The report that Ghanaian football player Christian Atsu has been pulled out alive from the Turkiye earthquake rubble after 26hours of being trapped is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.The Graphic reports that Ghanaian football player, Christian Atsu, has been pulled out alive from the Turkiye earthquake rubble after 26hours of being trapped.

Hatayspor manager earlier this morning denied false reports that Christian Atsu had been pulled out alive last night he was caught up in a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which occurred in Turkiye.

But one of the Turkish journalists, Yagiz Sabuncuoglu who first broke the news that Christian Atsu had been trapped this morning, confirmed on Twitter that he has been found alive.

Search and rescue teams continue their bid to save many following a devastating earthquake in Türkiye.

Over 4300 people are reported dead from the disaster which occurred in Türkiye and Syria.

The 31-year-old, who played for both Chelsea and Newcastle during his time in the Premier League, but now plays for Hatayspor in Türkiye was caught up in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake which occurred on Monday.

Atsu, who joined Chelsea as a youngster back in 2013 after leaving Porto, also had spells with a number of other top-flight clubs including Everton and Bournemouth before moving to St James’ Park.

He joined Hatayspor in the summer and scored his first goal for the club on Sunday night – just hours before the disaster which has devastated Turkey.

It has been reported that at least 2,800 people have lost their lives following the incident with over 12,000 more believed to be injured across Turkey and Syria. A massive aftershock with a magnitude of 7.5 hit the south of Turkey just hours after the original quake. Reports say it was felt once again in Syria and also Iraqi Kurdistan.

The newspaper says that the Human Trafficking Secretariat (HTS) has earmarked GH¢508.7 million for the elimination of human trafficking in the country.

Various interventions, including collaborations with various public institutions and civil society organisations, have been captured in the National Plan of Action (NPA) for the Elimination of Human Trafficking in Ghana.

The five-year project, which started in 2022, is expected to end in 2026.

The expenditure covers five broad areas, namely prevention, protection, prosecution, partnership, monitoring and evaluation.

The activities of the NPA borders on advocacy and capacity building; comprehensive care to victims of trafficking, interventions, capacity building, shelter, improvement of prosecution efforts, strengthening of legal and regulatory framework; resource mobilisation and implementation, establishing a robust monitory system for trafficking, among others.

Subsequently, the report stated that GH¢102,100,409 million will be spent in 2023, while GH¢98,564,823 million will be required in 2024.

For 2025, a total of GH¢98,468,486 million will be spent, while in 2026, the secretariat is projecting a total of GH¢96,217,399 million to be spent to eliminate human trafficking in the country.

Additionally, the report revealed that sex trafficking was prevalent in the Volta Region and was also growing in the oil producing Western Region.

“Ghanaian girls and young women from the rural regions in the north move to urban centres such as Accra to seek work as porters and are at risk of sex trafficking and forced labour.

The Ghanaian Times reports that MTN Ghana has announced an upward review of the tariffs of its products and services effective today.

“The review is as result of two changes. Firstly, the implementation of the 2.5 per cent statutory adjustment of VAT from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent across all services,” a statement issued by the company said.

This, according to the statement, would impact both prepaid and postpaid customers.

“Secondly, MTN Ghana is proceeding with a 15 per cent average upward review of its mobile data tariffs which was originally announced in November 2022 and was subsequently put on hold,” the statement noted.

The increase in mobile data tariffs will impact both Pay Monthly and Pay-As-You-Go users.

The review in mobile data bundle offers covers products available on the short codes 138 & 170, as well as on purchases through Electronic Voucher Distribution (EVD), MTN Pulse, and Data Zone except for XtraTime.

The data tariffs increase, the statement said, did not apply to Fiber Broadband and Fixed Wireless Access (4G Router /Turbonet) customers.

With this review, voice users will receive less airtime due to the VAT implementation, and mobile data customers will receive less data bundle allocations for the same price purchased before the tariff increase was made.

The Chief Commercial Officer for MTN, Mr Noel Kojo-Ganson, explained the impact by giving an example of how the new pricing will work.

He said following the review, a three cedis airtime purchase before the VAT increase, which previously gave customers 24.4 minutes, will now give customers 23.9 minutes, while a three cedis data bundle, which previously gave customers 471 MBs, will now give customers 401 MBs.

Explaining the reason for the upward review of the data bundle prices, Mr Noel Kojo-Ganson said the review was necessitated by the recent economic shifts leading to increasing cost of operations largely due to continuous increase in inflation.

The newspaper says that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has extended Ghana’s heartfelt condolences to the governments and peoples of Turkey and Syria, on the devastation and the tragic loss of lives occasioned by Monday’s earthquake.

In a tweet yesterday, the President said “May their souls rest in perfect peace.”

President Akufo-Addo said the nation prays for the survivors of the tragic incident.

“We pray that our fellow Ghanaian, Christian Atsu, is found safe and sound,” the tweet said.

The BBC yesterday reported that a rescue operation was under way across much of southern Turkey and northern Syria, following a huge earthquake that has killed more than 2,300 people.

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep.

A new 7.5-magnitude tremor hit at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT), which officials said was “not an aftershock”.

The country’s disaster agency says some 1,500 people were killed in Turkey alone after the first quake, and more than 5,300 were wounded.

Syrian authorities are reporting 810 dead and more than 2,000 injured, according to the AFP news agency.

Rescuers are racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after hundreds of buildings collapsed in both countries.

World leaders have pledged to send aid after Turkey issued an international appeal for help

Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel felt the earthquake.