Arash Mosaleh | Channel 2 News
RENO, NEVADA – Nearly $50,000 in marijuana is off the streets, after Reno Police officers arrested a man accused of drug trafficking in downtown Reno Wednesday.
Police arrested Yohannis Mengesha at the Amtrak Station.
They say Yohannes is an immigrant from Ethiopia, in the country illegally.
Cops caught Mengesha with a suitcase filled with marijuana.
Police say they found nearly 20 pounds of marijuana in the suitcase. Police say it’s worth nearly $50,000.
If you have any further information, call Secret Witness at 322-4900. You could get a reward and you don’t have to give your name.
MOGADISHU (AFP)
Somalia’s radical insurgents on Monday vowed to fight on despite Addis Ababa’s Woyanne’s pledge to respect a UN-sponsored deal reached a day earlier that allows for a pullback of Ethiopian TPLF troops Thugs.
The Somali government and an Islamist opposition umbrella group on Sunday agreed to implement a dormant June ceasefire, paving the way for pro-government Ethiopian Woyanne troops to pull back from the country.
But Mukhtar Robow, a spokesman for Shebab militants, said: “We have already rejected the (peace) conference and its agreements. We are now saying again that we will not accept them.
“We will continue fighting against the enemies of Allah,” he told reporters in Mogadishu.
The accord calls for Ethiopian Woyanne troops to pull out of areas in Mogadishu and the central garrison town of Beledweyne by November 21, leaving them under the control of African Union troops in Somalia (AMISOM).
Under the deal, the Somali government and opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) are to assemble a 10,000-strong police force to help the peacekeepers control the areas.
Ethiopia Woyanne said it would respect the agreement.
“We will respect this encouraging decision reached by the transitional government of Somalia and the ARS,” Wahide Belay, a foreign ministry spokesman Woyanne puppet, told AFP.
“The agreement is in line with the Ethiopian Woyanne position on orderly troop withdrawal,” he said.
Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s arch-rival Eritrea said Somalia’s stability required “the immediate, unconditional and full withdrawal of the occupying Ethiopian TPLF army,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Ethiopia Woyanne “not only exacerbated the situation but also committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it added.
Asmara also called for the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers Dictators-R-us toy-solders, accusing them of being “a party to the conflict.”
Regional leaders will this week meet in Kenya to discuss the Ethiopian Woyanne’s pullback retreat, a key demand of the Shebab insurgents Somali freedom fighters who are continuing to fight in Mogadishu.
The meeting, organised by the Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD), will attempt to reconcile warring factions.
The meeting is “a build-up of the UN talks in Djibouti. We shall discuss agreements reached there, including implementing the ceasefire and Ethiopian Woyanne troop pullout,” an IGAD spokesman told AFP.
And another source inside IGAD said: “The conference will recommend ways of dealing with the Shebab and bringing the group into the peace process.”
Shebab rebels Somali Freedom Fighters have refused to participate in the talks and recognize the accords until Ethiopian forces Woyanne withdraw from the country, with one leading Islamist, Hassan Dahir Aweys, rejecting the June agreement.
Foreign ministers from IGAD nations — Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia — would meet both factions on Tuesday before a presidents’ summit on Wednesday, the IGAD spokesman said.
A delegation from the ARS, dominated by moderate Islamists and based in Eritrea, was also expected to attend the meeting, he added.
Details of the Ethiopian pullback Woyanne retreat would be worked out by the two governments, IGAD and the United Nations, said officials.
In the capital meanwhile, the violence continued Monday.
Two people were killed in fighting that erupted after EthiopiaWoyanne-backed Somali forces raided rebel hideouts in northern Mogadishu, witnesses said.
Ethiopian troops TPLF Thugs intervened to prop up the feeble Somali government at the end of 2006 and eventually drove theIslamists Freedom Fighters from much of the country’s southern and central regions, where they had established Sharia law.
Since then, the Islamists Freedom Fighters have killed numerous government officials and vowed to fight until the Ethiopians TPLF and AMISOM troops, whom they regard as occupiers, withdraw.
Somali lawmakers, who have already endorsed the agreements, expressed support for the accords.
“We are always for peace and it has been proven beyond doubt that reconciliation is the only way out of the conflicts,” said Musa Sudi Yalahow, a former Mogadishu warlord and now a lawmaker.
Somali has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. A resultant power struggle has defied numerous UN-backed attempts to end violence and restore a functional government.
By Bonny Apunyu, SomaliNet
Intense battle erupted on Saturday morning in Somalia in an area between Lego and Yaqbariweyne in the Bay region (south) when Al-Shabaab forces ambushed Ethiopian TPLF and Somali government troops heading to the capital, Mogadishu, residents said.
Sheikh Muqtar Robow Abu Mansorsaid, Al-Shabaab spokesman told reporters in a teleconference that their troops were responsible for the attack, claiming that they chased away the country’s troops and their Ethiopian Woyanne allies.
“This morning Allah’s forces waged an ambush attack against Allah’s enemy,” Abu Mansor said.
“One of our solders died and four others were wounded but we chased them and forced them to retreat,” he added.
Heavy weapons and machine guns could be heard in the surroundings, according to residents.
“Early in the morning we heard sounds of heavy weapons and we thought of a battle between Ethiopian TPLF and Islamist forces Somali Freedom-fighters” Anab Mumin, resident in Lego told APA by phone.
Abdirihim Hussein another resident near Yaqbariweyne told APA “I was near the battle area and I narrowly escaped. I thought I would die.”
South and central Somali regions have been the hardest-hit with insurgents’ attacks, including roadside bombing and guerrilla war against the government forces and their Ethiopian TPLF allies.
Somalia is plunged into anarchy since the overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, when warlords used their clan based militias to remove him.
Thereafter , they started to fight one another as they could not agree on leadership.
As a result, many Somalians have died and others are displaced in their own country.-APA
Source African News
Inflation in most East African countries is said to be rising this year. In Ethiopia it moved from 33.6 % in August to37.2 % in September; In Kenya from 27.6% in August 2008 to 28.2% in September 2008 and In Tanzania a 10-year high point of 11.6 percent in September.
Inflation in Ethiopia for the month of September 2008 rises to 37.2 % from 33.6 % in August and from 27.6% in August to 28.2% in September in Kenya, while annual inflation in Tanzania surged to a 10-year high point of 11.6 percent in September owing to soaring food prices, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics show.
Inflation on food items in Ethiopia for the month of September 2008 has also reached 51.8 % from 46.9% in August. After the Ethiopian government TPLF announced lifting subsidy on fuel and shifted to importing wheat, many people including the opposition parties expressing their fear that the current inflation in the country will get worse.
According to critics, it is better for the government Woyanne to continue subsidizing at least kerosene along with importing wheat and selling it with cheaper prices for the low income groups, which represents the majority of the around 80 million population of Ethiopia.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicated that the overall year on year inflation rate increased from 27.6% in August 2008 to 28.2% in September 2008. Underlying inflation, excluding food prices, rose more modestly from 13.1% to 13.3%.
On a monthly basis, food items (2%), housing costs (2%) and medical goods and services (1.4%) showed the strongest price increases. Year on year, food and non-alcoholic drinks (37.2%), fuel and power (31.6%), transport and communications (19.1%), alcohol and tobacco (15.6%) and medical goods and services (14%) had the largest price increases.
In August this year, the inflation rate in Tanzania was 9.8 percent. The recent surge indicates a 1.8-point increase within a month. In February this year, inflation was 8.9 percent.
Analysts say the government would not be able to bring down the inflation rate to seven percent by the end of the current financial year.
Dr Honest Ngowi of the Mzumbe University, said: “The seven percent goal is now unrealistic since, under the current system, Tanzania has nothing in place to control food and fuel prices, the two most dominant factors in the country’s inflation basket,” according to the citizen newspaper in Tanzania.
He said since the inflationary spiral was mainly on food, fuel and other production factors, it would be very difficult for the country to control it in the short-term.
“It could be easily contained if it was caused by excess money supply on the market. However, this is due to production factors,” he said.
He said this could worsen considering that the holiday season was just around the corner.
“Inflation will now be fluctuating between 10 and 12 percent. It requires magic for the government to bring it back to seven per cent,” said Dr Semboja Haji, of the University of Dar es Salaam’s Economic Research Bureau (ERB).
He criticized the government for having no mechanism in place to protect the country from the negative effects of economic developments outside.
