The letter, which Ermyas received on Tuesday, however, did not state the reasons and the details of the case that led to the decision.

It is to be remembered that NBE suspended Ermyas from Zemen’s board following a serious accusation over an alleged conflict of interest between the bank and Access capital, promoter of the former during its formation stages and where Ermyas is also serving as a Chief Executive Officer..

Ermyas Amelga

Ermyas informed The Reporter that he has written a detailed letter to the Prime Minister and did not want to comment further on the matter.

Following the election of board of directors of Zemen bank that put Ermyas at the top position at the board, NBE ordered the re-audit of the bank’s finances and an investigation into the relationship between the Zemen and Access during the formation of the bank.

Citing the need for further clarification regarding the financial affairs of the bank and its promoter, the central bank suspended Ermyas from his board chairmanship. Zemen was also directed by the regulatory body to elect another board chairman in March, 2011. As per the orders the bank elected Tsegaye Habte (PhD) as board chairman in place of Ermyas.

NBE further appointed the state-owned Audit Services Corporation (ASC) to peruse the pre-establishment financial statements of Zemen. According to reports, the re-audit indeed found few irregularities in the way Access Capital and Zemen handled business at the time. However, it failed short of finding a major conflict of interest as a result of Ermyas’s involvement in the two institutions.

NBE did not address in detail the findings of the re-audit report in its final decision.

Source: Ethiopian Reporter

Engineers from Ricardo and Lifan have produced a VVT I engine for Lifan’s latest SUVs, a.k.a. Lifan X-60s, the engine being the latest in the industry.

Having a 1,800 cc power and an electrical fuel transmission passages, the engine will make the Chinese new brand to become fuel efficient and more powerful than its peers in the market, according to the representatives.

Lifan Car

Lifan’s SUV is currently being tested here to check its compatibility with the weather and terrain here in Ethiopia where it has to be driven until it covers a distance of 22,000 km, the representatives said.

The representatives said that Lifan’s SUVs will hit the market here within three to four months’ time, if all goes according to plan.

The representatives declined to mention the price tag of the new car, preferring to disclose it when the vehicle hits the market.

Lifan, which is currently assembling various brands here, have a plan to use the latest engine for the rest of the products in its line of production in the future, according to the representatives.

Lifan and Ricardo agreed to design and develop the latest engine for the former’s X-60s after negotiating for several months.

Ricardo is a global, world-class, multi-industry consultancy for engineering, technology, project innovation and strategy, according to information posted at the company’s website. With a century of delivering value, the company employs over 1,600 professional engineers, consultants and staff.

In a bid to expand its business to Ethiopia, Lifan will supply spare parts to prospective dealers here, according to the representatives.

In December, two Swedish journalists were sentenced to 11 years each by an Ethiopian court for supporting terrorism after being captured with a banned rebel group. An exiled journalist, two writers, a politician and one other individual, all from Ethiopia, were given terms ranging from 14 years to life last week for plotting terror acts.

Journalists “should not face criminal proceedings for carrying out their legitimate work, let alone be severely punished,” Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, said in a statement posted on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ethiopia holds journalists accountable when they commit crimes, Communications Minister Bereket Simon said.

“Ethiopia clearly differentiates between freedom of expression and terrorism,” he said in a phone interview from the capital, Addis Ababa, today. “This is simply a very wrong defense of foreign journalists who have been caught red-handed when assisting terrorists.”

Ethiopia was the third-largest recipient of humanitarian aid in the world in 2009, receiving $3.8 billion, according to Global Humanitarian Assistance, the Wells, England-based research group. There are 26 UN agencies operating in Ethiopia, according to the Addis Ababa-based Development Assistance Group, which represents Ethiopia’s donors.

Terror Acts

Next month, 24 people including government opponents, exiled journalists and dissident writer Eskinder Nega, begin their defense of charges of committing terror acts under the Horn of Africa nation’s 2009 law.

“Journalists, bloggers and others advocating for increased respect for human rights should not be subject to pressure for the mere fact that their views are not in alignment with those of the government,” Margaret Sekaggya, who speaks for the UN on behalf of human rights defenders, said in the statement.

Critics are applying “double standards” as they do not claim freedom of expression is endangered when journalists are prosecuted in the West, according to Bereket.

Five human-rights groups, including London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch, said a court case today in Addis Ababa threatens the “last remaining human rights monitoring NGO in Ethiopia.” The Addis Ababa-based Human Rights Council is trying to get a decision to freeze its funding reversed, the group said yesterday.

In 2009, Ethiopia banned charities working on human rights from receiving more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad.

–Editors: Paul Richardson, Karl Maier.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

The women were subjected to strip searches and the men beaten and called “unbelievers”, according to HRW.

In 2006, the Saudi government promised to stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims.

Ethiopia was one of the first Christian countries in the world.

The group was arrested in a private home as they gathered to pray during the run-up to Christmas, celebrated by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 7 January.

HRW spoke to a man and two women by telephone from the prisons where they are being held.

They say they have been charged with mixing with unmarried persons of the opposite sex – even though HRW says Saudi Arabia has no law defining “illicit mingling”.

