Amnesty International Issues urgent appeal for detained CUD members at Maikelawi

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Also in the news: [Islamic school for girls hit in worsening Somali violence] - [Interview: Released Islamic leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, rejects international forces] - [BBC: Eight killed and several seriously injured in attacks in Somalia's capital]

International: [Global Warming `Very Likely' Caused by Humans, UN Report Says] - [China's Hu visits Sudan, presses on Darfur] - [U.S. military says copter down in Iraq] - [Iranians seized in attack on Hamas enclave] - [Burglar caught red-handed in air conditioner] and more of today's top stories!

A young Somali participates in protests in Mogadishu. At least seven people have been killed and several others wounded overnight when gunmen fired mortar shells in at least three neighbourhoods in the volatile Somali capital, Mogadishu, residents have said.(AFP/File/Mohamed Mokhtar)

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Worldwide Demonstrations, Prayer and candle light vigils scheduled for Ethiopia’s prisoners of conscience:

-Los Angeles (little Ethiopia), candle light vigil - February 11
-Demonstration In front of CNN Los Angeles branch office - February 16
-Kinijit LA message - The time is NOW!
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A call for Peace (Amharic)
(By Girma Kassa)

(More...)

Amnesty International issues urgent appeal for detained CUD members at Maikelawi

Supporters of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) opposition party, are being held incommunicado at the police Central Investigation Bureau prison (known as Maikelawi) in the capital, Addis Ababa. According to reports, they may have been tortured, and are at risk of further torture or ill-treatment.

Endalkachew Melese, a 23-year-old IT student, was arrested on 15 December 2006 in Addis Ababa and has been detained incommunicado since then. His family was allowed to bring him food but has not been able to see him. He has been taken to court but has not yet been formally charged with any offence. He has allegedly been tortured and accused of having links with a little-known armed opposition group, the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF).

Over 40 other young CUD supporters are said to be held at Maikelawi prison on similar accusations. They include Zenebe Tadesse, a security guard, who was also arrested on 15 December. He is believed to have been tortured. Also detained is Daniel Hailemariam, who is said to be a US resident. The detainees include at least three women. (More...)

Interview: Released Islamic leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, rejects international forces

DUBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Exiled Somali Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed rejected the deployment of international forces in the Horn of Africa country and in remarks aired on Friday called for serious talks for national reconciliation.

"Peace does not come by force ... but by conducting talks and serious negotiations in which all the problems are identified and resolved," Ahmed told Al Jazeera television from Nairobi.

"The problem cannot be resolved by international forces because what has happened was an invasion and following up on that with international forces would further complicate the crisis," he added.

Ahmed, considered a moderate in the Islamist movement, is viewed by the United States as a possible key to Somali reconciliation talks.(More...)

BBC: Eight killed and several seriously injured in attacks in Somalia's capital

A mortar has landed on a Koranic school, killing a female student, following a series of overnight attacks on camps housing Ethiopian soldiers. A BBC correspondent in Mogadishu says the violence seems to be worsening. It is not clear who is responsible.

Islamist fighters said they would start an insurgency after they were defeated by Ethiopia-backed government troops. The BBC's Mohammed Olad in Mogadishu says dozens of female students began shouting and crying after the shell landed on the roof of their school, killing a student and wounding seven others.

Sheikh Soon Salad Ilmi, director of Mogadishu's Madina hospital, where the wounded were taken, said some had life-threatening injuries. (More...)

CNN: Islamic school for girls hit in worsening Somali violence

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- An explosion at an Islamic school for women and girls in Somalia's capital wounded at least seven people Friday, witnesses said, after a night of some of the worst violence in Mogadishu since the interim government took control from an Islamic movement.

At least three mortars launched by unknown attackers overnight killed at least eight people and injured 20. Violence has been escalating in Mogadishu, a city of more than 2 million people that is riven by clan rivalries and believed to still be harboring remnants of the Islamic movement who have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

Friday's blast went off shortly before lunchtime at the Umu-A'isha school in southern Mogadishu, where 110 women and girls are enrolled. It may, like the overnight blasts, have been caused by a mortar. The attackers were unknown.(More...)

Global Warming `Very Likely' Caused by Humans, UN Report Says

Feb. 2 -- Global warming is ``very likely'' caused by humans, and temperatures and sea-levels will increase by the end of the century, the UN said in its most comprehensive report yet on climate change.

Global temperatures are likely to rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century relative to the last, with a ``best estimate'' of 3 degrees, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in the report, published in Paris. Sea-level gain over the same period may range from 18 to 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches), it said.

A key change in the report's language from that used in the panel's 2001 document showed there is more certainty that human activity is causing the warming. The report puts the probability of the link at more than 90 percent, compared with the 66 to 90 percent likelihood signalled in 2001.(More...)

Today's Top Stories

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-U.S. military says copter down in Iraq
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-Iranians seized in attack on Hamas enclave
-Pakistan To Build Fence On Afghan Border
-Whitney Houston: Let's get this divorce done
-Burglar caught red-handed in air conditioner


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