Above: President-elect Barack Obama and Michele Obama
leave Spiaggia restaurant in Chicago after dinner on Saturday
night. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune.)

For now, Michelle Obama is focusing on easing the transition
for Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7

The Obama family is making plans to move to Washington
(Doug Mills/The New York Times)

BY AP

updated 5:22 p.m. ET, Sun., Nov. 9, 2008

WASHINGTON – She’s been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy, is every bit as high-powered as Hillary Rodham Clinton was and has praised Laura Bush’s calm and rational approach to issues.

So what kind of first lady will Michelle Obama be?

It may be too soon to know — she’s probably still trying to figure it all out herself. This much is certain: She will be the kind of first lady this country hasn’t seen in decades: the mother of young children.

But Barack Obama has portrayed his wife as one of his top advisers, and it’s a safe bet she will continue in that role at the White House, as first ladies before her have done. He has described her as the family’s “rock” and told Newsweek magazine she had “veto power” over his decision to run for president. Read more at MSNBC.COM

Photo: Amare Aregawi, editor of the Reporter, ”
was dealt blows to the back of the head with a
stone by one or several men as he was leaving his
son’s school in the capital’s Bole district at about
4 p.m. on 31 October. Read More.

Ethiopian editor convicted over misidentification

Source: CPJ

New York, November 3, 2008—An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge convicted an editor today on criminal charges of “inciting the public through false rumors” over a reporting mistake, local journalists told CPJ. Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday.

Charged under article 486 of the revised penal code; Girma faces up to one year in prison, according to her former lawyer, Kassahun Asefa, who had worked for her pro bono. The October 3 edition of Enbilta mistakenly identified the judge overseeing the high-profile trial of Ethiopian pop musician Tewodros Kassahun as Judge Mohamed Amin instead of Judge Mohamed Umer, Girma told CPJ last week. Enbilta did not write a correction but used the right name in the following edition, she said.

Enbilta is one of a few politically critical independent publications that still exist in Ethiopia after a government crackdown on the independent press in the aftermath of the 2005 elections.

“It is outrageous that a journalist can be convicted over a reporting error,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “This conviction cannot stand. Tsion Girma should not be sent to prison.”

Girma, Deputy Editor Habte Tadesse, and editor Atenafu Alemayehu were arrested on October 22, the morning after reporting to police for questioning, according to local journalists. Girma was released the next day on bail of 2,000 birr (US$200) and Tadesse and Alemayehu were released on October 24 without any charges, Girma said.

Girma is the second journalist to face criminal charges this year over coverage of Kassahun’s trial. Editor Mesfin Negash of the leading weekly Addis Neger was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for publishing an interview with the singer’s lawyer that was critical of the former judge overseeing the trial.

Ethiopian authorities routinely use police detentions, threats, and legal and administrative restraints to censor reporting. CPJ named Ethiopia the world’s worst backslider on press freedom in 2007.

Tadias Magazine

By Donald N. Levine

Published: Tuesday, October 21, 2008

New York (TADIAS) – Even if this is the most important American presidential election in the last half-century, why should Ethiopians burn with special interest in it? Considering what’s at stake for Ethiopian immigrants and their home country, the question warrants a fresh look. Let’s see how five central Obama commitments play out for Ethiopians in the U.S. and in ye-beyt agar (at home): 1) economic relief; 2) medical care; 3) energy development; 4) respect for law; and 5) dialogue with opponents.

U.S. Economy. Obama promises an all-out effort to address needs of middle- and lower-income families. This means tax cuts for those earning under $250,000 a year; broad infrastructural improvements; fiscal reform; and trade policies to benefit American workers and increase the export of American goods. Such targets address needs of struggling first- and second-generation immigrants. He plans also to modernize school systems, add resources for poor school districts; double federal support for after school programs; provide grants for students seeking credits at community colleges; and invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs.

Ethiopia’s Economy. Aiding middle-class Americans financially helps Ethiopians find more funds to send home, a big source of revenues. Under Obama, Ethiopia will expectably receive more and smarter economic assistance, targeted toward development and not an endless blank check for food aid. His administration will commit to Millennium Development Goals, for cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015; and to strengthen the African Growth and Opportunity Act, to give African producers access the U.S. market and encourage American companies to invest on the Continent. Its approach encourages honest research on such issues, including whether or not collective land ownership benefits the poor.

U.S. Health Care. The campaigns highlighted a huge and growing number of Americans who lack health insurance and the crippling effect of medical costs on family budgets. Ethiopian Americans suffer from this along with other American families. The Obama-Biden platform continues Obama’s core commitment to provide affordable, accessible health care for all Americans. For details click here.

Health Care in Ethiopia. Apart from having so few trained health workers, Ethiopia has two vast areas of health care deficits: chronic food insecurity and epidemics. The first produces disease, stunted growth, and famine victims in the millions. The second concerns recurrent malaria, once thought wiped out; trachoma, now eliminable thanks to discoveries of a UCSF-based research team in Wolkite; and the ever-growing menace of AIDS. The economy is itself held back by so many undernourished and diseased workers.

HIV/AIDS and food insecurity form convergent miseries. To combat poverty the economy, Ethiopian economists urge immediate steps to curb the country’s exponential population growth. And yet, despite the Bush administration’s outstanding work to treat HIV/AIDS victims in Africa through the PEPFAR program, it worsened things by ordering USAID missions in six African countries to ensure that no U.S.-financed condoms, birth control pills, I.U.D.’s or other contraceptives are furnished to Marie Stopes International, which operates clinics in Ethiopia. (Senator Obama supports family planning; Senator McCain aligns with President Bush on this as on so many other matters.)

Energy in the U.S. Obama has long sought to rid U.S. of energy dependence on imported oil, for two reasons: security and environment. Instead he envisions a transformation brought by the utilizing free energy from wind, sun, water, and geothermal sources. This transforming initiative supports both goals above, by creating so many energy-related jobs and by reducing carbon emissions.

Energy in Ethiopia. The cost and scarcity of energy and water resources that Ethiopia needs means that sustainable solutions are essential. What did not work in the 1990’s, when the World Bank offered ineffective renewable energy to Ethiopia, can work now because new technologies are cheaper and more efficient. A plan developed by a research unit called Quantum Green Technology shows how Ethiopia could have energy independence by 2012, through policies that let rural populations deploy their own renewable power and sell it to the EEPCo, and that create a carbon-free economy based on renewable technologies and ecologically sound and efficient management of resources.

Rule of Law in the U.S. Setbacks under President Bush include dismissal of Justice employees for political reasons; illegal buying of News by Bush’s aides; illegal wiretapping; failures to enforce labor laws regarding minimum wage, overtime, child labor, and wage theft; and breaches both of the UN Charter and the US Constitution in the unilaterally invading Iraq. Obama has pledged to review all administrative directives issued by Bush in order to take action against any that violate the law. This manifests his statement that “I not only have read the Constitution, I have taught it, and I believe in it”–a statement readily endorsed by his many students over a dozen years at The University of Chicago Law School.

Rule of Law in Ethiopia. –However controversial its policy of ethnic federalism, the 1995 Constitution offers a set of sound principles for democratic procedure and human rights. Since its promulgation, however, the Ethiopian regime has been continuously faulted for illegal violation of human rights, political interference with the judiciary, and suppression of freedom of the press. Progressive changes were set back by reactions to the May 2005 election, and prison conditions remain abominable, but changes in the direction that the regime espouses have been registered by the NGO Justice For All. As he did forcefully in Darfur and Zimbabwe, Obama can be expected to pursue his commitment to expanding freedom, which, he maintains, “requires a society that is supported by the pillars of a sustainable democracy – a strong legislature, an independent judiciary, the rule of law, a vibrant civil society, a free press, and an honest police force. It requires building the capacity of the world’s weakest states.”

Militant Foreign Policy in U.S. It was not by luck that Obama issued those prescient words about the futility of invading Iraq the year before it happened. He understood the complexities of the world and rather agreed with JFK: “We should never fear to negotiate.” As Nicholas Kristof wrote in the NYTimes two months ago, “the United States is hugely overinvesting in military tools and underinvesting in diplomatic tools.” Everything about the Obama candidacy promises to redress this imbalance.

