TAMPA, FLORIDA – Terry Heddings awoke about 6 a.m. to the sounds of what he thought were children playing.

But when he went outside his West Waters Avenue apartment, he saw flames and chaos. He tried alerting his neighbors and then tried moving his car out of the way of emergency vehicles. That’s when he was attacked by a man he didn’t know.

“He said he started the fire,” Heddings said.

He said the man told him, “Are you happy now? We’re all gonna burn,” and danced in the street.

The blaze today at Baywater Apartments, 6910 W. Waters Ave., drew 60 firefighters and displaced about 16 families, said Chris Reynolds, shift commander for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

One apartment was destroyed and others had smoke and water damage. No one was injured.

Red Cross officials were expected to help find accommodations for the displaced residents.

The man who told Heddings he started the fire was later identified as Gezaheign Awasi, 44, who was taken from the scene while handcuffed on a stretcher. He faces a charge of first-degree arson of an occupied dwelling; bail has not been set.

Awasi, a native of Ethiopia, set fire to his second-floor apartment, the sheriff’s office said, and told investigators, “I started the fire with a match. I lit the bed on fire.”

Awasi’s daughter said her father had waved goodbye from their apartment window as she left for Leto High School early today. She thought it unusual that her unemployed dad was awake so early, so she asked her mother to go back and check on him. Her mother did, but Awasi wouldn’t unlock the apartment door. Soon after, her mother saw the fire – flames were shooting from the apartment building’s windows and roof.

“I thought he was in the house burning,” the daughter said.

But her father had left the apartment.

Awasi’s wife, Tsehai Zike, said her husband is a good man who reads the Bible but recently lost his job and is being treated for depression.

“I don’t feel sorry for him,” Gemechu said, “but I feel sorry for everyone else.”

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A man described by his family as “depressed” since he lost his job was detained on suspicion of arson in a three-alarm apartment fire at 6910 W Waters Ave. last week.

Gezaheign Awasi, a 45-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, was taken from the Baywater Apartments handcuffed on a stretcher after firefighters contained the blaze.

Authorities said no one was injured.

Awasi’s wife, Tsehai Zike 39, said the family moved to the area three years ago “to make a better life,” and her husband worked at a credit company until he was laid off in March.

Zike said her husband was on medication for depression, but was a good guy. She said he enjoyed reading the Bible and singing.

“He never smoked. He never drank. He never did nothing except this thing,” she said. “I’m really sad. We came here to get a better opportunity from Africa.”

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Division Chief Chris Reynolds said 16 families were displaced in eight units. When crews arrived, there were 40- to 50-foot flames shooting through the roof.

Despite a malfunctioning hydrant and no sprinklers in the older building, the fire was out in less than an hour.

Zike said she and her 18-year-old daughter left the apartment early this morning for work and school, as usual.

As Gemechu was walking to her bus stop, she noticed her father waving from the window, and she thought it was strange for him to be awake so early. She said she called her mother to have her check on him.

When Zike got the call, she was already outside the home, getting in her car. She went back upstairs but found the door chain-locked.

Zike said her husband wouldn’t let her inside. That’s when she heard the fire alarm and called 911.

Gemechu had already run home and met her mother outside, where they both stood crying and terrified. At that point, they thought Awasi was still inside. “I thought he was in the house burning,” Gemechu said of her dad.

But neighbors said Awasi had been running around the building, screaming and wrestling with a neighbor who was trying to warn other residents of the blaze.

Neighbor Eric Cohn said he heard Awasi yelling, “Everybody’s gonna burn down. How do you like it now? Drink my blood.”

Cohn said Awasi jumped onto the hood of a car a neighbor was moving before fire trucks arrived. The two then fought.

When rescuers arrived, they immediately took Awasi into custody, said another neighbor, Jay Garcia. “I saw like five cops grab him and handcuff him,” Garcia said. He said residents were still running outside and flames were spewing out of the building’s roof.

Gemechu, Awasi’s daughter, said she and her mother didn’t see Awasi screaming or running around. She said the behavior sounded unusual for her dad. “He’s always quiet.”

Charges include free trip to Ethiopia

By Del Quentin Wilber and Tim Craig | Washington Post

The chief of staff to D.C. Council member Jim Graham was arrested on bribery charges Thursday, accused of taking trips and $1,500 in payoffs in exchange for pushing legislation that would reward some in the taxicab industry.

