TAITU Yegna featuring Aster Aweke Official video

              

Saudi Arabia's foreign labour crackdown drives out 2m migrants

Foreign workers waiting to be deported in Riyadh. Photograph: EPA

The Guardian
Ethiopian workers face hostility amid 'Saudisation' campaign to control foreign labour and get more Saudi citizens into work
Under the watchful eyes of Saudi policemen slouched in their squad cars along a rundown street, little knots of Ethiopian men sit chatting on doorsteps and sprawl on threadbare grass at one of Riyadh's busiest junctions. These are tense, wary times in Manfouha, a few minutes' drive from the capital's glittering towers and swanky shopping malls.

Manfouha is the bleak frontline in Saudi Arabia's campaign to get rid of its illegal foreign workers, control the legal ones and help get more of its own citizens into work. This month two or three Ethiopians were killed here after a raid erupted into full-scale rioting.

Keeping their distance from the officers parked every few hundred metres, the Ethiopians look shifty and sound nervous. "Of course I have an iqama [residence permit]," insisted Ali, a gaunt twentysomething man in cheap leather jacket and jeans. "I wouldn't be standing here if I hadn't."

Ethiopia in search for first victory as they face

Zanzibar Vs Ethiopia – 2pm @ Nyayo stadium Live on SS9East

Ethiopia’s Walya Antelopes will be in search for their victory at the GOtv Cecafa Challenge Cup 2013 when they take on Zanzibar Heroes in their second game of the competition at Nyayo this Saturday afternoon.

Sewnet Bishaw’s side drew goal less with hosts Kenya in their opening game and will be desperate for victory against a Zanzibar side that beat South Sudan 2-1 in their first game on Wednesday.

Bishaw will look up to Yonatan Kebede, Fuad Ibrahim and Thok James to lift his side while the 1995 winners; Zanzibar are expected to depend on danger man Khamis Mcha Khamis, Suleiman Kassim Suleiman and Aggrey Morris for inspiration.

Victory for Zanzibar takes them through to the quarterfinals with a game to spare while Ethiopia must win to stay on course for a berth in the next round.
http://www.kawowo.com/

Highway riot contained

Security forces arrested 20 Ethiopian rioters on the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway on Friday for throwing stones that damaged 14 cars and injured four Saudis.
An eyewitness said police officers fired shots into the air to disperse the rioters and soon brought the situation under control.
The Ethiopians were apparently rioting because they could not gain entry into the Shumaisi detention center, he said.
“A large number of Ethiopians, who arrived in buses, moved onto the highway and tried to stop speeding cars. However, the highway security patrol closed the expressway at a safe distance from the detention center to prevent the situation from escalating. The troublemakers were confronted and taken into custody," a security source said.
“The rioting started when a group of Ethiopians hurled stones at passing motorists and the security forces. The police opened fire into the air to bring the situation under control,” the eyewitness said. He said the Ethiopians went on the rampage when they could not enter the detention center.
The center only takes in those expatriates arrested by the security forces for violating labor and residence regulations. It does not accept those who surrender voluntarily.

Egypt's transitional government prepares for battle over Ethiopia`s giant dam on the Nile

Institute for Security Studies 
The continuing political turmoil in Egypt has had an impact on every aspect of the country’s life and one of those is foreign relations, as Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy readily admits. Most of this externalised turbulence, if you like, has been felt in the Middle East where Egypt’s alliances have oscillated as wildly as its own changes of government over the last two and a half years.

The biggest impacts have been on Egypt’s relations with Turkey and Qatar which were the regional states that most strongly supported former President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and were therefore the states most angered when he was toppled on 3 July 2013. Egypt has just expelled the Turkish ambassador and Ankara quickly followed suit.

Fahmy told visiting South African journalists this week he had no choice after persistent and very negative criticism from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the 3 July ‘coup’ (which the current Egyptian transitional government calls the 30 June revolution, dating it rather by the day Egyptians massed again on Tahrir Square to demand that Morsi step down).

Huawei to roll out 4G service in Ethiopian capital

ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's state-run Ethio Telecom said on Thursday it had picked Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's second largest telecom equipment maker, to roll out a high-speed 4G network across the capital Addis Ababa.

The introduction of the service is part of a $1.6 billion deal signed in July and August between the Ethiopian firm, Huawei and ZTE, China's second-biggest telecoms equipment maker, to expand mobile phone infrastructure throughout the Horn of Africa country.

"In terms of allocation, Huawei will be responsible for the expansion of 4G in Addis Ababa, including other mobile services - the 2G, 3G, IP and the like," Abdurahim Ahmed, Ethio Telecom's head of communications, told Reuters.

Abdurahim said the allocation plan was finalised on Wednesday.

Rockwell Collins to Supply Avionics for Ethiopian 777s

New Boeing 777s headed to Ethiopian Airlines will feature satellite communications, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) capabilities and a range of other advanced avionics systems, Rockwell Collins said Tuesday, Nov. 26.    The fastest growing African carrier selected a full suite of avionics from Rockwell Collins for its growing fleet of Boeing 777 passenger jets, which currently includes 10 aircraft. Ethiopian received its first Boeing 777-300ER on Nov. 8, and will take delivery of three additional 777-300ERs through 2014.    The airline selected the MultiScan Threat Detection System, GLU-925 Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR) and Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II) to help improve situational awareness for its pilots.   "The equipment provides advanced operational experience to our pilots and provides a smooth and safe flight experience to our customers. At the same time, it helps us to reduce cost, as we have maintenance and spares commonality on all our brand new B777 fleet," said Mesfin Tasew, COO of Ethiopian Airlines.
http://www.aviationtoday.com

Ethiopia Holds Hosts Kenya | GOtv CECAFA 2013

The Ethiopian Walya Antelopes have put up a spirited goal-less opening display against the host nation, Kenya in the group A second fixture (Zanzibar had beaten South Sudan 2-1 in the opener) of the 2013 GO-TV Council for East and Central Football Championships (CECAFA) in a thrilling fixture played at Nyayo International stadium in Nairobi.

Coach Sewnet Bishaw's side would have taken the full points had Ugandan referee, Dennis Batte ruled in the horn of Africa's favour for a penalty appear when defender David Owino handled the ball in the forbidden area in the 63rd minute of the game played at Nyayo International Stadium in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

"We have to look out for our next opponent and hopefully, we shall qualify from the group", Bishaw said in the post match interview.

Father Accused of Killing Daughter Dies in Hospital

CORPUS CHRISTI - The father accused of stabbing to death his daughter before setting himself on fire has died in a San Antonio hospital.

Mulugeta Tirfe, 57, suffered burns to the majority of his body when his Nissan went up in flames outside the Walmart on Greenwood Drive.

Roughly and hour beforehand, police found his daughter, Danait Kidane, 23, at a home in Flour Bluff with life threatening wounds. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police say Tirfe is the only suspect in the daughter's murder. Investigators are releasing no information on a possible motive.

Kidane's on-and-off again boyfriend tells us her father was a strict Christian man, but he wouldn't speculate on what happened.
http://www.kristv.com

Ethiopia bans housemaids from working in Kuwait

KUWAIT: Ethiopian authorities have banned local domestic workers to travel to Kuwait for work until recruitment procedures as well as regulations that organize the work of recruitment offices and medical tests in Kuwait are reviewed, a local daily reported yesterday, quoting Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor insiders.

Speaking to Annahar on the condition of anonymity, the sources warned that the decision is likely going to increase fees for housemaid recruitment with the number of main markets becoming lim
ited to the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka. Several attempts to contact the Ethiopian embassy to confirm or deny the report were unsuccessful. It true, Ethiopia would join Indonesia which banned domestic workers from traveling to Kuwait in 2009 as well as other southeast Asian countries including Vietnam.

Israel adopts new measures against African migrants

Jerusalem — The Israeli cabinet approved Sunday measures aimed at deporting thousands of Africans who illegally entered the country and who are perceived by it as a threat to its Jewish character.
A statement from the prime minister's office said that beyond the measures, which include a crackdown on employers and financial incentives for home-bound Africans, the interior ministry has drafted a bill that would enable detainment of illegal migrants for one year without trial.
The new bill, which will be brought before parliament on Monday for an initial hearing and vote, was formulated after a previous law from 2012 allowing the three-year detainment without trial of illegals was overturned by Israel's supreme court in September.
According to the statement, a "closed facility" will serve as detention centre for migrants who manage to enter the Jewish state, which has nearly finished the construction of a fence along its southern border, as well as for those already in Israel "who disturb public order".
"The new decisions include combined actions designed to encourage illegal migrants to leave Israel and return to their countries of origin, increase personal security for residents of Israel and reduce the presence of migrants in city centres," the premier's office said.

Ethiopians break into Madinah’s Taibah University

Several Ethiopians escaped their shelter in Madinah recently by jumping over the walls and then breaking into the adjoining Taibah University campus, according to the city’s police department.
Brig. Fahd bin Amer Al-Ghanam, spokesman o
f the police, said 15 Ethiopians broke into the campus, but security officers managed to control the situation and took them back to the shelter.
Several other Ethiopians, who had gathered outside the shelter, were also told to return. The university campus and buildings were searched thoroughly afterwards to make sure that no one was hiding there.
The Ethiopians said they wanted the Saudi authorities to speed up the deportation process. The Africans did not harm anyone or caused damage to cars and buildings. Issa Muhammad Al-Qaiydi, spokesman of Taibah University, said: “The university administration is in touch with the security forces and the bodies responsible for the shelters to safeguard the assets and people of the university.”

Ethiopian's Boeing 787 Fuselage Repair Passes Halfway Stage

Boeing engineers repairing the Ethiopian Airlines 787-8 stranded at London Heathrow Airport for five months since it was badly damaged by an emergency beacon fire have replaced a large section of the upper fuselage structure and refitted the tail unit as part of efforts to return the aircraft to service early next year.

The fire, which started July 12 in one of the 787’s Honeywell-made Rescu 406AFN emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) while parked between flights, scorched the crown of the fuselage forward of the tail fin leading edge and caused major smoke damage to the interior. Cabin linings, panels and furnishings were ruined while water and other agents used by fire fighters are also believed to have caused significant damage to the interior and systems of the aft lower lobe.

Boeing, which declines to comment on details of the repair, is understood to be around 60% of the way through the recovery process.

Saudi Arabia Should Withdraw from U.N. Human Rights Council

Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians

At the very moment that the U.N. General Assembly was voting to elect Saudi Arabia to the Human Rights Council earlier this month, Saudi police officers, assisted by vigilante mobs, launched an iron-fisted effort to round up and deport millions of undocumented foreign workers. The campaign reportedly entailed imprisoning, killing, and raping African and Asian migrants within its borders and provoked a violent protest by some migrants in the capital.

As reported to one of us (Darara Gubo) in a telephone call from Saudi Arabia, at least ten Ethiopians have been killed and over a dozen raped since the state began the round up in early November. The fact that many of the raids that turned lethal occurred in the middle of the night, together with the closed nature of the Kingdom generally precludes ascertaining the precise numbers of victims.