Militant Foreign Policy in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has not had a peaceful regime change for centuries. Although many of its local traditions manifest exemplary customs of civil discourse and mutual respect, and although traditions of shimgilena have been useful, for Emperor Haile Selassie and PM Meles Zenawi, who both effectively mediated conflicts between other countries, they could not prevail against historic dispositions to resort to arms to solve problems–first against Eritrea, then Somalia–or indeed so often against internal critics.

I pray that these thoughts encourage all readers to make an extra special effort to see that Senator Obama wins on November–and wins big. Le-beyt agar’na le-wutch-agar etyopiyawiyan saybeju ayqerem!!

—
About the Author:
Donald N. Levine served as the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. His research and teaching interests focus on classical social theory, modernization theory, Ethiopian studies, conflict theory and aikido, and philosophies of liberal education. He is a colleague of Senator Barack Obama from their teaching days at the University of Chicago.

Cover Photo: A student holds a sign in support of Senator Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis before the vice presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 2, 2008. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)

Source: CPJ

Ethiopian journalists detained, charged over misidentification

New York, October 23, 2008—An Ethiopian editor is facing criminal charges today because she accidentally misidentified a judge in a high-profile trial, according to local journalists. Two other journalists have been in police custody since Monday because of the same story.

While covering this month’s resumption of the trial of Ethiopian pop musician Tewodros Kassahun, jailed since April over a fatal car accident in 2006, Enbilta’s October 3 edition mistakenly identified the judge overseeing the case as Judge Mohamed Amin Sani, Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girma told CPJ. The paper did not publish a correction, but used the right name in the subsequent edition, which is Judge Mohamed Umer, she said.

Launched in January 2008, Enbilta is one of a handful of independent media outlets authorities have allowed to operate in the country since a crackdown on critical media and political dissidents in the aftermath of disputed elections in 2005. That year, Kassahun’s popular song, “Jah Yasteseryal,” was a popular anthem of antigovernment protesters.

“This is nothing but a flimsy pretext to crack down on a critical paper,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on Ethiopian authorities to release Habte Tadesse and Atenafu Alemayehu immediately and drop these bogus charges against Tsion Girma.”

Ethiopian Federal High Court Abraha Tetemke today charged Girma of Enbilta, an Amharic-language weekly, with “inciting the public through false rumors,” under Article 486 of Ethiopia’s penal code, she told CPJ. Girma, Deputy Editor Habte Tadesse, and editor Atenafu Alemayehu were arrested on Wednesday morning after reporting to police for questioning, according to local journalists. She was released today on bail of 2,000 birr (US$200) and ordered to court for trial on Monday. Tadesse and Alemayehu are still being held.

Girma was the second journalist to face criminal charges this year over coverage of the popular singer’s trial. Editor Mesfin Negash of the leading weekly Addis Neger was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for publishing an interview of the singer’s lawyer that was critical of the former judge overseeing the trial.

Ethiopian authorities routinely use police detentions, threats, and legal and administrative restraints to censor coverage of sensitive topics. In 2007, CPJ named Ethiopia the world’s worst backslider on press freedom.

—
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit www.cpj.org.

THE AGE

By Len Johnson
Photo: Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui
October 13, 2008

MOST things happen at a rapid pace in Ethiopian distance running.

As of last month, it takes Haile Gebrselassie two hours three minutes 59 seconds to run a marathon. “Kenny” Bekele whips through a 10-kilometre in a little over 26 minutes. On the women’s side, Tirunesh Dibaba punches out a five-kilometre in around 14 minutes.

It’s nice to report that some things take a little longer, even for the all-conquering Ethiopian distance runners. For example, it has taken them 52 years to win a marathon on the MCG, a feat accomplished yesterday by Asnake Fikadu when he won the Melbourne marathon.

Fikadu is one of an Ethiopian national squad of no fewer than 40 marathoners. They train at Etoto, just outside Addis Ababa, at 2800 metres above sea level.

Fikadu dominated yesterday’s race virtually from the start, breaking away after 10 kilometres and steadily increasing his lead. Only the northerly wind, which blew stronger as the morning progressed, caused him any problems, slowing the winning time to two hours 17 minutes 46 seconds. In better conditions, Fikadu may well have threatened Bill Rodgers’ race record 2:11:08 set in 1982. Read More.

NYT
By JOHN LELAND
Published: October 8, 2008

Law enforcement officers in Chicago will no longer evict residents from foreclosed properties, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County announced Wednesday.

The department was on pace to conduct 4,700 foreclosures this year, nearly triple the number from two years ago, Sheriff Dart said.

Housing advocates said that they thought the measure was the first of its kind, but that in recent years, several sheriffs and judges around the country had taken other steps to slow foreclosure proceedings, like requiring lenders to produce titles proving they owned the properties in question. In Philadelphia this year, Sheriff John D. Green temporarily suspended sales of foreclosed properties.

Sheriff Dart said he took the measure because an increasing number of the residents being evicted were renters who might have been dutifully paying their rent, and might have had no knowledge that the owner was behind on the mortgage. Read more.

Photo: Senators Barack Obama and John McCain during
Tuesday night’s debate at Belmont University in Nashville,
Tenn. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

NYT
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: October 7, 2008

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama debated for 90 minutes on Tuesday night before a nation in economic crisis, each promising anxious Americans that he had the better plan and vision to lead the country through what both men said was the most dire financial situation since the Great Depression.

The gravity of the moment and the somber setting — a town-hall-style meeting in front of 80 selected voters who, when not asking questions, watched in silence, not applauding or laughing — produced an often stifled encounter, largely absent of dramatic confrontations or the personal exchanges that dominated the campaign over the past several days. There was no indication that the debate did anything to change the course of a campaign that appeared to be moving in Mr. Obama’s direction.

Mr. McCain chose not to use the evening — the second of three scheduled debates — to attack Mr. Obama’s background or character. But in a moment that caught the attention of people in both parties, he appeared agitated in criticizing Mr. Obama for a Senate vote he cast, referring to his opponent only as “that one.” Read more.

Photo: A student holds a sign in support of Senator Barack
Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, on the campus of
Washington University in St. Louis before the vice presidential
debate in St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 2, 2008.
(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)

Bloomberg
By Jonathan D. Salant
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Barack Obama has widened his lead over Republican presidential rival John McCain in two national polls and is maintaining an edge in two daily tracking polls with less than a month to go before the election.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found Obama supported by 49 percent of registered voters, a 6-point margin over McCain. Two weeks ago an NBC-Journal poll put Obama’s lead at 2 points.

Obama led McCain 53 percent to 45 percent among likely voters in a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey, up from a 4-point advantage for the Democrat in September. Obama’s lead widened to 14 points, 56 percent to 42 percent, among registered voters.

He also is ahead by 8 points in a Gallup Inc. daily tracking poll of registered voters, the 10th straight day he’s held a statistically significant lead in that survey. A Diageo- Hotline tracking poll showed Obama getting 47 percent to McCain’s 41 percent. Read More.

Photo: Piracy is a very lucrative business off Somalia’s coast,
and most kidnappers are said to treat their hostages well,
in anticipation of a well paid ransom.

The Cornell Daily Sun
October 3, 2008 – 12:00am
By Therese Lahlouh

Overview
Tensions are escalating in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast, where 20 Somali pirates have hijacked a Ukrainian vessel loaded with 33 Soviet-era tanks, rocket launchers and ammunitions on its way to Kenya. The pirates have demanded a $20 million ransom for the safe return of the cargo and 20 crewmembers. Somalia has authorized foreign powers to free the ship by any means necessary; currently six U.S. warships are monitoring the situation, and the European Union is staging an attack with help from over 10 countries, including Britain, Germany and Russia.

Origin
These piracy acts are not a new occurrence; over 26 ships have been hijacked in the last year, with ransoms totaling nearly $30 million according to the Associated Press.

“The root of the problem is the political crisis in Somalia. This failed state is harmful to the stability of the free movement of shipments throughout the region,” said Prof. Ayele Bekerie, Africana studies.

