If you’re feeling bored with your current apps or recently got a new Android phone, you’re in luck: Google just released its annual roundup of the best Android apps.

Some of the apps on the list are no surprise — like Pandora, Shazam, Uber, and Hulu — but there are plenty of others we had never heard of, like MAPS.ME for offline mapping, Minube for vacations and traveling, and Craftsy for craft classes.

Whether you’re interested in social media, news, kid stuff, photography, financial planning, or travel, you’ll discover something worthwhile on this 74-app list.

Find the full list, with download links, here.

Good evening! Here are the major world news stories you need to know before you hit the sheets.

Oil Keeps Plunging. WTI crude fell to as low as $63.72 a barrel, the lowest level since July 2009. Brent crude touched a low of $67.53, the lowest level since October 2009. This follows Thursday’s decision by OPEC not to cut production.

Switzerland’s Referendum Sends Gold Prices Tumbling. On Sunday night, gold was down more than 4% to as low as $1,143 an ounce after voters in Switzerland rejected a measure that would have required the Swiss National Bank to increase its gold reserves to 20% of its holdings from 8%.

Stocks Are In The Red. US futures are sinking, with Dow futures down 39 points and S&P futures down 6.7 points. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 is down 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 is down 0.2%, and Germany’s DAX is down 0.1%. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 2.5%, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.7%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX closed down 1.9%.

Chinese Manufacturing Is Teetering. Chinese manufacturing disappointed again in November. The country’s manufacturing PMI missed expectations, coming in at 50.3; analysts expected 50.5. Any number under 50 indicates a contraction in the country’s manufacturing sector.

Chinese House Prices Slumped For The 7th Month Running. China’s housing prices in November fell on a monthly basis for the seventh straight month, a survey showed Sunday, with the market yet to feel the full impact of a cut in interest rates.

Japanese Capital Spending Jumped. Business investment rose 5.5% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, despite the country officially falling into a recession during the three months to October.

The Eurozone Is Stagnating. The eurozone manufacturing PMI fell to 50.1 in November from 50.6 in October. Germany’s PMI declined to a 17-month low of 49.5, and France’s PMI hit a three-month low of 48.4. “Not only is the performance of the sector the worst seen since mid-2013, there is a risk that renewed rot is spreading across the region from the core,” Markit’s Chris Williamson said. “The sector has more or less stagnated since August, but we are now seeing, for the first time in nearly one-and-a-half years, the three largest economies all suffering manufacturing downturns.”

Strikes Just Pushed Germany’s Biggest Airline To Cancel Half Its Flights. The German flagship carrier Lufthansa said it had canceled 1,350 flights, or 48% of scheduled services, for Monday and Tuesday as its pilots prepared to go on strike.

We have approximately 30 days before 2014 is over and this year, we’ve seen many single men and women get hitched. It also shows maturity among people.

Most of our celebrities decided to share the rest of their lives with the one man/woman who was there for them through the hard times. Let’s take a look at some Ghanaian celebrities who got hitched this year, 2014.

Read Also: 13 Very Influential Ghanaian Women Who Are Single

01. Sonnie Badu & Annie

Relationship.

You have to be a gentleman and take care of your lady at all cost. I get it, but the #1 mistake guys in their 20s make when it comes to dating is splashing a lot of money on the female in the early stages. As the saying goes, ‘money can’t buy love’. If and when you do decide to spend on your woman, it should be for something memorable ONLY.

elitedaily

The nominees  for the 2014 Ghana Movie Awards were announced at an event held at the Silver Lounge in Accra on Monday 1 December 2014. Check out the full list of nominees for this year’s event slated for 30 December 2014 .

Welcome to Kumasi aka The Garden City aka. Oseikrom!

You may live in other parts of Ghana and have never really planned on seeing what Kumasi is all about. Maybe you left the country a long time ago, and you always say ‘I will go back next year’,  but you never get around to.

