MALTA- Ismael Obassa Husseina, a 26-year-old Ethiopian resident at Marsa open centre, was arraigned before Magistrate Myriam Hayman this evening and accused of resisting the police, slightly injuring a police constable, damaging a car belonging to a resident of Marsa and on two occasions threatening the same police constable, telling him that he knew where he lived and who his family was.
The police said he was also accused of disturbing the public peace at the hospital emergency department, Hamrun police station and a number of shops in Marsa, attacking a police constable while he was driving a police vehicle and damaging the vehicle.
The accused pleaded not guilty but was refused bail.
CNN has chosen Gebregeorgis Yohannes as one of its heroes (picked as one of 10 out of 10,000 nominations) and it was an excellent choice. Yohannes has devoted himself for much of the past decade to getting books into the hands of Ethiopian children.
His goals are ambitious. Not only does he want to bring books to a country where they are are scarce (in Ethiopia 99 percent of schools have no library and more than 57 percent of people over 15 years old are illiterate) but he wants to change the world.
“This is really my way of changing society, starting with children, who connect to other cultures, to other ways of thinking,” Yohannes said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “Books have changed me, have changed my world view.”
Yohannes knows first-hand what books can mean to Ethiopian children. He grew up in Ethiopia and before the age of 19 he’d read so few books that he remembered each one he’d ever seen with great clarity. Finally, at the age of 19, he read his first book for pleasure outside of school.
It was a love story. It made an enormous impression.
Yohannes eventually sought political refuge in the United States and there became a school librarian in San Francisco. But he never forgot his home country or its children.
Eventually he founded the non-profit Ethiopia Reads and now he dedicates himself to bringing books to young Ethiopians.
He is currently touring the US to personally thanks groups and individuals who have donated to his cause.
The following is a war propaganda video just released by the Woyanne regime in Ethiopia. Despite what the video tries to portray, first of all, there is no Ethiopian army under the Woyanne regime. It is a Woyanne army that is commanded by one ethnic group. Secondly, the Woyanne army currently is getting its butt kicked by 3,000 ragtag Somali insurgents. So much for the bravado. Juse consider those two facts as you watch this propaganda video, which is part of Woyanne’s preparation for another war with Eritrea.
SOUTH AFRICA: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he and others have been refused entry to Zimbabwe for a humanitarian mission.
Carter says he and other members of The Elders group were informed Friday night by former South African President Thabo Mbeki that efforts to secure travel visas had failed.
The Elders group was formed by Nelson Mandela and includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mandela’s wife Graca Machel, an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights.
The group said last week it planned to visit Zimbabwe. Mbeki is mediating the country’s political crisis.
Zimbabwe’s government had no immediate comment Saturday.
GENEVA – More than three-quarters of AIDS-related deaths occur in sub- Saharan Africa and South Africa is now officially the country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, a new UN report said Wednesday.
Improved monitoring of the pandemic has led the U.N. to revise its estimates, particularly in Southern Africa and Asia, resulting in a major revision in the assessment of India’s epidemic, the country previously thought to be worst-hit.
“South Africa is the country with the largest number of HIV infections in the world,” according to the UNAIDS annual report on the epidemic for 2007.
While the report didn’t give a figure, the South African government currently estimates some 5.5 million of the country’s 48 million population are living with the disease.
While AIDS continued to be the leading cause of death in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa was the worst affected region.
“More than two out of three (68%) adults and nearly 90% of children infected with HIV live in this region, and more than three in four (76%) AIDS deaths in 2007 occurred there, illustrating the unmet need for antiretroviral treatment in Africa.”
Women in the region bear the brunt of the disease.
“Unlike other regions, the majority of people (61%) living with HIV in sub- Saharan Africa are women,” the report found.
“It is estimated that 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million the total number of people living with the virus” that causes AIDS.
Southern Africa was the worst affected in the region with national adult HIV prevalence over 15% in eight countries.
“While there is evidence of a significant decline in the national HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe, the epidemics in most of the rest of the subregion have either reached or are approaching a plateau.”
The U.N. data showed that adult HIV prevalence was either stable or has started to decline in many parts of Africa.
According to the report, Kenya and Zimbabwe were some of the countries where the slowing trend of new infections was most evident, with similar shifts in Burkino Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali.
Worldwide, new infections of AIDS were leveling off, and of the 2.5 million people newly infected overall, more than half come from sub-Saharan Africa.
Forbes magazine has declared Beyonce Knowles and hubby Jay-Z as Hollywood’s Top-Earning Couple, with a total earnings of 162 million dollars between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008, defeating star couple Will Smith and his actress wife Jada Pinkett Smith with a shared wealth of 85 million dollars.
Third on the list are the stylish Beckhams, with an estimated earnings of 58 million dollars followed by Country music couple, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill with a collective wealth of 35 million dollars between June 1, 2007 and June 1, 2008, reports Fox News.
Surprisingly, fifth on the spot are the Hollywood power couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (/tag/brad%20pitt) who banked 34 million dollars together. Film producer and director Judd Apatow and his actress wife Leslie Mann also made it to the list at No. 6 with a total income of 30 million dollars.
Seventh on the list are perched Singer Gwen Stefani and husband Gavin Rossdale, with an earnings of 28 million dollars. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are at No. 8, with 3 million dollar less, followed by Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, both of whom earn 22.5 million dollars.
Finally tenth on the list are Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, with a collective wealth of 22 million dollars. “Naturally, powerful people tend to gravitate toward other powerful people,” clinical psychologist and celebrity researcher Jim Houran tells Forbes.com.
The top 10 power couple are :
1 Beyonce Knowles, Jay-Z
2 Will, Jada Pinkett Smith
3 David and Victoria Beckham
4 Tim McGraw, Faith Hill
5 Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
6 Judd Apatow, Leslie Mann
7 Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale
8 Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban
9 Eva Longoria, Tony Parker
10 Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart
