ACCRA -- The Ghana Immigration Service(GIS) is ready to deepen its collaboration with China in order to instill efficiency into the work of its officials, Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Operations Laud Kwasi Ofori-Afrifa said here on Friday.

In his keynote speech at the graduation ceremony of 38 officers of the service who have passed out of the basic Chinese language proficiency course run by the Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, the officer reiterated the importance of language proficiency for immigration officials.

"For us, since Chinese language is one of the dominant languages in the world today, and as we deal with huge numbers of Chinese nationals, we are grateful to the Chinese Embassy in Ghana and the Confucius Institute for this training for our officials," the official stated.

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WASHINGTON -- More Americans are starting to feel the impact of a partial government shutdown as a budget standoff between the White House and Democrats over funding for President Donald Trump's controversial U.S.-Mexico border wall remained unresolved.

The shutdown, in its 14th day on Friday, has affected nine cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, forcing about 420,000 federal employees whose jobs are deemed essential to work without pay, while 380,000 others were asked to take unpaid leave.

"Many federal employees live paycheck to paycheck," said Dorothy James, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), in a statement. "They are now uncertain how long they will have to stretch it."

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ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari called for a greater international cooperation to curb the crime related to child sexual abuse as black market of child sexual abuse has become a serious issue in Pakistan.

In an interview with Xinhua on Friday, the minister said that the child sexual abuse has become a serious issue here, and it was found that their convoluted strings went as far as Europe after some groups involved in child pornography were recently busted.

"It is a universal problem across the world, and while every country tries to deal with it, perhaps greater international cooperation will help get rid of this crime much quicker."

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BRASILIA -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro expressed doubts on Friday over the merger between Brazilian aviation company Embraer and U.S. company Boeing, which has been in talks since last year.

At a press conference at Brasilia's air base held after the inauguration of the new commander of Aeronautics, Bolsonaro said that the latest proposal, presented in December, could affect the interests of Brazilians, but did not go further into detail.

"It's our heritage. We know of the need of this merger, for its (Embraer's) competitiveness, so it doesn't disappear over time," said Bolsonaro, who was sworn in as Brazil's president on Tuesday. Enditem

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