Maybe you are a foreigner who wants to see what the hype about Kumasi is all about. No matter what category you fall in, let these pictures serve as your inspiration as you plan your own trip to Kumasi.

1. Adum Roundabout.

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2. Landscape near Kumasi.

Sap-TV

3. Peacock at Kumasi zoo.

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4. Snails at central market.

5. St. Peters basilica.

6. Beautiful trees.

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7. Aphrodisiac night club.

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8. Lake Bosomtwi.

9. Skyline of central market.

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10. KNUST college of engineering.

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11. Golden tulip hotel at night.

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The past few days have been very disturbing for Ghanaians as TV presenter AFIA Schwarzenegger  and Bishop Obinim “have been disturbing public peace” as lawyer Maurice Ampaw will say.

The two have been in the battle field using foul words against each other to resolve whatever differences they have. The Founder of the International Gods Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim who was not pleased with a comment the Kokooko TV host made about him on her show during one of his church services, took time to express his dissatisfaction about Afia’s action using abusive words to describe her.

Read Also: Obinim Insults Rawlings And Afia Schwarzenegger On Live TV

Afia who could not keep quiet over the insults directed at her by the man of God released series of videos to retaliate. Not only did she use that medium to fight Obinim, she also granted an interview with peacefmonline.com and made several allegations against the man of.

As if that was not enough, to tarnish the image of the husband of gospel musician Florence Obinim, AFIA Schwarzenegger in a long chat with Master Richard on Adinkra FM, continued to insult the pastor, his wife, mother and church members.

Read Also: Afia Schwarzenegger Insults Obinim

Ghanaians have expressed their opinions on this matter since it started and below is a footage of some few Ghanaians who were bold to show their faces.

The movie industry in Ghana unofficially has been divided into two sub industries. There is the elite sector known as Ghallywood and the local sector known as Kumawood. Kumawood is located in the capital of the Ashanti Region, Kumasi whiles Ghallywood is situated in the nations capita, Accra.

It is very hard to see actors from both ends acting in one movie due to many reasons. But that seemed to have been changed a bit with Agya Koo being in a movie with Van Vicker and Lil Win also getting cozy with Jackie Appiah in another movie.

There is a big difference between the two industries and that is what we seek to bring to you today. Read below 10 differences between Kumawood and Ghallywood. Lets go

 1. LANGUAGE

Kumawood is dominated by the twi language. It’s rare to find a Kumawood movie where the language is english. On the otherside, Ghallywood is purely english, the local language is sparsely used, even when used, the twi is mostly “brofolised” .

OMGGhana spent two weeks with some of the most successful people you can find in Ghana.

We met with doctors, engineers, politicians, pastors and businessmen mostly in Kumasi and Accra (we believe they reflect their counterparts around the country).

Our goal was to have a first hand look into their day to day operations and how those daily activities have contributed to their success.

What we learned is, they do not have more heads than the rest of us do, they do not eat a special meal and they do not consume a special drink that isn’t sold to us.

So what makes them stand out from us?

Here are the daily routines we learned from some of Ghana’s finest.

1. Live a more balanced life.

We realized that these individuals did not have their j.o.b. on their agenda 24/7. They make sure the family time is spent with the family. If you are always about work, work, work, you are missing out on the good things in life.

Theemployable

RESIDENTS OF Pease near Kuntenase in the Ashanti Region seem not to care about the arrest of a native of the town, Ruby Adu-Gyamfi aka ‘Nayele Ametefeh’ or ‘Angel.’

Ruby was arrested three weeks ago in London for smuggling 12.5kg of cocaine after travelling on a British Airways flight from Accra. She was put before Isleworth Crown Court last week where she pleaded guilty and awaiting sentence in the first week of January 2015.

On the day Ruby appeared before court, DAILY GUIDE dispatched a team to her hometown, Pease, but the residents disowned her saying she was on her own.

If accounts given by some residents of Pease where Ruby Adu Gyamfi hails from is anything to go by, then the cocaine baroness doesn’t have the sympathy or support of her own people, despite her tall presence in the town.

Ruby has a vast estate in the town just as she does in Accra—with houses at Dzorwulu, East Legon and other parts of the national capital.

Most of the residents who spoke to DAILY GUIDE during the paper’s visit to the peaceful town on Thursday stated that the arrest of Ruby had nothing to do with them.

A top Member of Parliament (MP) from her home region is reported to have visited her East Legon residence in Accra to commiserate with the family upon her arrest.

“She should go to hell with her riches,” an angry-looking resident of Pease, who declined to give his identity for obvious reasons, shouted on top his voice when DAILY GUIDE asked him about Ruby’s arrest.

Another man who is over 70 years told the paper that most residents of the town are poor so he was surprised that Ruby could not extend a helping hand to them.

A certain woman, who was returning from farm, said Ruby visited the town once in a blue moon, adding that she was always in flashy vehicles so one could hardly see her. “I learnt she is beautiful,” she said.

According to the woman, she had not seen Ruby before. “Her car glasses are always up so you could hardly see her. All I know is that she is very rich and pretty, that is all that I know,” the woman underscored.

A young man, who was met right in front of Ruby’s mansion, said the cocaine baroness enjoyed her riches alone so if she had been arrested “then it is proper that she suffers her fate alone.”

Read Also:  The Luxury Life Ruby, The Cocaine Girl Lived (Photos)

Ruby’s House

Ruby Adu Gyamfi’s house is located on the main road at the tail end of the town. It looked as quiet as a cemetery as no movement of people was spotted in the magnificent-looking mansion.

The house is painted white with huge black gates and plated with gold crowns, which observers claimed stands for the crown of the Queen of England.

Ruby, the townsfolk said, usually organised mouth-watering parties in the house whenever she was in town. They claimed that top people in society usually attended such parties with expensive vehicles.

One man said he always passed in front of Ruby’s house to his farm but he had not entered it before. “This house was not built for poor people like me so how can I enter it?” he wondered.

Fear

Most of the people of the town refused to talk to DAILY GUIDE about Ruby’s arrest because they claimed that she is so powerful that they could land themselves in trouble for talking about her.

“Please I don’t want trouble; take your paper and pen away,” a man who was in pensive mood, told this reporter when he tried to solicit his opinion about Ruby’s arrest.

The man added, “I learnt she is well connected to high personalities in the country so I don’t want to say anything about her that could result in my arrest. I know a lot about her but I won’t say it.”

Shame

A few people who mustered courage to talk to the paper, even refused to mention their names because they too were afraid that they might be hunted by top people in the country.

They, however, said that Ruby’s arrest had put the entire residents of Pease into shame. “Our town is now in the news for a bad reason; we are being tagged as cocaine people and that is bad,” a lady who refused to disclose her name observed.

As we draw near Christmas, one thing that is done all over the world during the season is the exchange of gifts. People use the opportunity to present gifts to others for various reasons. From family, to friends, to schools, orphanages, to church, to the needy etc.

Over here in Ghana, we are also not left out of the sharing season. Below, I present to you 10 items normally given out as gifts during the festive season. These could be given out as individual items or a collection of two or more. Lets go;

1. Christmas Cards

Controversial Ghanaian boxer, Braimah Kamoko, alias Bukom Banku says he now has enough evidence to prove the love of Ghanaians for him after it emerged he deliberately faked his own death to test his popularity.

News broke last Friday that the popular boxer had been killed in a vehicle accident on the Suhum road. Fans of the boxer rushed to his house upon hearing the news only to be told it was a hoax.

Speaking to journalists after the incident, an exited Bukom Banku said the rumour was just meant to test his fan base in the country.

I wanted to see whether every Ghanaian likes me so I told my friends to tell Ghanaians that I had a serious accident and I have died, he narrated.

When they told Ghanaians that I was dead, everyone was crying so now I know that everybody likes me very much,” he happily added.

