THE MANTES POST

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, or the “Snow Leopard” as he has been dubbed, is making his final preparations for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

A skier preparing to take part in the Games at this point in the calendar is not the most sensational news, until it is understood the 31-year-old grew up in Accra, Ghana (where the annual average temperature is around 79 degrees Fahrenheit) and learnt to ski only six years ago on a dry slope.

Nkrumah-Acheampong hopes his remarkable and unconventional rise to prominence — he achieved the strict qualifying criteria set by the world governing body of his sport from his training base at an artificial snow dome in Milton Keynes, England where he was a former employee — can act as inspiration to his countrymen.

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Ghana are into the Africa Cup of Nations final for the first time in 18 years after a 1-0 defeat of Nigeria at the 11 November stadium here on Thursday.

In form striker Asamoah Gyan got the priceless first half goal to claim the honours as Ghana moved to within one win of a fifth continental crown.

The Black Stars’ opponents in Sunday’s 2010 climax will emerge from Thursday’s second semi-final in Benguela between holders Egypt and Algeria.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Gyan. “We are a young team and not many people gave us a chance of making the final.”

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African football feast begins in Angola on Sunday with the 2010 Nations Cup serving as a tempting starter ahead of the World Cup main course in South Africa in June.

Only hosts South Africa of the six World Cup qualifiers from Africa will be missing and Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria are expected to make the Nations Cup knockout phase.

Add defending champions Egypt and hosts Angola and the list of likely African champions is complete for the first Nations Cup to be staged in a Portuguese-speaking country since its inception 53 years ago.

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The 32 teams participating at next year’s FIFA World Cup™ finals discovered their fate this evening when the Final Draw for South Africa 2010 took place in Cape Town.

An estimated global television audience of 200 million joined the 2,000 invited guests in the Draw Hall in watching the colourful and entertaining ceremony unfold. With African sporting stars such as athlete Haile Gebreselassie, rugby player John Smit, cricketer Makhaya Ntini, and footballers Matthew Booth and Simphiwe Dludlu assisting with the draw, along with England icon David Beckham, it was always going to be an exhilarating evening, but the undoubted centrepiece came when the eight groups were revealed.

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece,
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia
Group E: Holland, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark,
Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup#Group_stage

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/livedraw?cc=3888&ver=global

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Nigeria has slipped on the corruption perception index to 142nd position from 121st recorded last year, global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in a report released on Tuesday.

“Nigeria scored 2.5 points out of a total of 10 points. Nigeria also took the 142nd position out of the 180 countries surveyed,” secretary general of TI in Nigeria, Osita Nnamani, told reporters, quoting the report.

He said that the Nigerian government has not demonstrated any political will to fight corruption and only paying lip-service to the fight against graft.

The government is yet to react to the TI report.

Every government in power in Nigeria since the nation’s independence in 1960 has always promised to fight against corruption.

Corruption has been identified as a major disincentive to investments in Africa’s most populous nation of 140 million people.

Click here to view report

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened a UN food security summit on Monday calling for a “single global vision” to address the plight of the world’s billion hungry people.

“We must craft a single global vision … to produce real results for people in real need,” Ban said at the start of the meeting at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Ban said the issues of climate change and food security are interlinked. “There can be no food security without climate security,” he said, adding: “We must help the most vulnerable to adapt.”

“The food crisis of today is a wakeup call for tomorrow. By 2050 our planet may be the home of 9.1 billion people… by 2050 we know we will need to grow 70 percent more food, yet weather is becoming more extreme and more unpredictable,” he said.

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