Sportsmail understands that the Barclays Premier League club, who have won only once at home since January, have agreed a fee approaching £6million for the Ghana striker’s services.

On Saturday, when news broke that Gyan was leaving Wearside after the domestic transfer window had closed, Sunderland’s situation looked a messy one.

Manager Steve Bruce was baffled by Gyan’s desire to leave the club he joined only a year ago.

But a combination of the player, in Bruce’s words, ‘having had his head turned’ and the money negotiated with Al-Ain means that Sunderland have turned what could have been a season-long problem into a huge short-term profit.

Sunderland paid £11.2m to Rennes for the 25-year-old in August of last year and would be expected to recoup more than that should a permanent transfer to Al-Ain go through.

Gyan, who is involved in the Africa Cup of Nations in January, could yet play for Sunderland again, although he would have to convince Bruce and the board of his commitment.

Bruce has worked closely with the club’s hierarchy on this deal and other transfers, indicating that the ma

Sunderland have refused to put out an official statement to dismiss rumours which swept through the region on Saturday night following Gyan’s move and Chelsea’s comfortable 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light.

Privately Quinn has laughed off claims he is on the verge of quitting as chairman, while a defiant Bruce vowed to continue his fight to win over the fans.

They have had better weekends however, and now face the prospect of several former players adding to their misery this Sunday.

Kenwyne Jones, Danny Collins and Dean Whitehead plus Danny Higginbotham, Rory Delap and Thomas Sorensen head for a clash which has been delayed due to Stoke’s European duties.

Peter Crouch and Ricardo Fuller, both Bruce targets, will also face a Sunderland side who have won just one of their last 10 home games.

Bruce, who has added 12 new players, could not have envisaged such a miserable start, even though his team have played Liverpool and Chelsea, drawn at newcomers Swansea and suffered defeat by Newcastle at home.

The Sunderland manager admitted: ‘The start of the season has not been as good as

I’m disappointed and can understand people’s tensions. I’ll accept the flak that comes. We’ve had a particularly hard start and we have to stick together.’

Defender Titus Bramble added: ‘Calling for the manager’s head is unfair. He has made some great signings, but it’s going to take time to gel. The players are all behind him.’

Tensions between the club’s management and Gyan have been simmering for months, and there have been concerns about the striker’s form.

Gyan is believed to have accepted a £5m-a-year wage package to play for the former Asian Champions League winners who struggle to attract four-figure crowds.

Bruce said: ‘I can’t understand someone’s logic; Africa’s player of the year, a hero in his own country, leaving the biggest stage in the world. I will let other people draw their own conclusions. Sometimes football is baffling.

‘The timing is disappointing and the whole thing has left a bad taste. But I won’t stand in the way of someone who doesn’t want to be at your club’.

Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was assassinated 50 years ago today, on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.

Ludo De Witte, the Belgian author of the best book on this crime, qualifies it as “the most important assassination of the 20th century”. The assassination’s historical importance lies in a multitude of factors, the most pertinent being the global context in which it took place, its impact on Congolese politics since then and Lumumba’s overall legacy as a nationalist leader.

For 126 years, the US and Belgium have played key roles in shaping Congo’s destiny. In April 1884, seven months before the Berlin Congress, the US became the first country in the world to recognise the claims of King Leopold II of the Belgians to the territories of the Congo Basin.

When the atrocities related to brutal economic exploitation in Leopold’s Congo Free State resulted in millions of fatalities, the US joined other world powers to force Belgium to take over the country as a regular colony. And it was during the colonial period that the US acquired a strategic stake in the enormous natural wealth of the Congo, following its use of the uranium from Congolese mines to manufacture the first atomic weapons, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

With the outbreak of the cold war, it was inevitable that the US and its western allies would not be prepared to let Africans have effective control over strategic raw materials, lest these fall in the hands of their enemies in the Soviet camp. It is in this regard that Patrice Lumumba’s determination to achieve genuine independence and to have full control over Congo’s resources in order to utilise them to improve the living conditions of our people was perceived as a threat to western interests. To fight him, the US and Belgium used all the tools and resources at their disposal, including the United Nations secretariat, under Dag Hammarskjöld and Ralph Bunche, to buy the support of Lumumba’s Congolese rivals , and hired killers.

In Congo, Lumumba’s assassination is rightly viewed as the country’s original sin. Coming less than seven months after independence (on 30 June, 1960), it was a stumbling block to the ideals of national unity, economic independence and pan-African solidarity that Lumumba had championed, as well as a shattering blow to the hopes of millions of Congolese for freedom and material prosperity.

The assassination took place at a time when the country had fallen under four separate governments: the central government in Kinshasa (then Léopoldville); a rival central government by Lumumba’s followers in Kisangani (then Stanleyville); and the secessionist regimes in the mineral-rich provinces of Katanga and South Kasai. Since Lumumba’s physical elimination had removed what the west saw as the major threat to their interests in the Congo, internationally-led efforts were undertaken to restore the authority of the moderate and pro-western regime in Kinshasa over the entire country. These resulted in ending the Lumumbist regime in Kisangani in August 1961, the secession of South Kasai in September 1962, and the Katanga secession in January 1963.

