(AP) ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — An explosion in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday killed four people and injured 24 others, a federal police spokesman said. .
The explosion is believed to have occurred in a house inside Addis Ababa’s bustling Merkato market at around 4 p.m. (1300GMT), said spokesman Demsash Hailu.
He said police sealed off the area and were investigating, but the cause of the explosion was not yet known.
There have been several unexplained explosions in Addis Ababa over the past year that have killed several people.
There has been a large explosion in the Ethiopian capital’s crowded Merkato business district where people gather socially after work.
The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says the blast happened in a video parlour where customers were watching a film.
A local radio station says four people died and 24 people were wounded. The police have not released any figures.
Sporadic attacks in Addis Ababa are usually blamed on Eritrean-back rebels.
Our correspondent says the explosion happened at around 1700 local time (1400 GMT).
Lots of ambulances have rushed to the scene – between the main Friday Mosque and bus station – and the whole area has been cordoned off by police, she says.
Merkato is full of teashops and places where young men and boys play table football.
WASHINGTON: Google on Tuesday launched its own internet browser, opening up a new challenge in cyberspace to Microsoft and its dominant Internet Explorer.
The California-based Web search leader said the new browser called Google Chrome would “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”
“We realised … we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Google’s Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
The test or ‘beta’ version can be downloaded for free in more than 100 countries and its code will be open- source so no rights will have to be paid by anyone using or adapting the software.
Chrome is Google’s latest weapon in its bid to become the leader in all internet areas. The last major browser war was won by Microsoft when it won the battle for dominance in the 1990s against Netscape Navigator.
Google scheduled a briefing on the new broswer, which will be available in more than 40 languages.
The move comes amid growth in browser market share by Firefox, a project of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which ironically gets a large portion of its funding from Google.
According to estimates by the research firm Net Applications, Internet Explorer is used by 74 per cent of computer users worldwide compared with 18 per cent for Firefox.
According to Google, the new browser will have several advantages including being “multi-threaded” to help avoid freeze-ups.
The announcement comes as Microsoft released a beta version of IE8, the eighth major version of its Explorer.
“This (Chrome) is a straight shot over the bow of Microsoft, which has tightly integrated its Live Search offering into its dominant Internet Explorer browser (and which, surprise, is in turn tightly integrated into Windows),” said Mark Hendrickson in a posting on the technology website TechCrunch.
“It also makes for an awkward relationship with Mozilla, whose Firefox browser Google basically funds.”
Henry Blodget of Silicon Valley Insider said: “Microsoft has seen this movie before. This time, it won’t like the ending.” Blodget said Google is attempting to drive more people to Google search and other applications and away from Microsoft.
“If you’re thinking about Chrome as just another Web browser, you’re missing the larger point,” he said.
“In a couple of years, you won’t be downloading Google’s ‘browser.’ You’ll be downloading Google’s software — or, rather, you’ll be clicking on a series of Google icons that come pre-installed. Specifically, you’ll be working within a Google software environment that works sort of like Windows.”
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A blast at a bar in the Ethiopian capital has killed three and wounded 12 others on Wednesday, an eye witness told Reuters.
“The explosion occurred in a bar where about 20 people were watching satellite television,” said the eye witness, who wanted to remain anonymous. He had counted three bodies, he added.
The police declined to comment but said they were investigating the blast.
Ethiopia experiences sporadic attacks caused by explosive devices in hotels or buses which it usually blames on neighbouring Eritrea.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — 91 million USD is to be released from the China Exim Bank as a soft loan for expansion works at Mugher Cement Enterprise – Ethiopia`s biggest cement producer. The loan, which will be made in two lots, is currently being processed between the credit provider and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).
CBE will in turn provide the loan for the enterprise, according to one higher official at Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Agency. The China Exim Bank and CBE had ten months ago wrapped up the loan agreement, which had failed to materialize since.
The delay was caused due to some rearrangement work and document rectifications amongst the concerned parties – Chine Exim Bank, CBE and Mugher Cement Enterprise, according to a top official of the enterprise.
Constituting 64 percent of the total financing of the expansion project, the loan will be used to procure machineries for the new cement plant in possession of the enterprise.
The expansion project is being undertaken by SINOMA, a Chinese company, which recently completed the major civil works of the plant. SINOMA outbid two Chinese companies which contested to clinch the contract.
The financing of the civil works of the expansion project, which constitute 34 percent of the total, was secured from the government’s Industrial Development Fund.
The total cost of the expansion is projected to cost over USD138 million.
The enterprise took the move in order to fill the ever-growing gap between the demand and supply for cement owing to the construction boom in the country witnessed over the last decade.
Other big cement investment projects, including Derba MIDROC, part of which recently started production, are becoming more and more evident lately. Among the list are the France-based world’s biggest cement maker Lafarge, Nigeria’s largest cement producer Dangote, and a couple of Chinese cement makers. These companies, most of which plan to erect cement plants in Oromia region, have already secured licenses from the federal investment agency.
The expansion project of Mugher, which will be the third plant to be erected adjacent to the existing two factories managed by the public enterprise, is projected to more than double the production capacity of the country’s giant cement maker. The new plant will have a capacity to produce 3000 tons cement per day.
The factory’s current capacity stands at 900,000 tons per annum, although it fails to produce in full swing lately.
Located some 150km west of Addis Ababa, Mugher factory has been operational for over the last three decades.
(The Canadian Press) — MOGADISHU, Somalia — Mortar shells slammed into Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday as insurgents vowed to intensify attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Witnesses say at least two people died in the fighting as insurgents and government forces exchanged mortar and heavy machine-gun fire in a two-hour battle that forced terrified residents to cower in their homes.
Wednesday’s violence was the worst since Aug. 21, when four hours of fighting outside the presidential palace in Mogadishu killed 12 people and injured 17 others.
Rebels linked to Somalia’s Islamist movement have been fighting an Iraq-style insurgency since being driven from power in December 2006 in an Ethiopian-led and U.S.-backed invasion that installed the current administration.
Rebel spokesman Abdirahin Issa Adow says Islamic fighters have “decided to redouble attacks against the Ethiopians Woyannes and their stooges during the holy month of Ramadan,” which began this week.
He said the Ramadan attacks do not violate the Qur’an because his fighters are battling “enemies of Allah.”
During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex and to focus on spiritual introspection.
“If we die while fasting for the sake of Allah, we will go to heaven,” a 26-year-old Islamic fighter, Abdi Yusuf, told The Associated Press by telephone. “So there is no reason why we shouldn’t intensify the fighting.”