Somalia is widely considered to be a failed state. It has had no stable central government since the fall of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1991, and many speculate that this instability is the main cause of the escalating piracy situation.

“I think the problem you have there is a failed state and the implications of a failed state for other states and world security. Somalia has collapsed, and there is no effective government. The lawlessness is now affecting the world in, among other things, the piracy you see,” said Prof. Muna Ndulo, law, and director of the Institute for African Development.

According to Bekerie, after the collapse of the government, Somalia was divided into three sections, with autonomous clans and sub-clans that “engage in their own economic interests.”

“Some were engaged in piracy, particularly those in the central region of Puntland. These forces started to realize that they could make millions of dollars by hijacking the boats that come through the Gulf of Aden,” Bekerie said. “They operate as groups, but they cannot be traced back to a government, state or any recognizable legal entity, so it is difficult to find them or hold them accountable.” Read more.

Photo: Vanity Fair – Raising Obama

New Yorker: The Editors
October 13, 2008 Issue

Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals?

The incumbent Administration has distinguished itself for the ages. The Presidency of George W. Bush is the worst since Reconstruction, so there is no mystery about why the Republican Party—which has held dominion over the executive branch of the federal government for the past eight years and the legislative branch for most of that time—has little desire to defend its record, domestic or foreign. The only speaker at the Convention in St. Paul who uttered more than a sentence or two in support of the President was his wife, Laura. Meanwhile, the nominee, John McCain, played the part of a vaudeville illusionist, asking to be regarded as an apostle of change after years of embracing the essentials of the Bush agenda with ever-increasing ardor.

The Republican disaster begins at home. Even before taking into account whatever fantastically expensive plan eventually emerges to help rescue the financial system from Wall Street’s long-running pyramid schemes, the economic and fiscal picture is bleak. During the Bush Administration, the national debt, now approaching ten trillion dollars, has nearly doubled. Next year’s federal budget is projected to run a half-trillion-dollar deficit, a precipitous fall from the seven-hundred-billion-dollar surplus that was projected when Bill Clinton left office. Private-sector job creation has been a sixth of what it was under President Clinton. Five million people have fallen into poverty. The number of Americans without health insurance has grown by seven million, while average premiums have nearly doubled. Meanwhile, the principal domestic achievement of the Bush Administration has been to shift the relative burden of taxation from the rich to the rest. For the top one per cent of us, the Bush tax cuts are worth, on average, about a thousand dollars a week; for the bottom fifth, about a dollar and a half. The unfairness will only increase if the painful, yet necessary, effort to rescue the credit markets ends up preventing the rescue of our health-care system, our environment, and our physical, educational, and industrial infrastructure. Read more.

Reuters

By Tsegaye Tadesse

Thu 2 Oct 2008, 14:42 GMT

ADDIS ABABA – Instability in U.S. financial markets could cut vital remittances to Ethiopia, now worth $1.2 billion annually, a central bank official said on Thursday.

Millions of Ethiopians impoverished during the regime of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam are dependant on money sent by relatives living mainly in the United States.

Elias Loha, manager of Reserve Management and Foreign Exchange Market of Ethiopian National Bank (NBE) said remittances that help families survive, or for investment, are the second largest source of income after exports.

“We are concerned and worried that as a result of the financial crisis … some of the Ethiopians may loose their jobs and as a result they may stop sending money to help their families back home,” Elias said in a Reuters interview. Read More.

Photo: Image design by Blen Grafix for Tadias Magazine

AFP

October 1st, 2008

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopian track great Kenenisa Bekele announced Wednesday on state television he would finance the construction of a multi-million dollar sports complex in Ethiopia.

The multi-purpose sports centre will be established in Sululta, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Addis Ababa and will cost an estimated 15 million dollars (10.7 million euros).

“Its opening will contribute a lot to the development of sports in the country,” Bekele said. Read More.

The Horse magazine
Photo: Apart from the horse, other equids include assorted
subspecies of donkey or ass, and the zebras.

By: Erin Ryder, TheHorse.com News Editor
September 30 2008

Nearly 2,200 equids have died in an outbreak of African horse sickness in the country of Ethiopia, according to a report released by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), also known as the World Organization for Animal Health.

The outbreak began in March of this year. Cases are clustered in 15 areas in the western portion of the country, which is located north of Kenya. Horses, mules, and donkeys have been affected, and the apparent case fatality rate is 54.63%. The susceptible population is numbered at 46,451 equids.

Read More.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

It is fitting that one of the most signature discoveries of humankind — a finding that has helped define a big part of our prehistory — would take place in one of the most unusual and historic places on the planet.

As the ancient fossil known as Lucy indicates, that portion of northern East Africa we now call Ethiopia may well have been the cradle of humanity. The oldest known fossils of modern humans, dated at 190,000 years old, have been found there along with the remains of chimplike ancestors who preceded Lucy by more than 2.5 million years.

But Ethiopia’s contributions certainly didn’t stop with possibly launching human evolution that eventually spread these inquisitive and creative hairless apes all over the place to ultimately build skyscrapers, fly airplanes and try to drive a car while talking on a cell phone.

As the exhibit at the Pacific Science Center emphasizes, Ethiopia has continued to play a significant — if often unrecognized — role in the global and cultural affairs of Homo sapiens up to the present.

Ethiopia is mentioned in the Bible many times — beginning with the book of Genesis, as Cush or Abyssinia, as perhaps the home of King Solomon’s Queen of Sheba and even of one of Moses’ wives. It is the only African country that successfully fought off European colonization, except for a brief occupation by Mussolini’s forces during World War II. It has long been a spiritual home for strong traditional communities of Christians, Muslims, Jews and even (symbolically, at least) for the cannabis-celebrating Rastafari movement, named after the precoronation name of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie, who was deposed the same year, 1974, that Lucy was discovered.

And, especially for Seattle residents, it is important to mention that ninth century Ethiopia also gave us coffee.

“But all anyone ever thinks about when you mention Ethiopia is famine,” chuckled Ezra Teshome, a leading figure in Seattle’s large Ethiopian community who moved here from Addis Ababa in 1971. “We’re hoping that Lucy coming here will provide an opportunity for people to learn more about the rich culture and history of the place.” Read More.

Photo: Sheraton Addis

September 28th, 2008

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Ethiopia on Saturday launched a new strategy that seeks to place the country among Africa’s top ten in tourist attraction as citizens commemorate this year World Tourism day.

During the event, Ethiopia’s Minister of Tourism, Mohammud Drir expressed disatisfaction over the low number of tourists visiting the country in spite of the wide range of attractions.

In 2008, he said the country expects around 400,000 tourists to visit the country.

He said government will rope in around 170 million dollars and expressed optimism that this number will steadily increase as a result of the strategy.

He put the number of tourists who visited Ethiopia during the past few years at around 150,000.

The recently re-erected Axum obelisk, which was returned from Italy after 67 years is among the strategies that will boost the number of tourists to the country.

Source: African Press Agency

IAAF

Friday, 26 September 2008

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia- The list of honours Ethiopian runner Tirunesh Dibaba has earned in her short, but illustrious career already has many of her rivals running for minor positions when they line up against the double Olympic 5000m/10,000m champion: double World 5000m and 10000m champion; world indoor and outdoor 5000m record holder; and three-time World Cross Country long course champion.

The latest addition to Dibaba’s incredible CV came yesterday evening when her club, the Prisons Police, bestowed the rank of Chief Superintendent for her services to club and country.

Aged just 23, Dibaba, who will this year marry long-time fiancée and fellow club mate Sileshi Sihine, has not only amassed major titles and World records, but has also quickly risen up prisons police ranks.

She may be nicknamed the Baby Faced Destroyer, but there was nothing “baby faced” about the manner in which Dibaba received her latest honour.

Dibaba marched all the way from her seat to the podium at a ceremony held on Thursday evening saluted Maeregu Habtemariam, State Minister for Federal Affairs, who bestowed the new rank on her shoulders. She then saluted Habtemariam and marched back to her seat to the amusement of guests and the media.