No sooner did this unification process end than a radical social movement for a “second independence” arose to challenge the neocolonial state and its pro-western leadership. This mass movement of peasants, workers, the urban unemployed, students and lower civil servants found an eager leadership among Lumumba’s lieutenants, most of whom had regrouped to establish a National Liberation Council (CNL) in October 1963 in Brazzaville, across the Congo river from Kinshasa. The strengths and weaknesses of this movement may serve as a way of gauging the overall legacy of Patrice Lumumba for Congo and Africa as a whole.

The most positive aspect of this legacy was manifest in the selfless devotion of Pierre Mulele to radical change for purposes of meeting the deepest aspirations of the Congolese people for democracy and social progress. On the other hand, the CNL leadership, which included Christophe Gbenye and Laurent-Désiré Kabila, was more interested in power and its attendant privileges than in the people’s welfare. This is Lumumbism in words rather than in deeds. As president three decades later, Laurent Kabila did little to move from words to deeds.

More importantly, the greatest legacy that Lumumba left for Congo is the ideal of national unity. Recently, a Congolese radio station asked me whether the independence of South Sudan should be a matter of concern with respect to national unity in the Congo. I responded that since Patrice Lumumba has died for Congo’s unity, our people will remain utterly steadfast in their defence of our national unity.

Posted By Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, a professor of African and Afro-American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History

The World Cancer Research Fund says that women in England are more likely to have a raised waist circumference than men. Photograph: Clara Molden/PA

Women who are large around the middle at particular risk for most lethal forms of disease, including bowel and pancreatic cancer

Women with larger waistlines are running a greater risk of developing several of the most lethal forms of cancer, medical experts warn today.

Official NHS figures show that 44% of women in England have a waist circumference of more than the 80cm (31.5in), that is recommended for health reasons. Some 32% of men have a waist measuring more than the suggested 94cm (37in).

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) is urging women who are large around the middle to lose weight in order to minimise their risk of getting the disease.

Excess body fat increases an individual’s general cancer risk and having a large waistline is a particular risk for bowel and pancreatic cancer, breast cancer in women who have been through the menopause, and for cancer of the womb lining.

“We tend to think that men are more likely to put weight on their stomach. But these statistics show that actually women in England are more likely to have a raised waist circumference than men,” said Dr Rachel Thompson, WCRF’s deputy head of science. “It is important to alert women to this, particularly as breast and womb lining (endometrial) cancers account for about a third of the 300,000 new cases of the disease diagnosed in the UK every year,” added Thompson.

Initiatives are needed to educate both sexes about the extra risk they are at if they are dangerously large around the middle, she said. “We need to raise awareness among both men and women that being overweight and having a large waistline are cancer risk factors.”

Prof Martin Wiseman, the WCRF’s medical and scientific adviser, called on ministers to do more to help educate the public. “We all need to play a part in raising awareness of cancer risk factors, and that includes us in the charity sector. But the government also has as much a role in increasing awareness of cancer risk factors as much as for heart disease risk factors, and we would like to see them do more in this,” said Wiseman.

But Thompson also voiced concern that many people do not know the right way to measure their waist, and thus may not know their actual size. Everyone should measure both their waist and body mass index, she recommended. The percentage of adults in England classed as obese rose between 1993 and 2009 from 16% to 24% of women and from 13% to 22% of men.

The National Obesity Forum, which represents doctors, nurses and dieticians involved in weight-related illness, said it shared the WCRF’s concerns. Women whose waist goes beyond 31.5in should consult a doctor, it said.

“Doctors have known for a long time that a high waist measurement is a proven indicator of co-morbidity and is a measure that any woman can easily take in front of the bathroom mirror,” said spokesman Tam Fry.

“It is, however, vital that she always positions the tape in the correct position and makes a precautionary visit to her GP if the reading creeps up to more than the recommended80cm/31.5in.”

Ed Yong, Cancer Research UK’s head of health information, said: “Keeping a healthy body weight is one of the most important ways of reducing the risk of cancer, and this applies to both men and women. Fat around the middle is surprisingly active, releasing hormones and other chemicals that can make cells in the body divide far more often than usual, which can increase the risk of cancer”.

A man smokes marijuana in Berkeley, California.

Since the days of Reefer Madness, scientists have sought to understand the complex connection between marijuana and psychosis. Cannabis can cause short-term psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations and paranoia, even in healthy people, but researchers have also long noted a link between marijuana use and the chronic psychotic disorder, schizophrenia.

Repeatedly, studies have found that people with schizophrenia are about twice as likely to smoke pot as those who are unaffected. Conversely, data suggest that those who smoke cannabis are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as nonsmokers. One widely publicized 2007 review of the research even concluded that trying marijuana just once was associated with a 40% increase in risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.

But here’s the conundrum: while marijuana went from being a secret shared by a small community of hepcats and beatniks in the 1940s and ’50s to a rite of passage for some 70% of youth by the turn of the century, rates of schizophrenia in the U.S. have remained flat, or possibly declined. For as long as it has been tracked, schizophrenia has been found to affect about 1% of the population.

One explanation may be that the two factors are coincidental, not causal: perhaps people who have a genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia also happen to especially enjoy marijuana. Still, some studies suggest that smoking pot can actually trigger the disease earlier in individuals who are predisposed, and yet researchers still aren’t seeing increases in the overall schizophrenia rate or decreases in the average age of onset.

In recent months, new research has explored some of these issues. One study led by Dr. Serge Sevy, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, looked at 100 patients between the ages of 16 and 40 with schizophrenia, half of whom smoked marijuana. Sevy and colleagues found that among the marijuana users, 75% had begun smoking before the onset of schizophrenia and that their disease appeared about two years earlier than in those who did not use the drug. But when the researchers controlled for other factors known to influence schizophrenia risk, including gender, education and socioeconomic status, the association between disease onset and marijuana disappeared.

Gender alone accounted for a large proportion of the risk of early onset in Sevy’s study, which included 69 men and 31 women. “Males in general have earlier age of onset of schizophrenia,” says Sevy. In men, the disease tends to take hold around age 19, while in women it isn’t typically seen until 22 — irrespective of marijuana use. But, typically, teenage boys are four times more likely than girls to be heavy pot smokers, which may create an illusory association between the drug and onset of the disease.

Yet past studies limited to males have found exactly such a link, associating marijuana use with earlier development of full-blown psychosis. And other research has found that ongoing cannabis use increases hospitalizations for psychotic symptoms in schizophrenic patients and decreases social and cognitive functioning. A 2008 review of the data found that relapse and failure to take prescribed medication was consistently associated with cannabis use, although, again, controlling for other factors weakened the link.

One explanation could be that the effects of marijuana vary depending on the genetics of the individual patient’s schizophrenia. Marie-Odile Krebs, professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) laboratory in France, and her colleagues published a study in June that identified two broad groups of people with schizophrenia who used cannabis: those whose disease was profoundly affected by their drug use and those who were not.

Within Krebs’s study population of 190 patients (121 of whom had used cannabis), researchers found a subgroup of 44 whose disease was powerfully affected by the drug. These patients either developed schizophrenia within a month of beginning to smoke pot or saw their existing psychosis severely exacerbated with each successive exposure to the drug. Schizophrenia appeared in these patients nearly three years earlier than in other marijuana-users with the disease…By Maia Szalavitz.

“I believe in the oil,” said grocery vendor Grace Asantewaa from behind her meager stall of tomatoes and chili peppers at the Agbogbloshie market in the capital Accra.

“We are sure everything will change in the name of Jesus,” predicted the 36-year-old mother-of-two, echoing widespread dreams of a more comfortable life once production from the Jubilee offshore field gets going in December this year.

With reserves of 800 million barrels of high-quality oil and potential for at least one billion more, the offshore Jubilee field could make Ghana the fifth largest oil nation in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and Gabon.

But first it must avoid the mistakes of others in the Gulf of Guinea, which the U.S. National Intelligence Council expects to provide a quarter of American oil by 2015 and which this year is already shipping record numbers of oil cargoes to Asia.

The International Monetary Fund predicts that if Ghana uses the windfall from the 2007 discovery wisely, it could reach the status of a middle-income country within a decade.

That would lift it from its World Bank rank of poor state alongside Haiti and Liberia to the more comfortable league of the likes of Morocco and Thailand — a game-changer in a country where a third of the 25 million population are in poverty and foreign aid accounts for nearly 10 percent of national income.

“How do we lift it, transport it, consume it, and finance it?” U.S. emerging markets broker Jonathan Auerbach said on a trip to Ghana, of the questions oil raises.

“Accept it,” he said. “This is the great game for Ghana.”

TOXIC OIL

Mention Nigeria to Ghanaians and there is an instant recoil at their own possible fate: oil-fueled civil strife, rampant political corruption and the paradoxical outcome of declining living standards that they have seen for millions of Nigerians.

Congo Republic and Angola have suffered internal conflicts partly fueled by jostling over oil. Aid watchdogs say Chad, whose oil is exported through the gulf, broke pledges to use energy revenues to ease poverty and bought arms instead.

Tiny Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have been more peaceful, but their petrodollars have bypassed the people to fund their elites’ luxury real estate and sports cars, according to evidence for a French anti-graft hearing last year (the trial was blocked on a technicality).

Ghanaians fear the “resource curse” — when a find becomes an albatross round the neck of a country as other industries are crowded out, its leaders become corrupt and its public finances fluctuate at the whim of volatile energy markets.

“Country after country make big promises and then go on to make the same mistakes,” said independent consultant Antony Goldman, who has studied oil’s effect on Nigeria and others.

“It would be wrong to underestimate how potentially toxic oil can be to a fairly simple economy,” he cautioned.

With Jubilee’s first oil due to start pumping in December, Ghana still has much to do to ensure it not only avoids its curse but also reaps the full blessing.

Rare in a region where coups, civil wars, disputed elections and strong-arm rulers are the norm, Ghana has distinguished itself this decade with two peaceful transfers of power from one political camp to another through the ballot box.

It has also moved ahead of most African states in fighting corruption, outdoing countries such as Senegal, Zambia and Tanzania on a World Bank scale of anti-graft efforts.

That reputation allowed Ghana to launch a $750 million Eurobond in 2007 and won it the accolade of hosting Barack Obama for his first African trip as U.S. president last year.

FROM NORWAY TO TRINIDAD…

But as the petrodollars come closer, so do questions about how successfully Ghana will manage them.

President John Atta Mills’ center-left government has taken advice from oil states including Norway and Trinidad and Tobago on how to handle the cash inflows, but has yet to present detailed plans to parliament.

Opposition lawmakers complain there is little time for proper debate on the complex oversight arrangements for the oil accounts and how the money should be spent. They fear the government will ultimately rush through weak legislation.

