Roadside bomb targets Ethiopian forces in Somalia
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Also in the news:[Unicef: Malnutrition Still Prevalent in Tigray, Other Regions] - [Ethiopia places 103rd on Global Peace Index] - [MAHMOUD AHMED of Ethiopia winner of World Music Award 2007] - [ACLU sues Boeing subsidiary on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia and others]
International:
[U.N. Resists U.S. on New Sudan Sanctions] - [UN Security Council Approves Hariri Assassination Tribunal] - [Putin says test missile is signal to U.S.] - [U.S TB patient's name released] and more of today's top stories!
Kinijit Chairman Hailu shawel’s eye surgery a success
(The US embassy in Addis was instrumental in making this medical procedure possible)
Kinijit International Australia tour
(June 16 - 24)
Destruction Begins
(More than 205 residents in the Bole district have seen their dwellings destroyed as the city attempts to shape the Capital according to the Master Plan. FORTUNE chronicles the plight of those left in the wake of the operation)
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Roadside bomb targets Ethiopian forces in Somalia
MOGADISHU -- A roadside bomb blast tore through a convoy carrying Ethiopian troops in a central Somali town on Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear if anyone was killed, witnesses said.
Baladwayne resident Osman Adan said he could see thick black smoke billowing from the scene of the explosion, which a security source said was caused by a remote-controlled landmine."An Ethiopian truck was blown up ... The Ethiopian troops immediately opened fire indiscriminately with heavy machine-guns ... I do not know if any soldiers were wounded or killed," Adan said, adding that two civilians were hurt in the shooting.(More...)
Also see:
-Five Ethiopians wounded in Somali attack: government
-Ethiopian troops kill 5 Somali civilians
-Five die in Somalia convoy attack
-Ethiopian troops killed dozens after blast-rebels
ACLU sues Boeing subsidiary on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia and others
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia, Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel and Ahmed Agiza of Egypt
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. of San Jose, Calif., on behalf of alleged victims of U.S. government torture.
Jeppesen DataPlan is part of aviation-data provider Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. of Colorado. Based in Englewood, Jeppesen Sanderson is a subsidiary of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co.
The ACLU alleges in its suit, filed in Northern California federal court, that Jeppesen knowingly provided flight services to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which enabled the secret transport of three terrorism suspects to overseas locations for interrogation and torture.
The terrorism suspects are Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia, Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel and Ahmed Agiza of Egypt.(More...)
Also see:
-ACLU: Boeing offshoot helped CIA
-ACLU files suit against Boeing subsidiary
-Firm sued over secret CIA flights
Ethiopia places 103rd on Global Peace Index
In the first study of its kind, Ethiopia has placed 103rd on the Global Peace Index. The Index is a ranking of 121 countries - from Algeria to Zimbabwe - listed according to their peacefulness. It was compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit and is comprised of a broad range of 24 indicators measuring both the internal and external peacefulness of nations.
The publication of the Global Peace Index comes just a week before the leaders of the world’s richest countries gather for the G8 summit in Germany.
The Index has won the backing of an influential and distinguished group of supporters including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Queen Noor of Jordan, former United States President Jimmy Carter, and former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Professor Joseph Stiglitz, who are today calling for an increased focus on peace.
African media on Blair's legacy
(BBC) ...Meanwhile, African interest in Mr Blair's Commission for Africa seems to declining three years after its launch.
Critics seem vindicated that one of the panel's leading commissioners, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has come under international criticism over the deaths of dozens of opposition supporters during the disputed parliamentary elections in May 2005 as well as Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December 2006.(More...)
Unicef: Malnutrition, Stunted Growth Still Prevalent in Tigray, Other Regions
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More than 41 percent of children under five experience stunted growth in Tigray and an estimated 11.6 percent suffer from acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF-Ethiopia.
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(Picture - Ethiopian child suffering from severe malnutrition. VOAnews)In a press release sent to The Daily Monitor, the UN agency said the deplorable situation in the region was revealed during a visit by the Head of European Commission and Tim Clarke, Head of European Commission in Ethiopia to UNICEF - supported child nutrition sites in Tigray- Mekele on May 29, 2007.
