News in Brief

GNA Kumasi The Ministry of Tourism is to organise an international donors' conference to mobilise 900 million dollars from both external and internal sources to start the implementation of the country's 15-year Integrated National Tourism Development Programme.

The conference is being organised with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organisation (WTO).

The money will go into the implementation of the first five years of the programme. It will be used to support selected projects in all the 10 regions and help meet infrastructural requirements.

Accra A 10-member Refugee group that went on a fact-finding mission to Liberia said today life is returning to normal making conditions ripe for their return home.

"The security situation has improved; there is enough food in Liberia, fuel supply is okay, if not better,'' the leader of the group, Mr. Joh Connel, told a news conference in Accra.

The group left Accra on May 10 under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ghana Refugee Board.

Mr. Connell, an opinion leader at the Buduburam camp, however, expressed concern about congestion in the centre of Monrovia as a result of inadequate shelter.

Kumasi The government has given approval for the award of contract for road markings and installation of road signs on the 31.1-kilometre Anwiankwanta-Obuasi trunk road at a cost of 90.5 million cedis.

Approval has also been given for regravelling of the first 10 out of the 25-kilometre Ejisu-Kuntanase road at a cost of 500 million cedis.

Mr. C. K. Vasco, Ashanti Regional Highway Director, who disclosed this in an interview with the press in Kumasi today, said the installation of such road signs and line markings would greatly guide road users.

Accra The evacuation of Ghanaians from the troubled Sierra Leonean Capital, Freetown, has not yet started due to the military offensive there, officials said in Accra today.

Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Minister of State, told a press briefing that a Ghanaian contingent from Accra is currently in Monrovia awaiting deployment.

The Ministers called the briefing to update the media on latest developments in the sister country, following the overthrow of president Ahmed Tijan Kabbah's government.

Accra Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, today said gender issues need to be fully integrated in the employment policies of the country to enhance female participation in economic integration.

This, she said, could be done through the adoption of a multi-sectoral national policy in the field of social services geared towards the economic integration of women.

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said this at the opening of a five-day seminar on ''enterprise creation'' in Accra.