“We are not hurrying — that is the unfortunate thing,” said opposition leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, adding he had seen no sign by end-April of a draft oil revenue and management bill.

Keith Myers of UK-based consultancy Richmond Energy Partners said Ghana should be careful to avoid the fate of other African states which have struggled with regulatory shortfalls and the lack of home-grown expertise.

He noted concerns about the role to be played by state-owned Ghanaian National Petroleum Corporation.

“In Ghana’s case, this means that GNPC at the moment has the role of both regulator and operator,” he said.

Investors were rattled by government moves last year that pointed to a trend for one government to overrule deals struck under its predecessors.

For instance, the current government has said it wants to “re-engage” with British mobile operator Vodafone Group (VOD.L) over its 2008 purchase of a majority in Ghana Telecommunications, notably over control of a strategically important fiber-optic network.

Ghana has also defended its resistance to what sources close to the deal said was a $4 billion accord for U.S. giant Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) to acquire stakes in Jubilee from privately held Kosmos Energy, insisting on its right to first refusal.

“The resource belongs to the people of Ghana … and we decide how we want that resource to be used,” Vice President John Dramani Mahama said in an April 27 interview.

Mahama rejected suggestions the Kosmos and Vodafone affairs have tarnished Ghana’s pro-investment image, saying the government hoped by end-May to wrap up talks with Kosmos over the future of the stake.

Officials say options include the sale of all or some of the stake to Ghana, which could need to draw on third-party finance.

“A ‘winner takes all’ electoral topography has emerged,” said IHS Global Insight Nana Adu Ampofo, noting that Vodafone’s purchase and Kosmos’ entry into in Jubilee had both taken place under Mills’ predecessor, John Kufuor.

“Measures to improve transparency … are vital, even more so in light of impending oil rents,” Ampofo warned.

…AND ON TO MALAYSIA

While Ghanaians voice real grievances about patchy access to health, education and basic utilities, the local economy is in a better position than most in Africa to absorb the oil cash.

Under Kufuor, Ghana won debt relief that helped halve its foreign liabilities. Mills has in 16 months cut inflation to under 12 percent from over 20 percent and slashed the public deficit to 10 percent of output from an inherited 24 percent.

A stable cedi currency and expectations of single-digit inflation this year have allowed the central bank from late 2009 to trim the prime rate by 3.5 points to 15 percent.

This should only be the start. Initially modest oil revenues together with infrastructure spending and an economic recovery are forecast to push growth to 20 percent growth next year — triple that in 2010 and one of the world’s fastest rates.

To picture what an oil success story would look like, Ghana draws inspiration from an Asian state which used hydrocarbons as a springboard to become a top electronics exporter.

“We are always looking at Malaysia,” said Sampson Akligoh, senior analyst at Accra-based Databank Group investment house. The Muslim nation has the same population as Ghana but its $381 billion-a-year economy is over 10 times bigger.

Behind Malaysia’s success was a drive to cut reliance on oil by diversifying into the booming 1970s electronics markets.

For Ghana, diversification could come thanks to the extra 100 million cubic feet per day of Jubilee gas which could provide cheap energy to push into new sectors. Mills is already speaking of an aluminum industry based on its bauxite reserves.

Yet a truly broad-based economy will only emerge if the local financial sector is on board. Here, Ghana has work to do.

Despite an appeal from Mills himself, local banks have been slow to track the central bank rate cuts, citing the risk of default as justification for keeping rates at around 30 percent.

“That is inefficiency,” complains Databank’s Akligoh. “We need the banking sector to support small companies so that when a smart guy has an idea he can implement it.”

NEITHER NIGERIA NOR EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Foreign investors looking to bet on Ghana’s brighter future have found quality opportunities can be lacking.

With an African debt rally taking the yield on Ghana’s Eurobond to a record low of around 6.3 percent last month, many are focusing on the 35 companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

But with local state pension fund SSNIT sitting on hefty stakes in sought-after banking and consumer stocks, shares are in short supply and daily trade volumes rarely reach $1 million.

“Ghana appears to be the most settled and investor-friendly. But in Nigeria you have the opportunities,” said Tony Schroenn of Mauritius-based KuraCapital investment house.

The Ghana Stock Exchange is out to change that, pushing for more local and foreign firms to seek a listing while encouraging SNNIT to create liquidity by juggling its portfolio around.

Broker Auerbach acknowledges equity is in short supply but argues Ghana’s low market capitalization — which at just 15 percent of gross domestic product is half the ratio in Kenya — suggests something else to those prepared to shop around.

“What does that tell you? Cheap with value, particularly if you apply next year’s anticipated GDP growth rate,” he said.

With six months to go before the scheduled start of oil output, the government has already moved to keep domestic expectations of a bonanza firmly in check.

The finance ministry in March told Ghanaians the state would see an average of just $800 million a year from the oil between 2011 and 2029, noting that even if this went straight into their pockets it would mean a mere $75 a year at its peak in 2017.

That may be conservative, assuming as it does an average oil price of $65 a barrel compared with market levels of $79 in early May. It also put total output at just 500 million barrels by 2029 with an initial 120,000 barrels a day.

But it shows Ghana will never rival two-million-barrel-a-day Nigeria or be an oil rentier such as tiny Equatorial Guinea, whose 250,000 barrels of daily production could make all its 500,000 people rich beyond their dreams if fairly distributed.

Goldman and others suggest the modesty of Ghana’s oil wealth may yet prove a boon, particularly if it lessens the risk the labor-intensive cocoa sector will suffer as demand for oil pushes the cedi up and makes other exports less attractive.

According to this theory, Ghana will tick along as a minor producer, using oil proceeds to gently turn around the economy while investing in health, education and other basic needs.

Change will be slower than many Ghanaians want, and the government will face temptations to press on the accelerator by increasing borrowing — always risky when the value of the main collateral swings like a pendulum on world markets.

In fact the region’s first true oil success story may not look like one for years — and will only materialize at all if Ghana can find the resolve to pursue and build on its strong political and economic track record.

But as Richmond Energy’s Myers noted: “If it is ever going to work, it should work in Ghana.” By Mark John and Kwasi Kpodo.

His dream survived, however, because he had an alternative. The privately run Ashesi University College in Accra accepted him on scholarship and today the 26-year-old is an investment research analyst for Frontline Capital Advisors who pays his brother’s university fees.

“I’m climbing the ladder,” he said. “There are more opportunities now.”

The trend is reflected throughout sub-Saharan Africa, which despite corruption and political instability is making tremendous progress in expanding higher education opportunities, enabling more Africans to reach middle-class status.

Who is part of Africa’s middle class is not easily defined nor is it clear how many people make up this group that is key both economically and politically. A strict level of income is not sufficient to determine who is in the middle class. Education, career paths and aspirations are also important features that can add large numbers to the sector.

Enrollment in higher education has tripled to 4 million across the subcontinent since 1990, out of a total population of 850 million, according to a World Bank report published in 2008. Private universities are a major factor, growing from two dozen to 468, while public institutions have doubled to 200 in that period, said the report.

The 30 private university colleges in Ghana today have been created in the past decade. Like elsewhere in Africa, a deregulation movement prompted their growth. Post-independence states, including Ghana, attached symbolic importance to things like public universities and national airlines. Shortly after independence in 1957, Ghana had three public universities and the country has seven today.

The universities and Ghana’s middle class as a whole suffered when the economy collapsed in the late 1960s and the country went through a series of military coups.

“Nationalizing companies, setting price controls, that hurt a lot of people,” said Patrick Awuah, Ashesi’s founder and president. “The middle class took a beating back in those days, but it’s coming back.”

Awuah, a Ghanaian who earned a scholarship to Swarthmore College, left his engineering job at Microsoft Corp. to lay the groundwork for Ashesi. That was in the late 1990s, soon after Ghana liberalized its higher education framework, allowing private involvement.

Ashesi launched in 2002 and has grown to 350 students studying for degrees in business administration, computer science and management information systems. It recently began construction outside Accra for a $6.4-million campus that will allow the school to eventually accommodate 2,000 students.

Nearly half of Ashesi’s students receive financial aid or scholarships.

“The people that are being cut out are disproportionately the poor. That’s the reality,” he said. “Those who will get into college have opportunities after that.”

Getting in to public or private higher education institutions remains a challenge for many qualified applicants. Despite growth, private institutions comprise just 10 percent of Ghana’s total higher education enrollment of 110,000.

Nearly 60 percent of applicants to Ghana’s public institutions were turned away in 2008 for lack of space and staff, said Minister of Education Alex Tettey-Enyo. Just 6 percent of college-age students get into university in Ghana, compared to the global average of 26 percent.

Across the sub-Saharan region, with a total population of 850 million, just 5 percent of eligible Africans are enrolled in college.

“Despite rising enrollment in tertiary-level institutions, the numbers of students graduating are pitifully small,” Yaw Ansu, the World Bank’s director of human development for Africa said in a 2008 report. “And despite reform efforts, the quality remains well below par.”

The report notes that private institutions undertake little research, leaving the nation’s development issues in the hands of public universities. Many rely heavily on “moonlighting” public sector professors, are religiously affiliated and ignore labor market demand in favor of student interests, the report said.

Private financing “is imperative” for the future of higher education in Africa, said Zeinab El Bakri, vice president of the African Development Bank, to a UNESCO conference in Paris last year. Ashesi, for example, raised $3.7 million in private donations to build its new campus and has a fundraising unit based in the U.S. The school also borrowed $2.5 million from the World Bank’s pirvate lending arm.

Efficiency should trump parochialism, said El Bakri. He encouraged educators to work cooperatively by establishing regional “centers of excellence” and stressed that higher education “must become the breeding ground of good governance.”

Afua Aidoo, a 21-year-old studying at Ashesi, said students of her generation are discovering that they can chart their own course, instead of doing only what their parents do.

“Especially for a female child, you have to force your way through school. Most of the time you don’t get to finish,” she said. “Once the opportunities are there and people are aware of them, they do take advantage. You see more people wanting to study, to educate themselves. People are getting the opportunity to move ahead”…By Ken Maguire.

The fund, created after the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh last year, will begin with contributions from the governments of Canada ($230 million), Spain ($95 million) and South Korea ($50 million) and from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($30 million). It is meant to provide money to poorer countries, particularly in Africa, that invest in local farming programs and agricultural development to increase crop yields, administration officials said.

In an interview, Mr. Gates said he believed that a “renaissance” period of growth and development was under way in many African countries and could be spurred by the infusion of money. “I wouldn’t work on something that was some bleak ‘you should feel guilty so give some money’ type of thing,” he said.