Mixing of the sexes is not allowed in public – but normally permitted in private unless for “the purpose of corruption”, according to the religious police.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom bans the practice of any religion except Islam – but in recent years pledged to leave people of other faiths alone if they worshipped in private homes.

Ethiopia was one of the first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th Century.

Source: BBC News

Girma told The Reporter that he accepted the appointments as he wants to serve an African airline that could work in cooperation with Ethiopian Airlines in various areas. “I am honoured by the appointments the Rwandese government bestowed on me. I will try to serve both the Rwandese Ministry of Transport and the RwandAir with maximum dedication. I will also work on the areas that RwandAir could work with Ethiopian Airlines,” he told The Reporter. “I am glad to serve another African carrier.”

Former Ethiopian CEO Girma Wake

Established in 2002, the Rwandese national flag carrier, RwandAir, is one of the fast growing airlines in the region. Rwanda Air announced the appointment of Girma, as the new chairman of its new board of directors on January 24. The airline said in a statement the move is in line with its expansion plans as the new board steers it forward in its expansion ambitions

Girma, 68, has over 42 years of airline management experience in various capacities at the head, regional and area offices of three organizations. At Ethiopian, he worked in various managerial positions including manager space control, area manager Ghana, Tanzania and Germany, Director marketing operations and director cargo marketing, the position he held before joining Gulf Air in 1993.

Girma was a member of a senior management team of Gulf Air responsible for cargo management. He briefly left Gulf Air to take a position with DHL as regional general freight manger from 1996 to 1998.

He then rejoined Ethiopian as CEO in February 2004. Girma successfully led the most ambitious growth period in the company’s history, most notably the implementation of Vision 2010, which saw Ethiopian ranked as the 16th most profitable airline in the world.

Wake was president of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) in 2009-2010. After four decades of service with Ethiopian, he retired in January 2011 after nominating Tewolde Gebremariam, the current CEO of Ethiopian, as his successor. Wake is married and a father of five and has six grandchildren. Girma is a board member of the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel and the United Insurance S.C.

Girma received the Medal of Glory Award from the Foundation for Democracy in Africa in 2011, the highest honor awarded annually to exemplary leaders for their extraordinary contributions to economic, social, cultural and agricultural development and democracy in Africa. AFRAA awarded Girma a life time achievement award last November at the association’s 43rd annual general assembly in Marrakech, Morocco. He also won the Face of Aviation award 2011 annually awarded by the Airline Economics, the international aviation magazine, to exemplary airline CEOs.

Source: EthiopianReporter

Drive along any road between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia and you are likely to see pick-up trucks, piled high with bundles of fresh green leaves, hurtling past you at terrific speed, horns blaring, lights flashing.

A bit like ambulances. Or fire engines.

Land at any airport and you will see planes stuffed with the same green leaves, being unloaded at a frenzied pace.

Whether there is war, drought or famine, the leaves get through. The khat industry booms.

I used to wonder where all this khat was coming from. Now I know.

The small town of Awaday is in between Ethiopia’s most holy Muslim town of Harar and its big eastern city of Dire Dawa.

I first arrived in Awaday late at night. Unlike the other towns I had passed through, it was not quiet, dark and asleep. It was wide awake and madly, crazily busy.

Every scrap of pavement, every building, room and shack was devoted to the sorting, the weighing, the bundling and the selling of khat. There was a fresh, slightly bitter smell of vegetation.

I stood on floors which were soft, smooth and silky with glossy discarded leaves. Man, woman and child sat on these floors, rapidly chopping stems, picking through the leaves to choose the most succulent and tender.

There was something medieval about the process. Nothing was mechanised. Everything was done by hand.

Delicate weighing of the highest quality leaves – which fetch tens of dollars a bunch – was done with tiny brass weights on metal scales.

In each and every room, a man sat with a giant ledger, carefully noting down weights, prices and other figures.

“This is the khat capital of the world,” one man told me. “This whole town is a khat factory.

“We harvest the leaves from the fields nearby, then we rush them to Awaday for sorting and pricing. This is our khat stock exchange.

“We all work from late afternoon until three of four in the morning. Only then do we rest.”

In the middle of Awaday is a large five-storey building, the biggest I could see in the town.

It is devoted entirely to khat and is divided into small rooms, where people prepare the leaves for transporting all over the world.

The vehicles waiting on the road with their engines running reminded me of racehorses straining at the bit, before the starting bell. As soon as they are filled with khat, they race off into the night.

“This one’s for Djibouti, this for Somaliland, Dire Dawa, Addis Ababa, London, China.”

The reason for the speed is that khat has to be fresh.

Wherever possible, it must be on the market before noon the next day. Otherwise, as one devoted chewer told me, “it loses its deadliness”.

Soaring spirits

I spent time with some chewers the day after I visited Awaday.

They were known by their Somali nicknames of “Black Hair’, “Big Nose” and “Round Mouth”.

There is quite a ritual to chewing khat, which is usually done sprawled on the floor, preferably on a carpet or blanket, with cushions to lean on.

Soft drinks, water and tea are placed before each chewer, together with a large bundle of khat, a bin for the stems and a cloth for wiping sweat from the brow.