Services planned for family members killed in Lake Linganore murder-suicide

Memorial services are planned for three family members killed last week in a murder-suicide in Lake Linganore.
The gathering will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Keeney and Basford Funeral Home, 106 E. Church Street in Frederick.
Sheriff's deputies came to a home in the 6800 block of Woods Court after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor Wednesday night.
Once there, they found Benyam "Ben" Asefa, 40, Barbara Giomarelli, 42, and 3-month-old son Samuel Asefa all dead from gunshot wounds, said Capt. Tim Clarke, of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.
The couple's surviving 5-year-old daughter had left the home and told a neighbor that "her family was injured," said Clarke.

Ethiopian Kidnapped maid recounts ordeal

AN Ethiopian maid was allegedly kidnapped by three men outside her employer's home as she took out the rubbish.

It is claimed the 28-year-old was blindfolded, gagged and bundled into a car in broad daylight.

She was then allegedly locked in an apartment for three weeks, raped and forced into prostitution, along with four other women - two Sri Lankans, an Indonesian and another Ethiopian.

A Bangladeshi man pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and human trafficking as he went on trial at the High Criminal Court yesterday.

His alleged victim's ordeal came to light after passers-by alerted police when they spotted him attempting to force her into an apartment in Duraz three weeks after she was kidnapped.

Ethiopian man stabbed to death his daughter

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
The Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office has confirmed the identity of the woman who died after she was stabbed multiple times Monday night in Flour Bluff.

It was just after 7 p.m. Monday when police say 23-year old Danait Kidane was found stabbed several times at a home on the 2800 block of Ransom Island, near Glenoak Drive.

According to police, Kidane was stabbed multiple times by her 57-year old father, Mulugeta Tirfe. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police said that her father fled the scene in a car, crashing into several mailboxes in the area along the way. The car was later found on fire at the Wal-Mart off of SPID and Greenwood, the father still inside of the vehicle as it burned.

KiiiTV3.com South Texas, Corpus Christi, Coastal Bend
Bystanders pulled him out of the burning vehicle, and he was eventually taken to a burn unit in San Antonio for treatment.

"I was very shocked," said Cyma Mayes, a former classmate of Kidane's at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. "Never gave any warning signs of family violence."

ACP - EU parliamentary assembly opens in Ethiopia

Serious talk! EU Member of Parliament Ana Gomes, known for publicly criticising Ethiopia following the 2005 government crackdown, which claimed over 200 lives, in a seemingly serious discussion during lunch break with Ethiopian MP and Speaker of the House Abadulla Gemeda in Addis Ababa, November 25, 2013

The 26th European Union (EU) and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday morning.

The assembly is expected to debate several issues, ranging from use of natural resources to fiscal reform and redistribution of wealth and decentralised cooperation.

The gathering is also expected to discuss respect for the rule of law and the role of an impartial and independent judiciary and South-South and triangular cooperation.

Ethiopia’s foreign land leases fail to deliver food for export

Addis Ababa - Gleaming tractors and harvesters are sitting idle five years after Karuturi Global opened a farm in Ethiopia that was hailed as the poster child of the country’s plan to triple food exports by 2015.

About 80 percent of the Indian-based company’s land in the southwestern Gambella region is in a flood plain, meaning its 100 000 hectare concession is flooded for up to seven months of the year, according to managing director Ramakrishna Karuturi.

The company was unaware of the extent of the flooding when it leased the land, he said.

“Karuturi, like many other large-scale investors, underestimated the complexity of opening land for large-scale commercial agriculture,” Philipp Baumgartner, a researcher at the Centre for Development Research, said.

Package found near Ethiopian Embassy in Moscow turns out to be homemade bomb

The suspicious package found near the Ethiopian Embassy in downtown Moscow late last week appeared to be a homemade bomb, a source from the law enforcement authorities said.
The package with a cell phone attached to it was found near garbage containers in Orlovo-Davydovsky Side-Street not far from the Ethiopian Embassy and kindergarten No. 1257 last Friday, he said.
A water cannon of the Federal Security Service destroyed the package, which was later taken to a laboratory for examination.
Tests showed that the package contained three plastic tubes filled with approximately 400 grams of pyro-powder and raw-bolts.
The bomb had a detonator which could have been controlled remotely by the cell phone.
 http://voiceofrussia.com/news

Undeterred by perils, migrants flee hardship in Eritrea

Migrants from North Africa arrive, escorted by Italian Guardia di Finanza, at the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in this March 14, 2011 file picture.

Reuters
Ten years ago, Eritrean migrant Habtu hunkered down on the vomit-stained deck of a creaking trawler on the Mediterranean Sea, making the final stage of his perilous bid to reach Europe.

It is a trip thousands of Eritreans attempt each year, fleeing one of Africa's poorest and most isolated nations, a place where army conscription with pitiful pay can last years.

Many die on the trek. Probably all of the more than 360 migrants who drowned in a shipwreck near Italy's coast in October were Eritrean, though many are still unidentified.

So the computer science graduate felt fortunate when his journey across a quarter of Africa via the scorching Sahara brought him to Malta - even if he had hoped to reach Italy, a former colonial power in the Horn of Africa.

The New Statesman Christmas campaign 2013: Help get Eskinder Nega home

Serkalem Fasil and Nega Eskinder with their son Nega Nafkot.

The New Statesman
The 44-year-old journalist was recently imprisoned for eighteen years on "terrorism" charges after criticising the Ethiopian government's use of anti-terror laws to silence free opposition.
Inside the front cover of the programme for Amnesty International’s Media Awards earlier this year was a list that made for sobering reading. Under the headline: "The following journalists have been killed or imprisoned for carrying out their work", a list of over 300 names in tiny print filled four columns of the A4 page.