But he acknowledged that the structure of the agriculture aid program — funneling money to governments that demonstrate they are investing wisely in agriculture — could leave farmers in countries with struggling governments out in the cold.

“If I had one wish, it would be for good governance in all of these countries,” Mr. Gates said. He specifically cited the Democratic Republic of Congo, where since 1998 fighting has raged, particularly in the east, and where the prevalence of rape and sexual violence is believed to be among the worst in the world.

The United States has already contributed $67 million to the fund, and has requested another $408 million in President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal. If approved, the new money would be available when the federal fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, administration officials said.

“A global economy where more than one billion people suffer from hunger is not a sustainable one,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. “At a time of limited resources and large global challenges, this fund will leverage support from around the world to achieve lasting progress against hunger and bolster agricultural productivity and growth.” Mr. Geithner and Mr. Gates wrote about the new initiative in an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

But Mr. Gates warned that getting Congress to approve the budget request will require a fight by Mr. Obama, whom he noted had “been to Africa — the speeches he gave were fantastic.” He was referring to Mr. Obama’s visit to Ghana last summer, where the president told a rapt audience that American aid must be matched by African acceptance of responsibility for the continent’s own problems.

After the battles in Washington over the economic stimulus, health insurance reform and, now, financial regulation, Mr. Obama will face some opposition from both Democrats and Republicans over the scale of federal spending. The fund was created as part of $22 billion in pledges made by world leaders at the G-8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, last summer, and finalized at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh a few months later.

The funds are meant to be invested to improve land use planning, irrigation and farm machinery, to provide technical help to farmers and to build better roads linking farmers with their markets.

The World Bank will administer the fund and help choose projects to finance, in conjunction with the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University economist, said that supporting farm programs in poor countries has been shown to work. He pointed to the example of Malawi, where the government recently doubled the country’s food production by putting in the same sort of agricultural development programs that the global fund is pushing. Mr. Sachs noted that the Group of Eight wealthy nations last year announced that they would like the program funded at $22 billion.

“It’s of course completely stark that there’s a $22 billion announcement and less than a $1 billion capitalization,” he said. But, he added, “I think this is the first step of something very, very important.” By Helene Cooper

Most will watch on TV (some in 3-D). Still, organizers expect as many as 450,000 fans to travel to South Africa and join almost a million vuvuzelas-blowing local fans attending the tournament.

According to the latest sales numbers, announced Friday, more than 925,000 of the 2.2 million tickets sold were bought by South African residents. But despite efforts by FIFA to tout the tournament as a continental celebration, few Africans from outside the host country may make the long and expensive trip.

“We want to provide the opportunity to all of the continent to attend and see players of this caliber who they never get a chance to see in person,” said Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, minister of tourism for South Africa. “For people on the African continent, getting to host this event is just so major. We’ve already won, just by hosting the World Cup.”

Van Schalkwyk said that the country’s $6 billion investments in infrastructure have come to fruition: the stadiums are completed, though not without controversy and dissent from some South Africans. New airports in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are online to receive international travelers. And new buses will be delivered to shuttle fans to and from the games, though public transportation remains a highly charged issue for South Africans.

Enthusiasm at home is high, Van Schalkwyk said in an interview in Manhattan this week, but he acknowledged that there was concern that South African fans could lose interest after their team was knocked out.

“South Africans are realistic,” he said, noting that the team’s struggles have not been overlooked by a soccer savvy public. “But, obviously, there is eternal hope.”

Until now, ticket sales outside South Africa have been conducted primarily online, and few Africans have Internet access. The average Internet penetration for the five countries sending teams to South Africa, according to the most recent data provided by the World Bank, is less than 4.7 percent. The United States (where more than 70 percent of people have Internet access) will be very well represented in South Africa: almost 119,000 tickets were purchased by Americans, outpacing fans in the United Kingdom (67,654), Germany (32,269), Australia (29,657) and Canada (16,001), though the Canadian team didn’t qualify for the tournament.

Organizers expect sales in the five African countries with teams bound for the World Cup to pick up when the next sales phase begins April 15.

“For this last phase, we have made a big effort to assist football fans by introducing various additional means to purchase a ticket,” Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s general secretary, said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to facilitating the process for all fans and giving them this last chance to attend the matches and experience the excitement of this first World Cup in Africa.”

Starting next week, the remaining 500,000 World Cup tickets can be purchased at sales points in each of the 11 host cities, at 18 ticket sales offices located at Checkers and Shoprite retail locations in South Africa, and at 600 branches of the First National Bank of South Africa. Fans will still be able to purchase tickets online, but for fans without Internet access, a domestic and international telephone hotline will also be set up (though customers must still pick up their tickets in person).

Jabu Mabuza, the chairman of the South African Tourism Board, said he expected as many as 50,000 fans from Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria to travel to the tournament. He noted that the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, the team geographically closest to South Africa, will have strong support, boosted by the international celebrity of Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o.

In fact, the participation of stars from other African teams like Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba and Ghana’s Michael Essien, who play for Chelsea, may give local fans something to cheer even after the Bafana Bafana are eliminated. Or, they may aspirationally adopt other teams with a real chance to win as their own.

“If not Bafana,” Van Schalkwyk said, “most South Africans will probably support Brazil”…Jeffrey Marcus-Nytimes.

