ADDIS ABABA, Jan 11 (Reuters) – China signed a deal with the African Union on Friday to build a $61 million convention centre at the organisation’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Beijing would fund the project, due to be finished by 2011, and was committed to helping the continent develop itself.
“China believes integration is in the best interest of African countries,” Yang told reporters during a visit. “Africa has every right to develop its resources to become a far more prosperous continent and China is committed to help.”
Yang, who is visiting South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Ethiopia, is the latest of several senior Chinese officials to come to Africa as Beijing taps the continent’s natural resources to fuel its booming economy.
China, the world’s fourth-largest economy and second-largest energy user, has extended billions in oil-backed loans and other forms of credit to African nations, with few strings attached, unlike financing from Western banks and international agencies.
Its growing presence has rattled Western nations that had previously dominated trade on the world’s poorest continent. (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Tim Pearce)
Kinijit North America has scheduled a press conference (teleconference) from Addis Ababa with top leaders of the party for Sunday, at 2:00 PM EST (7:00 PM GMT). The conference will be carried live by Ethiopian Review Radio Network.
Liya Kebede
LONDON, England (CNN) — Born in 1978 and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Liya Kebede attended the French Lycée in Addis. It was here that she was talent-spotted by a French film director and began her rise to supermodel status. On finishing her schooling she moved to France where she joined a Parisian model agency. After three months she moved to Chicago to live with her brothers (she has four in total) and continued her nascent modeling career doing catalog work. It wasn’t until she moved to New York that Liya received her break into big time modeling… Read more >>
The executive committee of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) is increasingly leaning toward the idea of not participating in the local elections in April, 2008. The April elections are also intended to fill the seats in the federal parliament left vacant by Kinijit members.
Kinijit is expected to make a decision in the coming few days on whether to take part in the elections. It is not that it has a choice. According to members of the executive committee, the Woyanne regime is making it difficult for Kinijit to exist as a political party, let alone to participate in elections.
The big question then is, what will Kinijit do if it cannot — or decides not — to participate in the April elections?
Ethiopian Review recommends that Kinijit calls a nationwide boycott of the April elections.
Kinijit can also intensify its worldwide diplomatic effort, such as urging donor countries, the WorldBank and the U.N. to withdraw all assistances until Woyanne allows all opposition parties are equally represented in the electoral board, have access to the media, and freely operate throughout the country. For this purpose, it may be a good idea for the executive committee to send delegations to Europe and North America led by high profile Kinijit council members. The U.S. Senate should also be urged to expedite the process of approving H.R. 2003, which will put tremendous pressure on the Woyanne junta.
April is also an opportune time for armed groups such as OLF, EPPF, ONLF and others to intensify their military activities.
Teams of organizers sent by Ato Hailu Shawel’s enderasie Abayneh Berhanu to several regions of Ethiopia are facing opposition from former AEUP members. Kinijit supporters in Gonder, Dessie and other cities, who were members of AEUP before it merged with other parties to form Kinijit, warned Abayneh’s messengers to stop endangering the party they voted for and support… Read more by zikkir News Service. Click here.
