By Adam Williams

BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Ethiopian distance champion Haile Gebrselassie will again attempt to break the world marathon record in Berlin next month after his narrow miss last year.

“My aim is to break the record”, the twice Olympic champion over 10,000 metres told a news conference in the German capital on Tuesday.

“Berlin will be the most important race of 2007 for me…sometimes there is one city where you feel something, a kind of confidence.

“The good thing about Berlin is the course,” he added about the Sept. 30 race. “I’m in good shape. It was very close last year. I’m looking forward to this year. Who knows?”

In 2006, Gebrselassie won the Berlin race in a personal best time of two hours, five minutes, 56 seconds — which was 61 seconds slower than his great track rival Paul Tergat’s world record set over the same course in 2003.

Tantalisingly, Gebrselassie was inside world record pace for much of the race on the flat, fast course through Berlin but he was slowed in the final kilometres by headwinds as he ran alone.

“The last part was the problem last year,” said Gebrselassie of the course that was hit by unusual winds from the east when it passed through the high-rise Potsdamer Platz square about two km from the finish at Brandenburg Gate.

“This year I’m doing a little bit of extra mileage and I do the last part a little faster in training,” he said.
Gebrselassie, 34, won four successive world titles over 10,000 metres and set numerous world records before he turned to road racing.

He won the Fukuoka marathon in Japan in December, but dropped out of the London marathon in April.

The spokesperson of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit), Dr Hailu Araya, has cleared the confusion about the party’s decision regarding Kinijit Diaspora. In an interview with VOA’s Addisu Abebe today, Dr Hailu said that both groups that tried to work on behalf of the top leadership have been dissolved by the executive committee’s decision.

A controversy arose when former Ethiopian Teachers Association president Dr Taye Woldesemayat, who helped create and became the chairman of the so-called Kinijit International Council (K.I.C.), said last week that the executive committee’s decision doesn’t apply to his group.

In the interview with the VOA, Dr Hailu made it clear that the decision applies to both the Kinijit International Leadership (K.I.L.), which has dissolved itself upon learning about the decision, and the K.I.C., which was created just three weeks before the Kinijit leaders were released from jail.

The K.I.C. headed by Dr Taye Woldesemayat was formed over the objection of all the Kinijit support committees in the Diaspora. Out of the 23 members who were invited to join the K.I.C., less than half have joined — many of whom have never been members of Kinijit. Dr Taye himself had made his anti-Kinijit stand public by declaring that he did not even vote for it in the 2005 elections. He has also never been to any Kinijit public meetings, and never spent one minute of his time in the past 22 months in the world-wide effort to secure the release of the Kinijit leaders.

It is now becoming clear that Dr Taye and members of the K.I.C. were hand-picked by Shaleqa Yoseph Yazew and his group of serial party-hoppers (EDU, EPDA, Tatek, AAPO, Kinijit, etc.) to split apart Kinijit and run away with a splinter group in order to cover up their theft and mismanagement.

The biggest fool in all this is the once-respected Dr Taye who is currently being used as a trojan horse by the corrupt shaleqa.

Most Kinijit members were willing to over look Dr Taye’s invective against Kinijit’s jailed leaders out of respect for the sacrifice he made in spending six years in Woyanne jail. But they consider what he is doing now to be anti-Kinijit. Those who are cheering him on are well-known anti-Kinijit web sites and radio programs.

The shaleqa and cohorts are able so far to create all this havoc using the good name of Ato Hailu Shawel, chairman of Kinijit. Their claim to any spec of legitimacy inside Kinijit is their close, personal relationship with Ato Hailu Shawel.

Ato Hailu Shawel will have to make a decision soon. He has to decide whether to continue allowing the shaleqa group to disrupt the organization using his name. Unlike Dr Taye, we are confident that Ato Hailu will make the right decision.

In the mean time, the executive committee’s spokesperson, Dr Hailu Araya, did the right thing today in clearing the confusion purposefully created by the shaleqa group and their puppet, Dr Taye. Listen Dr Hailu Araya’s interview here.

የቀድሞውን የኢትዮጵያ የሀገር ውስጥ ሚንስትር አቶ ክንፈ ገብረመድህንን በጥይት የገደሉት ሻለቃ ጸሀየ ወልደስላሴ በጠቅላይ ፍርድ የተበየነባቸው የሞት ቅጣት ዛሬ መፈጸሙን የኢትዮጵያ ማረሚያ ቤቶች አስተዳደር አስታወቀ። ሻለቃ ጸሀየ ወልደስላሴ  የሞቱ ቅጣት እንዴት እንደተፈጸመባቸው ግን አስተዳደሩ አእገለጸም። የቀድሞውን የኢትዮጵያ የሀገር ውስጥ ሚንስትር የተገደሉት የኢትዮጵያ ዋነኛ ገዢ የፖለቲካ ፓርቲ ሕዝባዊ ሀርነት ትግራይ ህወሀት አመራር በተከፋፈለበት ወቅት ከስድስት ዓመታት በፊት ነበር።

በምስራቅ ኢትዮጵያ በኦጋዴን ሁለት ቦምቦች በፈነዱበት ጥቃት አንድ ሲቭል መገደሉንና ሌሎች ስምንት መቁሰላቸውን ዜና ምንጭ ሮይተርስ አስታወቀ። የኢትዮጵያ መንግስትና የኦጋዴን ብሄራዊ ነጻ አውጪ ግንባር ለፍንዳታው ጥቃት እርስበርስ ተወቃቅሰዋል። አንድ ስማቸው እንዲጠቀስ ያልፈለጉ የኢትዮጵያ ማስታወቂያ ሚንስቴር ቃል አቀባይን ጠቅሶ እንደዘገበው፡ በኦጋዴን ርዕሰ ከተማ ጂጂጋ ትናንት አንድ የገበያ ቦታና አንድ ቤተክርስትያንን ዒላማ ባደረገው ጥቃት የተጠረጠሩ ሁለት ግለሰቦች ታስረዋል። ጥቃቱን የጣለው የኢትዮጵያን መንግስት ለማሳጣት የሚፈልገው የኦጋዴን ብሄራዊ ነጻ አውጪ ግንባር ነው በሚል የጠቅላይ ሚንስትር መለስ ዜናዊ ከፍተኛ አማካሪ አቶ በረከት ስምዖን ወቀሳ አሰምተዋል።

Source: DW