ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – An Indian cultural music group has arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a two-week cultural tour in the country, APA learnt here on Friday.
The Indian embassy in Ethiopia said that the team is in the country as part of the celebration of the Ethio-Indian 60-year diplomatic relation.
Accordingly, the cultural team will perform before millions of people in four selected big cities of Ethiopia namely Addis Ababa, Nazareth, Dire Dawa and Bahid Dar.
On Thursday, an Indian cultural music exhibition was staged in Nazareth in the Oromia State, located at some 100km East of Addis Ababa.
The team is expected to perform in the remaining three towns in the coming days.
The Indian cultural team’s visit to Ethiopia, according to the Indian embassy, is expected to enhance the two countries’ relation on culture and history.
India is currently involved in various investment opportunities in Ethiopia with around US$ 3.5 billion investment capital.
The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) announced on Wednesday its plans to start off operation of installed high-tech multi-inclusive equipments, and thus entertain about 6.5 million more customers during the current fiscal year.
While conferring with local media regarding the corporation’s performance assessment report at ETC’s head office, Amare Amsalu, CEO of the Corporation, Zelalem Bekele, Chief Technical Director, and Abdurahim Ahmed, Communication Affairs Division Manager, divulged the finalization of imports of varied facilities that can enable customers nationwide to utilize them from any locality which are cost effective at the same time.
The CEO said that in addition to the 4000 optical fiber installation, a 2000km additional installation carried out in last year’s budget year will help avoid the internet disconnection problems, particularly due to the malpractices of cutting off the fiber wires that had been witnessed in certain areas. Complementary radio equipment installations in all the service areas have also been operational and now are undergoing pilot-testing, according to Amare.
In parallel, ececutive officer addressed the need to engage in microwave transmission services where there are not optical fiber facilities. Wireless mobile phones are being allocated during this quarter year period to that end, he said.
To alleviate the problems related to the broad band internet network connections, Amare and his colleagues informed the press that 155 mega bites of more fiber links have been created both through links with Sudan and Djibouti, apart from installations of New Generation fixed network facilities which provide all-inclusive services delivery via data and audio-visual services that make use of fiber networks instead of copper networks which render limited internet connection and band width services.
“We believe this umbrella project will bring overall changes in service rendering in the capital as well as in the regions through out the country,” said Amare adding that after the installations are due, about 670 weredas will be capacitated to use the ellaoate broad band services such as video-conferencing, high speed data sending and receiving, among other cost effective transactions.
Meanwhile, to deliver automated services to the people a grand Customer Care and Billing project has been finalized during the past budget year, according to Amare. This project is undertaken such that it can serve close to15 million customers.
Updating ETC’s poor call centre services has also been imperative, admitted Amare besides to contending that, in order to escalate ETC’s present call centre to international standards and enable it to give appropriate services, a vast 750-seat modern call centre has already been built which is believed to entertain 16 million users at a time.
The officials in addition disclosed that to enclose the lower and lower middle section of the society in the phone service delivery, projects are underway to install up to 60,000 cost effective public pay-phones that can serve customers across the country wherever there are mobile as well as wire phone service signals and not necessarily terminals.
Besides to pay-phones, 15,000 E-cards have also been imported to serve those who cannot always purchase a 25 birr voucher card which is the minimum price needed to make a call with a mobile phone.
With the provision of services for the previous year’s 800,000 customers and this year’s 639,074 new customers, the corporation has procured 3.38 billion financial revenue with a 1.065 billion net profit during the past fiscal year, added the CEO.
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – A candidate for Leon County Judge is under fire as sources tell Eyewitness News, she has a felony {www:arrest} on her record.
Nina Ashenafi Richardson, a native of Ethiopia, was the top vote getter in the primary and she calls the allegations nothing but an effort to smear her good name.
Nina Ashenafi Richardson was greeting voters Thursday as they waited in line to cast ballots at the Leon County Courthouse.
Her attorney, Ron Meyer, says she has no arrest record, but sources tell Eyewitness News that Ashenafi-Richardson was arrested for theft while in law school.
The County Justice Information system shows Ashenafi Richardson has a so-called spin number which indicates an arrest, but there is no other information listed.
The rest, sources say, has been sealed.
State Attorney Willie Meggs says he doesn’t know the particulars of this case, and couldn’t talk about them if he did.