Tirunesh Dibaba at a ceremony in Addis Ababa (Kassahun Yilma)

Read More.

The Georgia Bulletin
(The Newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta)

Photo: Six of the 75-member CRS Ethiopian program staff stand
in a conference room at their headquarters in Addis Ababa, the
capital city of Ethiopia.

SUSAN STEVENOT SULLIVAN, Special To The Bulletin

Published: September 25, 2008

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Groggy from 24 hours of travel, I step outside into cool twilight in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. My nostrils fill with the pungent scent of what I learn are hundreds of small eucalyptus-fed cooking fires; my eyes fill with a crowd of people jamming the pedestrian entrance to the airport parking lot, praying, greeting, disputing, waiting or picking a path through visitors and vehicles.

Much of the language is unfamiliar to me. There are dozens of cultural groups and 12 official languages in this ancient country, which counts the Bible’s Queen of Sheba among its rulers and the oldest evidence of human life among its treasures.

Once in the hotel van, I peer over the driver’s shoulder to glimpse dissolving silhouettes of tall buildings and a ring of distant purple mountains, but it is what the headlights reveal in our stop-and-go progress that rivets my attention.

With few streetlights, the headlights become spotlights on an urban stage, illuminating people standing, crouching and reclining along the dusty streets as darkness falls. For a moment the beams pick out two women, covered head to toe in pale fabric, sitting side by side, their arms locked around each other, their faces buried in each other’s necks in a way that speaks of desperation and grief.

The morning light, and days of travel within Ethiopia, further illuminate the rich diversity and stark contrasts of this historic African country, where skinny sheep and goats crop bits of grass along the streets of the capital while, nearby, machine-gun carrying federal police stand guard on the verdantly overgrown perimeter of the presidential palace.

Read More.

Photo: Ethiopian soldier in Mogadishu (BBC)

Reuters
By Andrew Cawthorne
Thu 25 Sep 2008

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Nearly two years after being driven from Mogadishu, Islamists have re-taken swathes of south Somalia and may have their sights again on the capital.

The insurgents’ push is being led by Al Shabaab, or “Youth” in Arabic, the most militant in a wide array of groups opposed to the Somali government and military backers from Ethiopia, an ally in Washington’s “War on Terror”.

“Shabaab are winning. They have pursued a startlingly successful two-pronged strategy — chase all the internationals from the scene, and shift tactics from provocation to conquest,” said a veteran Somali analyst in the region.

“Before it was ‘hit-and-run’ guerrilla warfare. Now it’s a case of ‘we’re here to stay’,” he added, noting Shabaab was “flooded with money” from foreign backers.

The Islamist insurgency since early 2007, the latest instalment in Somalia’s 17-year civil conflict, has worsened one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises and fomented instability around the already chronically volatile Horn region.

Read More

September 26th, 2008

JOHANNESBURG– Two aid workers, believed to be a Japanese woman and a Dutchman, working for the nongovernmental organization Medecins du Monde, were abducted Monday afternoon in the eastern region of Ethiopia, the group said Wednesday.

An armed gang is suspected to have kidnapped the two in the Ogaden region, which is close to the Somali border, while they were working. They are believed to have been taken to the central part of Somalia.

An administrator in Somalia’s central area sent security officials to a village there “to investigate an alleged sighting of a sport-utility vehicle with armed men and two white people, but the vehicle had left by the time they arrived,” according to an AP report.

The Paris-based aid group, which has been operating in the Ogaden region, has set up an emergency team.

The group said it is in close contact with the relevant authorities and is trying to help secure the pair’s release.

Source: Daily Yomiuri

AfricaNews
By Sam Banda Junior in Blantyre, Malawi
Photo from the movie “Black Gold“

“Trading would be conducted in the afternoons so as to
link it up with the New York market.”

Wednesday 24 September 2008

An electronic system has been introduced to improve the sale of coffee in Ethiopia, Africa`s largest producer of the commodity. Trading would be conducted in the afternoons so as to link it up with the New York market. The new system is scheduled to commence in October 2008.

The Director of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), Eleni Gebremedhin said the development would link trade with the US market. According to a Reuter’s report, to participate in the electronic trade, sellers will be required to produce warehouse receipts and buyers will have to show a pre-trade deposit in the banks.

Eleni Gebremedhin

Ethiopia, the birth place of coffee, made a tremendous achievement last season when it exported 170,888 tonnes of coffee and earned US$525.2 million.

In a related development Tanzania’s coffee prices mostly eased at last week’s auction, but managed to outdo markets in New York and the amount sold dropped, traders said. The Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) said on Monday that 32,623 60-kg bags were offered for sale, with 16,926 sold.

Read More.

BBC

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Two aid workers working for Medecins du Monde in Ethiopia have been abducted from the Ogaden region that borders Somalia, the French aid agency says.

Eyewitnesses say the man and woman, whose nationalities are not known, have been taken to Somalia’s central region of Galguduud by well-armed gunmen.

Kidnapping of foreigners is common in Somalia. Correspondents say most are released after ransoms are paid.

Read More.

The Standard (Kenya)

Clara Nyamu

Published on 20/09/2008
By Clara Nyamu

When I lived in Kenya, racism was an abstract concept that was mocked in movies, music videos and comedies. The only time people worried about the colour of their skin is if it was related to a dermatological problem. In the States, that is not the case. Racism is a harsh reality that pops up in subtle ways every day. At times, simple things such as a trip to the city are enough to remind you of its presence.

This particular day started innocently. My sister’s husband was visiting from Missouri, and I decided to take him sightseeing in downtown Washington. To avoid the stress of driving and paying for parking, we did something I rarely do: Take a taxi.

While we waited for a cab on a busy street corner, an Australian woman came by to ask for directions to the museum, and we started chatting and comparing notes on what it is like to be an expatriate. My in-law left us talking and stepped on the sidelines of the road to hail a cab.

Ethiopian

The first one whizzed past him as though the driver was on safari rally. “Oh, he’s probably on his way to pick someone up,” I told him when he looked at me quizzically. A second one appeared in the horizon, then drove right by as the driver cast a wary glance at him. He had no customer in the back and I looked on, stunned, wondering why he did not stop. The third one zoomed by too, and the driver looked stoically ahead without flinching. My in-law was getting frustrated.

Just when I was thinking that we should forget the taxi and take a train instead, my new Australian acquaintance yelled that another taxi was coming and waved her arm vigorously to stop it. The cab smoothly came to a stop right next to her. “There you go, hop in,” she said in her deep accent as we both thanked her. My in-law looked at me incredulously. “I bet you the reason they stopped so fast was because she’s not black,” he muttered as soon as we got into the cab.

True enough, it was. As soon as we were in the taxi, I realised the driver was Ethiopian and knew he would give me privy information because we were from the same region. I told him about our quest to get a cab. His candid answer: Most taxi drivers try not to pick black people, especially men, because as he put it, some tend to be trouble. I asked him whether he does the same thing, and he sheepishly said yes. When I asked him whether the only reason he stopped was because the woman who hailed it for us was white, he refused to answer but gave me a sly smile that validated what I thought.

The discussion moved on to another race hot topic: Barack Obama. American cab drivers are notorious for providing grassroots insights on elections issues, and this particular one did not disappoint. He lividly outlined his reasons why he thought the famous Kogelo “son” would have a hard time getting elected. He summed up his commentary by saying that this country is too entrenched in racism to take a chance on a black candidate. But aren’t taxi drivers contributing to that mindset by not taking a chance on black customers? I asked him. Again, he gave me that sly smile.

The irony

We finally arrived at our destination, and as we were getting out, he made a comment that we shouldn’t take our not getting a taxi personally because it is just an American reality.

“It’s just sad that even black people are discriminating against black people,” my in-law told him.

Ironically, the place where we alighted was right next to the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The same speech where he hoped that one day people in this country “will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.

Those days are not here yet. In the States, the colour of your skin is what people use to define you. Doors — even taxi doors — do not open as fast for blacks as they would if you were white.

Foreigners — especially from African countries — have been caught in the racism crossfire in the US. The only problem is that we did not grow up here, so no one taught us how to deal with it. It will always be a strange feeling that leaves you sad, confused and baffled. On our way back home, we took the train.