Ted G. Loza, 44, was taken into custody at his home on Columbia Road NW a little before 7 a.m., just hours before federal agents descended on his office at city hall to search records and computers.

Federal prosecutors allege that Loza accepted a “stream of things of value,” including cash, the use of vehicles and trips, to help an unnamed informant with a financial interest in the taxicab industry. The trips included one to Ethiopia and free limo rides to airports and other destinations in the D.C. area, two law enforcement sources said.

Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced legislation that would have benefited the informant, authorities said. The council member is not charged in the indictment and denied any wrongdoing. “I have had no engagement whatsoever in any illegal or unethical behaviors,” he said.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors said, the informant wore a hidden microphone. In July, after accepting a $500 bribe from the informant, Loza explained his motives for accepting the cash, prosecutors said. “You know I need it,” Loza said, according to the transcript of the conversation in court papers. “That’s why I take it, you know.”

Loza pleaded not guilty to two counts of receiving a bribe by a public official during a brief appearance Thursday before U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman. Loza, a native of Ecuador who is not a U.S. citizen, was ordered to surrender his passport and was released on personal recognizance. He faces up to 30 years in prison for each count if convicted.

Loza’s attorney, Pleasant S. Brodnax, said the Graham staffer did nothing wrong. “When all the facts come out and the entire context of this is understood, you will see that Mr. Loza is not guilty of bribery,” Brodnax said.

Graham, first elected to the council in 1998 and known for his bow ties, said he was “deeply troubled” by the indictment and will cooperate fully with federal investigators. The council member said he has “never had a conversation with Teddy Loza where he came to me and said, Will ‘you do this or will you do that?’ ”

And, Graham said, “nothing that has been alleged, whether it occurred or didn’t occur, had any influence on any action I took in terms of the legislation on taxicabs, which I introduced.”

Law enforcement sources said the probe is broad. Although the accusations against Loza are fairly recent, law enforcement sources said agents have been conducting a corruption investigation for at least a year. They also obtained wiretaps as part of the probe, said the sources, who, like other sources, spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

On Thursday, federal agents spent most of the day searching Loza’s office. But, according to the search warrant, they were not authorized to go through Graham’s work space. They also seized files from the D.C. Council’s mainframe computer in the basement of the John A. Wilson Building. Graham was leading a meeting of the Metro board when the raids began.

The warrant said agents were searching for documents tied to taxicab legislation, licenses, medallions, a taxi company called United Fleet Management and Fiesta D.C., a nonprofit organization that puts on an annual Hispanic festival in Mount Pleasant.

According to the organization’s Web site, Graham is an honorary board member for the organization. Loza’s wife, Ligia X. Mu?oz, works for the organization and is in charge of its finances and administration. Loza was on the board until recent weeks.

Yitbarek Syume, owner of United Fleet Management, declined to comment.

Agents also were looking for any correspondence and financial information connecting Graham, Loza, the informant and “other Washington D.C. area public officials,” the search warrant says.

According to law enforcement sources and court documents made public Thursday, Loza is accused of taking bribes from an unidentified man with “financial interests in the taxi industry.” In a 10-page indictment, authorities allege that Loza accepted separate $1,000 and $500 cash payments in June and July from a man, identified only as “Individual Number 1” in the indictment. In exchange for the cash, trips and free car rides, Loza agreed to promote legislation and policies that helped the unnamed individual, the indictment alleges.

The indictment says Individual Number 1 wanted to limit the number of taxicab licenses issued by the District and to create an exception for hybrid vehicles under D.C. law.

Three sources familiar with the investigation identified Individual Number 1 as Abdulaziz Kamus, the executive director of the African Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that assists African immigrants, according to press accounts. Kamus, who hails from Ethiopia, has also been quoted in the media as an advocate for Ethiopian taxi drivers.

Kamus could not be reached Thursday. The number at the African Resource Center was disconnected.

Graham is not identified by name in the indictment but is referred to as “Public Official No. 1.” He is chairman of the council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation. The committee has oversight of the D.C. Taxicab Commission.

The indictment says federal agents tape-recorded a meeting between Loza and Individual Number 1 on June 19. In that meeting, the individual handed Loza a “Father’s Day” present of an envelope containing $1,000 in cash, according to the indictment.