The session starts quite slowly.

There is not much conversation as packing the leaves and stems into the mouth and chewing them are the priorities.

After an hour or so, spirits lift, tongues fly and arms wave about. There is a lot of talking, planning, analysing, arguing and joking.  >> Read More : BBC

The entire $200m (£127m) project was funded by China as a gift to the AU, as Beijing continues to strengthen its influence in Africa.

The 100m high tower overlooks a vast conference centre where African heads of state are expected to meet for years to come.

Their first AU summit in the building will take place on the weekend.

China’s most senior political adviser, Jia Qinglin, will attend the opening of the new headquarters and will address African leaders at the start of their assembly on Sunday.

The new AU building dominates the skyline of Addis Ababa and is the city’s tallest building.

Most of the materials used were imported from China and even the furnishings were paid for by Beijing, AFP news agency reports.

Construction began in January 2009 and involved 1,200 Chinese and Ethiopian workers.

The new AU headquarters is seen as a symbol of China's new role in Africa

The project co-ordinator, Fantalum Michael, says the new building signifies China’s growing friendship with Africa.

“It’s a testimony that this relationship will continue in the future,” he told AFP.

Thriving relationship

Trade between China and Africa has increased more than six-fold during the past decade to $120bn (£76bn) in 2011.

China is interested in Africa’s natural resources and in return is investing huge sums in African infrastructure.

Roads are being built by Chinese firms at a staggering rate, says the BBC’s Will Ross in Addis Ababa.

While other rich nations impose conditions before aid is given, China’s relationship with African countries is strictly a business one, he says.

Human rights groups have criticised China for undermining efforts by western countries to link aid to improvements in governance.

However African leaders have welcomed the Chinese approach and have embraced investment from Beijing.

In Ethiopia, many jobs have been created through Chinese-funded projects.

Chinese cars are being made in Ethiopian factories and China is also building a light railway across Addis Ababa.

Source: BBC

“An Ethiopian soldier fired on the minibus before it entered the compound and the attacker exploded himself at the front gate,” Sheikh Ahmed Abdullahi, an official from the pro- Somali-government Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a militia, said in a mobile-phone interview today from Beledweyne, near the Ethiopian border. “No casualties were reported.”

Ethiopian soldiers entered Somalia last month to help government forces capture Beledweyne from al-Shabaab, which controls most of southern and central Somalia. Their incursion began after Kenya sent armed forces into the neighboring country in mid-October to pursue al-Shabaab and secure its borders.

Al-Shabaab said that among the Ethiopian troops killed were four “senior” commanders, according to an e-mailed statement from the group. Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti didn’t answer his mobile phone when called today, while Communications Minister Bereket Simon’s mobile phone was switched off when Bloomberg tried to reach him for comment.

“The Beledweyne operation is part of the new strategy adopted by the mujahedeen as a bold response to the increasingly hostile enemies that have invaded Somalia,” al-Shabaab said. As many as 72 soldiers were injured, while two army trucks and a car parked in the compound were destroyed, it said.

Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia is its second since 2006. Its forces withdrew in January 2009 after pushing the Islamic Courts Union out of Mogadishu, and later becoming bogged down in a guerrilla war with Islamic militants.

–With assistance from William Davison in Addis Ababa. Editors: Paul Richardson, Alastair Reed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

The Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) has performed a U-turn in lifting its suspension of double Olympic champions Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and 33 others which had put their appearance at the London 2012 Games in jeopardy.

EAF President, Bisrat Gashawten Tirfe, told The Associated Press by telephone: “We have agreed to discuss all the matters concerning their problems.”

The athletes were suspended last week for not reporting to the Federation’s training camp.

As insidethegames reported exclusively, Bekele was so upset about the ban, which he only heard about after watching a report on Ethiopian television, that he raised the possibility with his manager, Jos Hermens, of running for another nation.

The crisis started last Thursday when the EAF wrote in an email that it had decided that “any international competition, including the Dubai Marathon, is closed from January 20, 2012, until end of the [Olympic] event on August 2012″ for the 35 athletes who did not attend the camp early this month.

The group also included Dibaba’s husband, Sileshi Sihine, a two-time Olympic silver medallist in the 10,000 metres.

The EAF had set up a training camp for its leading athletes early this month to improve preparation for London after a poor showing at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, last August.

Kenya won seven gold medals at the Worlds compared to only one for Ethiopia.

Kenya was third in the overall medals table with 17, while Ethiopia was ninth with only five.

Bekele has struggled for most of the past two years with injuries and dropped out of the 10,000m in Daegu, but ended the year on a high by winning the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Brussels in 26min 43.16sec, replacing Britain’s Mo Farah, who won world silver and world gold over 5,000m, as the fastest of the season.

Contact the writer of this story at mike.rowbottom@insidethegames.biz

The people tell The Associated Press that the federation plans to reinstate Bekele soon. They spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made public.

Bekele won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Beijing Olympics and holds the world record in both events. He was suspended last week along with 34 other Ethiopian athletes for not reporting to a training camp. The suspension would prevent Bekele from running at this year’s Olympics.

Source:AP