UNICEF says the problem of malnutrition was the case with other regions of the country where it said a large scale intervention was needed to save millions of vulnerable children.
"We have just seen a child here who is 18 months old. Her normal weight should be 13 Kilos; but she is only five kilos-highly at risk and we can give her therapeutic feeding in order to give her a chance to survive," Tim Clark said during the visit.(More...)
Ethiopian elephants, lions face extinction
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A thousand rare black-mane lions -- an Ethiopian national symbol -- and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of forest that was part of their sanctuary was cut down, a wildlife expert said on Thursday.
(Picture - Black mane Ethiopian lion (Barbary), from a distinct but very rare sub-species thought to be extinct, but recently discovered in the region. Fortean Times magazine)The land was cleared from a designated conservation area at Midiga Tola, adjacent to the Babile Elephant Sanctuary located 557 km (346 miles) east of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Wildlife Association President Yirmed Demeke said.
Flora EcoPower Holding AG, a German biodiesel producer, cleared the forest after it was granted 10,000 hectares of land, Yirmed said.(More...)
Also see:
-Ethiopian wildlife at risk as forest cut
MAHMOUD AHMED of Ethiopia winner of Radio 3's Award for World Music 2007
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(Video) Watch Mahmoud accepting Award
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When Mahmoud Ahmed took the stage at Womad 2005 many looked at this grey bearded (yet regal) figure and wondered if he could still touch the heights of those immaculate recordings he cut from 1971-1975.
No worries: as his band locked into one of those rolling, eerie Horn Of Africa-grooves Ahmed opened his mouth and that great, mysterious horn of a voice sailed forth just as it had done all those years ago.
Mahmoud Ahmed is both a living legend and something of a mystery in the West. Undeniably Ethiopia’s most famous singer of its “golden era”, the three albums reissued of his recordings by French label Buda Musique as part of their Ethiopiques series have captured Western listeners in the same way that, say, the reissues of Robert Johnson’s Delta blues did a previous generation. Yet where Johnson was long dead Ahmed is alive and in fine voice.(More...)
UN Security Council Approves Hariri Assassination Tribunal
NEW YORK -- A sharply divided UN Security Council voted Wednesday to establish an international criminal tribunal to prosecute the masterminds of the February 2005 suicide-bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others.
The vote will lead to the creation of the first United Nations-backed criminal tribunal in the Middle East, raising expectations that Hariri's killers will be held accountable. But that has stoked fears among Lebanese authorities and some council members that supporters of Syria -- which has been linked to the assassination -- will plunge Lebanon's fledgling democracy into a bloody new round of strife.
Fearing unrest, authorities imposed a partial curfew in Beirut, leaving the streets deserted. Lebanese placed lit candles on boulevards and balconies to celebrate the outcome and sent congratulatory text messages countrywide.(More...)
Also see:
-Un Tribunal Condemned By Syria, Others
-Supporters Cheer UN Approval of Tribunal for Hariri Assassination
-Hariri son hails UN court move
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*(Update)* When Bill Gates met Steve Jobs... (The hugely anticipated meeting was seen as a long overdue opportunity for two of the greatest pioneers in the industry to go head to head. But, The question and answer session turned out to be more of a love-in between old pals)
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Bush names Robert Zoellick as next World Bank chief
US President George W Bush on Wednesday nominated former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick as the next World Bank head, replacing Paul Paul Wolfowitz, who was forced to resign over a favouritism scandal.
The formal announcement was made at the White House by the President who praised the former United States Trade Representative as a "committed internationalist" and a person "deeply committed" to the cause of defeating poverty.
"He is deeply devoted to the mission of the World Bank. He wants to help struggling nations defeat poverty, to grow their economies and offer their people the hope of a better life. Bob Zoellick is deeply committed to this cause" Bush said.(More...)
Also see:
-Zoellick has new agenda for World Bank
-A Diplomat for the World Bank
-Stiglitz calls new World Bank boss "protectionist"
Today's Top International Stories
-U.N. Resists U.S. on New Sudan Sanctions-Blair urges G8 to keep African promises
-'Law & Order' star Thompson inches closer to Prez bid
-U.S TB patient's name released
-Putin says test missile is signal to U.S.