Individual Number 1 said the money was from him and another person, who apparently also works in the taxi industry.

“What do you want me to do?” Loza asked after receiving the cash, according to a transcript in the indictment. “What do you want me, I’ll talk to [Graham]. And I can call you back later on.”

Ten days later, the indictment alleges, Individual Number 1 met with Graham to discuss taxicab legislation with a hybrid car exemption. The council member “declared that he would introduce that legislation,” the indictment says.

The next day, June 30, Graham introduced a bill that he has said was designed to limit the number of cab operators in the city because he feared the District was being overrun by taxis. The bill would create a medallion system, similar to those in New York and Boston, in which users would buy licenses to operate a taxi. Under the bill, which was co-sponsored by Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), operators of “low emissions,” or hybrid, vehicles would get such medallions for free.

On July 10, Individual Number 1 and Loza met again. During the conversation, Loza handed the individual a copy of Graham’s bill.

“Beautiful, wow, beautiful,” the person said, according to a transcript in the indictment. “Really. I want to thank you very much.”

The person then asked about hybrid vehicles.

“Yeah, that’s the exception,” Loza said. “But, but, read it, and uh, then let me know if there’s something . . . that, that raises your eyebrows.”

Individual Number 1 then said the other unidentified person also “wanted to really thank you as well for this.”

“He does?” Loza asked. “What, didn’t he thank me or didn’t you guys thank me already?”

Individual Number 1 then handed Loza $500 in cash, the indictment says, and the council staffer pocketed the money.

Loza has known about the investigation for some time, said his attorney, Brodnax. Graham said Loza told him that he was under investigation several days ago.

“The fact of the matter is, in the course of a day of council activities, a great many people ask you to do a great number of things,” Graham said. “I would want to see this more specifically, but I know I have engaged in no such activities.”

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (Bartamaha) — A GOODWILL mission has turned into a nightmare for a Melbourne man who has been imprisoned and tortured in Ethiopia, according to his family.

Sadiq Ahmed, 46, a food inspector from Heidelberg who is an Australian citizen, has been detained since May, his brother Abdalla said yesterday.

The father of four has been in Ethiopia for the past two years, helping to build a hospital with $100,000 in funds raised by Abdalla in Australia.

Abdalla and his sister Malyun yesterday made an impassioned plea for the Australian Government to try to secure his release.

Speaking in Melbourne yesterday, Abdalla said his brother was taken off a bus along with 10 other people by government-backed militia in the Somali province where the hospital is being built.

Somali-born Abdalla, 53, featured in The Age in June last year about how he had given up his job and was driving taxis so he could concentrate on raising money for the hospital in Raaso, a destitute town of 80,000 in the Ethiopian Somali province where his father came from.

Abdalla was in Ethiopia’s capital at the time of his brother’s arrest and was tipped off that the militia were looking for him. He contacted the Canadian consul – Australia has no consul in Ethiopia – who advised he go into hiding and to contact him to accompany him when he was ready to go to the airport, which he did a week later.

Abdalla, president of the Raaso project and a board member of Banyule Community Health, said his brother was imprisoned in the regional capital Jijiga and accused of ”creating unrest”. But Abdalla insisted that ”Sadiq spent two years working in the field and never interfered in any politics”.

He believed tribal rivalry may be behind the arrest, with sensitivities touched off by the project’s focus on neglect in Raaso, where ”every morning there is a row of babies waiting to be buried because the women can’t make it to a hospital”.

The family say Mr Ahmed has been shackled, beaten with rifle butts and sentenced to seven years’ jail without trial. Mr Ahmed’s wife Bishar, who is pregnant, managed to visit him recently and saw he was injured.

Malyun, a social worker, is angry that the only ”help” that the Department of Foreign Affairs has been providing is the passing of information that they already know, with no consular visit made to her brother.

In frustration, they wrote three weeks ago to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. ”I am sure if Australia’s prime minister was to phone Ethiopia’s prime minister, it would take one call for my brother to be released,” Abdalla said. They have not received a reply.

By SCOTT CANON | Kansas City Star

NICODEMUS — A new “it” grain is blooming in the fields of northwestern Kansas. Teff has a ready-made market of Ethiopian expatriates hungering for a taste of home with virtually no supply of the grain for their beloved injera bread. Teff packs more protein per pound than wheat. And because it produces gluten-free flour, it could open a buffet line of breads and pastas to people with celiac disease.

It also can withstand drought and floods and, so far, it hasn’t fallen prey to pests that bedevil other Midwestern crops.

Ethiopians have long adored the grain, raising it by hand in their highlands and making it the country’s staple cereal.

“People will definitely buy it,” said 52-year-old Gillan Alexander, a Graham County farmer who is among those experimenting with a crop that is ancient in Africa but new to Kansas.

But can America reap its harvest?

A tiny grain

A grain of teff is only slightly larger than the period at the end of this sentence. Walk through a field that Gary Alexander — a cousin of Gillan’s — has planted in wheat, and all the challenges of mechanizing teff production begin to show.

Start with the ground. Squint closely enough and you see that some of the tiny reddish seeds have fallen to the dirt, lost for any chance of harvest. In fact, the word “teff” translates to “loss” in the Ethiopian language of Amarigna.

The grass has begun to shed its seeds partly because the plants have matured at dramatically different rates. Some are bright green shoots just starting out, while others are browning in retreat.

No sooner does it reach maturity than the soft stem bends over. Modern farmers call it lodging, and they don’t like it. They prefer crops with good posture that stand up for vacuum-like harvest machinery.

Teff has proved all the more troublesome because even at full growth, it can vary in height by a foot or more. When teff is harvested, far too much chaff ends up with the Lilliputian grain.

“You can tell how the Ethiopians get the seed by whacking at this stuff by hand,” 62-year-old Gary Alexander said. “I don’t think my hands will last that long.”

He has pieced together two-by-fours and window screen to devise a sieve, and it works well enough. So it’s possible, but not yet practical, to harvest teff commercially.

Efficiency lacking

Ethiopian farming of teff only supports a national per capita income of $800 a year. To make the payments on Kansas farmland, to cover the cost of 21st-century farm equipment and to leave a little profit at the end will require something more efficient.

“So far, it’s been too labor-intensive,” said Josh Coltrain of Cloud County Community College.

Coltrain has been hired by the Kansas Black Farmers Association to oversee a project paid for by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine whether teff has potential in America’s breadbasket.

Just a few hundred acres have been planted so far, scattered among several farmers in an area where one person sometimes tends more than 1,000 acres. Grants issued through the Solomon Valley Resource Conservation Development Area since the test plots were first planted in 2005 add up to less than $200,000.

The grain’s promise, Coltrain said, doesn’t come in its yields. Farmers can get perhaps three times as many bushels per acre from wheat. But the premium paid for teff — at a few health food stores and groceries that cater to African immigrants and to Ethiopian restaurants — could quickly make up for the smaller bounty.

“I get calls all the time from people wanting to buy it from us, mainly for Ethiopian restaurants and bakeries,” he said. “I have to tell them we haven’t got everything figured out yet.”

Coltrain thinks it ultimately will be a good Great Plains crop. It can withstand wild weather springs, and in many ways the dry spells common to western Kansas are similar to those in Ethiopia. The trick, he said, will be cross-breeding varieties that bring more uniformity to the plants and increase the amount of grain a teff plant produces.

‘Cotton candy for horses’

Teff’s cultivation dates at least to the 13th century B.C., and the grain today hasn’t changed much. By comparison, wheat, grain sorghum, corn and the other grains popular in this part of the world are finely tuned, sometimes genetically modified hybrids.

In the meantime, farmers and agricultural economists say teff looks worthwhile as a forage crop — cut for hay without bothering to harvest the seed.

“That’s a decent fallback,” said Bruce Anderson, a professor of agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Teff tends to grow quickly enough to cut up to four times in a year and pack into bales. And for Kansas fields planted in fall for winter wheat, plant scientists said it makes a good rotation crop.

What’s more, the softer leaves and stems make it ideal for pampered livestock such as alpacas or llamas that sometimes have difficulty digesting hay, or end up with bloody snouts from eating rougher products.

“I call it cotton candy for horses,” Gary Alexander said. “They just love it.”

The push to bring the grain to Kansas began with Edgar Hicks, an official at the Nebraska State Grange who works with minority farmers. He hopes Nicodemus will be to American teff what the Champagne region of France is to sparkling wine.