law and justice, as well as national reconciliation and protection of human rights, which are the rare attributes of African Democratic culture in Ghana.
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Ejura (Ashanti Region) 29 September 2003 - The Ejura-Sekyedumasi constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has elected Mr Ofori Dwamena, the District National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Co-ordinator as its parliamentary candidate for the 2004 general elections.

Mr Dwamena polled 65 votes out of 105 valid votes cast in the election supervised by the Electoral Commission at Ejura on Sunday. The other contestant, Dr Joshua Ayarkwah, Presiding Member of the Ejura-Sekyedumasi district assembly, polled 40 votes.

After the election, Mr Dwamena and Dr Ayarkwah, shook hands and embraced each other and also pledged to work together in a bid to wrestle the parliamentary seat from the National Democracy Congress (NDC).

Madam Rita Asobayere, National Women's Organiser of the NPP, commended the delegates for the matured and peaceful manner in which they conducted themselves during the election.

She advised them to let loyalty to the NPP be their priority and not "loyalty to personalities in the party". Madam Asobayere called on them to bury their differences and work as a team to ensure landslide victory for the NPP in the 2004 elections.

Mr F.F. Antoh, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party, said now that a parliamentary candidate had been elected, it was imperative for all branches and wards to adopt workable and effective strategies to win more members into the party.
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