At least 350 traditional circumcisers in northern Ethiopia's Gonder region have agreed to abandon the harmful practice as well as other forms of genital mutilation. Preparations are being made to provide loans to those who abandon the trade to help them make a living in a different way.
Ethiopian officials have blamed the rebel Oromo Liberation Front for a bomb that ripped through a train car, killing two people and injured nine others. A government spokesperson said the terror attack had all the hallmarks of the rebel group fighting for greater autonomy for the Oromo people.
Education is a key weapon in preventing girls from falling victim to child trafficking, Bjorn Ljungqvist, the head of the United Nation's Children's Fund (Unicef) in Ethiopia, said on Thursday.
A senior World Bank official has criticised developed nations that subsidise their farmers, describing the practice as "ethically indefensible". Nicholas Stern, the bank's chief economist, said that agricultural subsidies are fuelling poverty in developing nations.
Yergacheffe and Harar may be stars in the firmament of specialty coffees, but in the heart of Ethiopia where the plant was first discovered, farmers reap few benefits from their highly prized crops.
Eritrea reined in United Nations peacekeepers along its border with Ethiopia, leaving the force incapable of giving the world much warning if the Horn of Africa rivals were to clash again. Increasingly isolated, Eritrea also is seen as the main obstacle to restarting talks that may be the only way to avert a new and devastating war over territory between two of the poorest countries in the world.
