CPJ called on Obama to reassess US-Ethiopia relation over Media restrictions

The requests came just before Obama on Friday announced $3 billion in private-sector pledges to help feed Africa’s poor. The U.S. is a major contributor of aid to Ethiopia. The Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia and the Oakland Institute asked Obama in a Thursday letter to “reassess the terms” of U.S. aid to Ethiopia during weekend talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles is one of four African leaders invited to discuss food security at Camp David. The longtime leader has been accused of restricting freedoms and the media. Some in Ethiopia see him as a dictator. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a Wednesday letter to the White House it was concerned that Ethiopia had charged 11 independent journalists under sweeping anti-terror laws. “Since 2011, under the guise of a counterterrorism sweep, the government of Ethiopia has brought terrorism and anti-state charges against 11 independent journalists, including blogger Eskinder Nega, who may face life in prison for his writing about the struggle for democracy,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in the letter. “Such policies deter reporting on all sensitive topics, including food security.”  Read more…

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Canada to cut aid to Ethiopia, China and others

The Conservative government will reduce aid to Ethiopia as part of its effort to slash $377 million in foreign aid over the next three years. “Ethiopia has been identified as one of the countries where CIDA will reduce its bilateral programming,” the office of International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda said in an email statement. Oda’s office would not disclose the amount of the cuts. In 2010-11, Canada spent more than $176 million in Ethiopia, making it our third-largest aid recipient after Haiti and Afghanistan. This year’s cut will be the second in a row and comes as the country continues to face food shortages following a devastating drought last year that saw more than one in 10 citizens receive some level of food assistance. Cuts are also coming to 12 of the world’s poorest countries, Postmedia News reported last month. Benin, Niger, Cambodia, China, Nepal, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are expected to lose virtually all Canadian aid funding. The news comes as the World Economic Forum, which Oda attended, wrapped up Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. European financial woes are expected to slow investment across Africa, but oil-rich Middle-Eastern investors are looking increasingly to Africa, attracted by some of the world’s fastest growing economies, rapidly rising disposable incomes and relative political stability in many countries.  Source (Ottawacitizen.com)

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Ethiopia expels 2 Arabs, Middle East origin amid tension with Muslims

Ethiopia's government has expelled two Arabs who flew in from the Middle East after the pair went to a mosque and tried to incite violence, an official said Saturday. The two men visited Addis Ababa's Grand Anwar Mosque on Friday and disseminated materials and made inflammatory statements, said Shimeles Kemal, state minister of communications.

"The Ethiopian government found them to be persona non grata and they were immediately deported," he said. The men's nationalities were not made public. The deportations come one week after security forces arrested a Muslim religious leader in the Oromia region accused of radical statements. A group of Muslims tried to free the imam and clashed with police. Four of the demonstrators were killed and 10 police were wounded, Shimeles said.

A number of suspects are in police custody. The elders in the community there have helped contain the situation and it remains peaceful since the incident," Shimeles added.

The country's Federal Ministry on Thursday issued a statement accusing the unnamed group of trying to declare jihad against the government and incite violence in a number of mosques across the country. The statement said a dozen suspects were recruited by the group from the country’s Oromia, Tigray and Amhara regions to carry out illegal activities are now in police custody.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on April 17 told the country's parliament that a few Salafis formed clandestine al-Qaida cells in the Arsi and Bale zones of the country's southeastern region and are trying "to erode the age-old tradition of tolerance between traditional Sufi Muslims and Christians in Ethiopia." Ethiopia borders Somalia, where al-Shabab militants have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida. More than half of Ethiopians are Christian. About a third are Muslim.  Source ( Boston ,com)   

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Barak Obama invited four African leaders at the G8 Summit in Camp David

US President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania to take part in a session on food security in Africa at the G8 summit this month, officials said Thursday. Obama will host the leaders of the rich nation's club at his Camp David retreat in Maryland between May 18-19. He has now asked Benin's president and African Union chairman Thomas Boni Yayi, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President John Mills of Ghana and Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete to join the session on food security. Fears of famine and drought are stalking several areas of Africa Water shortages have hit communities in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Aid groups have also sounded alarm over a separate hunger crisis in the west of Africa where the Sahel region of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger has been hit hard by drought, high food prices and conflict.  Source ( AFP)

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DV Lottery 2013 Result Open on May 1, 2012

