Ethiopian Air grounds Boeing 787s as precaution

(AP) Ethiopia Airlines has grounded its four Boeing 787 Dreamliners following a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to ground the planes based in the U.S. because of a risk of fire from its lithium batteries. Ethiopian Air said its 787s have not encountered any of the problems experienced by other airlines' Dreamliners, but that it would ground its new Boeings "for precautionary inspection." The FAA on Wednesday grounded Boeing's most technologically advanced jetliner until the risk of battery fires is resolved. That order applied only to the six Dreamliners operated by United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier with the 787s....

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Ethiopia marching toward a failed state – US Intelligence

Ethiopia will be among the top failed states, according to a report by the Director of National Intelligence, an umbrella organization of US intelligence agencies.  Entitled “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Trends”, Ethiopia is among the top 15 states expected to disintegrate and become ungovernable in the next fifteen years. The separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia is said to have ushered in the era of disintegration of African states along tribal and ethnic lines. “The secessions of Eritrea from Ethiopia and South Sudan from Sudan are seen in retrospect as precursors of this era in which the boundaries across the Sahel are redrawn....

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An Eritrean scholar gets two international recognitions on his work in Remote Sensing

By Prof. Dr. Embaie Ferrow Professor Kufoniyi (right) presents the AARSE Achievement award to Dr Woldai During the biennial African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) conference in Eljadida, Morocco, Prof. Tsehaie Woldai was honored with two awards: the AARSE-AFRICA highest Achievement Award for his work as founder, immediate past President and for turning the association into a political force shaping Africa’s Space programs. AARSE, sine Prof. Tsehaie founded it in 1992, is a composition of over 1800 members, including 32 national associations and societies, 5 space agencies in Africa and over 200 international...

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The Political Chess-Game To Tame The Woyanes

December 21, 2012 December 21, 2012 Semere Tesfai (Awate.com) Well, well, well… Why I’m I not surprised? Deki-Ere – it’s happening again. History is in the making. It is a brand new day in Eritrea; and it is a dawn of a new era in Ethiopian politics. In Addis deep from its inner core, the ground is shifting along its geological fault lines. And as a result of this massive underground tremor, a brand newlandscape is emerging in the Ethiopian political terrain. While the wind-vane on top of the newly formed landscape is decisively pointing south, Mekele is mute; and for a good reason. The Woyane revolution as a Tigrean ethnic revolution is buried with Meles Zenawi. Yes – the dream of Greater Tigray, the dream of Tigrean dynasty, the dream of independent Tigray nation state…. are all gone....

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La Tropicale Amissa Bongo (2.1) 2013 General Classification

General Classification at Stage 7 (Final) Rank  Rider Name Team 1  GENE Yohann Europcar 2  HADDI Soufiane Marocco 3  BILLE Gaetan Lotto Belisol Team 4  SONGEZO Jim Team MTN Qhubeka 5  GRMAY Tsgabu Gebremaryam Team MTN Qhubeka 6  LAGAB Azzedine Groupem Sportif Petrolier Algerie 7  CISSE Issiaka Ivory Coast 8  ZINGLE Romain Cofidis Solutions Credits 9  TESHOME Meron Eritrea 10  MEINTJES Louis Team MTN Qhubeka 11  NGUE NGOCK Yves Cameroon 12  JELLOUL Adil Marocco 13  BERHANE Natnael Europcar 14  KERN Christophe Europcar 15  ABELOUACHE Essaed ...

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Daniel Teklehaimanot Nominated for Best African Sportsman of the Year

Asmara — africatopsports.com reported that renowned Eritrean cyclist Daniel Teklehaimanot has been nominated among the candidates for Best African Sportsman of 2012. The other candidates include Dider Drogba and Yaya Tor'e of Ivory Coast, Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon and Andri'e Ayaw of Gana. Moreover, the website indicated that the Eritrean Cycling Federation is a nominee among those running for the Best African Sports Federation of the year, namely the Sudanese Football Federation, Ivorian Basketball Federation, South African Rugby Federation and Ethiopian Athletics Federation. Daniel, who demonstrated to be the first black cyclist to...

