NAIROBI, Kenya — Suicide attacks rocked government and United Nations offices in two regions of northern Somalia on Wednesday, killing or wounding dozens of people and shattering a sense of relative calm there, according to officials and witnesses.
Five suicide car bomb attackers struck within fifteen minutes in Hargeisa, the capital of breakaway Somaliland, and in Bosasso, in Puntland, said Faisal Hayle, a security official in Mogadishu for the transitional government of Somalia.
Several buildings were leveled by the attacks, and there were casualties inside the crushed structures. According to Mr. Faisal, the bombers struck at 10:30 a.m., attacking the intelligence headquarters in both Bosasso and Hargeisa, and also an Ethiopian Woyanne consulate office and a United Nations office in Hargeisa.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Mr. Faisal blamed a militant Islamic group called the Shabab, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.
The Shabab has been waging a relentless war against Somalia’s weak transitional government, but most of their attacks have been confined to south central Somalia. Hargeisa, in northern Somalia, had until now been considered an oasis of peace and stability, and the gunmen that haunt the streets of the rest of Somalia are absent there.
The local government has been credited with setting up a small but functioning democracy, and delivering a modicum of peace and safety to more than a million people. Hargeisa is also home to several United Nations agencies. Neighboring Puntland is a semi-autonomous area known increasingly as a center of piracy and kidnapping.
In a statement on Wednesday, the United Nations Development Program said a suicide bomber had entered its compound in Hargeisa and there were known casualties and deaths but no precise figures for the toll.
The attack may have been timed to coincide with a meeting underway in Nairobi, Kenya, between Somalia’s transitional leaders and foreign forces supporting them. Militant Islamic groups were not invited to the talks and organizations such as the Shabab have shunned the talks. The militant group says it wants to turn Somalia into an Islamic state and has demanded the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops TPLF.
Ethiopian Woyanne forces have been backing Somalia’s transitional government and have been one of the targets of previous suicide attacks claimed by the Shabab. Last year, there were several large suicide attacks on EthiopianTPLF-Somali government army bases, but there has never been such a coordinated assault with five suicide attacks in a single day.
Witnesses in Hargeisa said that many of the buildings that had been hit were badly damaged with dozens of dead and wounded. Mr. Faisal said that authorities in Bosasso were still trying to determine how many people had been killed but, he said, “it looks very bad.”
Leaders of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) will travel to Europe starting Nov 7 next week. The delegation is headed by UDJ chairperson Wzt. Birtukan Mideksa. The countries they plan to visit include Germany, U.K., Sweden, Belgium and Holland.
After breaking all the promises Wzt. Birtukan and her comrades made — including sticking to the Kinijit 8-Point Proposal before any serious consideration about participating in future elections — Ethiopians in Europe are angry and plan to boycott any of the planned public meetings.
Today, Ethiopian Review spoke with some Ethiopian activists in London and Frankurt who used to be strong supporters of Wzt. Birtukan. They said that the current position Birtukan’s party took is a betrayal of those who gave up their lives to help bring about freedom and justice in Ethiopia.
Requests by Ethiopian Review to interview Wzt. Birtukan have been declined. But UDJ has no problem begging Woyanne to have access to the state-controlled media.
Currently, the only opposition party that is talking about participating in the 2010 elections is UDJ. It is also the only opposition party that has kept silent for so long about the continued atrocities by the regime of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) against the people of Ethiopia and Somalia, including the ongoing genocide that even some U.S. Congressmen are talking about and condemning.
UDJ thus demonstrated itself to be of no use to the people of Ethiopian. To the contrary, UDJ is currently aiding and abetting the Woyanne terrorist regime by speaking out against those Ethiopians who have raised arms to defend themselves, calling them ‘backwards,’ ‘primitives,’ and ‘chauvinists’ — the same language Woyanne uses against the opposition.
It is disheartening that Birtukan Mideksa and her colleagues have joined the camp of losers and traitors such as Beyene Petros, Ayele Chamiso, Lidetu Ayalew, Solomon Tekalign, and others who have betrayed their supporters and the people of Ethiopia for crumbs (frifari) that are being thrown at them by Woyannes at the urging of U.S. and U.K. diplomats. Without the intervention of the American embassy, these losers have no political life in Ethiopia. They are operating in Ethiopia only as long as Ambassador Yammamoto keeps giving assurances to Woyanne that they are no threats to the tribal junta.
The power of the vote means so much to Mike Endale that he co-founded the D.C. chapter of Ethiopians for Obama — and he isn’t even eligible to vote during this election.
