ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A Sudan based petroleum company has penetrated to Ethiopian oil {www:market} to start operation on lubricants, fuel {www:distribution} and to provide related service in the country
Wadi Alsundus Petroleum Co, oil products distributor, is the second Sudanese oil company to operate in Ethiopia will begin functioning by the end of January, sources from the company said.
It exports gasoline to Ethiopia on behalf of Sudan government.
Wadi Alsundus has already opened branch office in the Ethiopian capital and built two oil-pumping stations in the outskirts of Addis Ababa at Mojo and Sebeta with each having an installed capacity of 160,000 liters.
The already built two oil-pumping stations are set to operate by the end of January.
The {www:introduction} of the Sudanese oil company will raise the total number of functioning oil companies in Ethiopia to seven.
The Ethiopian oil market, which had for years been dominated by foreign based Total, Mobil, Agip, Shell, in recent years been penetrated by the Kenyan Kobil, the Sudanese Nile oil, the Libyan Oilibya and now for the second time by another Sudanese oil company, Wadi Alsundus.
All the earliest dominant oil companies Agip, Mobil, and shell are actually No more in the market of the nation except for total.
The Sudanese oil company, Wadi Alsundus, has also planned to build 18 additional fuel stations in {www:different} regions of the nation to provide multi-regional distribution {www:operation}.
When the oil company goes into full operation it will provide direct supply to big enterprises that demand large volume of heavy and light fuels.
In November 2008, the Libyan petroleum dealer Oilibya bought the retailed business of Netherlands based Dutch shell, a shell company that operated in Ethiopian for 60 years and had built 200 retail service stations.
NEW YORK, USA (AVING) – Kia Motors announced today the donation of a mobile clinic in Ethiopia, one of the world’s least developed countries, as a means to help improve maternal and infant health. According to current Ethiopian health data, pregnancy related problems account for 13.8% of in-patient mortality among women of child bearing age.
The philanthropic donation is part of Kia Motors’ “Moving the World Together” CSR initiative. The specialized and equipped mobile clinic is fully funded by Kia Motors.
Mr. Hyoung-Keun Lee, Senior Executive Vice President & COO of the International Business Division, said, “This is a meaningful and important project for Kia Motors. Ethiopia has a high infant and maternal mortality rate, and we believe that this mobile clinic will provide necessary medical care to those in hard-to-reach areas of the country.”
The Kia mobile clinic is constructed to provide prenatal care, postpartum care, gynecological examinations and child immunizations. The inside of the clinic is divided into a delivery and gynecological examination room, an ultrasound /ECG/ and vaccination room, and a patient consultation room. Equipped with everything from an incubator to a fetal heart monitor to infant delivery instruments, this mobile clinic ensures proper care for both mothers and infants.
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has rejected any effort to mediate a border dispute with Ethiopia’s tribalist regime led by Meles Zenawi (Woyanne), calling it a “wicked ploy”, state media said on Saturday.
Last week, Ethiopia’s dictator Meles said he supported efforts by Libyan leader and new African Union chairman Muammar Gaddafi to arbitrate between Addis Ababa and Asmara, but doubted the maneuver would be successful.
“The political and diplomatic campaigns undertaken by ({www:Woyanne}) … are but wicked ploys designed to appease the Eritrean people and international community,” state media quoted Isaias as saying.
“He further underlined that as long as sovereign Eritrean territories remain under occupation, engaging in dialogue about any issue is totally illogical,” it said on the government website, www.shabait.com.
A 2002 border decision gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia Woyanne initially rejected it. Addis Ababa Woyanne has since said it wants more talks.
Eritrea is also involved in a border dispute with Djibouti. The two sides clashed last year and tensions have remained high.
Ethiopia’s tribalist dictatorship urged Japan to lift a ban on imports of its coffee, saying the Horn of Africa country has taken measures to {www:prevent} pesticide contamination that led Japan to halt purchases last year.
“It’s time to put the Japanese market back and this has already been communicated to them,” Ethiopian Trade Minister Girma Birru said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Feb. 17. “I think this is a problem we can leave behind us.”
Japan halted deliveries of coffee from Ethiopia in May after finding “abnormally high” pesticide residues in a {www:shipment} of the beans. Japanese officials demanded that Ethiopia find the source of the chemical and prevent future contamination.
Ethiopia is Africa’s biggest coffee producer. Japan had previously purchased about 20 percent of the country’s exports, said Girma, making it the nation’s third-largest market after Germany and Saudi Arabia. Ethiopia exported $525.2 million of coffee in the fiscal year ending July 7, according to the Trade Ministry.
Girma said the coffee shipment that led Japan to halt imports probably was contaminated by growers using sacks that previously contained insecticides or other chemicals. Most Ethiopian coffee is produced by smallholders who grow the beans without chemical sprays, he said.
Mocha beans from Ethiopia are highly regarded in Japan for their distinctive {www:flavor} and last year’s ban forced coffee shop owners to seek new blends.
No Beans
“We haven’t been able to offer Mocha coffee since last November because the supplier said they have no supplies of Ethiopian coffee beans,” said Takayasu Ito, a coffee shop manager in Tokyo’s Jimbocho neighborhood.
