Serena Williams will visit Kenya for the first time so as to officially inaugurate a school built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard.
The opening of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni will be held on Friday, November 14.
By building schools and equipping them with electricity, computers and other teaching aids, Build African Schools and Hewlett Packard offer children educational opportunities and choices that will ultimately empower them to determine their own future.
World number two Serena Williams will spend three days in Kenya.
– KBC
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Japan today donated 9,600 metric tons of wheat worth over 47 million birr to the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony, Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Kinichi komano, said the donation has a significant contribution towards stabilizing the market.
Ethiopia and Japan have longstanding and good relations and Japan has been providing assistance in various sectors so as to further enhance the economic growth being registered in the country, Komano said.
Komano added that his country would consolidate its support to the development works to be carried out in the country.
Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) General Manager, Berhane Haile, on his part said that the donation made by the government of Japan has a significant contribution to stabilize the market.
Source: Ruling party-controlled WIC
Egypt wants the United Nations Security Council to step in to postpone the extradition of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague by a year. The Court wants to prosecute Sudan’s president for genocide and war crimes in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discussed the Darfur crisis with his Sudanese counterpart in Khartoum on Monday. He also spoke with former rebels in southern Sudan.
Egypt and Sudan agree that prosecuting President Bashir will adversely affect a peace deal for Darfur and stability in the region.
– Radio Netherlands
By JERRY STEWART | Monterey County Herald
In her homeland, Belainesh Gebre sometimes runs at altitudes as high as 7,000 feet above sea level.
At Sunday’s sixth annual Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay , the 20-year-old Ethiopian found herself running along the shoreline, and the results showed.
After breaking from a pack at around the 9-mile mark, Gebre, who now lives in Arizona, went on to win the women’s Big Sur Half Marathon title, clocking a time of 1:13:11 over the 13.1-mile course.
“It feels great to win here,” said Gebre, who after crossing the finish line looked as if she could’ve kept on running to Salinas. “I’ve been training and feel that I’m in good shape. Being at sea level, it made things a little easier.”
Like Kenyan men’s winner Wesley Ochoro, Gebre had been hoping to break the course record (1:12:18, set by Jennifer Rhines in 2006). Instead of problems with her shoes and blisters, however, Gebre was slowed down by gusty winds that at times reached up to 20 mph.
“The more we got towards Pacific Grove, the windier it got,” said Gebre, who earlier this year won the 20K Dam to Dam race in Iowa with a time of 1:12:33. “The wind slowed me down.”
While Gebre distanced herself from the field coming down the final miles, so too did 23-year-old Kenyan Hyvon Ngetich.
Ngetich, who ran a personal best half marathon time of 1:11:53 in Boca del Rio, Mexico earlier this year and like Ochoro won the OC Half Marathon, stayed with Gebre until the last mile, placing second with a time of 1:13:47. Coming in third with a time of 1:16:08 was fellow Kenyan Jacquline Nyetipie.
“It got pretty windy out there at times,” said Ngetich, who like Gebre was making her Big Sur Half Marathon debut. “She (Gebre) just went ahead of me towards the finish line.”
On the local front, Monterey’s Alexis Smith, 33, placed ninth with a time of 1:23:40.
Others placing in the top 25 included Seaside resident Sheri Abramonte (1:30:12) and Salinas’ Teresa Scattini (1:31:59).
Smith captured the women’s 30-34 division crown. Also taking home a division title was 67-year-old Carmel resident Hansi Rigney, who won the women’s 65-69 group at 1:47:47.
In the women’s 16-19 division, Carmel’s Quinn Harris placed fourth at 1:40:07, while in the women’s 45-49 division Pacific Grove’s Stella Smith also took fourth at 1:35:07.
Other top local female finishes included Lynn Moncher of Seaside (1:45:14) placing third in the 55-59 division, Salinas resident Katherine Mattson (2:08:39) placing fifth in the 60-64 division and 71-year-old P.G. resident Beverley Schmidt (3:00:21) placing fifth in the 70-74 division.
Top women overall 1 Belainesh Gebre, 1:13:11 2 Hyvon Negtich, 1:13:47 3 Jacquline Nyetipei, 1:16:08 4 Lauren Johnson, 1:16:47 5 Kari Bertrand, 1:18:08
By Daud Yussuf
GARISSA, Kenya (Reuters) – Heavily armed Somali gunmen kidnapped two European nuns on Monday during a pre-dawn raid on a remote Kenyan border town, witnesses said.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for aid workers, who are often abducted or killed in attacks usually blamed on Islamist insurgents or clan militia.
One local aid worker in the small town of El Wak said the attackers hurled a grenade and then fired a rocket at a Kenyan police post at about 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Sunday).
“They started spraying bullets … then they abducted the Dutch woman and Italian woman from the local church,” he said.
The Kenyan Red Cross Society said in a statement that the gunmen had escaped in three hijacked vehicles, and that it was feared they had taken their captives back across the border.
There was no immediate comment from Kenyan authorities.
Sheikh Hassan Hussein, chairman of Somalia’s neighbouring Gedo Region, said he did not know where they had gone.
“We don’t know who exactly they were, but we can call them Somali bandits,” Hussein told Reuters by telephone.
In the most recent attack on humanitarian workers in lawless Somalia, men armed with pistols in Jamame, north of rebel-held Kismayu port, assassinated a Somali man on Sunday who ran the local office of the U.S.-based Mercy Corps charity.
Gunmen also stormed an airstrip last week in central Somalia, kidnapping four European aid workers and two Kenyan pilots. Locals said the hostages were taken to Mogadishu.
Suspicion for such attacks normally falls on Islamist militants or clan militia, but rebel leaders have said government hardliners are behind the killings to discredit them and stir the international community to intervene. (Additional reporting by Somalia team; Writing by Daniel Wallis)
CAIRO, EGYPT – The headquarters of the Egyptian opposition party Al-Ghad went up in flames following an exchange of firebombs by followers of Gamila Isma’il, wife of imprisoned oppositionist and former party head Dr. Ayman Nour, and of followers of Nour’s political rival Musa Mustafa.
Mustafa’s followers were holding a rally in front of the headquarters.
In response, Dr. Nour said that he had warned about the event, but that Egyptian security forces had taken their time in dealing with it.
Source: Al-Masri Al-Yawm