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IFAD Grant of U.S. $17.28 Million to Boost National Food Security in Eritrea

PRESS RELEASE Rome — The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a US$17.28 million grant to the State of Eritrea to help improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers with a particular focus on women in the country. The financing agreement for the National Agriculture Project was signed today by Yohannes Tensue, Alternate Permanent Representative of the State of Eritrea to IFAD, and Kevin Cleaver, Associate Vice President, IFAD. The agricultural sector in Eritrea employs nearly 60 per cent of the active population and contributes 24 per cent to the country's gross domestic product. Since domestic food production does not meet national demand, Eritrea must import about half of its food requirement. In addition, agricultural productivity is generally extremely...

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LA TROPICALE AMISSA BONGO (2.1) 2013 VIDEO highlights

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Sudan receives $1.5 billion loan from China Development Bank

(Reuters) - Sudan has won a $1.5 billion loan from the state-run China Development Bank, which Khartoum hopes will ease the country's severe economic crisis. China has been investing aggressively in Africa to secure resources such as oil, gold or farmland, and it has an interest in stabilising Sudan's economy because oil exports from arch rival South Sudan need to pass through the north. The loan was announced through the official news agency SUNA on Thursday. Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud last week said that Sudan had won a $1.5 billion loan but did not name the bank. Sudan has been unable to stop a slide in its currency since losing three quarters of its oil production when South Sudan seceded in 2011. That currency slide has fuelled inflation, small protests. Oil revenues were...

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Natnael Berhane Voted Africa’s Top Cyclist

By SuperSport | Dec 11, 2012 Eritrea's Natnael Berhane was elected African Cyclist of the Year for 2012 on Tuesday by a panel chaired by five-times Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault. The 21-year-old Berhane, who is set to make his professional debut with French outfit Europcar in 2013, finished ahead of South Africa's Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg, with Moroccan cyclist Adil Jelloul third in the voting. "The trophy created this year by the Gabonese (Tropicale Amassa Bongo race) organisers rewards the African cyclist who made the greatest impact during the season especially in events on the African continent," read a statement. "Natnael...

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Britain funds human rights abusers in Ethiopia

The UK government is providing financial aid to human rights abusers in Ethiopia through funding training paramilitaries, who perpetrate summary killings, rape and torture in the impoverished African country, local media reported. Through its foreign aid budget, the UK government provides financial support to an Ethiopian government security force known as the “special police” as part of its “peace and development programme”, which would cost up to £15 million in five years, The Guardian reported.  The Department for International Development warned in a leaked document of the "reputational risks” of working with organisations that are “frequently cited in human rights violation allegations", according to the report.  The Ethiopian government’s counter-insurgency campaign...

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Somali Islamists kill French hostage, claiming retribution

(CNN) -- Islamist militants had been saving one last blow to deal to France after its military conducted a bloody, unsuccessful hostage rescue attempt in Somalia Friday. Al-Shabaab declared Wednesday that it has killed the hostage. In the war of words, it was important to the militia to announce the killing occurred not during but after the raid -- as retribution for it. The French defense ministry has said it believed the militant group killed military agent Denis Allex during Friday's intense firefight thus thwarting the operation's objective on the spot. The al Qaeda affiliate claimed soon after the raid that it had moved Allex unharmed to a new location and would decide his fate shortly afterward in light of France's deadly military operation. Allex was an agent of the DGSE,...

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Somalia has better Internet and mobile services than Ethiopia

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman’s travel to North Korea to prod the regime about the importance of Internet access and technology is commendable; however Ethiopia, a U.S. ally has avoided such criticism and scrutiny despite subjecting its citizens to similar situation. Ethiopia’s Internet access like North Korea’s is limited, strictly regulated, and allowed only with government approval. The Ethiopian governmentcontrols major resources, including land, banking, telecommunication, and keeps a record number of journalist, human rights activists, and opposition leaders in prison. Both Ethiopia and North Korea suffer perennial famine...

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(AFP) Dead Darfur peacekeepers 'all Ethiopian'

Three peacekeepers shot dead by one of their comrades in Sudan's troubled Darfur region were all Ethiopian, a source familiar with the incident told AFP on Saturday.  The shooter, who subsequently killed himself, was also from the East African country, the source said, asking for anonymity. "All of them are Ethiopian," said the source. The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has not released the nationalities of the dead or details of what led to the shooting. While UNAMID is investigating circumstances surrounding the incident, the source told AFP that the peacekeepers are in a stressful environment, "all the time in a dangerous place and all the time away from families." In October five peacekeepers died in hostile action.  A South African member of the...

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