DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT (DV) CATEGORY
Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides a maximum of up to 55,000 immigrant visas each fiscal year to permit immigration opportunities for persons from countries other than the principal sources of current immigration to the United States. The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulates that beginning with DV-99, and for as long as necessary, up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas will be made available for use under the NACARA program. This reduction has resulted in the DV-2008 annual limit being reduced to 50,000. DV visas are divided among six geographic regions. No one country can receive more than seven percent of the available diversity visas in any one year.
For April, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2008 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:
All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA 21,500 Except: Egypt:-17,900
Ethiopia:-14,150
Nigeria:- 9,900
ASIA:- 9,100
EUROPE:- 20,625
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) 11
OCEANIA:- 1,200
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN 1,425
Entitlement to immigrant status in the DV category lasts only through the end of the fiscal (visa) year for which the applicant is selected in the lottery. The year of entitlement for all applicants registered for the DV-2008 program ends as of September 30, 2008. DV visas may not be issued to DV-2008 applicants after that date. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2008 principals are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 2008. DV visa availability through the very end of FY-2008
cannot be taken for granted. Numbers could be exhausted prior to September 30.
C. ADVANCE NOTIFICATION OF THE DIVERSITY (DV) IMMIGRANT CATEGORY RANK CUT-OFFS WHICH WILL APPLY IN MAY
For May, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2008 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:
All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA 26,700 Except:
Egypt:-20,500
Ethiopia:-16,000
Nigeria:-11,600
ASIA:- 10,500
EUROPE:- 23,500
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS):- 12
OCEANIA:- 1,400
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN:- 1,550
D. INDIA EMPLOYMENT SECOND PREFERENCE VISA AVAILABILITY
Section 202(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides that if total demand will be insufficient to use all available numbers in a particular Employment preference category in a calendar quarter, then the unused numbers may be made available without regard to the annual “per-country” limit. It has been determined that based on the current level of demand being received, primarily by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices, there would be otherwise unused numbers in the Employment Second preference category. As a result, numbers have once again become available to the India Employment Second preference category. The rate of number use in the Employment Second preference category will continue to be monitored, and it may be necessary to make adjustments should the level of demand increase substantially. For more information on DV-2008 Results click here
Zimbabwe Teeters: With the help of its neighbors, a country could be rescued from autocracy.
(The Washington Post) — ZIMBABWE IS at a familiar tipping point. There is growing evidence that a presidential and parliamentary election held Saturday was won by the opposition — mandating, at long last, the retirement of 84-year-old President Robert Mugabe. But there’s been a suspicious and prolonged delay in the announcement of the voting results: By late yesterday the official election commission had reported tallies from only 66 of 210 parliamentary districts, and none from the presidential election. It seems pretty clear that Mr. Mugabe, whose misrule has all but destroyed Zimbabwe during the past decade, hopes to steal the election and enforce his decision with the police and army.
Yet history suggests that this is a moment when the combination of popular pressure and international intervention could spell the end of an autocracy. From the Philippines in 1986 to Ukraine in 2004, dictators have been undone when they held elections, lost, then tried to fix the results. Mr. Mugabe need look no farther than Kenya for an example of what could happen if he tries to proclaim himself the winner of the presidential vote; a similar maneuver by incumbent President Mwai Kibaki there in December led to violent upheaval and forced him to accept a power-sharing agreement.
In Zimbabwe, the need for change is far more urgent. Mr. Mugabe has turned what was once an African breadbasket into a starving land where store shelves are empty, the annual inflation rate has reached 100,000 percent and millions of refugees have fled to neighboring countries. Once widely admired for leading the struggle against minority white rule, Mr. Mugabe has resorted to systematic thuggery to preserve his 28-year-old hold on power. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sharply but correctly said Sunday, his “regime is a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe, and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as a whole.”
Whether Mr. Mugabe succeeds in imposing a fraudulent election result will depend on whether other governments in southern Africa accept Ms. Rice’s judgment — and resolve, at last, to do something about the situation. For years, South African President Thabo Mbeki and other leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have tolerated Mr. Mugabe’s crimes; at most they have gently nudged him to stop repressing his opposition and accept modest reforms. (One of those changes may prove the dictator’s undoing; thanks to a law mandating that polling stations publicly post their results, the opposition has collected tallies from more than half the districts that show Mr. Mugabe losing to challenger Morgan Tsvangirai by a margin of more than two to one.) If SADC members insist that Mr. Mugabe release and accept the known results, and if they tell him that he will be isolated if he uses force against peaceful opposition protests, they probably can nudge their neighbor into a historic and desperately needed change. If they tolerate another fraud and another entrenchment by Mr. Mugabe, the disgrace will be theirs.