One of those names was 44-year-old Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. In June last year, Eskinder was convicted of "terrorism", somewhat ironically, after writing articles criticising the government’s use of anti-terror laws to silence its critics, and for speculating on whether the Arab Spring uprisings could be replicated in Ethiopia. His reward for exercising his right to free speech? Eighteen years behind bars.

Eskinder is no stranger to the dirty cells of his Addis Ababa prison block. This is his eighth spell in jail in ten years. Each time he’s been sent down for defending human rights.

Xavier Vilalta: Architecture at home in its community

When TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta was commissioned to create a multistory shopping mall in Addis Ababa, he panicked. Other centers represented everything he hated about contemporary architecture: wasteful, glass towers requiring tons of energy whose design had absolutely nothing to do with Africa. In this charming talk, Vilalta shows how he champions an alternative approach: to harness nature, reference design tradition and create beautiful, modern, iconic buildings fit for a community. Barcelona-based architect Xavier Vilalta works in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He adopts and updates traditional design principles to construct modern buildings that truly suit their environment.

Crackdown on illegals hits goods transport

Arab News 
One in three trucks has stopped operating due to a shortage of Saudi truck drivers. The crackdown on undocumented expatriates following the end of the amnesty period has hit the transportation sector.
Saeed Al-Bassami, deputy chairman of the National Transportation Corporation, said around 90 percent of medium-sized transportation vehicles in the Kingdom were plying illegally.
The situation was only marginally better in the heavy vehicle segment since most of these businesses are run by expats.
The heavy vehicles sector has also seen a 100 percent hike in charges for transporting goods from ports to warehouses after the end of the seven-month amnesty, he said.
In the case of transporting goods between cities, price hikes range between 20 percent and 25 percent. “Prices have increased due to the strict verification of drivers’ ID by border security guards who are tasked with ensuring that the name figuring in the document matches with that of the company moving the goods,” he said.

Benyam Asefa shot, killed wife and son while daughter was upstairs, officials say

FREDERICK, Md. (WJLA) - A New Market man who had just lost his job shot both his wife and 3-month-old son before turning the gun on himself last Wednesday night, authorities have concluded.
Frederick County Sheriff's Office officials say that Benyam Asefa got into a verbal argument with his wife, 42-year-old Barbara Giomarelli, before shooting both her and their son, Samuel, inside their Frederick County home.

The shooting happened sometime between 6 and 8 p.m. On Nov. 20 at a home in the 6800 block of Woods Court, authorities say. Inside the home at the time where Asefa, Giomareli, Samuel and their 5-year-old daughter.

Authorities say that as Giomarelli was getting ready to give their daughter a bath, Asefa entered the bathroom and got into an argument with his wife. They then both wend downstairs while she was holding their infant son.

የታምራት ላይኔ ፀፀቶች Tamrat Layne on SBS Radio

                     

የአቶ መላኩ ፈንታ ጉዳይ ህገ-መንግስታዊ ትርጉም ያስፈልገዋል ተባለ

አዲስ አድማስ

በፌደራሉ የስነ ምግባርና ፀረ ሙስና ኮሚሽን አቃቤ ህግ ከሌሎች ባለስልጣናትና ባለሃብቶች ጋር በመጀመሪያ ተጠሪነት በሶስት መዝገቦች የተከሰሱት አቶ መላኩ ፈንታ ከሚኒስትርነታቸው ጋር ተያይዞ ለተነሣው ጥያቄ ፍርድ ቤቱ ረቡዕ እለት የህገ መንግስት ትርጉም ያስፈልገዋል ሲል ብይን ሠጥቷል፡፡
ቀደም ሲል ሠኞ ህዳር 9 ቀን 2006 ዓ.ም በዋለው ችሎት፣ አቶ መላኩ ፈንታ ባቀረቡት መከራከሪያ፣ በሚኒስትር ማዕረግ የሚኒስትሮች ምክር ቤት አባል መሆናቸውን በማስረዳት ጉዳያቸው በጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤት ሊታይ እንደሚገባ የገለፁ ሲሆን አቃቤ ህግ በጉዳዩ ላይ በሠጠው አስተያየት፤ ተከሣሹ በእርግጥም በሚኒስትር ማዕረግ የሚኒስትሮች ም/ቤት አባል መሆናቸውን ተቀብሎ፣ ነገር ግን የሚመሩት መስሪያ ቤት ሚኒስቴር መስሪያ ቤት ባለመሆኑ፣ ተጠቃሹ ያላቸው የሚኒስትር ማዕረግነት ለጥቅማ ጥቅም አላማ ብቻ የሚያገለግል እንደሆነ አስረድቷል፡፡
የግራ ቀኙን ክርክር ያዳመጠው ፍ/ቤቱም ጉዳዩን መርምሮ ብይን ለመስጠት ለረቡዕ ህዳር 11 ቀን 2006 ቀጠሮ የሠጠ ሲሆን ረቡዕ እለት የዋለው ችሎትም መዝገቡ የተቀጠረው በፍርድ ቤቱ የቀረበውን ጉዳይ ከማየት ስልጣን ጋር ተያይዞ በተነሣው ጭብጥ ላይ ብይንና ትዕዛዝ ለመስጠት መሆኑን አስታውቆ ብይን ሠጥቷል፡፡

On Sketches of Ethiopia, Mulatu Astatke draws a map larger than his homeland

Chicago Reader
Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke returned to action recently with the release of Sketches of Ethiopia (Jazz Village), an impressive outing—cut with some of London's best improvisers—that embraces "jazz" as more than just flavoring. It's his first album with international distribution. His backing band here is dubbed the Steps Ahead Band, which thankfully has nothing to do with Michael Brecker's fusion band of the same name—this one includes folks like bassist John Edwards, trumpeter Byron Wallen, and pianist Alexander Hawkins. The record opens with one of its most traditional-sounding tracks, "Azmari," which was written by Astatke's longtime colleague and collaborator, Boston reedist Russ Gershon of Either/Orchestra fame. The knotty track is graced by the leader's crystalline vibraphone and the brittle twang of traditional Ethiopian string instruments like the krar and masinko (played, respectively, by Messale Asmamow and Idris Hassun). From there on out the album stretches stylistically, liberally borrowing this and that.