Read Also: Bukom Banku Fakes His Death So To Know If Ghanaians Love Him

He proudly touted that “Ghanaians love me very much…this shows that I am a big man in the nation.”

Bukom Banku promised Ghanaians that with the love that has been shown to him; he will work hard to change any behaviour which is displeasing to Ghanaians.

The boxer however dismissed suggestions that he should render an apology to citizens. He said:

“There is no need for me to apologize. I just wanted to see how people will rush to verify the truth about my death.”

He also argued that faking his death does not mean he will die any time soon saying, “I won’t die now. How can a 36-year-old man die? If something happens to me in the future, Ghanaians will believe me.”

(H/T: CitiFmOnline.Com)

An East Legon-based real estate developer, Mark Washington Real Estates, has dragged former Black Stars forward Prince Tagoe to court over $155,000.

The plaintiff indicated in his statement of claim attached to a writ of summons filed at the Accra High Court that the defendant, Prince Tagoe, bought a house from him (Mark Washington) in 2010 at the cost $270,000, and the player made a part payment of $155,000.

According to the Real Estate Developer, the player had since failed to pay the outstanding $115,000 for the house described as H/no 2B at Trinity, East Legon.

Ironically, the striker had rather lodged a formal complaint with the Police that the Real Estate Managing Director owed him (Tagoe) without stating the exact amount involved.

A close confidant and a father figure to the player, Alhaji Brimah aka Alhaji Hearts, in a telephone interview, confirmed the story saying, “It is true that the he bought the house from the agent, who sells houses to players. He is called Washington.

“The real story is, the houses are five but Prince told him he can only pay for four because he said his career was not as before.

“The agent agreed but insisted that he will deduct the price of the rejected one, which angered the player to report the matter to the police.

“Washington later called me that he wants to meet with us to settle the matter. You can tell him I, Alhaji Hearts told you this,” Alhaji Hearts said.

Tagoe, 28, left the shores of this country in 2005 as the top flight league top scorer, hitting the back of the net 18 times for Saudi Arabia side Ittihad.

The former Accra Hearts of Oak striker returned to Saudi Arabia after a six months spell with Ettifaq before moving to Bundesliga side Hoffenheim, where he failed to shine.

He later played in the Serbian league scoring 12 goals, and moved on to the Turkish league where he struggled to find the net.

Currently, he has put pen to paper on a short-term loan with an Israeli second tier side Hapoel Bnei Lod.

(H/T: DailyGuide)

Ghanaians have rated the Police Service, the most corrupt public institution again, in the latest Afrobarometer report released on Tuesday by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD).

According to the report, 89% of Ghanaians rated the Police tops in the corruption perception index.

In 2011, a survey released by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) also identified the Police institution as the one perceived by many to be the most corrupt institution with a score of 4.6 out of 5.0.On the issue of trust, the Afrobarometer report revealed that Ghanaians trust the military more than politicians in the country.

Over 80% of Ghanaians also perceive public officials as corrupt.

Mr Daniel Armah-Attoh, the Afrobarometer Project Manager for Anglophone Africa said “most Ghanaians have little or no trust in public institutions such as the tax department,  local government bodies, police, parliament, ruling party, electoral commission, president, courts of law and the opposition part.”

“The only public institution that is trusted a lot alongside religious and traditional leaders is the military,” he said.

The report further indicated that about 45% of Ghanaians do not trust the opposition parties and perceive them to be corrupt too.

Governemnt’s performance in fighting corruption

• Over time, the percentages of Ghanaians who think government has performed “very badly” or “fairly badly” in fighting corruption increased by 43% between 2002 to 2014 and 17% between 2012 to 2014.
• On the flip side, in the same periods, the percentages who believe government has performed “very well” or “fairly well” in fighting corruption declined by 38% and 18% respectively.

The report sampled views of 2,400 Ghanaians in the ten regions of the country between May to June 2014.