Radio France International (RFI)

Noah Samara grew up in Ethiopia, but fled the country with his family in his teens due to mounting political violence. He studied satellite technology in the United States, and embarked on a successful career in that field. But a newspaper article about Aids in Africa changed the course of his life. It inspired him to create the world’s first satellite radio, Worldspace. He talks to Imogen Lamb about the challenges he faced, and is still facing, to reach the listeners he thinks Worldspace could help.

Listen here to RFI’s interview with Noah Samara

September 18th, 2008

HONG KONG – Wall Street dealmaking reached fever pitch, with Morgan Stanley holding preliminary sale talks, while other financial firms scrambled to find buyers as fear gripped markets, sending Asian stocks sharply lower.

With the financial landscape undergoing its most dramatic transformation since the Great Depression, potential takeovers lurked for No. 2 U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley , weakened top U.S. savings bank Washington Mutual and major UK mortgage lender HBOS.

Panicked matchmaking followed the surprise $85 billion rescue of insurer American International Group by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday that did little to calm investors’ nerves. Read More.

NBC News and news services
Photo: Smoke billows from the U.S. Embassy complex in San’a,
Yemen, after a deadly car bombing on Wednesday.
(Yemen News Agency via Reuters)

SAN’A, Yemen – At least 16 people died Wednesday after car bombers wearing military uniforms targeted the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, officials said. No Americans were reported injured.

An initial blast outside the heavily-fortified compound’s main gate was followed by “several secondary explosions” at around 9:15 a.m. local time, an embassy spokesman said. According to Yemeni officials, the blasts were followed by an intense 10-minute gunbattle.

A senior U.S. official said the first Yemeni emergency personnel to arrive on the scene were hit by heavy sniper fire from gunmen who had stationed themselves across the street from the embassy. Read More.

The Jerusalem Post | Updated Sep 15, 2008
Above Photo by Ricki Rosen (The Jewish Journal)

By RUTH EGLASH

Interior Ministry representatives will continue checking the eligibility for aliya of some 3,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura, who claim that under a 2003 government directive they should be allowed to immigrate to Israel, the government announced Sunday.

The decision to continue the flow of immigration from the African nation follows more than a year of high-profile protests from the local Ethiopian community and its supporters after Interior Ministry officials declared that all eligible Falash Mura – Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity under duress more than a century ago – had been checked and approved for aliya.

In January, the ministry recalled its Gondar-based representative.

Despite claims that aliya from Ethiopia was all but over, local community members, representatives of North American Jewry and a growing number of MKs believe that there are still between 9,000-15,000 Falash Mura who fit the criteria. Over the past year, they have demanded the government continue checking their applications.

Sunday’s decision will allow almost a third of those to at least try proving that they fit the criteria, which includes a maternal link to Judaism and relatives already living in Israel.

In addition, the Interior Ministry will now be obliged to determine an official policy on immigration from Ethiopia.

Read the whole story here.

NY DAILY NEWS
Photo: The headquarters of Lehman Brothers on 6th Avenue.
(Nagle/Getty)

Monday, September 15th 2008

Lehman Brothers said it was headed for bankruptcy early Monday morning after marathon talks failed to come up with a plan to rescue the famed investment house, sending new shock waves through an already shaken Wall Street.

On a day that transformed the landscape of American finance, Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest brokerage firm, agreed to sell itself to Bank of America to stave off its own financial crisis.

The dramatic, late-night maneuvering rattled the global financial world.

A consortium of banks from the U.S. and abroad, working with government officials in New York, announced a stunning $70 billion pool of funds to lend to troubled financial companies.

The unprecedented plan had a far-reaching aim: to prevent a worldwide panic on stock and other financial exchanges.

With Lehman filing for bankruptcy, “the risk of an immediate tsunami” is on the horizon for financial markets worldwide, said Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.

The bleeding began Sunday night as futures that predict the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 300 points.

Asian stock markets fell sharply, the dollar plunged and gold rose, and investors sought safe havens for their money.

Read the whole story here.

MSNBC

By ANITA POWELL
AP
Thurs., Sept. 11, 2008

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Chicken is to Ethiopian holidays as turkey is to American Thanksgiving.

But people trying to buy live birds for Thursday’s Ethiopian New Year celebrations found the price suddenly out of reach even for the relatively well-off.

International food aid officials say inflation and rising global food prices, combined with the normal holiday demand for chicken, sent the price soaring from about US$5 (€3.60) for a live bird last year to more than $8 (€5.75) in many places.

Tikunesh Berehanu, 53, a house cleaner in the capital, Addis Ababa, said she shelled out the equivalent of about US$7 to celebrate the start of the Ethiopian year 2001, which began at 6 a.m. under the nation’s unique, Coptic Christianity-based calendar. Read More.

African Press Agency

September 11, 2008

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Ethiopia has awarded two Beijing Olympics double gold winners —Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele — new Toyota Lancer vehicles worth US$40,000 for their sterling performances in at the recent China games which ended on 24 August.

Coach Woldemeskel Kostre of 5,000m and 10,000m also received a Toyota Lancer automobile award from Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who handed the car keys to the two athletes at a ceremony held Wednesday night in the capital Addis Ababa.

“The government is proud to give these gifts to the two athletes who have made history. They are unique and heroes,” Meles said.

The award ceremony was held on the eve of Ethiopia’s New Year.

The government has also authorised free VIP access at Ethiopia’s international airport to 18 athletes who won medals in Beijing, in addition to awarding US$10,000 for Sileshi Sihine who won a silver medal in the 10,000m.

Bronze winner Meseret Defar in the 5,000m and Tsegaye Kebede in the marathon received US$5,000 each.

Four journalists who covered the Beijing Olympics for the state owned media were awarded US$1,000 each, while two doctors and six accompanying coaches were awarded US$1,500 each. More at African Press Agency.

NYT

By PATRICK HEALY
Photo: James Estrin/The New York Times
Published: September 11, 2008

After days of sharp attacks against each other on the campaign trail, John McCain and Barack Obama suspended their political advertising Thursday and made a joint visit late this afternoon to ground zero in New York City to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Obama, after a 90-minute lunch with former President Bill Clinton in Harlem, traveled far downtown to the former site of the World Trade Center and met Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg near the pile just before 4 p.m. A short time later, Mr. McCain and his wife Cindy arrived and shook hands with Mr. Obama and Mr. Bloomberg.

Then the two presidential nominees walked shoulder-to-shoulder down a long ramp toward the site, occasionally chatting along the way, as Mrs. McCain and Mayor Bloomberg walked behind. Michelle Obama was home in Chicago with the couple’s daughters on Thursday. Read More.

BBC

Wednesday, 10 September 2008

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama to be US president, ahead of his Republican rival John McCain.

Mr Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled.

In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view was that America’s relations with the rest of the world would improve under a President Obama.

If Mr McCain were elected, the most common view in 19 countries was that relations would remain about the same.

The poll was conducted before the Democratic and Republican parties held their conventions and before the headline-grabbing nomination of Sarah Palin as Mr McCain’s running mate. Read More.

Cover Photo: Democratic Presidential Nominee, Senator Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting at Mott Community College Regional Technology Center in Flint, MI on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. (David Katz/Obama for America)

NYT

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 9, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken, who gained fame as a ”Saturday Night Live” cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.

Minnesota voters joined those in six other states and the District of Columbia in deciding general election matchups. Nominations for House, Senate and governor were on the line, along with the fate of another TV celebrity: Kevin Powell, a former cast member on MTV’s ”Real World,” who lost his bid for Congress in New York.

Franken’s celebrity has both helped and hurt him. His coast-to-coast recognition enabled him to amass an impressive bankroll for a first-time candidate, but archives full of racy material provided ammunition to Republicans and his most visible Democratic rival, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris. Read More.

From Pop Critics

In case you’re wondering, the film reportedly centers on Taharqa, the last Pharaoh of the 25th or Nubian Dynasty (the one in which blacks of Ethiopian descent ran Egypt) and is supposedly full of Ethiopians battling Assyrians for the throne of Amun-Ra. Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt, and the younger brother and successor of Shebitku. Read More.