(AP) NEDJO, Ethiopia — Rome Berihun barely remembers Ethiopia’s deadly border war with Eritrea, but she feels its effects – in her shortness of breath, trouble swallowing and a tumor-like growth in her neck.
The 16-year-old is among about 80 percent of Ethiopians suffering from an easily preventable deficiency of iodine, an essential nutrient that was readily available from Eritrea until the 1998-2000 war halted all trade between the countries.
“It suffocates me,” said Rome, who has developed a lemon-sized goiter, or enlarged thyroid gland, in her neck – a common symptom of low-iodine diets. “I can’t breathe. I can’t swallow.”
Iodine deficiency and its largely irreversible effects – the most severe is brain damage – can be devastating. Most children born to iodine-deficient mothers appear normal but have difficulty learning and staying in school. Other symptoms include deafness, speech defects and goiters.
Dr. Iqbal Kabir, head of UNICEF’s Nutrition and Food Security section in Ethiopia, said only 4 percent of Ethiopia’s 77 million people consume iodized salt – among the lowest percentages in the world.
“I have never seen any other country like this,” said Kabir, who has worked in the nutrition field since 1983, and in that time has worked in three or four countries that used to have iodine deficiency problems, including Bangladesh and Tanzania. Both have since improved their lot.
In Ethiopia, Kabir said, “If this problem continues, a generation will suffer.”
Most countries protect against iodine deficiency, simply by adding iodine to salt at a cost of about 2 cents a pound. Most people get enough iodine simply by eating plants grown in iodine-rich soil or seafood that also carries the trace amounts of the nutrient.
But Ethiopia is landlocked, and its soil is iodine-poor. The country used to get its salt from the Eritrean port of Aseb, where iodization factories added the nutrient. But since the war, most Ethiopian salt comes uniodized from the salt flats of northern Ethiopia.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.
Ethiopia is among the world’s 13 most iodine-poor countries, including India, Pakistan, Ghana and Burkina Faso, Kabir said. Nearly 64 percent of Pakistanis suffer from iodine deficiency, according to the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders.
In Africa, Burkina Faso reports nearly 48 percent iodine deficiency rates, and Ghana tops 71 percent.
The United Nations estimates that up to 80 percent of Ethiopians suffer from the deficiency.
Ethiopia is working to fix the problem. Belaynesh Yifru, a nutrition expert in the Ministry of Health, expects newly purchased iodization machines to be operating within three months in northern Ethiopia.
But for those already suffering the effects – particularly developmental problems – this promised solution comes too late. And for those with goiters, the only treatment is surgery, a faraway option for the rural poor.
Dinke Baja, 13, blinked away tears as she touched her bulging neck in the remote village of Kelay.
“I don’t like it,” said Dinke, who has not seen a doctor because her family hopes the goiter will go away on its own. “I don’t know what causes it.”
Doctors in the area say they’re doing their part to spread awareness, but often, it’s too late. Dr. Fekede Jara, one of three doctors for Nedjo’s 20,000 residents, says he sees eight to 10 patients a day with a goiter.
In the bustling surgery ward of the largest hospital in nearby Nekemte, Dr. Adam Lemma prepared to operate on Hanmbissa Farada, a farmer who decided he was ready to shed his goiter after 25 years. The goiter, the size of a small melon, dwarfs Hanmbissa’s thin frame.
Adam, who like many Ethiopians goes by his first name, is the hospital’s main general surgeon and performs up to four goiter-removal surgeries a week. At his hospital, which is government-run and where surgeries are subsidized, the most expensive goiter removal surgery costs about $5.50 – a considerable sum in a country where average per capita income is $180.
“We have to concentrate more on prevention than on surgery,” Adam said. “It is a preventable disease.”
But for those in the remote areas, prevention seems as far away as that distant war so many years ago.
The building in this photo is not owned by Aba Gebremedhin. It belongs to Sunshine Construction owner Samuel Tefesse. We will post the correct photo shortly after making verifications. We are also gathering photos of buildings that are owned by Bereket Simon, Dula Aba Gemeda (real name: Menase Wolde Giorgis) and other high level Woyanne officials. We apologize for the mistake we made here.
Aba Gebremedhin’s (formerly Aba Paulos) recently built rental property in Addis Ababa is ready for lease. The Woyanne-installed fake patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is becoming one of the richest businessmen and real estate developers in Ethiopia. When does he have time to conduct his ‘religious services’?
Samuel Tafesse’s house near Bole Airport
Samuel Tafesse’s house near Bole Airport. It can house at least 20 middle-income families.