Endale, who immigrated to the United States eight years ago, said that when Sen. Barack Obama declared his run for presidency in May 2007, he knew it was time for him to apply to become a naturalized citizen. On Nov. 4, he will be voting for Obama, if only in spirit.
“I’ve always wanted to become a citizen,” Endale said. “When Obama announced that he was running for president, it made me really want to participate in the election.”
He said a vote for Obama, whose father came to the United States from Kenya to attend college, is a vote for someone who shares a similar immigrant story.
“Seeing Obama in the position that he is in gives hope to the generations of Ethiopians that are here,” Endale said. “It lets them know that they can reach for what seems impossible.”
In addition to Obama’s personal ties to Africa, Endale said the senator’s policies on immigration, health care and education are the reasons ‘Ethiopians for Obama’ is supporting him.
Since 2007, Endale and the 100 members of Ethiopians for Obama have been doing their part to get votes for the candidate.
Ethiopians are the largest of the African immigrants who have come to the capitol area. The United States Ethiopian Embassy estimates that there are nearly 100,000 Ethiopians in the region.
The D.C. chapter of Ethiopians for Obama has targeted the nearly 10,000 Ethiopians in Virginia, a battleground state, which hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 1964.
Endale thinks the Ethiopian vote will be a viable factor in whether Obama or Republican Sen. John McCain wins the swing state. The organization is focusing on two key towns, Frederick and Alexanderia, with their large concentration of Ethiopians.
Recently, they gathered outside a Safeway supermarket in Alexandria, Va., preparing to embark on another day of canvassing in the 13th District. Since 2007, the group has been going door to door, morning until night several times during the week and on the weekends, collecting data on voters and sometimes even swaying voters on the other side.
The group has registered more than 2,000 people by Virginia’s Oct. 6 deadline. During one of their efforts, Emebet Bekele recalled a man who told her that he wouldn’t be “voting for a black man.”
She managed to keep her composure as she told him that she believed he was wrong and walked away. When the man called her back, they were able to have a constructive conversation. She recently learned that the man became a volunteer for the Obama campaign.
“They have the right to vote for whoever they want,” Bekele said, “but they shouldn’t be ignorant about it.”
Mistella Mekonnen, who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia 35 years ago, said the presidential race is unlike anything she has ever seen.
“There has never been this much excitement in my community in any election I have been here for,” Mekonnen said.
She calls Obama “the beacon of hope” and has been doing all she can to make sure he clinches the victory, including going to churches, visiting homes and making phone calls to ensure that those who were able to register to vote did by the Oct. 6 deadline. On Nov. 4, she plans to drive people to the polls so they can vote.
Teddy Fikre, co-founder of the D.C. chapter of Ethiopians for Obama, introduced himself after a suspecting resident answered the door. “Hi, my name is Teddy and I am from the Obama Campaign.”
The trips are not always pleasant, though, and on a single day, the group has been kicked out of a building for soliciting, had the police called on them and one resident demand that they get off his property for asking questions about who registered voters are voting for.
Fikre said he doesn’t mind the conflict because of the greater goal. “It’s definitely worth it,” he said.
PRINCETON, NJ — The gap between Barack Obama and John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Saturday through Monday has narrowed slightly, and Obama is now at 49% of the vote to 47% for McCain among likely voters using Gallup’s traditional model, and at 51% to 44% using Gallup’s expanded model.
Both candidates continued vigorous campaigning on Monday. One forthcoming event with the potential to affect voter sentiments is a 30-minute Barack Obama paid program, for which his campaign has purchased time on Wednesday night on a number of national broadcast and cable television networks.
The two percentage point margin for Obama over McCain in today’s traditional likely voters result, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Oct. 25-27, is not the first time the race has been this close; it matches the two-point Obama margin that held for three straight reporting periods spanning Oct. 13 -17, a week and a half ago. The traditional model assumes that turnout will follow the patterns of past elections, in which both current interest in the election and past voting behavior are predictors of actual voting.
Obama’s seven-point lead among expanded likely voters, based on a model which makes no assumptions about turnout based on past voting history, is fairly typical of what has been measured over the last two weeks, although slightly narrowed from the last two days’ reports. Obama’s lowest margin among this expanded group was four points, measured on Oct. 15-17.
Obama is also now at a seven-point margin over McCain among registered voters, 50% to 43%. (To view the complete registered voter trend since March 7, 2008, click here.) — Frank Newport
(Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.)
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- Navy Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4, based out of Naval Base Ventura County, Calif. attended the dedication ceremony of the Abadir Primary School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on October 16, 2008.