“I know there is a spin number. I know there is no {www:information} behind that spin number which is an indication that there had been an arrest and a disposition of some sort that was later sealed,” Meggs said.
The head of the Tallahassee Bar, Jim Banks, says he has no {www:knowledge} of this case, but says lots of people have records sealed and the law allows them to deny ever being arrested.
Folks who have had their records sealed do not have to reveal them unless they are applying for certain jobs, like those in law enforcement, day care or education, he said.
“They’re sealed for a good reason. These are people who may have made a mistake when they were young and foolish. It’s a relatively minor offense and you seal it,” Banks said.
Ashenafi Richardson’s opponent in the county judge’s race, Sean Desmond, who came in second in the primary, says he and others in the legal community have known about the arrest for some time, but he’s refused to bring it up in the campaign.
“So people talk to me about all the time and say, what’s the deal with that and I say, um, I’m running a positive campaign based on my {www:experience} and qualifications,” Desmond said.
Ashenafi Richardson, a former President of the Tallahassee Bar who is well known for her pro-bono work, refused to comment on camera Thursday, calling the arrest allegations a smear tactic.
The Kenya family of US Democratic presidential {www:candidate} Barack Obama has halted all media engagements until after the US presidential election on November 4 .
The move has been taken to give Obama’s paternal grandmother, Mama Sarah Onyango Obama a break, according to a family member Mr Said Obama.
In the recent past, a battery of local and international journalists have been visiting the {www:home} on a daily basis to seek interviews from the 85-year old granny.
But Mr Said Obama said the family would open up to the media on November 5, a day after the elections.
And on Wednesday, Siaya District police chief Mr Johnston Ipara said security officers would restrict entry to the home to ensure the family privacy is guaranteed
“People who {www:visit} the family’s home in K’Ogelo will be restrained from conducting interviews to the family members,” he said
Mr Ipara added the move was taken to ensure that people, especially the media, do not pre-empt the outcome of the US elections by using comments from the family members.
“We do not want Mama Sarah Obama to be disturbed at the {www:moment} she needs time to monitor the elections as they unfold,” said Ipara.
He said all visitors to the home would be thoroughly screened by the police before being allowed in.
Obamamania
Meanwhile, Obamamania continued to grip Kisumu town and its environs as hawkers cashed in on the craze to sell branded T-shirts, caps and badges.
Dancehalls have also recorded a high number of songs recorded in vernacular languages in praise of the US presidential candidate whose father was Kenyan.
Derartu Tulu and Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia are among them.
By Brett Larner
On Oct. 28 the Tokyo International Women’s Marathon announced the elite field for the event’s 30th and final running, to take place Nov. 16. Top domestic runners Yoko Shibui, Yuri Kano, Yoshimi Ozaki and others will face off for slots on the 2009 Berlin World Track and Field Championships marathon team while competing against foreign competition including 2008 Osaka International Women’s Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi of the U.K., 2007 Tokyo IWM runner-up Salina Kosgei of Kenya, and 2008 London Marathon runner-up Russian Svetlana Zakharova. Aging Ethiopians Derartu Tulu and Elfenesh Alemu are also on the entry list along with newcomers Tetyana Filonyuk of Ukraine and Kenyan Magdaline Chemjor.
Former marathon national record holder Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) had a career-worst run at last year’s Tokyo but afterwards went on to experience a rebirth on the track, running the kind of performances not seen since her glory days over five years ago and ultimately making the Beijing Olympics 10000 m. If her rejeuvenation this year extends to the marathon she will be one of the favorites.
Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) has also had a very strong year, clocking track and road PBs, winning June’s Sapporo International Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in July’s New York City Half Marathon, and winning October’s Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Jose. Kano is still relatively inexperienced at the marathon but seems poised for a breakthrough performance.
Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei), the younger sister of Kano’s teammate Akemi Ozaki, ran a noteworthy debut marathon at the Nagoya International Women’s Marathon in March, clocking 2:26:19 to take a close 2nd behind fellow debutante Yurika Nakamura’s winning 2:25:51. Ozaki was graceful and strong, and like Kano may be ready for bigger things.
2008 Tokyo International Women’s Marathon Elite Field
Svetlana Zakharova (Russia) – PB: 2:21:31 (Chicago `02) – SB: 2:24:39 (London ’08)
Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) – PB: 2:25:10 (Osaka ’08) – SB: 2:25:10 (Osaka ’08) and 2:27:29 (Beijing Olympics)
