April 9 (Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s annual inflation rate increased to 22.9 percent in February led by rising food costs, the Central Statistical Agency said.
Inflation expanded from 19.4 percent in January, the Addis Ababa-based agency said in a report today. Food prices climbed 30.2 percent on an annual basis, from 28 percent in January, according to the report.
——————–
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at [email protected].
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Insurgents in Somalia seized a strategic town north of Mogadishu on Wednesday for the second time in two weeks, a spokesman for the insurgents said.
Jowhar is the most significant of several towns the rebels have captured in recent months, highlighting the inability of the Western-backed interim government to impose its authority despite support from Ethiopian Woyanne and African Union (AU) troops.
The insurgents briefly seized Jowhar on March 26. Then early on Wednesday, they did it again.
“No fighting took place because the enemy troops had abandoned the town by midnight when they heard we were coming,” the insurgents’ spokesman Abdirahim Isa Adow said by telephone.
The rebels freed prisoners in Jowhar, which served as the government’s temporary base in 2005, Adow told Reuters.
Local Somali broadcaster Shabelle said the rebels wore turbans and chanted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest). Residents said they later left the town.
In recent months the insurgents have seized towns from local administrations that often amount to little more than militias, only to give them up and melt away — or be routed by Ethiopian Woyanne or Somali government forces who arrive later.
As the rebels step up their attacks, a spokesman for Burundian troops serving with the AU peacekeeping force in Mogadishu said one of their soldiers was killed on Tuesday by a suicide bomber who rammed a car into the gates of an AU base.
Witness Fahom Mohammed said four civilians also died.
“A refugee woman and her three children were cut to pieces by the blast while they were queuing outside the Burundian compound waiting for water,” she told Reuters.
Elsewhere in Somalia’s rubble-strewn capital, at least two Ethiopian Woyannen troops were wounded on Wednesday when a remote controlled roadside bomb tore through their convoy.
“I saw two Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers bleeding heavily and lying in the road,” said local man Ahmed Shine. “The Ethiopians Woyannes blocked off the whole area where the incident happened.”
(Press TV) – At least 10 Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers have been killed and 13 others injured in a landmine explosion in south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The Ethiopian Woyanne troops were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine in Waaberi district on Wednesday, a Press TV correspondent reported from Mogadishu.
Several civilians were also injured in the attack, witnesses said.
Another roadside bomb, targeting Ugandan peace keepers went off near Adan Adde international airport in southern Mogadishu, but there were no immediate reports on the number of casualties, witnesses said.
The streets of Mogadishu are the scene of daily clashes between Insurgents and Ethiopian Woyanne troops, Somalia government forces and African Union peacekeepers.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY, U.K. — Nine foreign journalists have been awarded John S. Knight Fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year at Stanford.
The international fellows include two journalists in exile—an Ethiopian online editor who is currently in exile in London, and a Chinese online editor in exile in North Carolina—and the program’s first fellows from Belarus and Iraq.
During their stay at Stanford, the Knight Fellows will pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. In May, the program will announce the selection of 12 Knight Fellows from the United States.
Financial support for the international fellows comes from sources that include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Journalism Fund, and Yahoo! Inc. The 2008-09 program marks the 43rd year that Stanford has offered fellowships for professional journalists.
Following are the new international Knight Fellows and their areas of study:
Federica Bianchi, editor and reporter, L’Espresso, Rome, Italy; international relations, focusing on the effect of China’s rise on U.S. ties with developing nations.
Dionne Bunsha, senior assistant editor, Frontline Magazine, Mumbai, India; the impact of globalization on India’s environment, and the potential for sustainable growth.
Chanda Chisala, president and editor, Zambia Online, Lisaka, Zambia; the impact of the Internet on the future of African journalism, and the philosophy of human rights.
Pedro Doria, technology columnist and writer, O Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (Knight Latin American Fellow); democracy and its pressures around the world.
Abebe Gellaw, editor-in-chief, Addis Voice/Addisvoice.com (London), Ethiopia (Yahoo! International Fellow); creating a vibrant and sustainable media organization.
Joel Gutierrez, news director, Televicentro de Nicaragua/Canal 2, Managua, Nicaragua (Knight Latin American Fellow); lessons of Ireland and similar emerging countries for Latin American developing nations.
Natalia Koulinka, news editor, Radio Station Unistar 99.5, Minsk, Belarus (Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Fellow); news journalism and models of broadcasting by non-governmental radio in a post-Soviet regime.
Watson Meng, chief editor and manager, Boxun News (Durham, N.C.), China; the impact of online citizen journalism in China and beyond.
Isra’ al Rubei’i, reporter, National Public Radio, Baghdad; freedom of the press in post-conflict societies and the development of media in emerging democracies.
AN ETHIOPIAN ASYLUM SEEKER who used a forged document to get a job in a Coventry crisp factory has been jailed for nine months.
Alazar Gebrezgiabhetr, aged 24, of Tarquin Close, Willenhall, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing a false identity document with intent.
Prosecutor Louise Pierpoint said Gebrezgiabhetr entered the UK in February 2003 seeking asylum and was given a document which prohibited him from working.
But he applied for a job at the Walkers Crisps factory in Baginton, presenting a UK travel document in his name.
It purported to give him Home Office permission to gain employment in the UK, and he began work in July 2007.
He was arrested following a joint immigration and police operation last month.
Gebrezgiabhetr said he bought the forged document for £260 from a man called Daniel, to whom he then had to return it, but claimed he thought it was genuine.
Stephen Crouch, defending, said Gebrezgiabhetr was an Eritrean national who had suffered brutal beatings in Ethiopia, and had flown to Britain with the aid of an agent who purported to be a friend.
As soon as he had entered the country the man took his passport, leaving him with no form of identity.
With few Eritreans in the UK, there was no network to help him and he ended up begging on the streets.
The opportunity then arose to obtain the false document and thereby to get work – and he took it.
Mr Crouch said Gebrezgiabhetr and his wife, who are both devout Christians, married at St John the Baptist church in Willenhall, Coventry, early last year, and his wife is now pregnant with their second child.
Jailing him, Recorder David Pittaway told him: “I have taken into account that you have pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and what has been said on your behalf.
“I have taken into account that you have a son and that your wife is pregnant and that in other respects you have endeavoured to be an honest, hardworking young man.”
He added: “I bear in mind that your wife has indefinite leave to remain and that although your first appeal against the refusal of asylum has been turned down, you have lodged a further appeal.”