Beyond Outrage: How the African Diaspora Can Support Migrant Worker Rights in the Middle East

The Huffington Post  

In the past weeks, Ethiopians have protested at Saudi Embassies around the world because of recently posted videos documenting wanton violence against Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. This occurred during a Saudi crackdown
on unregistered foreign workers in the Kingdom, which followed a seven month amnesty period. After the November 4th deadline, Ethiopian migrant workers in Riyadh attempted to protest the police tactics in the round up and became the target of angry vigilante mobs that beat and killed at least 3 Ethiopian workers, and injured many more. This violence is only symptom of the larger problem that is the lack of legal protection for migrant workers around the world. The situation is particularly acute in the Middle East, and the abuses against Africans in the region have become increasingly publicized in the past decade.

Abuse and mistreatment of migrant workers in the Middle East is well understood in the African Diaspora. It has been a year and a half since the tragic death of Ethiopian domestic worker Alem Dechasa-Desisa in Beirut, who committed suicide after being publicly beaten and threatened with deportation. Outrage followed that incident, but change has been slow or non-existent in Lebanon and the region since then.

Ethiopia's forest farmers work for a sweeter future

Zewde Yesuf tends his beehives in Bale. Deforestation has reduced rainfall and caused temperatures to drop, making his yields unpredictable. Photograph: Lisa Murray

As local people take ownership of southern Ethiopia's forests, the environment is starting to recover from years of deforestation. But further progress requires a bold step
Zewde Yesuf pauses in contemplation. His eyes sadden as he scans the row of empty beehives. "Yes, it's a big problem. I'm very sad this year, because I'm unable to provide for my children," he says.

Yesuf belongs to one of 23,000 households that depend on the forest in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains eco-region. In recent years, poverty and rapid population growth have contributed to alarming rates of deforestation. "There was forest fire, illegal logging and conversion of the forest for agriculture," coffee farmer Munir Adem recalls. "There was an enemy relationship between the natural forest and the community."

32,000 illegal Ethiopians to be deported by November end

Saudi Airlines intends to charter 70 flights to deport around 32,000 Ethiopians until the end of November.
Around 40 flights have already left Riyadh and Jeddah to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa since Nov. 12, said Abdullah Al-Ajhar, assistant general director of public relations in Saudia.
“The next stage will be implemented as of today and will last until the end of November. This phase will oversee the transportation of 32,000 Ethiopians back home.”
He said Saudia has been assigned with providing reservations for violators and renting additional carriers if the need arises.
Saudia is prepared to secure additional flights to transport violators to their country. He said there is no shortage of flights so far.
Col. Badr bin Saud Al-Saud, public relations director for the Makkah Province police, said the Shumaisy center is not directly involved in receiving or deporting violators.

Ethiopian maids exploited during UAE ban

AJMAN // A ban on Ethiopian domestic staff is being exploited by recruiters who are headhunting those already in the UAE and offering their services at four times the normal recruitment charges.
Addis Ababa banned its domestic workers from seeking work in the UAE in July last year until an agreement was reached to protect them from abusive recruiters and employers.

But the ban does not apply to those already employed, and has enabled some ruthless recruiters to further exploit them.

Typically, the recruiters will offer existing sponsors of Ethiopian domestic w
orkers up to Dh3,000 for agreeing to transfer the visa of their maid.

They then offer the maids’ services to other employers for fees of up to Dh7,500, rather than the previous standard of Dh1,500.

But none of the extra money is passed on to the maids, some of whom earn as little as Dh700 a month.

Creating a New Norm in Non-Circumcising Ethiopian Province

GAMBELLA, Ethiopia, Nov 25 2013 (IPS) - Chiang Both from Gambella, a remote and a traditionally non-circumcising province in Ethiopia that borders Sudan, volunteered to undergo the procedure despite his community’s initial mistrust.

Ethiopia has one
of the highest circumcised male populations in Africa – 93 percent, according to a 2005 survey by the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. But the dominant ethnic groups of the Nuer and the Anuak in Gambella have until recently regarded the procedure with suspicion and as an instrument of “imperious foreigners”, disliked because of their historic attempts to change the Nuer culture. They also feared that it could cause impotency.

Rural Ethiopians Spread Good Health Habits Over Coffee

DOSHA, ETHIOPIA — Thousands of women in Ethiopia have joined a Health Development Army to turn the time-honored cultural practice of drinking coffee together into an opportunity to spread the word about better health practices in their rural communities. The army is made up of small groups of volunteers who gather in traditional coffee ceremonies to encourage behavior change among women and their neighborhoods.

Women in villages throughout Oromia, the largest and most heavily populated of Ethiopia’s rural provinces, gather and talk over several rounds of coffee served in tiny ceramic cups. The beverage is brewed with locally-grown and unprocessed coffee beans roasted and ground by a local woman dressed in traditional Ethiopian attire. The finished product is brewed over a small lemon grass fire and served to invited guests. They take their coffee with sugar, but no milk.

Ethiopia Push to Lure Farm Investment Falters on Flood Plain

Employees at a Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc rice farm work in a paddy in Gambella, Ethiopia, on March 22, 2012.