(H/T: CitiFmOnline.Com)

Alhaji Mohammed Alamid Dawood, has been arrested for allegedly aiding Nayele Ametefe and her two friends to use the VIP lounge of the Kotoka International Airport(KIA) in Accra, to transport cocaine.

The suspect, who is also known as Alhaji Sani Dawudat, was arrested at the KIA at about 8: 30 pm last Sunday shortly after he arrived from Lagos. The Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) said the suspect is under interrogation but refused to disclose further information.

According to the Daily Graphic, Alhaji Dawwod was declared wanted by the BNI after he was accused of calling a Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Abiel Ashitey Armah, who is the officer in charge of the VVIP and VIP Unit of the KIA, by phone to allow the ladies to use the VIP Lounge and also help them onto the tarmac to board the airline for London.

Dawood’s arrest brings to 13 the number of suspects arrested in relation to the cocaine saga. Abiel Ashitey Armah and two others were also dragged to court by government for allegedly assisting Nayele Ametefe to transport cocaine from Ghana to the UK.

Meanwhile investigations have revealed that Nayele and her two friends, Sadala Nuhu and Nana Akua Amponsah, both businesswomen, had used the VIP Lounge though initial information indicated that they had used the VVIP Lounge

Nayele was busted at the Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom after about 12.kg of cocaine was found in her hand luggage. She has pleaded guilty to all charges leveled against her.

(H/T: By: Marian Efe Ansah)

Being able to lie, and lie well, is a gift. It takes a special brand of psychopath to be able to look into the eye of someone else and lie about something straight to their face, without even skipping a beat.

However, even those people who don’t have the gift to lie well still lie from time to time. In fact, we hear between 10 and 200 lies every single day.(Yikes.)

But the best part is that once you know what to look for, lies and liars are really easy to spot. Just think of what wonders this will do for your relationship!

In a recent Ted talk, science communicator and chief executive of Quantified Communications, Noah Zanden, came clean about what exactly one should look for if they think someone is lying.

According to him, through the use of “linguistic text analysis,” which focuses on the language structure between lies and truths, noticing a liar is easy peasy.

Such things as “minimal self-references, negative language, simple explanations and convoluted phrasing,” are big giveaways when it comes to lying, because it’s all right there, pretty much spelled out.

Not sure what that means exactly? No worries. Here are the four telltale signs of a liar.

#1. Liars talk less about themselves.
It’s all about creating a distance from the situation, so liars remove themselves immediately from the story. Zanden’s example of this behavior was with Lance Armstrong, who originally, when asked about performance-enhancing drugs, created a hypothetical scenario in which to separate himself from it all. However, in 2013 when he finally could no longer lie about the situation, he used 75 percent more personal pronouns in his truths. He’d been caught, and there was no longer a reason to keep that distance going.

Dancehall artiste, Jupita has accused organizers of Bass Awards of robbing him of an award he rightly deserved as a result of his decision not to perform at the event.

Speaking on Radio Univers’ mid-morning show, Brunch2Lunch, the “Money Box” hit maker indicated that he decided not to perform because the organizers were offering a pittance, a decision he says did not augur well with his management.

“We considered so many factors in terms of how much to charge at the maiden edition. We were hoping that this year’s would come with a motivation but that never happened. It’s expensive coming out with a song, promoting and shooting a video so no one will perform for a less motivation” he told show host, Abrantepa.

He lamented that, the organizers denied him several awards he deserved simply because he declined their offer. He questioned the integrity of the organizers since he was nominated in several categories yet did not bag any – a situation he describes as ridiculous.

Jupita believes initiatives such as Bass Awards should be targeted at promoting the reggae and dancehall genre in Ghana. He was however disappointed by the turn of events saying;

“It (Bass Awards) is bringing confusion and nightmare in the lives of artistes who belong to the genre.”

Meanwhile, committee member, Root Eye has insisted that all winners on the night deserved it.

