March 2012

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – An Ethiopian official says unknown gunmen in the country’s southwest have killed 19 people in an attack on a public bus. The president of Ethiopia’s Gambella region said Tuesday that eight people were wounded. Omod Obang Olum said the victims were Ethiopian residents traveling in a public bus that got ambushed […]

By William Davison, Bloomberg News Ethiopia’s ban on charities from working on human-rights issues if they receive more than 10 percent of their funds from abroad has had a devastating impact on advocacy groups in the country, Amnesty International said. Organizations closed, shifted focus or scaled down their activities because of the 2009 statute, which

(By Keffyalew Gebremedhin) The data released this afternoon by the Central Statistics Agency (CSA) indicates that year on year headline inflation rose to 36.3 percent in February 2012, compared to 32.0 percent in January 2012. Food inflation also rose to 47.4 percent from 41.4 percent in January and non-food inflation to 21.4 percent from 19.2

By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar MOGADISHU |(Reuters) – Dozens died in fighting between al Shabaab rebels and Ethiopian troops near the central Somali town of Baidoa and another small town on Saturday, residents, regional officials and the Islamist rebels said. There were differing accounts of which side bore the brunt of casualties in the

Afrolnews | Several African leaders have bought lands in Ethiopia to develop agricultural projects or tourism resorts. They are let to bypass a 2007 ban on export of cereals, still in place for other investors. It has earlier been known that former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasansjo and current Djiboutian President Ismael Omar Guelleh privately have

(AFP) MOGADISHU — An offensive by Somalia’s Islamist Shebab fighters on Ethiopian troops on Saturday left many combatants dead, military sources on both sides and witnesses told AFP. “The fighting around the village of Yurkut was the most intense since Ethiopian forces entered Somalia” in November, said one of the witnesses in the country’s southwestern

Source: IFEX Eskinder Nega was scheduled to return to court in a trial in which he faces terrorism charges, the International Press Institute (IPI) sent an open letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, asking him to speak out against the use of anti-terrorism legislation against media members in Ethiopia. The full text is

By Evelyn Njoroge (allafrica) Nairobi, Kenya — Ethiopia insists that it will maintain a foothold on some key sectors despite increased calls from neighbouring countries to open them up. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi contends that his government is aware of the pros and cons of employing protectionist measures but still intends to maintain its

By Neil Hunter U.K. (Darlington and Stockton Times) — AN asylum-seeker who stabbed to death a fellow immigrant at the flat they shared was today jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. Dawit Asmelash was told by a judge that the killing was “particularly horrific” because of the ferocity of the attack

TRENTON, N.J. — U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, the first black elected to represent New Jersey in Congress, died Tuesday. He was 77. Payne’s brother, William, said he died at St. Barnabas Hospital. The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent