Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that he and President Bush will step up pressure to end violence in Sudan’s Darfur province. Brown, who and President Bush wrapped up two days of talks Monday in the United States, said they agreed to expedite the UN resolution for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. Congressman Donald Payne is chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. He told VOA he hopes the new breed of European leaders would force the United States to do more about Darfur.“I hope that the new prime minister of Great Britain and the new president in France have both taken a very strong interest, and this is a good sign, if we could get the Europeans more engaged to put pressure on and push our government. The members of Congress want to go further, but we’ve seen the administration sort of slow down once again because Sudan is supposed to be assisting us against al-Qaeda, they claim,” he said.Congressman Payne said the United States was once again looking the other way while thousands continue to die in Darfur.“Once again, we are looking the other way as people die because one issue is supposed to be paramount to this so-called war on terror. We cannot compromise all the principles for people we consider to be our allies because they say they support the war on terror,” Payne saidCongressman Payne called for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics if China does not stop selling what he called illegal arms to Sudan.“We must keep the pressure on China. I’d like to even see, if they continue to sell illegal arms to the government, that we should have a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing in ’08. It would be the blood Olympics, and we can’t let them have it both ways,” Payne said.Payne, who also sponsored the Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2007 last month, said Congress was pleased about the recent release from prison of 38 opposition politicians.But he said the United States must keep up the pressure on the Ethiopian government.“There are hundreds of more political prisoners, and the United States needs to keep pressure on Ethiopia as we would on any other country that’s our ally and friend, to tell them that they must respect the rights of their people. We cannot go back to the days of the Cold War where we supported totalitarian governments just because they were on our side because in the long run you lose,” he said.
On Zimbabwe, Congressman Payne hoped that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries would prevail on President Robert Mugabe to relinquish what he called his strangle hold on his people.
“Mr. Mugabe has just turned his back on many of us who have been trying to help Zimbabwe. And so something has to happen. The country cannot exist much longer in the manner in which he is running it,” Payne said.
ETHIOPIAN Airlines has purchased one MD-11 from Boeing for conversion. The aircraft will be delivered to Ethiopian in December 2008.
Ethiopian is also negotiating for a second converted MD-11 freighter aircraft on a lease basis scheduled for delivery at the end of 2009. Ethiopian currently operates two B757 freighters.
“Currently, the Ethiopian export market is exhibiting a dramatic annual average growth rate and ET’s total international freight traffic uplift has been increasing at 12.03 per cent annually. The addition of these two freighter aircraft will bolster cargo capacity of the airline supporting the increasing export market of the country.”
Ethiopian Cargo provides services to and from various points in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Ethiopian operates eight times per week en route Brussels, the airlines cargo hub in Europe; five times a week to Dubai; four times to Djibouti; three times to Mumbai; two times to Lagos; Kinshasa and flies weekly to Bujumbura, N’djamena, Jeddah and Kigali, in addition to belly-hold cargo space on scheduled passenger services.
Supermodel Liya Kebede has created a clothing line primarily geared towards children.
Called Lemlem, the range will cater to children aged three months to 10 years old. Combining some traditional weaving and embroidery techniques with modern silhouettes, all the pieces of the collection are handmade in Ethiopia, Kebede’s native country.
Lemlem, which means “to bloom” in Amharic, a Semitic language from Ethiopia, is expected to launch in early 2008 in limited distribution.
Discovered and signed to an exclusive Gucci contract in 2000 by designer Tom Ford, Kebede currently ranks 11th in Forbes’ list of the highest paid supermodels in the world. The face of Estée Lauder, the supermodel is also known for her charitable and socially relevant work. Apart from her appointment in 2005 as a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for maternal, newborn, and child health, she has also just recently established The Liya Kebede Foundation, which aims for a reduction in maternal, newborn, and child mortality.
Supermodel Liya Kebede has created a clothing line primarily geared towards children.
Called Lemlem, the range will cater to children aged three months to 10 years old. Combining some traditional weaving and embroidery techniques with modern silhouettes, all the pieces of the collection are handmade in Ethiopia, Kebede’s native country.
Lemlem, which means “to bloom” in Amharic, a Semitic language from Ethiopia, is expected to launch in early 2008 in limited distribution.
Discovered and signed to an exclusive Gucci contract in 2000 by designer Tom Ford, Kebede currently ranks 11th in Forbes’ list of the highest paid supermodels in the world. The face of Estée Lauder, the supermodel is also known for her charitable and socially relevant work. Apart from her appointment in 2005 as a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for maternal, newborn, and child health, she has also just recently established The Liya Kebede Foundation, which aims for a reduction in maternal, newborn, and child mortality.
Addis Ababa – Ethiopian opposition officials told a court on Monday that two anti-poverty activists on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government were never members of their movement. Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last two defendants out of 131 original charged in a long-running treason trial.
On Monday, Hailu Shawel, chairperson of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) told the court neither men had been a part of his organisation.
“Charges that they were CUD members are totally false,” he said. “If they had been members I would have known.”
Hailu Shawel and other senior CUD officials were also charged in the same trial, which human rights groups and donors said was an attempt to dismantle the opposition after it made strong gains in 2005 elections. They were all arrested after two bouts of violence after the disputed polls in which 199 civilians and police were killed, 800 people wounded and 30,000 arrested, according to a parliamentary inquiry.
They were freed on July 20 after the government published a letter it said CUD leaders had sent to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi admitting their guilt and repenting.
Defence lawyers say Bekele and Netsanet, who work for ActionAid Ethiopia and the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia respectively, refused to sign and want to be acquitted.
Butty interview with Payne