Gleaming Deere & Co. (DE) tractors and harvesters are sitting idle five years after Karuturi Global Ltd. (KARG) opened a farm in Ethiopia that was hailed as the poster child of the country’s plan to triple food exports by 2015.

Eighty percent of the Bangalore-based company’s land in the southwestern Gambella region is in a flood plain, meaning its 100,000-hectare (247,100-acre) concession is inundated by the Baro River for up to seven months of the year, according to Managing Director Ramakrishna Karuturi. The company was unaware of the extent of the flooding when it leased the land, he said.

“Karuturi, like many other large-scale investors, underestimated the complexity of opening land for large-scale commercial agriculture,” Philipp Baumgartner, a researcher at the Bonn, Germany-based Center for Development Research who wrote a doctoral thesis on agriculture in Gambella, said in a Nov. 20 response to e-mailed questions. “The land leased out wasn’t properly assessed by either of the contracting parties.”

Mother choked to death on pill after staff ‘mix up’ at Harley Street clinic

A mother died after choking on cancer drugs following an apparent breakdown in communication between staff at a private hospital, an inquest heard.

Tata Beset Mesfin, 43, suffered a choking fit and brain damage when her airways were blocked for nine minutes on December 18 last year. She died the next day from organ failure.

An inquest at Poplar coroner’s court this week heard that a doctor told colleagues that Ms Mesfin, mother to Jemima, six, should not take
a third tablet after choking on the second and vomiting. But Ms Mesfin, who had relapsed after being in remission from breast cancer, thought she still had to take the drug.

የስዊዘርላንድ ባንክ ለኢትዮጵያ ባቡር ፕሮጀክት 1.4 ቢሊዮን ዶላር ብድር አፀደቀ

-ኢትዮጵያ ለሚገቡ የአሜሪካና የአውሮፓ ኩባንያዎች ፋይናንስ አቀርባለሁ አለ

የስዊዘርላንድ ባንክ ከአዋሽ ወልዲያ (ሃራ ገበያ) ድረስ ለሚዘረጋው የባቡር መስመር ግንባታ 1.4 ቢሊዮን ዶላር ብድር አፀደቀ፡፡

ክሬዲት ስዊስ የሚሰኘው ይህ የስዊዘርላንድ ባንክ ከገንዘብና ኢኮኖሚ ልማት ሚኒስቴር ጋር የብድር ስምምነት ተፈራርሟል፡፡

ከአዋሽ እስከ ወልዲያ ድረስ የሚዘረጋውን 389 ኪሎ ሜትር የባቡር መስመር ለመገንባት ባለፈው ዓመት ሐምሌ የቱርክ ኩባንያ የሆነው ያፒ ማደርከንዚ ከኢትዮጵያ ምድር ባቡር ኮርፖሬሽን ጋር ስምምነት ማድረጉ ይታወሳል፡፡ የቱርኩ ኩባንያ ይህንን የባቡር መስመር በ1.7 ቢሊዮን ዶላር ለመገንባት ነው ውል የገባው፡፡ 

5-year-old girl escapes Maryland horror of murder-suicide to call for help

Authorities found Benyam "Ben" Asefa, 40, Barbara Giomarelli, 42, and 3-month-old Samuel Asefa dead in Frederick County, Md., but miraculously, a 5-year-old girl survived and alerted police to shooting, according to reports.
 Three people — including an infant — are dead in an apparent double murder-suicide in Maryland, according to reports.

Miraculously, a 5-year-old girl escaped the bloodshed and alerted her neighbors on Woods Court in New Market to the gruesome slaying.

Authorities found Benyam "Ben" Asefa, 40, Barbara Giomarelli, 42, and 3-month-old Samuel Asefa dead in Frederick County, Md., but miraculously, a 5-year-old girl survived and alerted police to shooting, according to reports.

The victims were identified as Benyam "Ben" Asefa, 40, Barbara Giomarelli, 42, and 3-month-old Samuel Asefa, NBC Washington reported.

Have UK businesses missed the train in Ethiopia?

The railway will link Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa with Djibouti on the coast

 Across the Ethiopian countryside 2,000km (1,243 miles) of railway is being built, the first phase of an endeavour to create a new 5,000km network.

Currently no British companies are involved, despite Ethiopia approaching the UK for assistance at the start, and the project being constructed according to official UK railway industry standards.

The centrepiece of the new rail system is the planned line between Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, and the neighbouring country of Djibouti.

So far about a quarter of the preparation work has been completed on this key route, which will enable land-locked Ethiopia to access Djibouti City's port on the Horn of Africa coast.

Over 35,000 held at Al-Shumaysi detention center

Abdulrahman Al-Ali
Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – More than 35,000 illegal expats are being held at detention center in Al-Shumaysi on Jeddah-Makkah expressway, Director of Public Relations in Makkah Region Police Col. Badr Bin Saud Al-Saud said.

The were 24,000 male inmates and 11,000 females and children. Most of them were Ethiopian, Indonesian and Somali nationals while some of the inmates were from Niger and Chad.

So far 4,500 illegals from Makkah region have been deported to their countries.

He said three meals are provided everyday to the inmates besides snacks and soft drinks in the reception and departure halls.