Some stories just seem too ridiculous to be true (or, to look at it another way, they seem too ridiculous NOT to be true).

The job is made even harder on 1 April, when you find yourself actively looking for pranks.

Even Yahoo! got in on the act with a piece suggesting that the UK’s clocks would be moving forward another hour tonight as authorities try to ‘kick-start’ the summer.

Below is a selection of stories that have been around today, some real, some Fools.

Did you get caught out? (Answers at the bottom of the page.)

1. Labour’s election strategy: bring on no-nonsense hard man Gordon Brown – The Guardian

“In an audacious new election strategy, Labour is set to embrace Gordon Brown’s reputation for anger and physical aggression, presenting the prime minister as a hard man, unafraid of confrontation, who is willing to take on David Cameron in “a bare-knuckle fistfight for the future of Britain”, the Guardian has learned.” The site then publishes a slideshow of campaign posters, including one featuring the PM alongside the slogan: “Step outside posh boy,” and the strap-line “Vote Labour. Or Else.” URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/01/labour-gordon-brown-hard-man

2. Ferrets key to bridging the digital divide between cities and rural areas – The Telegraph

“Specially trained ferrets are being used to deliver broadband to rural areas following groundbreaking techniques used by an Internet provider. The animals have been used by Virgin Media for over a year to help lay cables for its broadband service, the company has disclosed. The ferrets wear jackets fitted with a microchip which is able to analyse any breaks or damage in the underground network.”

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7541455/Ferrets-key-to-bridging-the-digital-divide-between-cities-and-rural-areas.html

3. Airborne Association: Flying to the rescue of stranded motorists, the AA rocketmen – Daily Mail

“Next time you break down on the motorway, don’t scan the road for the AA van to arrive. Look up in the sky. The breakdown rescue service is launching a rapid response patrol that will see ‘AA Rocketmen’ in lightweight jet-packs flitting over traffic jams to reach stranded motorists. The AA has chosen today, the first day of the annual Easter getaway, to test the service.” URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262603/AA-jetpack.html

4. $42.9m jackpot ‘a mistake’ – The Scotsman

“An American woman who won $42.9 million (£28.2m) from a slot machine is being denied her jackpot, after the casino said the pay-out message was an error. The false message appeared as Louise Chavez was playing the slot machines in the Fortune Valley Casino in Central City, Colorado. The machine announced she had won $42.9m – whereas the listed top prize was $251,000.”

URL: http://news.scotsman.com/odd/429m-jackpot-39a-mistake39.6196005.jp

5. Hadron Collider II planned for Circle Line – The Independent

“London Underground is in talks with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) about the possibility of using the 23km tunnel of the Circle Line to house a new type of particle accelerator similar to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Particle physicists believe the existing tunnel can be adapted to take a small-scale “atom smasher” alongside the passenger line at a fraction of the cost of building a new tunnel elsewhere in Europe.”

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hadron-collider-ii-planned-for-circle-line-1932744.html

6. World’s hottest chilli grown in Grantham, Lincolnshire – The Telegraph

“A chilli grown in the historic market town of Grantham, Lincs has been named as the hottest in the world. The Infinity chilli is hotter than the Bhut Jolokia chilli, the former record holder, which is used by the Indian military to make hand grenades to immobilise terrorist suspects. Tests by Warwick University rate the Infinity chilli at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale which is used to measure the heat of peppers.”

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7543281/Worlds-hottest-chilli-grown-in-Grantham-Lincs.html

7. World’s first ever calorie-negative Diet Cola Bottle launched – The Mirror

“Woolworths.co.uk have launched the world’s first ever calorie negative sweet – the Diet Cola Bottle. The sweet, part of its Pick ‘n’ Mix range, burns more calories when eating and digesting than the sweet actually contains. Matthew Jacques, Head of brand at Woolworths.co.uk, says “The Diet Cola Bottle looks almost identical and tastes equally as good as the original cola bottle, but without the calories.”

URL: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-world/2010/04/01/world-s-first-ever-calorie-negative-diet-cola-bottle-launched-115875-22149364/

8. Moggy cat-ches a burglar in the act – The Sun

“A burglar was caught after being spotted breaking in by a cat. The three-year-old tabby woke his owner Ivor Bates as the teenage crook tried to get into an elderly neighbour’s home at night. Plumber Ivor, 48, of Dagenham, Essex, called 999 and cops swooped to nick 19-year-old Karolis Narkevicius. Mr Bates, who has five cats, said: “I would never have seen the man if it wasn’t for Barney. He was staring out the window making strange noises. I knew he could see something he didn’t like the look of.”

URL: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2915903/Moggy-cat-ches-a-burglar-in-the-act.html

9. Man jailed for assaulting security guard with cheese sandwich The Mirror

“A man has been jailed for 14 days after attacking a security guard – with a cheese sandwich. Lee Revis, 29, who was being held for breaching bail over another offence, lost his cool after he was told he could not smoke in a court cell. Group 4 prison custody officer Wendy Thompson went to check on him at the court in Berwick-upon-Tweed and he threw the sandwich in her face.”

URL: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-world/2010/03/26/man-jailed-over-assault-with-a-cheese-sandwich-115875-22139125/

10. Auto Windscreens launches first prescription windscreen News release

“Constantly having to swap your glasses or remember to bring along a pair for driving? Do away with the hassle, as Auto Windscreens, innovators in automotive glazing, has successfully launched its first prescription windscreen. The ingenious creation has been the result of pioneering research and development from the company’s state-of-the-art factory, based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Having been successfully tested by the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship driver Tom Chilton, the young glasses-wearer has fitted his car with the prescription windscreen for the new 2010 racing season, due to start on 4th April.”