Japan will lift the ban once it receives assurances from Ethiopia’s government that there are no “reappearance risks,” Hiroyuki Uchimi, chief of the inspection planning section at Japan’s Health Ministry, said in a phone interview on Feb. 18.
Measures taken by Ethiopia to prevent a {www:recurrence} of contamination include establishing a laboratory to check for impurities in export coffee.
“We are now going to make clean all the coffee from smallholders or from state farms,” Girma said. “We have everything ready.”
The first survey exhibition in the United States of one of Ethiopia’s most original and prolific contemporary artists. The exhibition, co-curated by Meskerem Assegued, a revered Ethiopian curator and anthropologist, and visionary theater, opera, and multi-disciplinary arts impresario, Peter Sellars, is comprised of more than 100 works in a variety of mediums, scale, and forms. A highlight of the exhibition is a series of striking thrones made of leather, wood, mud and straw, which will be integrated into conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts staged by Sellars in mid-April.
Now through April 18, Tues. – Sat., 11 am – 6 pm
Santa Monica Museum of Art
2525 Michigan Ave.
Santa Monica, CA
(310) 586-6488 www.smmoa.org
When Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar smashed the World indoor 5000m record* on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, running 14:24.37 in Stockholm, it confirmed a stellar start to the year after a 2008 that saw her lose both her outdoor World record and 2004 Olympic gold medal over the distance to fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba.
“It was great,” a high-spirited Defar told the IAAF in an exclusive interview on Wednesday night after her record run. “Today I was in excellent shape. From the beginning til the end, I felt very good. After I passed the first two kilometres, I was certain I was going to break the record and I began to speed up. I ran the last kilometre very fast and that’s why I broke the record.”
Defar smashed more than three seconds off Dibaba’s two-year-old 14:27.42 mark, running a last kilometer of 2:46.6, after being led through 3000m by three pace-setters. “The pace they ran for me was perfect,” said the World 5000m champion Defar.
Redemption for both Beijing and a near-miss in Stuttgart
“When I ran the 3000m in Stuttgart last week, I missed the mark by three seconds,” said the world indoor 3000m champion Defar, who on 7 February targeted the 8:23.72 world indoor record she had set in 2007 but clocked 8:26.99. “It was my own mistake, so today I was determined to make up for that.”
In Stuttgart, Defar was chased by Anna Alminova who finished second in 8:28.49. “A Russian was close behind me and I was of two minds, thinking, ‘What if I lose?’ So (in Stockholm ) I was determined to run a fast time.”
For the Athens Olympic 5000m champion who in 2008 took bronze behind Dibaba, Wednesday’s indoor 5000m World record even helped make up for her crushing disappointment in Beijing.
“Yes, very much so,” said Defar. “This year has been providing redemption for me from the start of the year.”
“Although the Olympics caused me pain because I came away with a result I never expected, since then I’ve had good races, especially in Stuttgart and here,” said Defar, whose Olympic defeat had at first been followed by another 5000m loss, at the Memorial Van Damme Golden League meet. “In Brussels, the weather conditions were wet. I was not in a good place because of the Olympics, and in the final metres I was beaten by Vivian Cheruiyot and was second.”
But she returned to her winning ways in a busy September that included a London road race and the Stuttgart World Athletics Final 3000m and 5000m. “In Stuttgart, I was able to win both races, and in Hyde Park, I ran 5K on the road in 15:01,” she said. “I ran a good time.”
“After the Stuttgart final, I took a one-month break,” said Defar. “I began training on the 5th of Tikimt, according to the Ethiopian calendar [15 October]. I competed after about three and a half months of intense training.” The fruits of that preparation include a huge improvement on her own best time in the indoor 5000, which she had only run a couple of times previously, clocking 15:53.14 in 2004.
Vacations and wedding wishes for Dibaba
Defar spent much of her 2008 month off traveling with her husband. “I was abroad on vacation,” she said. “I went to Spain and Greece.”
She was back home just in time for teammate and track arch-rival Dibaba’s wedding to Olympic silver-medallist Sileshi Sihine. “It was a beautiful wedding,” said Defar, who sent the happy couple a warm letter from abroad before the wedding.
“It was broadcast on the radio,” said Defar, who recalled the gist of some of the words she had written the pair: “I wish you a happy wedding. Sileshi, take care of Tirunesh. As I have entered into matrimony ahead of the two of you, I also want to tell you how wonderful it is.”
Defar’s husband, Tewodros Hailu, is her partner in her career as well and was with her in Stockholm when she broke the record. “I ran the exact time he predicted,” said Defar. “He had said, ‘I’m sure you will run 14:24.’ He was very happy.”
Destination: Berlin
An equally-elated Defar looks ahead to another indoor appearance in Prague and beyond to the outdoor season.
“So far, I’m just running indoor track and haven’t decided what I’ll run after that,” she said, but one thing is certain for the defending World champion: the 15-23 August IAAF World Championships. “My major goal is Berlin, the 5000,” she said.