«አሜሪካ ግቢ» ሊፈርስ ነው

•በዚህ ዓመት 200 ሔክታር መሬት ላይ ያረፉ ቤቶች ለመልሶ ልማት ይፈርሳሉ

የአዲስ አበባ ከተማ አስተዳደር በመልሶ ማልማት ፕሮግራሙ በአዲስ ከተማ ክፍለ ከተማ ከታላቁ አንዋር መስጊድ ፊት ለፊት በሚገኘውና «አሜሪካ ግቢ» ተብሎ በሚጠራው መንደር የሚገኙ መኖሪያ ቤቶችንና ንግድ ቤቶችን ሊያፈርስ ነው፡፡

በዚህ አካባቢ ለመልሶ ልማቱ የሚፈርሰው ቦታም እስከ ጐርደሜ ወንዝ ድረስ ይዘልቃል ተብሏል፡፡ በአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር አስተባባሪነትና በአዲስ ከተማ ክፍለ ከተማ ፈጻሚነት ከማንኛውም ግንባታ ነፃ ሆኖ ለአዲስ ግንባታ ዝግጁ የሚሆነው 16 ሔክታር መሬት ነው፡፡

የአዲስ አበባ አስተዳደር ልማት ለሚያካሂደው የአካባቢ ልማት ፕሮግራም በአካባቢው እንዲለማ የታቀደው 23 ሔክታር መሬት ቢሆንም፣ 16 ሔክታሩ በአዲስ ከተማ፣ ሰባት ሔክታሩ ደግሞ በአራዳ ክፍለ ከተማ የሚገኝ ነው፡፡ አራዳ ክፍለ ከተማ በይደር በርካታ የመልሶ ልማት ሥራዎች የሚጠብቁት በመሆኑ፣ ከጎርደሜ ወንዝ ባሻገር ያለው የአራዳ ክፍለ ከተማ ይዞታ ሥር የሚገኘው ቦታ በይደር ቆይቶ በሚቀጥለው ዓመት እንዲለማ ተወስኗል፡፡

በ1997ቱ የኢትዮጵያ ምርጫ ታዛቢ የነበሩት አና ጐሜዝ አዲስ አበባ ሊመጡ ነው

በ1997 ዓ.ም. በኢትዮጵያ በተካሄደው አገር አቀፍ ምርጫና ምርጫውን ተከትሎ ተከስቶ በነበረው የፖለቲካ ውዝግብ አካል የነበሩት የአውሮፓ ኅብረት የምርጫ ታዛቢ አና ጐሜዝ ወደ ኢትዮጵያ ሊመጡ ነው፡፡

በኢትዮጵያ በ1997 ዓ.ም. ተካሂዶ የነበረውን ምርጫ በአውሮፓ ኅብረት ተወክለው ምርጫውን በዋና ታዛቢነት የመሩትና የአውሮፓ ኅብረት ፓርላማ አባል የሆኑት አና ጐሜዝ፣ ምርጫውን አስመልክቶ ባወጡት ሪፖርት ኢሕአዴግ ከሚመራው መንግሥት ጋር ጥልቅ የሆነ ግጭት ውስጥ ገብተው ነበር፡፡

አና ጐሜዝ ከኢትዮጵያ መንግሥት ጋር በምርጫው ሳቢያ ውዝግብ ከገቡበት ጊዜ አንስቶ የኢሕአዴግን ፖለቲካ በተለይም የሰብዓዊ መብት አያያዙን ከመተቸት ተቆጥበው አያውቁም፡፡ ይሁን እንጂ ከምርጫው በኋላ ወደ ኢትዮጵያ መጥተው አያውቁም፡፡

The Mulugeta Seraw Murder: 25 Years Later

Mulugeta Seraw - Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center

Here's what happened to his killers—and his son.
It was 25 years ago today that three Portland neo-Nazis were arrested for the murder of Mulugeta Seraw.

The brutal beating on Nov. 13, 1988 that killed the 28-year-old Ethiopian immigrant shocked the city.

“It pulled the curtain back about Portland's racial reality,” said Randy Blazak, a Portland State University sociology professor and chair of the Coalition Against Hate Crimes.

A quarter-century later, the paths of Seraw’s killers and his family couldn’t be more different.

Volksfront, a neo-Nazi skinhead group with roots in Portland, is on the “brink of international collapse,” according to a report released by Southern Poverty Law Center yesterday. The white supremacist outfit shut down its 17 U.S chapters last year.

Egypt and Ethiopia leaders meet over Nile row

First talks on Ethiopia's plan to dam the Nile since Egypt's Mansour took power end without agreement in Kuwait.
The Egyptian and Ethiopian leaders have met for the first time to discuss tensions over Ethiopia's construction of a huge hydropower dam on the river Nile but the meeting ended without any agreement, sources said.

The Egyptian interim president, Adly Mansour, and Ethiopia's prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, met on Tuesday on the sidelines of an Afro-Arab Summit in Kuwait, sources familiar with the meeting told Al Jazeera.

It was the first meeting between leaders of the two countries over the Grand Renaissance Dam since the deposed Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, met Hailemariam in May.

Extraordinary Ethiopia – ancient, booming but undemocratic – By Richard Dowden

When you say to people in Britain: “I’ve just been in Ethiopia”, they give you a look which says: “Poor you. Was it too terrible to talk about?”

That is the trouble with the modern media. Faraway places of which we know little are only shown to us when something bad happens. In the case of Ethiopia, the 1984 famine and subsequent hungers have fixed its image in the global mind. It is as if the image of the collapsing Twin Towers in 2001 typified America. But of course we have other, more positive, images of America but none of Ethiopia. So I tell them: “Ethiopia? It’s great. It’s Booming!”

Addis Ababa is being transformed as if by monstrous engines boring through the heart of the city. A new motorway flows into town sweeping aside all before it and an urban rail system is smashing through buildings, roads, gardens – everything accompanied by cranes and trucks, noise and dust. All along its path the traditional one-storey homes of mud, wooden planks and rusted corrugated iron roofs are bulldozed into heaps and replaced by six or more stories of concrete and brick. Hammering, grinding and showers of glittering acetylene sparks proclaim the arrival of armies of Chinese workers and the rise of mighty steel and glass constructions.