Above: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., heads to Africa with
credentials of no other Senator – a son of Africa.
(MSNBC – Thurs., Aug. 17, 2006).
Photo: Seth Perlman Stf / AP file

Afrique en ligne

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Not only the United States but also Africa and the rest of the world await with bated breath who turns in at the White House at the conclusion of the presidential race on 4 November 2008, writes Ethiopia’s business weekly Capital.

Apparently disappointed by the lack of commitment of President George W. Bush’s administration as regards dealing with burning issues in Africa, the paper point s out that the continent’s dream is the same as the vision of Democratic Party’s candidate, Barack Obama for his own country.

“Africa needs an America that can live up to its founding principles – an America that will help eradicate the glaring oppression that exists in every corner of our continent,” Capital’s leader for this week underlines.

Commenting on the presidential race immediately after the Democratic Party convention, the paper describes Obama as a “unique product of a unique nation, which is today in search of a different domestic and international outlook”.

But, referring to his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the convention on 28 August 2008, Capital expresses disappointment that Obama did not mention Africa and its myriad problems.

“The candidate must be astute enough to be aware that the United States development assistance under the Bush Administration is unprecedented in US history,” the paper acknowledges, noting the PEPFAR programme as a highly successful lifeline for millions of Africans living with HIV/AIDS. Read More.

Discovery News

Sept. 4, 2008 — A herculean engineering feat has put an end to a decades-long diplomatic dispute between Italy and Ethiopia over a looted obelisk.

The Axum obelisk, one of Ethiopia’s national treasures, has finally returned home after a 70-year stay in Rome.

The event is celebrated today in Axum with song, dance and processions.

“It’s the beginning of Ethiopia’s rebirth,” a spokesperson for the Egyptian government said at the ceremony, in which Ethiopian and Italian authorities signed the official return of the 160-ton granite pillar.

A symbol of national identity to Ethiopians, the 79-foot funerary stele was built 1,700 years ago in Axum. The monument is one of a group of obelisks erected when Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the 4th century A.D.

The ruins of the ancient city of Axum mark the location of the Kingdom of Axum, regarded as one of the four great kingdoms of the between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia.

Some 1,000 years ago, the obelisk collapsed on Ethiopian ground following an earthquake and broke into five fragments.

Troops of the Italian dictator Mussolini, who had invaded Ethiopia in 1935, shipped the fragments to Italy and then reassembled the obelisk in Rome in 1937 as a symbol of fascist power.

For more than six decades, the obelisk stood where Mussolini put it: in front of the Ministry of the Colonies, today the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Today’s ceremony comes at the end of a long negotiation process. Read More.

Columbia University

In their first joint appearance since the party conventions, presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama will discuss service and civic engagement in the post-9/11, post-Katrina world during the primetime televised “ServiceNation Presidential Candidates Forum” on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 11, hosted by Columbia University in the City of New York, as part of the ServiceNation Summit.

The Forum is being organized by ServiceNation, a dynamic new coalition of 110 organizations that has a collective reach of some 100 million Americans and is dedicated to strengthening democracy and solving problems through civic engagement and service.

The presidential candidates forum will kickoff the bipartisan ServiceNation Summit, held on Sept. 11-12, and ServiceNation’s national campaign to expand voluntary community and national service opportunities for all Americans. PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff will join moderator Richard Stengel, managing editor of TIME magazine, to question the candidates—who will appear separately—about their views on the meaning and importance of service.

The in-depth, back-to-back interviews will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET before a live audience of Sept. 11 family members, military veterans, thought leaders, and Columbia University students. New York Gov. David Paterson will welcome the audience before the start of the event.

Given its longstanding commitment to civic engagement in and outside the classroom, with its wide array of service learning, volunteer action and social entrepreneurship programs, Columbia University is honored to serve as host for a forum about an idea that is so central to our society and to the mission of higher education.

Information for Columbia Students on ServiceNation Tickets

Above: Actors (from left) Evelyn Arthur Johnson, Veronika
Avraham, Aaron Arefe and Abeye Tedla

AFP

September 2nd, 2008

VENICE, Italy (AFP) — Mengistu’s blood-drenched Ethiopia was the backdrop in Venice on Tuesday for filmmaker Haile Gerima’s “Teza,” his attempt to reconcile an idyllic childhood with modern realities.

“I dream my past, but the present is so powerful that it continues to hijack my sentimental journey to my childhood,” Gerima told a news conference.

In the film, Aron Arefe plays Anberber, an idealistic Ethiopian intellectual who studies medicine in Germany, then returns to his home village under Haile Mariam Mengistu’s brutal 1970s-80s regime.

Unable to put his expertise to good use, Anberber also faces an identity crisis arising from his “displacement between the village and the modern world,” said Gerima, who won a lifetime achievement award at the Washington Independent Film Festival in 2003.

“Contemporary reality continues to interfere, with silent violence as well as obvious violence,” he added.

A central challenge was harnessing the wealth inherited from generations of oral tradition, Gerima said, calling handed-down stories “our monuments.”

“My grandmother told stories around the fire. My father was a playwright. How do you reconcile that tradition with filmmaking? How is the form culminating my personal identity?” he asked.

“Teza” is one of two African films in the selection of 21 vying for the coveted Golden Lion here, along with “Gabbla” by Algeria’s Tariq Teguia, set in the north African country as it emerged from its civil war of the 1990s. Read More.

Democracy Now Site

September 2nd, 2008

Amy Goodman & Two Democracy Now! Producers Arrested At RNC Protest – More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets—including three of us at Democracy Now. Amy was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

Watch Amy Goodman Get Arrested

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism’s top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation’s leading independent news outlet.

Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe. Read More.

The New York Times

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Photo: Jim Wilson/NYT
Published: September 1, 2008

ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge. Read More.

USA Today

By Anita Powell | Associated Press
Photo: Douglas C. Pizac, AP
September 2, 2008 edition

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Solomon Henderson inherited just three things from his birth parents, who left him at an Ethiopian orphanage when he was 1 year old: a picture of Jesus, a plastic crucifix and HIV.

As one of some 14,000 Ethiopian children born with the virus every year, Solomon’s prospects for survival — much less adoption — were grim. But Erin Henderson’s heart stirred when she saw him, and she decided, on the spot, to adopt him.

“They told me that they weren’t sure he would live through the weekend,” Henderson said by e-mail from her home in rural Wyoming, where she lives with her husband and 11 children, two of whom are HIV-positive adoptees from Ethiopia.

Solomon, now an active 2-year-old with chubby cheeks and a shy smile, is part of a small but growing movement: Americans adopting HIV-positive children from abroad. Read More.

Related:
Hot Blog: Americans are Adopting Fewer Orphans Overseas Except From Ethiopia

Ethiopian Reporter

By Yelibenwork Ayele

Saturday, 30 August 2008

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, – The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in a press conference, said it would hold a great event next Sunday at the Millennium Hall commemorating St. Yared, the Ethiopian author of cantatas, traditional education and various pieces of religious literature.

Zema or the chant tradition of Ethiopia, particularly the chants of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, is attributed to St. Yared, a composer and a choreographer who lived in Aksum in the 6th century AD. He is credited for inventing the Zema of the Church; the chant that has been in use continuously for the past 1500 years. His music has defined the ritualistic feature of all the major fasts and feasts of the Church.

St. Yared was born to a family of a long line of church scholars in Axum in the sixth century. At the age of six he was assigned to a priest so that he could learn, but Yared turned out to be a poor student and was sent back to his parents. After his father passed away, his mother gave him away to her brother, Aba Gedeon, who was then a well known priest-scholar of the church of Axum Zion, to look after his education.

Read more »

—
Related:
St. Yared – the great Ethiopian composer (TADIAS)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

ABC News
By JACK DATE
Photo – BBC

Aug. 31, 2008

WASHINGTON – After being contacted by a number of churches in the New Orleans area about fears among the illegal immigrant community that evacuating might lead to trouble with the law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are trying to get the word out that they are not conducting any immigration enforcement during the evacuation.

