The Hague (The Press Association) – Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia suffered a shock defeat in the Fortis City-Pier-City half-marathon in The Hague on Saturday, March 14.

Gebrselassie, whose aim was to regain the world record for the distance, was beaten in a close finish by Sammy Kitwara, winner of the World Best 10km road race in Puerto Rico.

Kitwara clocked a time of 59 minutes 48 seconds, which was an excellent performance in the wet and cold conditions as he powered away from his Ethiopian rival.

Fellow Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru’s world record of 58:33, achieved over the Dutch course two years ago, was never threatened.

Pauline Wangui won on Dutch soil again, easily taking the women’s race in the unofficial time of 70:49.

Her fellow Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, the Olympic marathon silver medallist, never mounted a challenge and had to settle for the runner-up spot in a time of 71:35.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Addis Fortune) – The global financial crisis and the resultant production cut in emerging economies, compounded by the foreign reserve crunch in Ethiopia, has threatened the supply of power transformers by state power utility, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo).

The power monopoly has a limited supply of the transformers, such that orders placed by private building owners are being delayed, sources disclosed.

Apparently, there are requests made by the private establishments to the sole power supplier in the country to provide transformers of different capacity, but they have been placed on the waiting list, a source who says he is among those waiting to get a transformer, told Fortune on condition of anonymity.

“There is a current demand-supply problem now that our suppliers in India and China are affected by the global financial crisis,” Kebrom Kahesay, Sales and Marketing Work Process executive officer, said.

Mehret Debebe, general manager of EEPCo, also agrees that the problem that has knocked on most companies’ door globally has visited his corporation as well.

“We cannot say that the crisis has not got to our corporation,” Mehret told Fortune.

The electric power supplier’s establishment dates back to the time of Emperor Menelik II, who is credited for the start of power supply in Ethiopia from a generator he acquired to light up his palace.

At the moment, EEPCo is using its discretion in supplying transformers on the basis of the purposes of the buildings. Special purpose buildings, like hospitals and enterprises that produce export commodities, are being prioritized.

A customer, who claims to have completed the necessary payments, says he has been waiting to receive the 210 Kilovolt Ampere (KVA) transformer requested from the electric power supplier. Normally, the transformer would sometimes be supplied at the state power utility’s own request.

In the interim, the customer claims to have incurred 500,000 Br to 700,000 Br cost in acquiring a generator.

As a temporary solution to the problem, nearly 500 used transformers in the stores of the corporation, uninstalled from different spots due to replacements or change of arrangements, such as road constructions, are under maintenance.

“These transformers could help to narrow the supply-demand gap,” Kebrom told Fortune.

The nation’s sole electric power supplier has already placed a special order to import nearly 4,000 transformers with less than 40 days to go before the delivery, according the Sales and Marketing Work Process Executive Officer.

With about 1.7 million customers, of which 40pc are dwellers in the capital, EEPCo produces 800Mw of power daily, a supply short of the normal demand by 80Mw, and that of peak hours by 150Mw. Demand is also on the increase by 13pc every year.

Though the introduction of electric power in Ethiopia dates back to Menelik’s time, generation and distribution of power has a history a little over six decades old.

In mid 1940s, an Italian company, Campani Nazionale Imprezi, was allowed to generate, distribute and sell electricity in Ethiopia. However, the situation changed in 1955 after the formation of the Shewa Electric Power, allowing the government of Ethiopia to take over the generation, distribution and sale of electricity to Addis Abeba and its surroundings.

The Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority (EELPA) was then formed in 1963 for this purpose.

EELPA, in the past decade, has undergone restructuring to become EEPCo.

WASHINGTON DC – Ethiopians Demesse Tefera and Hirut Mandefro co-opted the Irish theme by winning the men’s and women’s titles at the 21st St. Patrick’s Day 8K downtown yesterday.

Tefera, 27, twice New York Road Runners runner of the year and currently living in Silver Spring, led from the start and was alone by a mile and a half; he broke the tape in 24 minutes 19 seconds, nearly half a minute ahead of runner-up Will Viviani. Mandefro, who lives in Silver Spring with the same Ethiopian contingent as Tefera, ran 27:06 and beat training partner Muluye Gurma (28:40) by a quarter-mile.

The winners earned $300 for their efforts and have set their sights on Saturday’s National Half Marathon, which awards $1,000 for first place.

“They’re both full-time runners,” said the group’s agent and coach, Jonas Mekonnon. “It’s not an easy way to make a living.” Gurmessa Kumsa, also in the group and the race winner two years ago, started yesterday but was not among the 4,319 finishers because of an injury.

Viviani, a Yorktown High School graduate who returned to Arlington after seven years in Eugene, Ore., shared hugs with friends and family after his 24:44 second-place finish. “I was by myself after halfway,” Viviani said, “so that was hard. I’m a 5K guy, trying to move up to 10K. So this was a good race for me.”