-Alexander Litvinenko was British spy, claims alleged killer
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(Picture - Relatives mourn over the body of a one-year-old child who died of malnutrition in a refugee camp near a town in the Darfur region of Sudan)
Issues such as whether it's wiser for a company to partner or build everything itself. Or the primacy of software versus hardware in personal computers. Or which is more important: how easy it is to use a product or what it can do once you figure out how? 
The conversation at the fifth annual "D - All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, comes as Gates and Jobs are head in very different directions, and as the companies they co-founded both face big challenges.
MISS Japan, Riyo Mori, has been chosen as Miss Universe 2007. Australian entrant Kimberley Busteed was eliminated in the first cut.
(Memorial Day - Celebrated on the fourth Monday of May, this holiday honors the dead. Although it originated in the aftermath of the Civil War, it has become a day on which the dead of all wars, and the dead generally, are remembered in special programs held in cemeteries, churches, and other public meeting places)
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AEC) have found evidence that certain fungi possess another talent beyond their ability to decompose matter: the capacity to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent 11 of the past 17 years in detention and the order will keep her confined to her residence for a fifth straight year. 
(Picture - Lebanese army soldiers patrol the outskirts of the besieged camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon)
(Picture - Actor and former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson )
(Adolf Hitler salutes Nazi troops during a military review on Wilhelmplatz in Berlin, Germany, April 19, 1937. At left is fieldmarshal Werner Von Blomberg, war minister with baton. In second row from left to right are, rear admiral Erich Raeder, Col-Gen. Hermann Goering and Gen. Werner von Fritsch. Hitler celebrates his 48th birthday tomorrow. AP Photo)
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
The guidelines from the Internet Society of China, a group made up of China's major Internet companies, contradict state media reports this week claiming that China was considering loosening registration requirements for bloggers to allow anonymous online journaling.
(Picture - New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman) 
Meles, the prime minister, is "the victorious-against-terrorists" said professor Lyons. "He is not worried if the [U.S.] ambassador says we are concerned about prison conditions. He would just laugh at us."
Mr. Samara is indeed the founder and CEO of WorldSpace, which pioneered the satellite radio technology, thereby being the first to introduce the technology to the market. 
(Picture - Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko left, and at right, former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, now charged by British authorities with Litvinenko's murder)
Meseret Defar of Ethiopia celebrates as she records a World Best time in the women's 2-mile run at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, California May 20, 2007. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) 
He also said he could go to jail for taking a group of volunteers suffering ill health after helping in the September 11, 2001 rescue efforts on an unauthorized trip to Cuba, where they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost.
The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.
Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdillahi Mohamed Dualeh answers media questions at a press conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.(AFP/Jose Cendon) 
“The transitional government is not very popular there, and the Islamist fighters have gone underground. They certainly will not give up and they will continue to have ambushes. And the Ethiopians of course are considered to be occupiers and invaders rather than liberators. So there’s going to be constant attacks and ambushes until some sort of political solution can be brought about,” he said.
Mr. Menkerios (seen here) is currently the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
(TIME) Like millions of other brides, Amsale Aberra wanted to find the perfect wedding dress. Her preference was something simple yet sophisticated, but that wasn't so easy to come by in 1985, when the billowing ball-gown style made famous by Princess Diana was still the rage. 
Paul Wolfowitz resigned as president of the World Bank last night, ending weeks of turmoil over the lavish pay rise he arranged for his girlfriend that triggered the worst crisis in the institution’s history. 
It was discovered Wednesday that the New York Police Department placed a number of African American recording artists under surveillance in the months before the 2004 Republican National Convention, which was held in New York.
Here is what Ishac Diwan (seen here), World Bank director for Ethiopia had to say:
In his written remarks, which will be placed on the record, Leahy (seen here) pointed out that the U.S. has "been spending g a lot of money and effort to keep the Horn of Africa a stable and safe place for the people of the region, and to assist governments who are allied with our joint war on terrorism." 
Somalia's prime minister has escaped unhurt after an apparent attempt to kill him in the capital, Mogadishu. 