Bass awards is an annual award scheme organized by Rackus Production in partnership with Bullhaus Entertainment and Solid Multimedia to reward and celebrate Reggae and Dancehall musicians who have excelled in the year under review.

If we know Sarkodie very well, it’s no doubt that he is very blessed, when it comes to raps or releasing hit songs, he has no problem.

Bishop T.D. Jakes is in Ghana for this year’s IMPACT 2014 which is on the wings of Christian Action Faith Ministries architectured by Archbishop Duncan Williams. The founder of Potters House, T.D. Jakes flew on the same plane with Ghana’s BET winner, Sarkodie. Sarkcess Music CEO, Sarkodie had been away in USA for a show and coming back, he was blessed to share a plane with Bishop. The elated rapper who could not hide the privilege of flying with T.D. Jakes shared on his Facebook wall;

Mobile phone users are likely to pay more on the calls they make from next year as the telecom companies prepare to pay about 50% more for interconnection charges.

This may affect tariffs paid by consumers as the Ghp4 per minute charge will increase to about Ghp60 because of the new interconnection charges arrangement.

This was announced by the Principal Manager/Head of Licensing, Regulatory Administration at the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Kwame Baah-Acheamfuor, in a forum in Accra.

Customers of the various telecom operators have accused them of providing poor services.

Mr Baah-Acheamfour disclosed that an interconnect clearing house will also be established to champion the interconnection charge move.

Mr Baah-Acheamfuor explained that the clearing house will take care of issues relating to the auditing of the charges.

“We will make Ghana’s clearing house more unique just as we did with the mobile number portability (MNP) and other systems introduced to make the sector better,” he added.

Meanwhile, various speakers at the forum were displeased about the tariff increment citing the additional cost that comes with the move.

(H/T Citifm)

One of the three Nigerian students who were reportedly attacked by armed robbers at their residence at Accra New Town, leading to the death of one, has confessed to staging the attack.

Mustapha Musa Osmani, 22, a student of the Sikkim Manipal University, near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, who broke down in front of a television camera and journalists, said when he did that he was under the influence of a drug.

Mustapha Musa Osmani

“I was out of control. I do not know why I did that. I have never quarrelled with my brothers since we arrived in Ghana two years ago to further our education,” he said while sobbing.

Osmani had reported to the Kotobabi Police last Friday, November 28, 2014, that three masked men had attacked him and his two brothers, Nazifi Osmani Mohammed, 23, and Jamiru Osmani, 27, in their room in a compound house at Accra New Town.

He also told the police that they struggled with the masked men who had demanded the $4,000 meant for their registration fee at the Sikkims Manipal University, where they were pursuing a course in Information Technology (IT).

According to Osmani, his brothers were stabbed in the chest and stomach, while he was injured in the right hand.

Later, when some Good Samaritans took them to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Mohammed was pronounced dead and Jamiru was admitted, while he was treated and discharged.

Overdose

At a press briefing, Osmani pleaded for forgiveness from his family and friends.

The Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, told journalists that one of the Osmani brothers, Jamiru, told police investigators that he had been stabbed by his brother while he was sleeping at dawn last Friday.

He said when Osmani was questioned over his brother’s revelation, “he confessed to committing the offence and said he had taken an overdose of a medication”.

Mr Yohuno said Osmani claimed he had been taking some doses of Daizepam every day to enable him to stay awake and study for more than five hours, “but on Thursday night he took 20 tablets instead of two”.

Osmani, according to Mr Yohuno, also said he became hyperactive after taking the medication and “he took a knife and stabbed Jamiru in the chest in the living room and moved to the bedroom where Mohammed was sleeping and stabbed him in the stomach and chest”.

When Mohammed’s intestines gushed out, Mr Yohuno said, Osmani went back to the sitting room and when he found Jamiru still alive, “he asked Jamiru if he knew the person who had attacked him, but Jamiru said he didn’t”.

According to the police, the suspect subsequently raised an alarm that he and his brothers had been attacked by armed robbers.

(H/T Graphic)