Ethiopia dam project could start power generation by June - official

The project should be fully operational by early 2016, an official said on Thursday.

Gilgel Gibe 3 will nearly double the country's energy output, helping to resolve chronic power outages and sustain a booming economy. Work started in 2008 and was due to be completed around three years later, but the project has faced funding shortages over concerns about its environmental impact.

"88 percent of the work for the Gibe 3 hydropower projecthas already been completed," Azeb Asnake, chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, told Reuters. Two of ten units would be ready by June, Azeb said, while one additional unit would come on line each month after that. Upon completion the project will generate 1,870 MW of power.

Ethiopia plans to spend a total of 12 billion dollars to tap the rivers that cascade down its craggy highlands over the next two decades in a bid to beat energy shortages and become Africa's biggest power exporter.
The country's economy is expanding by 9 per cent a year, and the dam is part of an infrastructure plan aimed at sustaining that growth. A bigger project, the 6,000 MW Grand Renaissance Dam, is being developed along the Nile.

Tadesse Dabi of Ethiopia wins 5th annual Jerusalem Marathon

Tadesse Dabi, 26, from Ethiopia won the 5th annual Jerusalem Marathon on Friday, finishing in a time of  two hours, eighteen minutes and 20 seconds.

Some 25,000 runners from 60 different countries participated in the race around the capital.

The race began at 6:45 a.m. in Sderot Ruppin and continued for various distances -- the full marathon of 42.2 kilometers, the half marathon at 21.2 kilometers and shorter races of 10, five  1.7 and 0.8 kilometers.
The Jerusalem Marathon is considered more difficult than than in usually hotter Tel Aviv because of the hilly topography of the capital that requires more exertion than in flat Tel Aviv.

Streets that were blocked off for the race are set to reopen around 2 p.m. Friday.
Over 800 police officers were dispatched across the city in preparation for the sports event.

Warri Wolves go underground for Dedebit FC of Ethiopia

Dolphins face Club Africain in Tunisia

NOT satisfied with the manner players of Warri Wolves handled their Week One Glo Premier League game, which they lost 0-2 to Ifeanyi Uba FC at Nnewi last weekend, the management has told the players to gird their loins to avoid early exit from the CAF Confederation Cup.

  The Guardian recalls that Warri Wolves crashed out of the CAF Confederation Cup competition at this stage last year. And to prepare the team well ahead of this season’s second round cracker against Dedebit FC of Ethiopia, the players have been relocated to a hide out outside Warri.  Wolves will host the Ethiopians on Saturday at the Warri City Stadium.

   The visiting Ethiopian club parades quality players who feature for the country’s national team.

   Managing Director of Warri Wolves, former international, Davison Owumi, has warned that any player, who failed to obey camp rules, would be sanctioned, just as he advised the players not to toy with the game.

Bloom and Flourish: Liya Kebede Looks Homeward with Lemlem

Nestled within the Horn of Africa, jutting out along the eastern coast of the continent, is the profoundly historic country of Ethiopia. Now one of Africa’s most populous countries, it is presumed to have been one of earth’s earliest dwelling grounds for modern mankind, home to an almost unfathomable timeline of cultural metamorphoses. It was here, in the modern-day capital city of Addis Ababa, that designer, model, actress, and philanthropist Liya Kebede was born and raised, absorbing the age-old inspirations that would one day lead to the creation of Lemlem, her line of traditionally influenced clothing and scarves, handwoven by the craftspeople of her homeland using methods that have passed through many generations.

Ethiopian contortionist's life comes full circle

Sosina Wogayehu, Circus Oz performer from Ethiopia. Photo: Vince Caligiuri

Her friend David Carlin calls contortionist Sosina Wogayehu a "can-do kind of woman", and reading his new biography on the former child asylum seeker and Circus Oz star, it's hard to argue.

This is a woman who talked her way into a theatre course at Swinburne University, and later the National Institute of Circus Arts -- on both occasions after applications had closed.

She raised enormous sums to bring her father Tewabe, dying of cancer, from Addis Ababa to Melbourne for hospital treatment.
She was a globetrotting performer with Circus Ethiopia for five years in her teens, until in 1998 she and 14 other young members sought asylum in Australia because their leader was a paedophile who abused, underpaid and overworked them.

How an Ethiopian priest changed his views on child marriage

Priest Melak Birhan Ewenetu Yetemegne in the town of Debre Markos, Ethiopia.

The Orthodox Church dominates life in Ethiopia, and its priests are some of the country’s most respected figures. So when priests take child brides, often age 15 or younger, it's not something that's questioned by the community. Rather, it's expected. Tradition dictates that a priest must marry a virgin.

“Before, the priests used to think that marrying a girl over 15 years old, after her menstruation starts, is a bad thing, it lowers her quality,” says Melak Birhan Ewenetu Yetemegne, the second top priest in his region, a rural area in southern Amhara in the cool Ethiopian highlands. His district includes 56 churches and more than 2,000 priests. And his experience with child marriage is personal. When he was 22, he married a girl who was only 9.

Sole opponent in Ethiopian parliament says won't run in May vote

By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, March 11 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's sole opposition member of parliament said on Wednesday he would not run in the May election and his party would not field candidates because of state meddling in the party's leadership, casting a new shadow over the vote.
Rights groups have criticised the government for stifling dissent in the media and detaining opponents in the run-up to the election. They have also accused the authorities of abuses in previous polls. The government has denied all the charges.
In 2005, 174 opposition politicians won seats in the 547-seat parliament but many did not take them up after pronouncing the vote rigged. In 2010, Girma Seifu, deputy president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), was the sole opponent to win.