Al-Amoudi gives $20m to Clinton Found’n: Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi has given 20 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation on Friday, May 11, 2007, in order to support the foundation’s effort in fighting HIV/Aids in Ethiopia. 
"It is a burden financially and otherwise that we would have preferred to do without," the Ethiopian leader told Reuters in an interview at his offices in Addis Ababa.
Broad Bipartisan Support for Human Rights in Ethiopia Finally a Reality: Republicans Take an Unwavering Stand on Human Rights in Ethiopia 
John Holmes (seen here), the most senior U.N. official to visit the city in a decade, cut short his trip on Saturday after bombs planted by suspected insurgents killed at least three people.
Both Mr. Armey and DLA Piper have registered with the Justice Department as lobbyists under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, listing Ethiopia as a client. Calls to DLA Piper requesting comment from Mr. Armey were not returned."
Young men supporting the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) at a huge opposition rally in Meskel Square, in the heart of Addis Ababa(Picture by Andrew Heavens)
A young gilr leads the chanting at a huge opposition rally in Meskel Square, in the heart of Addis Ababa.(Picture by Andrew Heavens)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Chinese-funded dams and other projects potentially threaten Africa's environment and local populations, an environmental group said Monday, urging Beijing to avoid similar mistakes made by Western donors.
People in places where the Internet is censored can use Psiphon when their contacts in other countries download the software to their own machines, creating a proxy computer for those in the censored countries to use.
...Mr Blair had the misfortune - at the time - to find himself sitting next to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, his erstwhile friend and member of the Commission for Africa. 
For a diverse group of people, from Ethiopian opposition groups and deserting soldiers to Somali politicians and Sudanese rebel leaders, the Eritrean capital is a popular stopping point.
(Rapper Gabriel Teodros, who was born in Ethiopia, wants to help others through his music. He will perform Thursday at Hell’s Kitchen)
(Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki (L) listens to EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel during a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, 04 May 2007 - AFP/Gerard Cerles)
The African Union (AU) has defended its method of funding peacekeeping forces following complaints from the Ugandan peacekeeping mission in Somalia. 
New York: Rebecca is having her first reading and book-signing in New York on Monday, May 21, 2007, from 6pm to 8pm, at Hue-Man Bookstore and Cafe, 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd, between 124th and 125th Streets. 
Two hand grenades have gone off in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, where government soldiers were confiscating and burning face veils worn by women. 
Save the Children, a U.S.-based independent global humanitarian organization, today released its eighth annual Mothers’ Index that ranks the best — and worst — places to be a mother and a child and compares the well-being of mothers and children in 140 countries, more than in any previous year. 
Associated Press reporter Anthony Mitchell shares a joke with a Masaai elder Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Mitchell, aroused the wrath of the Ethiopian authorities, but won the respect of many citizens of the Horn of Africa nation, with his no-holds-barred reporting of events in that country.(AP Photo) 
Anthony Mitchell, the Associated Press correspondent based in East Africa, covered the national elections in Ethiopia, a poll that was marred by violence and saw the death of nearly 200 people and in the end, the expulsion from the country of Mitchell himself. 
The Bush Administration, which otherwise has done a very good job in the initial response to the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and protecting the Homeland since then, has adopted a seriously flawed strategy of using excessive military force as a solution to the threat posed by extremists from the Muslim world.
Conservative Nicholas Sarkozy has been elected the next French president. He won the second and final round of voting Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent. 
(BBC/ETP) Hopes are fading for the safety of five Britons who were among 114 people on board an aircraft which is thought to have crashed in Cameroon.
(Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani stands with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) at the GOP presidential candidates debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, May 3, 2007. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson) 
(France's Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal (R) and UMP political party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy(L))
(Undated 1970s file of Illich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as " Carlos The Jackal".(AP Photo/French Police)
NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday he is alarmed at the increasing number of journalists being targeted because of their work.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, released Chinese workers arrive at a military airport in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Monday, April 30, 2007. Seven Chinese workers, kidnapped Tuesday, April 24, 2007, in an attack on a Chinese oil company in Ethiopia, were released and arrived in Addis Ababa Monday afternoon. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Wang Ying)