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Ethiopian News

ICT Park to be Built with 5billion Birr at Bole Area

Published: Mar 10, 2010 by bini Filed under: Ethiopian News
The Council of Ministers decided on March 5, 2010, to establish the Information and Communication Technology Park Corporation with a capital of five billion Birr.

The directive for the establishment was approved by the council after it deliberated on the proposal of the Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (ICTDA). Its starting capital far supersedes the capital of both the Housing Development and Railway corporations, each of which started out with three billion Birr.

“We believe that it will elevate the development of ICT in Ethiopia,” said one of the officials who attended the meeting.

An Ethiopian scientist involved in a hi-tech IBM research development

Published: Mar 10, 2010 by bini Filed under: Ethiopian News


An Ethiopian scientist residing in the United States is involved in a hi-tech research development that could revolutionise the way computers communicate and significantly reduce the energy they use, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Solomon Assefa, a doctoral graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is one of the three researchers working at the International Business Machines (IBM) Corp, whose work will soon be published in the scientific journal Nature, according to the newspaper.

The three scientists are claiming an important advance that could change the way computer chips communicate, sharply boosting speed while lowering energy consumption.

The goal is to use pulses of light rather than copper wires to exchange information between chips and to build the needed components out of silicon rather than costly, esoteric materials. IBM’s advance involves a key component called an avalanche photo detector, which converts light into electricity. The researchers say they used silicon and the element germanium to create a photo detector that is among the fastest and least power-hungry of its kind.

IBM is not alone in the pursuit. Researchers at universities and companies including Intel Corp and start-up Luxtera Inc have also been working on improving chip performance using siliconbased optical components.

“This is the next wave of computing,” said Richard Doherty, an analyst at market research firm Envisioneering Group and a patent holder in optical communications. “By 2020, it may be the dominant way Google, governments, banks and other large users are doing their computing.”

Optical communications involve encoding information on streams of light particles generated by lasers. The technology uses thin glass fibres rather than bulky cables, yet creates connections that allow more data to flow at higher speeds.

Such benefits are the reason long-distance telephone wires were replaced with fibre-optic cables, a technology developed in the 1970s. Companies like Luxtera already sell silicon based optical devices for linking computers. Researchers are racing to miniaturise optical components so they can be built into microprocessors.

Intel has built a series of optical components from silicon and related materials, including a prototype avalanche photo detector it announced in December 2008. IBM says its version can detect 40 gigabits of data a second – four times the speed of Intel’s – and operates at 1.5V rather than 30V.

“That can save a huge amount of power,” said Yurii Vlasov, the lead scientist of the IBM research.

IBM’s photo detector can detect weak pulses and amplify them without adding unwanted noise, a previous problem with the technology, he said. The company, which used germanium in a different way than Intel, says it reduces noise by 50pc to 70pc compared to existing avalanche photo detectors.

Mario Paniccia, director of Intel’s photonics technology lab, called IBM’s advance another sign of progress in the field.

“As a scientist, I think this is all great,” he said. “It just drives more competition.”

Vlasov said it could be five years before the technology makes its way into chips for high-end server systems. It could take another five years before it is used in consumer products such as cell phones or videogame players, he said.

(Story compiled by Fortune)




World Economic Forum honors Liya Kebede and Abebe Gellaw

Published: Mar 4, 2010 by bini Filed under: Entertainment Ethiopian News
World Economic Forum honors Liya Kebede and Abebe GellawTwo Ethiopians, supermodel Liya Kebede and journalist and visiting scholar at Stanford university, Abebe Gellaw, are named among the Young Global Leaders honorees.

In a press release it issued today, the World Economic Forum noted that the honor was bestowed on 197 Young Global Leaders who were selected from a pool of nearly 5000 nominees from around the world for their “professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.”

VOA Amharic Broadcasts Jammed in Ethiopia

Published: Mar 4, 2010 by bini Filed under: Ethiopian News
VOA Amharic Broadcasts Jammed in EthiopiaInternational shortwave radio monitors have confirmed that VOA broadcasts in the Amharic language are being jammed. Amharic is the main official language and the language of commerce in Ethiopia.

VOA representatives in Ethiopia have been received complaints from listeners about noise drowning out its Amharic Service broadcasts. People trying to tune in can hear occasional snippets of the VOA broadcast covered by a loud crackle.

The static began February 22 on all five VOA shortwave frequencies aimed at East Africa in the 25 and 31-meter shortwave bands.

Bob Geldof hits out at claim Live Aid millions diverted to Ethiopian rebels

Published: Mar 4, 2010 by bini Filed under: Entertainment Ethiopian News
Geldof hits out at claim Live Aid millions diverted to Ethiopian rebelsBob Geldof has lashed out at British media claims that millions of dollars raised by Band Aid were diverted to Ethiopian rebels who used the cash to buy weapons.

A former Ethiopian rebel commander told a BBC radio program that 95 per cent of aid money donated to help victims of the 1985 Ethiopian famine was siphoned off, The Times online reports.

In response to the allegations, an outraged Geldof told The Times that “it would be a f***ing tragedy” if the people stopped giving to charity because of allegations made by the same broadcaster that inspired him to fight poverty and hunger in Africa.

Ethiopia famine aid of 1985 'spent on weapons' - BBC Investigation

Published: Mar 3, 2010 by bini Filed under: Ethiopian News
Gebremedhin Araya and Max Peberdy

Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation finds.

Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money.

They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time.

One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments and charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight.

The CIA, in a 1985 assessment entitled Ethiopia: Political and Security Impact of the Drought, also alleged aid money was being misused.

Its report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."


Ethiopian Opposition Parliamentary Candidate murdered

Published: Mar 2, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News
Ethiopian Opposition Parliamentary Candidate KilledMarch 2 (Bloomberg) -- An Ethiopian opposition candidate was stabbed to death by six unidentified men in an attack described by government opponents as part of an intimidation campaign by the ruling party ahead of elections in May.

Aregawi Gebre-Yohannes was killed this morning at a restaurant he operates near his home in the northern region of Tigray, Gebru Asrat, chairman of the Arena party, said in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital. Communications Minister Bereket Simon, a member of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, said the killing wasn’t politically motivated.

Boeing sued over Ethiopian Air crash in Lebanon

Published: Mar 2, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News
Boeing sued over Ethiopian Air crash in LebanonRelatives of passengers killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash in Lebanon earlier this year have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in a U.S. court against plane-maker Boeing, their attorney said Tuesday.

"We have filed a lawsuit in Chicago, Illinois, against the Boeing company," Manuel von Ribbeck, of the U.S. firm Ribbeck law, told AFP.

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 went down minutes after taking off from Beirut in bad weather on January 25, killing 83 passengers and seven crew. The cause of the crash has not been announced.

Ethiopia gears up to boost tea production

Published: Mar 2, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News
ADIS ABABA (Commodity Online) : Just day’s after Kenya announced more plans to boost tea output, neighboring Ethiopia said it will also work out strategies to boost its production.

Ethiopia, which shares its southern border with Kenya currently produces about seven million kilogram’s of tea from three privately run estates.

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Ethiopian Child Welfare Center Named for Kim Hye-ja

Published: Mar 2, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News
Ethiopian Child Welfare Center Named for Kim Hye-jaA welfare center named after the actress Kim Hye-ja opened on Saturday in Ethiopia. The Baekhak Village OBS Kim Hae-ja Center provides meals, accommodation, medication, and early child education to 230 orphans and children from poor families between four and six.

The project was made possible with a donation of US$150,000 from Baik Sung-hak, the chairman of Young An Hat Company, who promised it when Kim hosted a program on OBS, a regional terrestrial channel in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon. Kim expressed hope that Ethiopia can eventually overcome poverty and show the world what it can do.
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Adoption watchdog suppresses Ethiopia findings

Published: Mar 2, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News
Adoption watchdog suppresses Ethiopia findingsA powerful international adoption overseer is refusing to release the results of its inquiry into the disturbing activities of American adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia.

The inquiry was launched after ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent exposed deep and dangerous flaws in the system.

The Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) says it has completed its probe, but to release its conclusions would not be "appropriate".