URL: http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/7250797/18905620

11. Chefs serve dinner cooked on the hot lava of an erupting volcano in Iceland The Telegraph

“The ground shakes, belching fumes and spewing lava, but this has not deterred thrill-seekers flocking to see Iceland’s active volcano. The Fimmvorduhals volcano in the middle of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted on March 21, and one couple chose the spot for a romantic – and dangerous – dinner.”

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/7542181/Chefs-serve-dinner-cooked-on-the-hot-lava-of-an-erupting-volcano-in-Iceland.html

12. Ex-wife wins £215,000 payout – 29yrs after separation from husband Metro

“A wealthy barrister has been told to pay his ex-wife a lump sum of £215,000 – even though they separated 29 years ago and have no children together. David Vaughan QC was handed the bill by the Court of Appeal despite having already paid maintenance to his ex-wife, Philippa, for twice as long as they were married.”

URL:http://www.metro.co.uk/news/820068-ex-wife-wins-215-000-payout-29yrs-after-separation-from-husband

13. Ref revolution is wheely great The Sun “Sam Allardyce last night gave the thumbs up to an amazing ‘ref-mobile’. The Blackburn boss believes the motorised two-wheeler will keep referees up to speed with the game’s fastest players. Football authorities have been secretly testing the Segways – and they will be used in the Blue Square Premier next season. With players like Theo Walcott, Gabby Agbonlahor and Aaron Lennon capable of incredible speeds, it is hoped this new innovation will help refs keep up.”

URL: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2915909/See-the-incredible-new-innovation-set-to-take-football-by-storm.html

TRUE: 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12

FOOLS: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13

When Steve Jobs announced in January that Apple’s new tablet would be called the iPad, some fans ridiculed the name, saying it conjured up images of feminine hygiene products rather than cutting-edge mobile gadgetry.

Two months later, branding experts say the name has punchy appeal and that jokes won’t deter women—or men, for that matter—from buying Apple’s (AAPL) tablet computer, which goes on sale in the U.S. Apr. 3.

“The minute you hear it, you know who brought it to you, how it’s going to work, that it’s high quality, and how it even looks,” said Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer for brand consulting firm Landor Associates. “The name does all that in just four letters. That’s amazing.”

The “i” prefix on product names has become a convention that many consumers associate with Apple. Products including the iPod digital music player, iPhone, and iMac computers employ the designation. Apple bought the iPad trademark from Fujitsu for an undisclosed sum, according to records with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

The iPad will be capable of wirelessly serving up Web pages, e-mail, music, TV, and electronic books and periodicals.

Businesswomen in Silicon Valley said jokes about the iPad’s name don’t ring true. Esther Dyson, a longtime computer industry commentator , said the feminine hygiene reference to iPad wasn’t her initial reaction. “I guess I have been i-conditioned by Apple,” she says.

3G wireless iPad models due in April

Jennifer Jones, a veteran Valley marketing executive and creator of a series of podcasts called “Marketing Voices,” says the iPad name “works as part of a product line. I did not think of the feminine side of it.”

Apple plans initially to sell three iPad models, starting at $499, with built-in support for Wi-Fi wireless networking. Three additional models that can communicate over high-speed 3G wireless networks will go on sale later in April.

Jobs didn’t respond to a request asking why Apple chose iPad as the name for the touchscreen tablet. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, says the iPad is “something new,” reiterating comments by Jobs in January.

Apple may sell 2 million to 2.5 million iPads this year, according to Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. David Bailey, an analyst at Goldman Sachs (GS), says sales could reach 6 million units. Apple shares gained 4.35, or 1.9%, to close at 230.90 on Mar. 26. The stock has more than doubled in the past year.

Jokes about the iPad’s name began circulating after Apple’s Jan. 27 launch of the device. Some referenced a 2006 sketch on the television program MadTV about a mythical Apple feminine hygiene product called the ‘iPad.’

Public relations and media professionals publicly lampooned Apple’s brand name as off-putting..

jokes about Wii didn’t hurt sales

Elsie Maio, president of branding agency Maio & Co. in New York, calls the puns “sad.” She says they never occurred to her nor to female colleagues—one of whom, she notes, lives in Germany, where the word “pad” isn’t used to describe feminine hygiene products.

“It is short, distinctive, and memorable,” Maio says of Apple’s appellation. “It’s a pad of paper that you grab and go.”

Libby Gill, a Los Angeles-based branding expert, dismissed the puns as “a middle-school reaction.” Jokes about Nintendo’s hit Wii videogame console didn’t squelch demand for that product when it went on sale in 2006, she notes. “The ultimate thing about a brand is: Do they deliver on their promise?” she says. “If it delivers what they say and it does what people want, it will sell.”

Perhaps the final joke on the subject belongs to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, now chief scientist at computer storage vendor Fusion-io. The iPad name is reasonable, he says, although it sounds too much like iPod. “Programmers know the problems with similarly spelled names that introduce chances for ambiguity,” he says. “What a horrible problem,” Wozniak adds, “trying to find the ultimate names for hot product categories”…By Connie Guglielmo.