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/ 4 February 2004
The new leadership of the beleaguered Ethiopia Free Press Journalists’ Association on Wednesday vowed to boost freedom of expression and to fight repression and harassment. Its vice-president, Getachew Simie, also insisted that the newly elected leadership was free from government interference.
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/ 21 January 2004
A first-ever summit of African defence ministers cleared the way in Addis Ababa on Wednesday for an African peacekeeping force to prevent conflicts and help deliver aid to war-ravaged countries. African leaders will give final approval for the force at an African Union summit in Libya next month.
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/ 20 January 2004
A World Health Organisation (WHO) official in Ethiopia has dismissed an article in a respected British medical journal that claims the United Nations agency is undermining the fight against malaria. <i>The Lancet</i> accuses the agency of approving cheap drugs that do not work, and blocking the use of a newer treatment.
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/ 19 January 2004
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder began an African tour on Monday with a pledge of more aid for Ethiopia and an announcement of funds for the African Union (AU) to set up an African peacekeeping training centre in Ghana. Schroeder’s trip is also scheduled to take in South Africa, Kenya and Ghana.
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/ 15 January 2004
Ethiopia’s fledgling film industry is turning its attention to fighting the HIV/Aids virus. Documentary filmmaker Kidane Yilak tells why he felt compelled to make Hidden Tears, the country’s first film addressing the stigma and discrimination prompted by the virus, and the threat posed by HIV/Aids.
The United Nations is meeting stiff resistance in its appointment of a special envoy to help end a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Late last month, Lloyd Axworthy -– formerly Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs -– was appointed to the post with the blessing of the international community
Three major pan-African institutions will come into force in early 2004, the African Union announced on Tuesday. They include a much-heralded Peace and Security Council, modelled on the United Nations Security Council, as well as a pan-African Parliament and an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The African Union (AU) has ”strongly condemned” the killing of Vatican’s ambassador to Burundi, Archbishop Michael Courtney, who was gunned down in an ambush in the central African country early this week. The AU said it would continue to work for the success of the peace process in Burundi
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/ 16 December 2003
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe lashed out at rich Western countries on Monday and, together with other African leaders, heaped praise on China as officials from across the continent and Beijing met in Ethiopia for a Sino-African conference on cooperation.
Tutu ‘baffled’ at Zimbabwe debacle
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/ 15 December 2003
Fighting in far western Ethiopia has left at least 21 people dead in several days of violence, an Ethiopian official said on Monday. Troops moved into Gambella, 400km west of Addis Ababa, over the weekend after seven men were killed, including three government officials and one police officer.
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/ 15 December 2003
Chinese and African leaders vowed at a summit on Monday to build stronger political and economic ties to counter United States and European dominance in world affairs and improve the standing of poor countries. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised preferential, zero-tariff trade deals with 34 African countries.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=28630">Zuma courts ‘crucial’ Chinese market</a>
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/ 1 December 2003
Bunmi Makinwa is the newly appointed head of UNAids in Ethiopia. Ahead of World Aids Day on December 1, he spoke about funding, the role of the Ethiopian government, the use of resources and the total mobilisation that are needed to win the fight against the virus that has infected 2,2-million in Ethiopia.
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/ 24 November 2003
Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has been urged to help break the deadlock in the stalled Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process, diplomats said on Monday. The Libyan leader could help overcome the current impasse between the two countries, according to diplomatic sources close to the peace process.
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/ 20 November 2003
Zimbabwe has signed five African Union treaties, including pacts on human and women’s rights, corruption and the environment, the AU said on Thursday. The country’s permanent representative to the AU, Andrew Mtetwa, pledged his country’s ”appreciation to the AU for continued support”.
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/ 12 November 2003
The Ethiopian government has suspended the country’s independent journalists’ association in a row over its out-of-date operating licence, officials said on Wednesday. The suspension came amid increasing tensions between the government and the EFJA over a controversial new draft press law.
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/ 22 October 2003
A documentary on seven ethnic groups making peace in the southern Ethiopian Rift Valley is captivating audiences in the capital Addis Ababa, as the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea teeters on the brink of collapse.
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/ 17 October 2003
The United Nations has appealed to journalists to stop trying to incite war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. It said it is concerned about the increase in media hate comments on the impasse in the peace process between the two Horn of Africa states, which it termed as "currently in stasis".
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/ 16 October 2003
Ethiopia’s nomadic communities are still being excluded from democratic representation, the minister of federal affairs acknowledged on Wednesday. GebreAb Barnabas said that ”good governance and democratisation” had failed to ”spread adequately” to Ethiopia’s remote pastoral areas.
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/ 15 October 2003
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.
Ermias Woldeamlack’s brothers were all killed during Ethiopia’s infamous red terror. Their bodies, like thousands of others, have never been found. Little attention is now paid to that chapter of Ethiopian history. The ongoing trials of the alleged perpetrators, now in their 10th year, solicit little interest. But that is about to change.
The Ethiopian government faced fresh calls from human rights organisations on Friday to abolish the death penalty. The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) appealed to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to bring an end to executions in the country.
African tourism could hold the key to rapid economic development, says Dr David de Villiers, deputy secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). But as yet few African nations have tapped its enormous potential. In a recent interview, he advises that Africa take up the challenge with regards to sustainable tourism.
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/ 29 September 2003
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.
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/ 25 September 2003
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.
Landslides due to torrential rain have killed 11 people, seriously injured eight and destroyed 102 homes in a remote rural area in southern Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Olympic gold medallists are to help spearhead the country’s fight against poverty, the country’s national athletics coach announced on Wednesday.
Families displaced during the Ethiopia-Eritrea war are still not returning home because of the danger of landmines and the impending demarcation of the border.
Ethiopia has bought 60 Russian-made tanks from Yemen at a cost of over -million dollars, a privately-owned weekly newspaper reported on Wednesday.
World-renowned disaster experts on Friday declared the devastating crisis that is crippling Ethiopia a famine.
The head of a newly-formed political opposition party on Monday pledged wide-ranging land reform as the key manifesto strategy for the 2005 Ethiopian elections.
Alpha Omar Konare, the former president of Mali, looked highly likely on Tuesday to be elected chairman of the African Union Commission, a key job in the pan-African grouping as it tries to drag the continent out of its cycle of conflict and poverty.
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.