Inspector found that ET 409 recorded segment of several minutes was deleted by Lebanese

Published: Feb 28, 2010 by bini Filed under: Ethiopian News
ET Recorder
Despite a consistent position that there will be no statements given by the Ethiopian side regarding the investigations into the causes of the crash of ET-409 off the coast of Lebanon, one thing though has been made clear by officials here - that nothing has yet been ruled out—including sabotage.

An investigation by The Reporter has revealed that in addition to breaching the “gag agreement’ between high officials of both countries, the Lebanese side has also been committing a series of deliberate tampering of evidence, withholding of information and preventing access to Ethiopian investigation teams sent to Beirut.

A 13-member Ethiopian team, comprising senior pilots, medical personnel and other professionals, went to Beirut on January 26.

Reliable sources have disclosed to The Reporter that the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was tampered with by the Lebanese. The professionals that went to inspect the CVR are said to have found that recorded segment of several minutes was deleted.

Lebanese officials hiding evidence from ET-409 probe

Published: Feb 25, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Ethiopian News

A senior Ethiopian minister said today that Lebanese officials have left out crucial evidence from a report into the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash.

A preliminary report from the investigation into why ET-409 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off was dispatched early this week to concerned states and institutions.

But Ethiopian Transport and Communication Minister Diriba Kuma said it does not include crucial information: “Evidence that was first included in the report and could lead to discovery of the cause of the accident was later omitted.”

According to the minister, eyewitness accounts, such as the one that said the plane was blown up in mid-air, were left out.


Shani Mashasha returns to Ethiopia to encourage aliya

Published: Feb 25, 2010 by bini Filed under: Entertainment Ethiopian News
Shani Mashasha returns to Ethiopia to encourage aliyaNamed for the city of Jerusalem, Shani Mashasha dreamed of moving to Israel as a young girl.
Shani Mashasha's aliya story reads almost like Cinderella. The Ethiopian-Israeli actress and model came to Israel at seven with her father and stepmother steeped in romantic stories about Israel and "Yerushalem," the Amharic name for Jerusalem given to her as a baby.

Last week, 17 years after her arrival in Israel, Mashasha returned to Ethiopia as a beauty queen, speaking as "Miss Aliya" to Ethiopia's Jewish community. "It's not my first time visiting Ethiopia, but this visit really moves me," Mashasha said in a telephone interview in the days before her trip.

Crowned Miss Aliya several months ago in a televised beauty competition for Israeli immigrants, Mashasha is serving on the trip as an Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia - part of her prize for winning the Jewish Agency-sponsored pageant.

The trip is Mashasha's fourth to Ethiopia since she left the country for Israel as a little girl. "It's not a regular visit," she said. "It makes me feel really good to contribute my knowledge and explain to [Ethiopian Jews] how life is in Israel, what my experience was like, how you have to behave here.

Ethiopian Habtemariam promoted to Senior VP, Creative Services/Head Of Urban Music

Published: Feb 25, 2010 by Helly Filed under: Entertainment Ethiopian News
Ethiopia Habtemariam promoted to Senior VP, Creative Services/Head
 Of Urban MusicUniversal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) announced the promotion of Ethiopia Habtemariam to Senior Vice President/Head of Urban Music. Habtemariam was previously Vice President of Urban Music.

Based in New York, Habtemariam is responsible for finding and developing songwriters, artists, and producers for the urban music department of Universal Music Publishing Group, and has signed some of music’s biggest superstars, including; multi-platinum recording artist and songwriter Chris Brown, breakthrough artist and songwriter Keri Hilson, gold recording artist and songwriter Ciara, BMI Songwriter of the Year and Producer of the Year Polow Da Don, Andre Merrit, Candice Nelson, Balewa Muhammad, Ezekiel Lewis (The Clutch), Rock City, and Brian Kennedy to name a few.

In addition to talent acquisition, Habtemariam works to create new opportunities for the company’s current roster of writers to exploit catalog, and serve as a liaison between the writers, record companies and the publishing group in order to place songs and writers on upcoming artist projects, soundtracks, and compilations.

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