With the {www:support} of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Embassy and the 489th Civil Affairs Team, a crew of 11 Seabees from NMCB 4 started their work on the school refurbishing project in early August, 2008 after the project was turned over to them by NMCB 74, based out of Gulfport, Miss.
“We want all Ethiopian students to learn in an environment that helps them be the best students they can be,” said Ms. Nancy Estes, USAID-Ethiopia Program Office Chief. We are proud to work together with the U.S. Military, the leadership of the Ministry of Education and the staff and students of the Abadir School to help these children succeed in their studies and to support the hard work of Abadir teachers and staff.”
The Seabees upgraded all the facilities at the Abadir Primary School starting by repairing the roofs on the classroom and administration buildings. New electrical wiring and light fixtures were then installed in the buildings along with the courtyard, replacing the old, unsafe electrical system. Next, new tile and plumbing fixtures were installed in the bathroom facility and the outdoor wash station vastly improving the sanitary conditions for both the students and staff. New paint was then applied to the interior of the facilities and a colorful marble chip was applied to the unsightly exterior.
“Working on this project is a very extraordinary and vital part of our (NMCB 4) mission.” said Utilitiesman 2nd Class Jordan Gulvas, project crew leader. “We are not only improving a place for the children to learn and grow, we are also continuing to be accepted by the local community. Without this, I don’t think this project would be possible.”
The project was completed on October 10, 2008 with the installation of new chalkboards and refurbished school furniture provided by USAID. As the school progresses, the Ethiopian partners are committed to maintaining the school, while the U.S. Embassy will continue to support the growth of the library with more books and related material. With the total of 1681 man/days on the project and a cost of $180,000, some 300 students will benefit from this particular project, and the Seabees of NMCB 4 will continue to win the hearts and minds of the African Nation.
NMCB 4 Air Detachment is currently on a six-month deployment supporting Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa and is completing missions in various countries in Eastern Africa.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The first edition of the award “Grinzane for Africa,” an African version of the prestigious Italian literary prize, bestowed upon three figures of contemporary African literature, including the famous writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o of Kenya, on Friday.
The award presented by the Italian Embassy in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), as a part of the celebrations of its 50th Anniversary.
Along with African Heritage Prize to Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya), the other writers acclaimed for the honor are Nigerian Ben Okri in the African Mainstream Prize and Ondjaki of Angola in Young Writer Prize.
The writers joined the African club along with Nadine Gordimer (South Africa), Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), J. M. Coetzee (South Africa), who were awarded the Grinzane-Cavour Prize, and have subsequently received the Nobel Prize for literature.
The three writers selected by panel of adjudicators that involved students from high schools and universities in Italy and the rest of the world, with a jury of critics, composed by prominent Italian and foreign intellectuals, selects a list of novels, but the winner was finally chosen by the juries of students.
“Grinzane for Africa was created with the aim, every year, of celebrating African writers of global relevance, as well as detecting young authors who are emerging on the international scene and giving them the opportunity to publish one of their works in Italy, translated into Italian,” Premio Grinzane Cavour said.
This year’s three awarded writers represent two important African linguistic areas: the English and Portuguese-speaking areas. For young Ondjaki, however, the award includes the publication of one of his books in Italian.
At each edition, according to the organizers, the award will go – in rotation – to the various African countries.
Praising the writers who won the award, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mohamoud Dirir, lamented the rare opportunities Ethiopian writers inter into the list.
“It is a rare opportunity that famous Ethiopian writers are also in the list of the recipients of this highly revered prize,” said the minister.
Although this event was the first of its type to be held in Ethiopia, the minister said there is a plan to make the event annually staged on a regular base here.
“We have decided to work closely with all concerned bodies to make it a continuous major annual event in our capital, Addis Ababa,” Mohamoud Dirir said, adding the need for the immediate realization of setting up a Center for Translations as part of this important Initiative.
The ambassador said the vision is to connect Piedmont and Addis Ababa through cultural initiatives that could bring together writers, painters, artists and the budding young filmmakers.
Many African and Italian writers including Scholastique Mukasonga (Rwanda), Werewere Liking (Cameroon), Wondesen Adane (Ethiopia) Sisay Nigussu (Ethiopia), Sahlesellassie’ Beranemariam (Ethiopia), Luca Doninelli (Italy), Giovanni Porzio (Italy), Paolo Di Stefano (Italy), Claudio Gorlier (Italy) have already confirmed their participation, attended the awarding ceremony.
The Grinzane Cavour Literary Prize was set up in 1982 with the institutional purpose of getting young people interested in literature and with time it has become one of the most important international literary awards.
After breaking all the promises Wzt. Birtukan and her comrades made — including sticking to the 