By Jim Hage | Special to The Washington Post

‘If we think we’ve got a health care crisis, let me take you to Ethiopia’ – Dr. Matt Campbell

Dr. Matt Campbell was ready to call it a night after a long first day in an Ethiopia hospital when a messenger said he was needed in the operating room.

A woman who had walked 15 days from a distant village just to arrive at Soddo Christian Hospital on her due date was in labor. After eight stillbirths, she needed a cesarean section to deliver her ninth baby if the child had any hope of survival.

But Campbell, 32, a general surgeon with Holy Family Memorial, hadn’t done a c-section in years. He and Dr. John Foor, a longtime friend and fellow missionary, grabbed a copy of Williams’ Obstetrics, crammed in the surgeons’ lounge and hoped for the best.

Then came the power outage.

The two operated by flashlight as they waited for a generator to kick in. Moments later, a baby boy emerged — happy, healthy and, best of all, breathing.

The Jan. 12 delivery was the first of 55 operations for Campbell of Manitowoc and Foor of Columbus, Ohio, during a two-week missionary trip to work at the hospital in Soddo, Ethiopia. The two cared for nearly 45 inpatients and 15 outpatients each day as they covered for two general surgeons, an orthopedic surgeon, a gynecologist and five surgical residents. Their stay was arranged through World Medical Mission, also known as Samaritan’s Purse.

“They knew that hospital was going to be without,” Campbell said, explaining the various reasons the medical professionals were away from Soddo at the time. “If you’re not there, there is no one else to treat their illnesses. Anything that could possibly need surgery, we were there for.”

Campbell and Foor trained together back in Ohio, Campbell’s home state, and opted for careers in medicine as a result of the same mentor-missionary, Dr. Pedro Obregon, also of Columbus.

“It’s doing trips like this that got me into medicine in the first place,” Campbell said. “It really lets you practice medicine as it was intended — to treat sick people.”

What most American medical professionals probably don’t expect to treat, however, are wild animal attacks — even “minor” ones. Campbell naturally was taken aback when a patient — with some severe scratches to his arm — arrived one day to have an eye tumor operated on.

“He wasn’t going to mention it,” Campbell recalled. “But we asked what happened to his arm and he said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s from the lion.’ He had actually been mauled by a lion on his way to the hospital.”

More surprising for Campbell, however, was the scope of the operations he was called to do while in Ethiopia. Like in the United States, patients arrive with bad cancers and require large operations — even with less equipment.

“You just have to do everything the old-fashioned way,” he said. “And everyone else just throws all their support behind you.”

He also got a quick lesson in true “general” surgery, as he was expected to perform all essential procedures, even those he typically wouldn’t do at Holy Family Memorial. In Ethiopia, Campbell removed a 5-pound kidney tumor from a 4-year-old boy. Here, he said he would have “very quickly” referred the child to a pediatric cancer specialist.

Campbell said the experience taught him to complain less, appreciate the luxuries of working in a well-stocked hospital, be thankful for the simple things — like nurses who speak English — and be more patient overall.

“If we think we’ve got a health care crisis, let me take you to Ethiopia,” he said.

Tack those lessons onto the countless others he’s taken from past missionary trips to Myanmar, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mongolia, Rwanda and the Philippines, and you’ll understand his drive to serve. His goal is to continue working one or two missionary trips every year.

“My passion is to get back in Myanmar and have a recurring presence there,” he said, acknowledging the current challenges of getting into the country. “In the meantime, I may go back to Ethiopia on a regular basis.”

The downside of Campbell’s trips is time away from his wife, Wendy, and daughters, Emma, 4, and Tessa, 2. The family moved to Manitowoc last summer, and Campbell started his post at Holy Family Memorial in July.

“Holy Family’s mission of community service was consistent with what I wanted to do,” Campbell said. “I’m loving the job here, too. I’m taking care of my neighbors every day.”

To learn more about Soddo Christian Hospital, visit www.soddo.org. For more about Holy Family Memorial, visit www.hfmhealth.org.

By Helen Clarke | Herald Times

Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee and an immigrant from Ethiopia who claims that MI5 colluded in his torture, should be considered for deportation, the Conservative Party said.

David Lidington, the shadow foreign minister, said there was a “serious question” over whether Mr Mohamed, 30, should be allowed to remain in Britain indefinitely.

Mr Mohamed arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker in 1994, having lived in Washington DC for two years after his family fled Ethiopia after a regime change, and was granted exceptional leave to remain.

This permission to live in Britain expired while he was in detention abroad for seven years and he has now been granted temporary leave to remain.

Mr Lidington said: “There are some serious questions to be asked about his immigration status in this country which are separate from the questions about the alleged torture.

“I believe that these allegations of torture do need to be properly investigated by the judicial authorities. But I think there is also a question about whether Mr Mohamed should remain permanently in the UK.”

Mr Mohamed’s father was a senior executive with airline Ethiopian Airways. The family fled to the US following the ousting of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Under current rules, asylum seekers would not be allowed to come to Britain after spending a period in a third country.

Mr Mohamed’s father returned to the US leaving his son to fend for himself and the Ethiopian is now thought to have no relatives in Britain. He is currently in hiding in west Dorset after returning from the military prison in Guantánamo Bay last month.

Mr Lidington said: “The government of Ethiopia has changed, and in recent times the majority of asylum applications in the UK from Ethiopians have failed.

“Given the state of Binyam Mohammed’s health and the gravity of the accusations he’s made I can understand why the Government has not moved quickly in the question of his permanent immigration status, but I think there are serious questions which still remain.

“If there is a strong case for him to remain in the UK that is something that ministers should be prepared to argue publicly.”

Latest Home Office figures show that only 90 Ethiopian nationals claimed asylum last year, of whom 25 were successful – although there were a further 55 appeals of which 15 were successful.

Mr Mohamed last week accused the UK of “selling me out” and disclosed extracts of secret telegrams between MI5, the British Security Service, and the American Central Intelligence Agency which he claimed showed co-operation during torture sessions.

He insisted that he wanted to remain in Britain, claiming: “It’s the only place I can call home.”

By David Barrett | Telegraph.co.uk

By Jenny Higgins

It’s 9.20am and I’m standing in a corrugated iron shed, trying to get the group of 25 third graders I am teaching to settle down. It hasn’t been the most peaceful of lessons – first a dog staged a classroom invasion, then two children had a minor disagreement from which they had to be physically separated, and then the baby from next door decided that she wanted to help teach the class and wouldn’t stop screaming until I put her on my hip.

I definitely didn’t have these problems when I was working in schools in London.

But, as bizarre as it gets, I wouldn’t change it. These children are the reason that in the last year I’ve run 10k (with no training whatsoever), walked 24 miles in torrential rain, begged anyone I could think of for raffle prizes, and endlessly badgered friends, family and strangers alike to donate money, attend fundraisers and donate clothes, toys or books.

These children are the reason that I gave up my job, my house – my life! – in London, and moved to Ethiopia.

I first met them when I went on holiday to Ethiopia in October 2006, and I had some Birr (the local currency) left over. I wanted to donate it to a small, Ethiopian-run organisation, so in the backstreets of Addis Ababa, we came across Hanna Orphans Home.

The orphanage at that time supported just over 90 children who had lost parents to Aids (it’s now well over 200) and as the founder, Hanna Teshome, showed me round, I realised how easily I could help.

So, when I returned home to England, I embarked on one of the most unplanned – and most rewarding – schemes of my life; setting up the Hanna’s Orphanage charity.

An email sent to various friends managed to elicit bags of clothes, shoes and books. People started volunteering to help, money started trickling in, and I began to drown in forms as we registered ourselves as an official charity.

I made frequent trips to Addis, laden with resources, until finally, last year, we decided we needed someone to be out at the orphanage to oversee everything.

So, on July 28, I boarded a plane and moved to Ethiopia. It’s definitely an experience I wouldn’t have missed. I get to see the difference our small contribution makes, and I get to spend time with these children who are bright, funny and turning into fantastic young people, despite the things they’ve been through.

Take Samuel for instance. His mother died from HIV and his father married a woman who had children of her own and didn’t want another mouth to feed. So she told the police that Samuel was stealing from her, and he was taken to a remand centre – aged eight.

After spending 10 months in a remand home, he was released into the care of the orphanage and is now doing really well at school as well as being a mean football player.

Or there’s a 15-year-old girl who was sexually abused by her father from the age of five. She was rescued by neighbours when her mother died and they realised what was going on. The court put her father in prison and assigned her and her brothers to the orphanage. Although still quiet and wary of strangers, she is becoming more confident with every day.

The orphanage itself is growing fast. There are branches in Gotera and Shiro Meda in Addis Ababa, one branch in Harar and one in Jimma, with one soon to open in Hosanna. Generally, the children live in “families” of seven or eight, with a “house mother”, and attend school or are tutored at home.

The children are brought up as part of the community, so they are not isolated or made to feel different. It also means that the orphanage can act as a resource centre for the local community – some of whom are worse off than the orphanage children.

Our charity, Hanna’s Orphanage, is not a huge organisation but we send what we can when we can, and we all work hard to raise as much money as possible. We’re all volunteers (including me) and take no expenses so as much money as possible goes directly to the orphanage.

We’re helping young people in the UK as well, creating links between schools in the UK and in Ethiopia, and providing exposure for up and coming bands through our fundraising gigs.

My own life has completely changed. I work with another NGO in the north of Ethiopia (I have to support myself somehow) so I split my time between the gorgeous mountains of Lalibela and the hot, busy city of Addis Ababa.

I still help the children with their English – between dog and baby visits – but I also help the orphanage to write project proposals, newsletters and action plans. And when I’m playing football in the hot sun with 20 or so screaming 10-year-olds, my life in England seems very, very far away.

• For more information visit: www.hannasorphanage.org.uk

Source: Telegraph.co.uk