The Turkish Anadolu news agency claims Ethiopia rejects Egypt’s request to build Renaissance Dam jointly

Al-Masry Al-Youm
The Turkish Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday that Ethiopia rejected a request by Egypt to jointly build all stages of the Renaissance Dam so as to make sure that Egypt’s share of Nile water is not affected.

The agency quoted an Ethiopian diplomat that attended a meeting between Egyptian Interim President Adli Mansour and Ethiopian Prime Minister Mariam Desalegn on the sidelines of the Arab-African summit in Kuwait as saying that Desalegn adhered to the Entebbe Convention and rejected any Egyptian supervision or participation in the construction of the dam.

LA to Hold Protest Against Migrant Abuse in Saudi Arabia

New York (TADIAS) – The aftermath of last week’s deadly immigration crackdown in Saudi Arabia that claimed the lives of three Ethiopian citizens and the images of targeted mob-violence continue to elicit strong reaction from Ethiopians worldwide.
More protests are scheduled next week in front of Saudi embassies and missions including in Washington, D.C. and New York.
The Ethiopian Community in NYC is scheduled to hold a rally at the Permanent Mission of Saudi Arabia to United Nations on Monday, November 18th. Organizers say the upcoming event has no affiliation with any political or religious entity. They urge attendees to wear black.

How you pay £4m to fund the Ethiopian Spice Girls: New aid storm over project that's even ridiculed in African country

• Yegna are a five-strong group that aim to empower women
• Is part of a £30million scheme called Girl Hub that also operates in Nigeria
• Have their own radio show but it only reaches half the population
• Group given £3.8m by the UK Department for International Development

UK taxpayers have picked up a £4million bill to fund Ethiopia’s own Spice Girls.
Yegna, a five-strong group, have launched a radio show and released a string of videos that aim to empower women in the African country.
But even Ethiopian critics of the project say the money is being wasted because the show reaches only a quarter of the population.

In Britain, the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the £10billion aid budget should not be squandered in this way.
Ethiopia has become one of the biggest recipients of British funds, despite being an autocratic one-party state. The new Yegna ‘entertainment brand’, established in April, is part of a £30million scheme called Girl Hub that also operates in Nigeria and Rwanda.

Migrant Worker Protest At UK Saudi Embassy

The protest outside the Saudi Embassy.

Ethiopians living in the UK vent their outrage over five deaths and reported brutality against migrants in Saudi's visa crackdown.
By Richard Williams, Sky News Online
More than one thousand people angry over the treatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have staged a protest outside the country's London embassy.

The demonstration comes amid a crackdown on illegal workers in Saudi, which has seen five people killed amid allegations of brutality by authorities.

Officials in the country say the move is designed to reduce the 12% unemployment rate among native Saudis.

But those protesting say the nine million - mostly African - migrant workers in the country perform menial jobs that Saudis are unwilling to do.

Missed Connections: As African Tech Hubs Flourish, Is Ethiopian Government Stifling Telecommunications?

Ermias, 23 (left) and Abiy, 24, collaborate at IceAddis, a tech hub in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Both hope to launch web-based enterprises, but are constricted by poor connectivity in the capital city. November 15, 2013.  Jacey Fortin

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- I should have known my Wednesday morning phone interview wouldn't go well.

The mobile reception in my neighborhood had been spotty for days preceding my call with Andrew Rugege, the director of the Africa Regional Office at the International Telecommunications Union. I wanted to talk about information communications technology, or ICT, across the African continent -- and here in Ethiopia particularly -- to learn how developing countries are using technology to encourage economic growth. 

But just as Rugege began to speak, the line went dead. I called back, but promptly lost the signal again. By the end of our talk, we'd had to reconnect seven times.

The Ethiopian Migrant Crisis in Saudi Arabia: Taking Accountability

New York (TADIAS) — If it was up to the Ethiopian migrants — who last week were savagely attacked, beaten, robbed and killed amid a mob of violence targeting foreigners — the Saudis would have been stripped of their seat on the UN Human Rights Council. It makes a mockery of the international organization that Saudi Arabia was elected to the position the same week that thousands of non-Saudi nationals were being hunted and several murdered in the streets of Riyadh. It’s a shame that Saudi Arabia, now a member of the world’s highest rights monitoring body, gets to make human rights decisions at the global level despite the fact that to date it has refused   to let U.N. investigators visit to check alleged abuses. The New York-based Human Rights Watch describes the oil rich kingdom as an enemy of minority rights and political freedom.

Ethiopians back from Saudi recall attacks

Returning after clampdown, former migrants say they were beaten, robbed and jailed, and that they will never go back.

 When Abdallah Awele moved to Saudi Arabia from Ethiopia last year, he thought he would land a good job and earn enough money to send home to his family.
But instead, Abdallah, 21, said he was beaten, robbed and jailed for living in the country illegally.
"I wanted a good salary and a good life, that's why I crossed the border," he said.
"When I was in Saudi Arabia, I was successful, I was saving a lot of money and I had nice things. But I lost all of it. Now I am home and I won't go back there."

U.S. prosecutors urge 22 years for brutal Ethiopian prison guard

Kefelgn Alemu Worku, an Ethiopian who tortured and killed during a period of political turmoil in the African nation, should get 22 years in a U.S. prison — the maximum sentence allowed for his immigration fraud conviction, prosecutors said in a court document.
"Justice demands nothing less," according to a sentencing statement filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Federal sentencing guidelines for Alemu Worku's immigration violations recommend a sentencing range of zero to 18 months, but the law allows up to 10 years for each of two counts on which he was convicted, and two more years for a third.
It is unclear if upon release from prison Alemu Worku could be deported to his own country, where he has been sentenced to death, according to the sentencing statement filed by prosecutors.