According to ICE officials, churches are reporting that many in the immigrant community are reluctant to board evacuation busses, worried that they will be asked for documentation or even be arrested.

ICE spokesperson Kelly Nantel tells ABC News that “There are no immigration enforcement operations, and there are no immigration enforcement checkpoints associated with the evacuations. ”

“The Department of Homeland Security’s top priorities in any emergency are life-saving and life-sustaining activities. We want to ensure the safe and swift evacuation of all individuals in the affected region,” Nantel added.

ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Read More.

In pictures: New Orleans evacuation (BBC)

NY Daily News
Photo: NYT

BY NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

Updated Sunday, August 31st 2008, 2:27 AM

WASILLA, Alaska – Sarah Palin’s hometown rallied around her as mayor – now Republicans wonder if the rest of America will warm up to the surprise pick from cold country.

Though her mother-in-law has doubts.

Faye Palin admitted she enjoys hearing Barack Obama speak, and still hasn’t decided which way she’ll vote.

“We don’t agree on everything. But I respect her passion,” she said. “Being pro-life is who Sarah is.”

Faye Palin said the governor never considered ending her recent pregnancy when genetic testing showed her son Trig, born in April, would have Down syndrome.

Faye Palin, Gov. Palin’s mother-in-law
(Schumann for News)

“There was no question,” she said. “She was going to have that baby.”

With a population of just 6,715, Wasilla is a fast-growing railroad town that got its start as a mail and supply hub linking the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to Alaska’s interior mining camps along the Iditarod dog sled trail. Read More.

Rocky Mountain News
Photo: African Immigrants Among Obama’s Enthusiastic
Backers (WaPo)

By John C. Ensslin

Thursday, August 28, 2008

DENVER — Barack Obama was the clear favorite among the majority of people dining at the Cafe Africana on East Colfax Avenue in Denver one night last week.

None of Ethiopian immigrants interviewed had the right to vote. However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been paying attention to the race.

Teddy Gazahay, a 35-year-old warehouse worker from Denver, started tuning in back in the spring when the primary battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton was running at full tilt.

“I just like the way he talks. It has meaning,” Gazahay said. “I’m just convinced that he’s going to be president.”

Obama has been a frequent topic of conversation whenever Gazahay and his cousin Asfeha Teklehaimanot, 29, of Denver, get together for some home style cooking and Ethiopian beer.

Teklehaimanot is holding down jobs as a security guard and a liquor store clerk, all while attending Community College of Denver. Yet he started paying attention to Obama almost from the time the Illinois senator declared himself a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Teklehaimanot agrees with his cousin that Obama has a chance to win.

“He’s very confident and what he says makes sense,” he said.

In Obama, he sees America turning to a new and different chapter.

“Another thing is he’s against the war. That’s one of the reasons I hope he wins because the war is killing us,” he said, citing the impact the war in Iraq has had on the U.S. economy. Read More.

The Christian Science Monitor

By Jimmy Orr | 08.30.08

While the media, pundits, insiders and know-it-alls continue to blab endlessly about the pros and cons of new McCain running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, there is a fair amount of blabbering going on up in Palin’s home state as well.

Surprised, shocked and stunned seem to be words thrown about most often in describing first reactions to hearing the news. In fact, Alaska’s Attorney General compared it to landing on the moon. Not Palin landing on the moon. Although if it polled well – and chances are the McCain team has already polled it – she’d be giving her speech next week from orbit.

Regardless, the headline of the day came from an article written by a disaffected writer named Alan Suderman in Juneau admonishing the national media for mispronouncing Governor’s last name. His headline, “Note to nation: Palin rhymes with Van Halen” sets the record straight.

“The most notable gaffe was the mispronunciation of her last name on television and radio,” Suderman writes. “Several pundits called her PAL-IN, instead of PAY-LYN (rhymes with Van Halen) as Alaskans call her. Even McCain’s spokesman, Tucker Bounds, got her name wrong.”

Other media commentary from the 49th state include:

Anchorage Daily News

McCain’s choice of Palin was somewhat surprising because she most definitely is not a standard-issue Republican. She worked with liberal Democrats in the Legislature to pass a multi-billion-dollar tax increase on Alaska’s oil industry. She went back to Democrats again to win approval of her natural gas pipeline deal, which bypasses Alaska’s major oil companies in favor of a Canadian company.

In fact, Palin is almost totally alienated from the Republican Party establishment here. She tried and failed to get rid of ethically compromised party Chair Randy Ruedrich; they’re not on speaking terms. In the August primary, Palin urged fellow Republicans to desert long-time Congressman Don Young in favor of her inexperienced and uninspiring lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it.

It’s clear that McCain picked Palin for reasons of image, not substance. She’s a woman. She has fought corruption. She has fought the oil companies. She’s married to a union member. These are portrayals for campaign speeches; they are not policy positions. Read More.

McCain’s Choice: But who is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin?
NY Daily News

BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, August 29th 2008, 10:38 PM

She’s the runner-up beauty queen who could wind up in the White House.

She’s a mooseburger-eating hockey mom married to an Eskimo.

She’s a gun-toting, pro-life Christian conservative – and a Republican reformer who took on crooks in her party.

Meet Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, John McCain’s unlikely choice for running mate – a mother of five who drives a snowmobile, flies a plane, fishes for salmon and wears the mantle of maverick like a parka.

“I didn’t get into government to do easy things,” the 44-year-old bespectacled brunette told a rapturous Republican crowd yesterday after McCain introduced her to the country.

Nor was Palin expecting to be the first women – and first Alaskan – on a Republican presidential ticket. Read More.

McCain Picks Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin

The Washington Post
Photo: AP

DENVER — John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, according to the McCain campaign, a surprise pick sure to shake up the race and reinforce the idea of the Arizona senator as a reformer.

The news that Palin, the mayor of a small town in Alaska just two years ago, was the pick came after CNN reported that a private plane had traveled from the Last Frontier to Dayton, Ohio where McCain is set to unveil his vice presidential pick later today. The Palin news came after the two supposed frontrunners — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — each confirmed he would not be traveling to Dayton today.

In picking Palin, McCain is taking a calculated risk. She is totally unknown and untested on the national stage but also has impressive credentials in her short time in public life. Read More.

Palin Pleased with Obama’s Energy Plan
Includes Alaska’s Natural Gas Reserves

Photo: Wikipedia

Below is Google’s cache of http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=1384.
It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 23, 2008 16:56:14 GMT. According to NBC’s Domenico Montanaro, “the link to the press release was not working as of 12:30 p.m. ET.”

August 4, 2008, Fairbanks, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

“I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska’s natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs,” Governor Palin said. “The steps taken by the Alaska State Legislature this past week demonstrate that we are ready, willing and able to supply the energy our nation needs.”

In a speech given in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama called for the completion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline, stating, “Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.”

Governor Palin also acknowledged the Senator’s proposal to offer $1,000 rebates to those struggling with the high cost of energy.

“We in Alaska feel that crunch and are taking steps to address it right here at home,” Governor Palin said. “This is a tool that must be on the table to buy us time until our long-term energy plans can be put into place. We have already enjoyed the support of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and it is gratifying to see Senator Obama get on board.”

The Governor did question the means to pay for Obama’s proposed rebate — a windfall profits tax on oil companies. In Alaska, the state’s resource valuation system, ACES, provides strong incentives for companies to re-invest their profits in new production.

“Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production. Without new supplies from American reserves, our dependency and addiction to foreign sources of oil will continue,” Governor Palin said.

Photo: Feleke Tibebu, former Editor-in-Chief of defunct Hadar
newspaper, an Ethiopian journalist in exile, was recently featured
on the CPJ blog (CPJ)

CPJ
By Mohamed Keita/Africa Research Associate

August 29, 2008

New York – Reliable sources in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa have informed CPJ this week that our site was inaccessible on the servers of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation, the country’s official Internet service provider. A handful of separate Internet users in the country have independently confirmed seeing “The page cannot be displayed” messages when attempting to access our site. The same sources have reported that e-mails they have tried to send to CPJ have not gone through.

