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Also in the news:[* EU parliamentary hearing on Ethiopia UPDATE]
[Ethiopian PM pays suprise visit to war-torn Mogadishu] - [AU seeks defined national borders to end conflict in Africa] - [Bush's World Bank pick to travel to Ethiopia] - [Ginbot 20 "Victory of the Millennium" says EPRDF]
International:
[Deadly shoot-out with Kenyan sect] - [Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison] - [Six Day War: remembered] - [Bin Laden Alive, Wrote to Me, Taliban Leader Says] and more of today's top stories!
EU parliamentary hearing on Ethiopia UPDATE
The lack of democracy and the large-scale human rights violations in Ethiopia condemned by MEPs [MORE...]______________
COALITION FOR H.R. 2003
URGES ATTENDANCE AT THE JOINT SUMMIT OF THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS AND EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, June 8, 2007
Special Call to Ethiopians Living in Northern Virginia, District of Columbia and Maryland
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IEWO's radio program - Role of Ethiopian Women in the Democratic Process and health matters
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EPRDF charges 55 CUD members with trying to launch an armed rebellion
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ADDIS ABABA, June 5 - The Ethiopian government has charged 55 opposition members with trying to launch an armed rebellion, receiving orders from exiled leaders in the United States and Germany; the state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported on Tuesday.
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(Reuters)-- The case is the latest to be brought against the opposition, and in particular members of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), since 2005 parliamentary elections ended in violent protests that killed nearly 200 people.
"The 55, who were members of the CUD, are charged with conspiring to launch armed rebellion against the government, following the 2005 national election," ENA reported, quoting charges brought by the prosecution on Monday.
The defendants were not immediately available for comment. The group received its orders from exiled leaders in the United States and Germany, ENA quoted the charges as saying.
This case is separate from an earlier one that has outraged human rights groups, in which 131 opposition leaders, journalists and activists were charged in December 2005 with treason, inciting violence and attempting to commit genocide.
The crackdown tarnished Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's democratic credentials and prompted donors, including Britain and the European Union, to halt direct budgetary aid to sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous nation.
Meles, who denied vote-rigging accusations, has said the opposition incited the violence to overthrow his government. Of 131 people first charged in that case, 45 have now been acquitted and 36 are being tried in absentia. [Source: Reuters]
Ethiopian PM pays suprise visit to war-torn Mogadishu
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MOGADISHU - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to Mogadishu, becoming the first foreign head of state to visit the lawless Somali capital in recent years, officials said.
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"Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi has arrived in Mogadishu and is having talks with Somali top officials," Abdi Ali Godon, an Ethiopian government official, told AFP.
Ethiopian troops helped the weak Somali government oust an Islamist movement -- that called for a holy war against Addis Ababa -- from the country's southern and central regions at the end of last year.(More...)
Also see:
-Ethiopia PM in shock Somali trip
AU seeks defined national borders to end conflict in Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 06/05 - Clear identification and demarcation of territorial boundaries of African countries could bring most of the recurrent conflicts in the continent to an end, African Union (AU) Peace and Security Commissioner, Said Djinnit observed here Monday.
Opening a two-day meeting of experts ahead of the AU ministerial conference on border issues, Djinnit said, besides the ill-defined frontiers, competing interests of States in natural and strategic resources found in cross-border areas often complicated the situation.(More...)
Bush's World Bank pick to travel to Africa
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His first stop will be Ghana followed by Ethiopia and South Africa
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WASHINGTON (AP) Robert Zoellick, President Bush's choice to run the World Bank, is embarking on a government-paid global tour hitting Africa, Europe and Latin America as the United States seeks to mend relationships strained by the rocky tenure of the bank's outgoing president.
``I certainly want to leave no stone unturned in showing people that I'm serious in reaching out to hear their perspectives and views. I think it shows courtesy and respect,'' Zoellick, currently a vice chairman at Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, told reporters Monday.(More...)
Ginbot 20 "Victory of the Millennium" says EPRDF: addis fortune
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...The Revolutionary Democrats were blunt enough to call May 28, 1991 (Ginbot 20), the "Victory of the Millennium". Could May 28th be more momentous than say the Adwa Victory, where Ethiopians thwarted the invasion of a colonialist European power?
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....The national census has begun indeed. Those who have been recruited from the Ethiopian education system have begun asking questions in order to complete two forms they are given by the Census Commission, led by Deputy Prime Minister Addisu Legesse. One of the forms is to every household and another is for one randomly selected household for every five houses.
Nevertheless, residents in Addis Abeba were rather baffled by a peculiar question in the process.
"Was there any guest received in your house the night of May 28th," the surveyors ask?
"What has that got to do with the census," residents would reply, being very reluctant to buy the explanations provided to them that it is just a coincidence that the Agency in charge of the census picked just that date.
But that was also a day where the Revolutionary Democrats made an exception from the past 15 years in who should be included in the party they usually held at the national palace. Indeed, there were few among the Addis Abeba business elite that were invited to an almost exclusive party the following day held at the Officers Club. Invited by the ruling party, in the presence of the chief priest of the Revolutionary Democrats, few were the businessmen - the usual suspects - invited to that dinner, of course to the envy of many of their peers.(More....)
Rice Urges OAS to Check on Press Freedoms in Venezuela
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ETP asks - Ethiopia is in the top four of 24 countries that imprison journalists, when will Ms. Rice take an interest in press freedoms in Ethiopia?
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday expressed concern about press freedom in Venezuela after the closing of the nation's largest private television station. In Panama City, VOA's Brian Wagner reports Rice asked leaders of the Organization of American States to send a team to Venezuela to study the situation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Panama Monday for a meeting of the 34-nation Organization of American States. The theme of the annual general assembly is boosting the reliability of energy supplies, and developing new sources of energy in the future.
Rice said the role of the media is crucial to the proper functioning of any democratic government. "Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and it most surely should not be a crime in any country, especially in a democracy," said Condoleezza Rice.(More...)
Six Day War: remembered
Beginning just after 7 a.m. on June 5, 1967 -- exactly 40 years ago today -- a fleet of 200 Israeli airplanes took off and flew west at low altitude toward Egypt's airfields.
Within three hours, almost 300 of Egypt's 420 combat aircraft were blown up on the ground. Runways, radar stations and air defences were all systematically wiped out.
(Picture - Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Dayan (C), Army Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin (R) and Jerusalem Commander Uzi Narkis walk through the Lion's Gate into Jerusalem during the capture of the Old City during the Six Day War. REUTERS)Egyptian pilots died as they ate breakfast. Air Force Commander Motti Hod reported matter-of-factly to his political superiors: "The Egyptian Air Force has ceased to exist." Without air cover, Egypt's army -- the most powerful in the Arab world -- was defenceless against the coming onslaught.
(Picture - General Moshe Dayan, Israel's top military commander at the time)So began the Six-Day War, one of the most astonishing military triumphs in human history. In just 132 hours of fighting, a country that hadn't even existed 20 years previous would capture 42,000 square miles, expanding to 350% of its original land mass.
Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan Heights all fell under Israeli control."(More...)
Also see:
-Middle East: 40 Years Later, Six-Day War Rages On
-Day-by-day guide mapping events of the 1967 six day War
Today's Top International Stories
-Deadly shoot-out with Kenyan sect(Police in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have shot and killed 21 people in a gun battle with suspected members of the banned Mungiki sect)-Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison(former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney sentenced to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators)
-Bush criticises Russia on reform
-Polish Teen's Holocaust Diary Revealed(Chronicle By "Polish Anne Frank" Was Safeguarded By Friend For More Than 60 Years)
-Bin Laden Alive, Wrote to Me, Taliban Leader Says
-ETA Ends Truce With Spanish Government
-China Criticizes US Plan for Missile Shield in Eastern Europe
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