The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, Pastor Mensah Otabil on Saturday declared 2012 as a year of purity that calls for clean hearts, thoughts and hands, which are the benchmarks for building prosperous nations.

The Tamale Teaching Hospital recorded five new births, three males and two females, in the early hours of the New Year, 2012.

The President, John Evans Atta Mills, has addressed the nation on the first day of the year 2012 with a call on all to pray for the nation and live in harmony.

Revellers around the world are celebrating the end of 2011 and are seeing in 2012. A multi-million dollar firework display heralded in the new year in Sydney, while the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was illuminated in Dubai.