Web sites, particularly foreign-based independent sites and blogs discussing political reform and human rights, have been blocked on a recurring basis in Ethiopia since the government cracked down on free media following disputed elections in 2005. In 2007, OpenNet said it has gathered “overwhelming evidence” that Ethiopia was among the nations worldwide restricting the Internet access of its citizens.

This time, the reports emerged over the weekend as CPJ was investigating the detention of newspaper editor Amare Aregawi in northern Ethiopia. Last year, sources in the country disclosed that the CPJ site was blocked on World Press Freedom Day, when CPJ named Ethiopia the world’s worst backslider on press freedom. The moves are part of the Ethiopian government’s pattern of restricting coverage of issues deemed sensitive such as the political activities of the foreign-based opposition, the high-profile trial of Ethiopian pop singer Teddy Afro, food shortage conditions, or the insurgency in the western Ogaden region.

Authorities have repeatedly denied blocking Web sites, even casting doubt “if the problem really exists,” to quote Information Ministry Spokesman Zemedkun Tekle.

This week, in a telephone interview with CPJ, Bereket Simon, a top senior advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, echoed the same position. “The government has no policy of blocking Web sites. Accessibility to any Web site is open,” he told me. He said he had not received any complaints from Ethiopians about blocked sites, and questioned whether such reports were credible. The government has no control over foreign-based sites, he said.

In July, Simon asserted that the mushrooming of private electronic media in Ethiopia was a sign that political dissent and free speech were not “shrinking.” Still, many foreign-based news and human rights sites besides ours–including the popular U.S.-based Nazret–remain inaccessible.

Above: Ethiopia’s Grum Siyoum (R) fights for the
ball with Morocco’s Benjalloun Abdessalam (C) during their 2010
World Cup qualifying soccer match in Casablanca May 31, 2008.
REUTERS/Rafael Marchante(MOROCCO)

Reuters

By Mark Ledsom

Fri Aug 29, 2008

ZURICH (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s hopes of taking part in the 2010 World Cup were dealt a further blow on Friday when FIFA confirmed that it was cancelling a qualifying match against Morocco scheduled for September 7.

The world governing body suspended the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) last month following a long-running row over what FIFA considered the wrongful dismissal of the association’s leaders.

“FIFA today confirmed that the match is cancelled due to the current suspension of the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) from international football,” FIFA said in a statement.

FIFA said that the World Cup organising committee would meet on an unspecified date to decide what effect the cancelled game would have on the situation in Ethiopia’s qualifying group.

Ethiopia are currently third in the four-man group which also includes Rwanda and Mauritania.

(Editing by John Mehaffey)

Ethiopia to Take FIFA to Court

ADDIS ABABA, July 31 (Reuters) – Ethiopian soccer authorities said on Thursday a suspension by FIFA was illegal and that they would take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

FIFA suspended the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) on Tuesday after it repeatedly failed to comply with a February 2008 agreement aimed at restoring its officially recognised leaders.

“The ban imposed by FIFA is illegal and EFF will take its case to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport,” the body said in a statement.

Unless the suspension is lifted, Ethiopia will not be able to play their next international match, a 2010 World Cup qualifier against Morocco on Sept. 7.

The statement urged FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to send a delegation to Ethiopia to investigate the problem. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Sonia Oxley). Read More.

The Washington Post
Photo: AP

DENVER — John McCain has selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, according to the McCain campaign, a surprise pick sure to shake up the race and reinforce the idea of the Arizona senator as a reformer.

The news that Palin, the mayor of a small town in Alaska just two years ago, was the pick came after CNN reported that a private plane had traveled from the Last Frontier to Dayton, Ohio where McCain is set to unveil his vice presidential pick later today. The Palin news came after the two supposed frontrunners — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — each confirmed he would not be traveling to Dayton today.

In picking Palin, McCain is taking a calculated risk. She is totally unknown and untested on the national stage but also has impressive credentials in her short time in public life. Read More.

Palin Pleased with Obama’s Energy Plan
Includes Alaska’s Natural Gas Reserves

Photo: Wikipedia

Below is Google’s cache of http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=1384.
It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 23, 2008 16:56:14 GMT. According to NBC’s Domenico Montanaro, “the link to the press release was not working as of 12:30 p.m. ET.”

August 4, 2008, Fairbanks, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

“I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska’s natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs,” Governor Palin said. “The steps taken by the Alaska State Legislature this past week demonstrate that we are ready, willing and able to supply the energy our nation needs.”

In a speech given in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama called for the completion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline, stating, “Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.”

Governor Palin also acknowledged the Senator’s proposal to offer $1,000 rebates to those struggling with the high cost of energy.

“We in Alaska feel that crunch and are taking steps to address it right here at home,” Governor Palin said. “This is a tool that must be on the table to buy us time until our long-term energy plans can be put into place. We have already enjoyed the support of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and it is gratifying to see Senator Obama get on board.”

The Governor did question the means to pay for Obama’s proposed rebate — a windfall profits tax on oil companies. In Alaska, the state’s resource valuation system, ACES, provides strong incentives for companies to re-invest their profits in new production.

“Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production. Without new supplies from American reserves, our dependency and addiction to foreign sources of oil will continue,” Governor Palin said.

BBC

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Thousands of cheering Ethiopians have lined the streets of the capital, Addis Ababa, to welcome home the country’s Olympic gold-medal winning athletes.

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi was at the airport to greet the team, led by Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, both of whom won two golds at Beijing.

The team was led from the airport in open-topped cars past ecstatic crowds.

Ethiopia traditionally excels at long-distance running and finished 18th overall in the Olympic medal table.

The country’s athletes brought home from Beijing four gold, one silver and two bronze medals, dramatically improving on their haul at Athens four years ago, when they finished 28th.

Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medallist
Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia (L) is
welcomed by an unknown official
at the stadium in Addis Ababa
August 27, 2008.
REUTERS/Irada Humbatova (ETHIOPIA)

The airport reception for the athletes was followed by a larger ceremony at Addis Ababa’s 30,000-seater National Stadium.

The crowd there braved the threat of rain as it waited for the athletes, whose aircraft was delayed by more than six hours.

The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt says the stadium greeted the athletes’ appearance by shouting and jumping up and down, waving Ethiopian flags.

Ethiopia has a deep well of distance running talent

“Our athletes have placed the country among the elite of countries that excel in athletics,” Ethiopia’s Minister of Youth and Sport, Aster Mamo, said at the event.

“We, as a country and government, are very proud of the achievements,” she added.

Kenenisa Bekele described the ceremony as “a special moment”.

The victorious team were given a
heroes’ welcome in Addis Ababa

“The fans have repaid our success with their enthusiastic welcome,” he said.

Bekele won gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m at Beijing while his compatriot, Tirunesh Dibaba, won gold in the women’s 5,000m and 10,000m.

Legendary Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie also drew loud applause from the audience, though he did not win any medals at this year’s games.

CNN

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton introduced herself as a “proud supporter of Barack Obama” at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday as she called on her party to rally behind her former rival.

“Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future. And it’s a fight we must win together,” she said.

Clinton’s speech was expected to be one of the key elements of the four-day convention. The New York senator competed against Obama in the longest primary season in modern history.

She suspended her campaign in early June and endorsed Obama, but some of her supporters have been hesitant to move into Obama’s camp, saying they are going to not vote at all or vote for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

“No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president,” Clinton said. Her speech, which was the last of the night, followed a line up of other Democrats who used their time at the podium to attack President Bush’s record and McCain’s policies.

Clinton thanked her voters for supporting her historic campaign as a female candidate and reached out to those wary of Obama by telling them they weren’t in this for her, but for her cause. That cause, she said, is the same thing that Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party are fighting for.

Appearing strong and energized — and at times jovial — Clinton seemed to end speculation that she has not fully embraced Obama as her party’s candidate.

Clinton mentioned Obama by name more than twice as many times as she mentioned the party as a whole.

“I thought she was a class act,” said political analyst David Gergen, who worked in the Clinton administration. “I think it could well be said that nothing has so become her campaign as the way she has ended it here tonight.” Read More.