DV 2013 Program: Applicants in the Diversity Visa 2013 program may check the status of their entries through Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website beginning on May 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013. Please remember to keep your confirmation, since more DV 2013 entrants may be selected on October 1, 2012. On May 1, 2012 at noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), In Ethiopian time 8 PM entrants from DV 2013 (those who submitted entry between October 4, 2011 and November 5, 2011) may check the status of their entry using the confirmation number through Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website. Be advised that additional DV 2013 entrants MAY be selected beginning October 1, 2012. The DV-2013 registration period was from October 4, 2011, until November 5, 2011. Entrant Status Check is the ONLY means of informing you if your entry was selected or not. All entrants, including those NOT selected, may check the status of their entries through the Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website www.dvlottery.state.gov. Entrants will need to use the information from their confirmation pages saved at the time of entry. additionally, Entrant Status Check will provide successful selectees instructions on how to proceed with their application. The Kentucky Consular Center no longer mails notification letters and does not use email to notify DV entrants of their selection in the DV program.

For more information visit the official DV Lottery website www.dvlottery.state.gov

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Jailed Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega honoured (BBC)

“I accept this award on behalf of Eskinder Nega at a time when freedom of expression and press freedom are at the lowest in Ethiopia,” Ms Serkalem said on Tuesday night in a ceremony in New York. “If Eskinder were standing here, he’d accept this award, not just as a personal honour, but on behalf of all Ethiopian journalists who toil under withering conditions today: Those who went into exile over the years… those in prison with whom he now resides,” she said. Mr Eskinder has been in Maekelawi prison in the capital, Addis Ababa, since his arrest in September last year.  Read more…

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Official: Gunmen kill 5 farmworkers in Ethiopia

An official says gunmen attacked a commercial farm in Ethiopia's western Gambella region and killed five workers.Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said Sunday that the attackers wounded nine people as they shot indiscriminately late Saturday at workers on the vast farm. The property is owned by Mohammed Al-Amoudi, an Ethiopian-born Saudi businessman who is among the world's richest men. He said that among the dead were four Ethiopians and a Pakistani national. Five Pakistanis were among the wounded. The official said six of the suspected assailants are now in police custody and that it is still unclear why the farm was targeted. The farm produces cash crops such as rice. 

Source (  Foxnews)

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Ethiopia, Shashemene is the birth place of King Solomon and Queen Sheba , claim Rastefreians

Kabena, who moved from the Dominican Republic two decades ago, runs a natural health clinic on the grounds of a Rasta church but said authorities are encroaching on the fields where he grows food and medicinal herbs. Rastafarians say it was the "divinity" of the land that drew them to Ethiopia, which is mentioned in the Bible more than 30 times and is believed to be the birthplace of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. "This is the promised land, this is where God is born," said Ab. Yet the Rastas' vague status makes it difficult to set up business and access services open to nationals. "I'm in Africa and I'm illegal in regards to status. I don't feel illegal because I'm returning home, but when you're talking about the letter of the law, yes, in fact, it's reality," said Carol Rocke, 56, who runs a Caribbean restaurant. When she was "ordained by God" to come to Ethiopia from Trinidad six years ago, she applied for a business licence but was only allowed to operate as a foreign investor, limiting her business to the region around Shashemene.  Read more…

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Reliable sources from Eritrea tell assenna.com that Isaias Afewerki, is seriously ill.

Reliable assenna.com sources from Asmara indicate that Isaias Afewerki, the unelected leader of Eritrea, is seriously ill.According to the sources, Isaias has recently been to Qatar two times for intensive medical treatment.Many Eritreans inside the country are aware of Isaias’ ill health; however, the government media has never made it public.As it has been reported on assenna.com for a couple of times in the recent years, Isaias Afewerki has been suffering from chronic Liver Ailment and has travelled frequently to Qatar for treatment. Source ( assenna .com)

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Maitre Artiste Afewerk Tekle dies at 80

The late Maitre Artiste World Laureate Afewerk Tekle was born on October 22, 1932 in the historic city of Ankober in Shoa Province, Ethiopia, according to the artist’s official web portal. Sent to England in 1947 to become a mining engineer, Afewerk’s artistic talent was soon perceived. He was accepted at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and later went to the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of London, the famous “Slade”. While studying in England he made several artistic pilgrimages to Europe. On the completion of his studies he returned to Addis Ababa where he held a one-man exhibition at the Municipality Hall in 1954. It was the first significant art exhibition of post-war Ethiopia. Read more....

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