The Kinijit Support Group in Dallas, Texas, has issued the follwing statement opposing the illegal land give away of Ethiopian land to Sudan.

መሐል ዳር እንዳይሆን

Addis Ababa Mayor-Elect Dr Berhanu Nega and colleagues are preparing to make a major announcement next Wednesday in Washington DC, about their future political move. They have scheduled a press conference at the Ethiopian Television Network’s studio on May 14 at 10:00 AM. All Ethiopian and other media are invited to the press conference.

According to sources close to Dr Berhanu, the group will announce the formation of a new political movement that will aim to bring about an end to the Woyanne bloody regime in collaboration with other Ethiopian organizations, including those that are waging armed struggle.

The press conference will be aired live via Ethiopian Review Radio Network, Ethiopian Current Affair Discussion Forum, and other media.

VOA, DW, EriTV, Addis Dimts and other radio programs are also expected to air the press conference to their audience in Ethiopia.

By Catherine Hickley

(Bloomberg) — A team of archaeologists from the University of Hamburg said they discovered the Queen of Sheba’s palace and an altar that may have once held the Ark of the Covenant in Axum, Ethiopia.

A Christian king built a new palace over the 10th-century B.C. structure, which probably didn’t survive for very long, the university said in a statement. The altar, oriented toward the star Sirius, has two columns and may have been where the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest treasure of early Judaism, was kept until the first temple was built in Axum, the researchers said.

“The special significance of this altar must have been handed down over centuries,” the statement said. “This is shown by the many sacrifices found around this spot.”

The Ark of the Covenant, featured in the Indiana Jones movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was kept in Jerusalem for centuries, according to the Old Testament. After Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians in the 6th century B.C., the ark’s fate isn’t documented in the Bible and it entered the realm of legend.

Ethiopian Christians contend that the ark left Jerusalem much earlier — during the realm of Solomon — and was brought to Ethiopia, where it has long been enshrined in a church and is now accessible only to its guardian, a monk. This theory was explored by the British author Graham Hancock in “The Sign and the Seal.”

Fate of the Ark

The Hamburg team led by Helmut Ziegert has for nine years been investigating the origins of the Ethiopian state and the Ethiopian orthodox church. The central purpose of the field trip was to find out how Judaism arrived in Ethiopia in the 10th century B.C., and to seek clues to the present location of the Ark of the Covenant, the university said.

The palace built over the Queen of Sheba’s home was also aligned with the star Sirius, the statement said. The researchers conjecture that the second palace was built by Menelik, who, legend has it, was the son of Sheba and King Solomon.

The results of the Hamburg field trip suggest that together with Judaism and the Ark of the Covenant, a cult worshipping Sirius came to Ethiopia and practiced its religion until about 600 A.D., the university said.

According to the Old Testament, God ordered Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, a box made of acacia wood and plated with gold. It is believed to have contained the tablets listing the Ten Commandments.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at [email protected].

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) – A curfew in the Sudanese capital has been lifted a day after Khartoum was assaulted by rebels.

That’s according to state-run radio in Sudan. It also reports that a curfew remains in effect in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman, where rebels are said to be still on the loose. Extra checkpoints are still in place throughout Khartoum.

The surprise assault late Saturday is the closest Darfur rebels have ever come to Sudan’s seat of government, which is hundreds of miles from their bases in the far west of the country.

Sudan’s government has issued several statements claiming to have crushed the rebels.

Sudan has also severed relations with Chad, which it accuses of supporting the fighters.

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Last Darfur rebels leave capital, officials say

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – The last of the Darfur rebel forces left Sudan’s capital on Sunday after unprecedented battles in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, a government official and a security source said.

“All rebel forces have now left the capital,” Mutrif Siddig, the under-secretary at Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, told Reuters.

A security source from Umm Bedda, the furthest outlying reach of west Omdurman, said rebels had retreated to some 70 km (45 miles) outside the city.

Searches continued inside Khartoum for individuals thought to be insiders due to meet the rebels who fought their way into Omdurman with about 70 vehicles on Saturday afternoon.

“And even those are being chased down by security forces,” Siddig added. Dozens of people were being arrested throughout the capital.

No one was available to comment from the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). On Sunday morning, a JEM commander told Reuters they were in more outlying areas of Omdurman. But no shooting has been heard there since late morning. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom)

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Sudan cuts Chad ties after Darfur rebel attack

KHARTOUM (AFP) — Sudan on Sunday severed diplomatic ties with Chad, accusing Ndjamena of backing a first Darfur rebel assault on Khartoum, and slapped a multi-million dollar price on the head of the alleged mastermind.

The government said it had repulsed the assault by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), allegedly backed by Ndjamena, which saw the insurgents reach Khartoum’s outskirts with the declared intent of toppling the regime.

“We are forced to sever diplomatic relations with this regime” in Chad, President Omar al-Beshir said on state television following the attack on the capital’s twin city of Omdurman just across the river Nile.

“We place the entire responsibility for this attack on Chad,” he said, dressed in his field marshal’s fatigues.

Chad said it regretted Khartoum’s decision, denied any involvement in the attack and condemned a raid on the Chadian embassy. “Chad can only take note of this hasty decision with regret,” said the government in a statement.

Uniformed Sudanese men ransacked the Chadian mission in Khartoum, taking away documents and computer equipment, it added.

The Darfuri attack in broad daylight, one day after Khartoum warned that rebels were marching towards the capital, marks the first time regional rebels have ever brought decades of violence so close to the seat of Sudanese power.

A senior official in the military command told the state SUNA news agency that 250 million pounds (123 million dollars) would be paid to anyone who arrests JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim or provides information on his whereabouts.

Beshir convened an emergency session of the national security council, which included Salva Kiir, the leader of south Sudan that fought its own two-decade civil war until reaching a power-sharing agreement with Khartoum.

Government forces were on Sunday hunting down remnant rebel forces all over the capital and in neighbouring states, rounding up arms and explosives.

The official SUNA news agency said the Sudanese military had killed a leading JEM commander, had chased down, fought and wiped out a 45-man rebel force 50 kilometres (31 miles) from western Omdurman and arrested 300 rebels.

Omdurman remained under curfew but restrictions were lifted elsewhere. The Egyptian news agency MENA said Khartoum international airport was closed and commercial airlines told passengers that flights to Sudan were cancelled.

There were no clear indication from either side on casualty numbers.

JEM’s deputy chief of staff Suleiman Sandal said that his forces had taken Omdurman but were having trouble with the urban fighting environment having come from the desert of Darfur, and had suffered deaths and injuries.

“This is the first time for them to fight in towns and now we are gathering our troops and thinking about what we’re doing,” he told AFP.

He said his forces had been prevented from crossing a key bridge into Khartoum overnight after taking three days to drive from Darfur in a convoy of 400 vehicles in order to depose the regime.

Sudan and Chad have long accused each other of backing rebels seeking to topple their respective regimes.

Foreign ministry official Ali Yousif said that Sudan had evidence of communication between the rebels, the Chad government and the Chadian embassy in Khartoum. He said five or six Chadian diplomats were expected to leave.

One Omdurman resident told AFP he could see smashed cars in the streets and plumes of smoke rising after a night of fighting.

“Up until six o’clock (0300 GMT) this morning there was very heavy bombardment. I can see smoke out of the window and smashed cars from the roof of the building,” said the father of one.

“We’re just being told to stay in and keep a low profile,” a US diplomat said, also asking not to be named.

In February, rebels allegedly backed by Khartoum advanced as far as the gates of the presidential palace in Ndjamena before being repulsed.

Sudanese television on Saturday showed images of what it said were captured rebels cowering in the back of an armoured personnel carrier, along with footage of captured rebel all-terrain vehicles, field artillery and shells.

The White House said it was “very concerned” about the violence and urged both the Darfur rebels and government forces to cease hostilities.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the “use of armed force and military means by JEM” and called for “an immediate cessation of fighting.”

MOGADISHU (Garowe Online) – Islamist rebels ambushed an armored convoy transporting Somalia’s internal affairs minister Saturday in the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu, sources said.

Muse Nur Amin, the Interior Minister, was in one of the vehicles but his car was not directly hit by the insurgents.

But two other cars which were part of the Interior Minister’s convoy were laced with bullets and later captured by the insurgents, according to witnesses.

At least four government soldiers were killed and two others wounded, with the Interior Minister escaping the ambush unhurt.

Ali “Ganey” Adan, a police commander in Lower Shabelle region, confirmed to reporters that Interior Minister Amin’s convoy was attacked and local authorities dispatched police units to the area reinforce the government minister.

Al Shabaab spokesman Muktar Robow “Abu Mansur,” who claimed responsibility for the deadly ambush in Lower Shabelle region, bragged that no one on their side was hurt during the skirmish.

In Mogadishu, at least 11 people died from a series of overnight attacks, including two Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers who were killed when their vehicle came under rocket fire in northern Mogadishu.

Five civilians were reported dead when shells hit their homes following street fighting between insurgents and government forces, locals said.

Somalia has been mired in armed conflict since 1991, but the ongoing war is being waged between Ethiopian Woyanne-backed government troops and Islamist-led rebels.