By Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s legal in much of Europe, East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, but the khat plant is an illegal narcotic in the United States.

Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force Hussein Dahir Sheikaden, 31, is charged with drug trafficking and failure to maintain lane.

Enlarge photo

Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force The khat plant is an illegal narcotic in the United States, but is legal in many other countries around the world.

Authorities said they arrested a Stone Mountain man driving with at least $250,000 worth of the drug. He was stopped last week on I-75 in Bartow County for failure to maintain his lane. Then a K-9 deputy discovered two suitcases with 400 bundles of khat shoots and twigs, the Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force said.

The task force commander, Capt. Mark Mayton, said it’s the first time he’s seen khat in 20 years of law enforcement.

“The drug is unique compared to most other illicit drugs because it has an extremely short shelf life and has no legitimate medical use,” Mayton said. “Within approximately 40 hours of being harvested, the chemical compounds begin to change, which alters the effects of the drug. When khat is [chewed], it produces stimulant-type effects very similar to those of methamphetamine.”

Deputies arrested Hussein Dahir Sheikaden, 31, and charged him with drug trafficking and failure to maintain lane. He’s a Somali native in the U.S. on a work visa, Mayton said.

“We believe he was a ‘mule’ transporting it for someone else,” Mayton said

Two Ethiopians revel in half marathon wins

By Glae Thien, Union-Tribune: The men’s winner at this year’s America’s Finest City Half Marathon  (in San Diego) had extra reason to congratulate Belainesh Zemedkun Gebre after she set the women’s course record in the 33rd annual event.

Ezkyas Sisay also has been her coach and training partner since the two moved to this country a month apart close to four years ago from their native Ethiopia.

So, steps beyond the finish line, Sisay was the first to salute the repeat women’s winner with a handshake and a simple compliment “Good job!” on Sunday after the 13.1-mile race that started at Cabrillo National Monument, traveled through downtown and ended at Balboa Park.

After coming within 12 seconds of the record last year with the third fastest time ever, Gebre broke the mark set in Kenya’s Margaret Okayo by nine seconds in 1 hour, 10 minutes, 28 seconds under overcast morning skies.

“I’m happy,” said Gebre through a translator. “I trained better than last year, and that’s why I got the record.”

It became a most profitable day for Gebre, as she doubled the $1,500 first-place prize with a $1,000 bonus for the record and another $500 for adding another title in this event. This was her straight third race here, starting with third place (1:14:33).

Gebre took charge from the outset and led by 1:05 heading into the Sheraton Island loop at the midway point. She would prevail by nearly two minutes, followed by England’s Claire Hallissey (1:12:22) and Japan’s Yuri Takamizawa (1:13:22).

“I didn’t see anybody behind me,” said Gebre, 22, who came within five seconds of her personal best set last year in Columbus, Ohio. “I just ran at my pace. Everything was very nice. I have no complaints.”

Gebre remained steady up the steep Sixth Street hill approaching the finish, citing the help this year of increased mileage in her workouts and the benefits of altitude training at her Flagstaff, Ariz., base.

“It’s inspirational to see someone to go like that,” said Hallissey, 27, who recently moved to Arlington, Va. “I’m pleased with myself, but I would have liked to have gone slightly better. With the hill, it’s not the fastest of courses although the winner would beg to differ.”

In the men’s race, Sisay (1:03:58) survived a touch of illness to begin pulling away in the eighth mile to finish nearly a minute ahead of Kenya’s Benard Langat (1:04:56). In third pace was Ventura’s Josh Spiker (1:05:23), the 2009 Carlsbad Marathon winner.

Sisay stepped up this time after finishing 11th (1:10:47) last year, when he even finished behind Gebre. His pace this time was on par with last year’s first-place showing (1:04:01).

From the outset, Sisay stayed at or near the lead. As the early pack of seven leaders diminished to two contenders by the midpoint, he led by 30 yards going into the nearly two-mile loop. However, he subsequently vomited twice, and out of the loop, Langat moved ahead by a step.

Sisay then answered the challenge by progressively pulling away leading into the final hill.

“I knew I had to push it,” said Sisay, 21, who made repeated glances at his watch past the midpoint. “I still wanted to break the record (1:02:24). But the last mile, I was almost dead.”

Sisay, whose expression bore a grimace over the last half of the race, had to grin when he saw the women’s record broken by his Ethiopian compatriot.

“I know she’s much better than she was last year,” Sisay said. “I was expecting her to break the course record.”

There was a sellout field of 8,000 entries, with 6,646 finishers

source Tsehainy.com

Ethiopia receives $780mn remittances from the Diaspora

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa – About 100 people started to riot last night in Pietermaritz street in Pietermaritzburg, the large crowd was angry according to medics on the scene. Three Ethiopian males had their stab wounds treated on their backs and necks, they wanted to go back into the mob to fight for their rights.

Pietermaritzburg city hall

The paramedics spoke to the men and the men agreed to be taken to hospital. This was an apparent xenophobic attack. According to the Ethiopian men their car got vandalised for no reason, that sparked bigger crowds of people to get involved and that is when things got ugly.

Police and K9 dog unites were on the scene to disperse the angry crowd.

Source: fromtheold

Three Kenyans have been charged with the murders of 76 people killed when bombs exploded as they watched the World Cup on TV in Kampala, Uganda.

Hussein Hassan Agad, 27, Mohamed Adan Abdow, 25, and Idris Magondu, 42, were also charged with terrorism and 10 counts of attempted murder.

They have yet to enter pleas and will remain in custody until their next court appearance on 27 August.

Al-Shabab, a Somali Islamist group, said it carried out the attacks.

Ugandan peacekeepers are in Somalia, helping the weak, UN-backed government against al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda.

The three men did not speak during their court appearance

The African Union this week pledged to boost its peacekeeping force in Somalia by 4,000 troops, after a summit meeting in Kampala, which was overshadowed by the attack.

Only Uganda and Burundi have so far sent troops to the Somali capital, Mogadishu and al-Shabab had threatened to attack both countries.

‘Islamic preacher’

The explosions on 11 July, which also injured about 70 people, ripped through a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant as football fans watched the last few minutes of the World Cup final.

The three men, all residents of Kenya, appeared on Friday in a Kampala magistrates court.

The charge sheet identified Hussein Hassan Agad as “a preacher of Islam”, while Idris Magondu was identified as an employee of a trading company in Nairobi, Kenya.

The men were charged with 89 offences. They face 61 counts of murder for those killed at the Kyadondo Rugby Club and 15 counts for those killed at the Ethiopian restaurant.

The charges also include three counts of terrorism and 10 counts of attempted murder.

The men did not speak during their court appearance.

Chief Magistrate Deo Sejjemba said the accused were not allowed to enter a plea because the court does not have jurisdiction over the crime of terrorism.

The three will reappear at the magistrates court on 27 August, but will not be permitted to plead to the charges until Uganda’s Directorate of Public Prosecutions decides the case is ready to move to the High Court.

The three men were remanded in custody.

The BBC’s Ignatius Bahizi, who was in court, says the men were arrested on 12 July, the day after the bombings.

There was no indication of how long they had been in Uganda prior to the attacks, he added.

He says at least 27 people have been arrested by an international team of investigators, including the FBI.

Police said they will bring more suspects to court in the coming days.

Source: BBC

A Beaufort-area teenager is earning a laundry list of achievements and deserves a real good pat-on-the-back.  She recently claimed second place in a national Christian speech contest.

But there’s something much more wowing about the story: three years ago she couldn’t even speak a word of English.  It’s a stride the 14-year-old credits to faith, family, and community.

There is something about the faces of the three sisters and their brother that touched Sharon Mansell and her husband just over three years ago.

Fourteeen-year-old Maddie knows the story.

“God put us in their heart to adopt us,” she said.

The siblings made four of six the Mansells would adopt from Ethiopia.  When they set foot on US ground — learning the English language was one of the things to do.

“She didn’t know how to pronounce.  It took us a week and half to learn how to pronounce “peculiar,” “bewilderment” and “wreath,” Sharon said.

Ethiopian teen places 2nd national speech contest three year

But she got that down and a whole lot more!  So much she impressed judge after judge.

“They told me I was breaking to semi-finals and I was in shock. Then I break to finals and I was like, “oh my goodness” and then all the kids were like, “you’re going to nationals in your first year!” Maddie said.

She didn’t just go, she placed second in the Dramatic Interpretation category for the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association- a feat far past what they ever imagined.

“We set a goal,” Sharon said.  “Because it’s always fun when you embark on something to have a goal so we decided, “hey we’re going to set a goal for regionals,” which seemed like the unreachable goal.”

Surpassing their goal by leaps and bounds, a very mature Maddie believes first and foremost it’s faith that got her there.

“I think it’s what God wants me to do that I do for him and he does everything for me,” Maddie said.

And also the love and support of their church and their community.

“All goes into tide to this Beaufort area that has just backed us all the way,” Sharon said.

Besides the support for Maddie’s speech endeavors, Mom Sharon says their community really stood behind them through the whole process in adopting the children out of the orphanage in Ethiopia.

Source:  WSAV.com

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) At least 20 people died and several were injured on Saturday in a tragic road accident in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The incident occurred when a truck with a 6-tonne container over-turned in an open market in the western part of Addis Ababa, hitting several traders and vendors at the market.

It took hours for the rescue team to remove bodies under the container.

A majority of the dead bodies were so badly disfigured that they were difficult to identify.

The Addis Ababa traffic bureau said that the truck was out of control before it over-turned at the open market.

The death toll is expected to rise since there were many whose injuries were quite serious.

Ethiopia is one of the countries with the highest traffic accidents with over 2,000 people dying annually on the roads.

NAIROBI — Double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba restored Ethiopia’s track pride when she won the women’s 10,000m at the African athletics championships here on Saturday.

The 24-year-old proved she has overcome the injuries that decimated her entire 2009 season when she lead compatriot Meselech Melkamu to gold and silver – the two precious medals that have eluded Ethiopia in this competition.

Dibaba won in a relatively slow time of 31min 51.39sec while Melkamu, the world silver-medallist, clocked 31:55.50.

Kenya’s world champion Linet Masai, who did all the front running only to be overtaken by the two Ethiopians on the bell, took the bronze medal in 31:59.36.

The Kenyan, however, took her defeat graciously.

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba celebrates her victory

“I think I have to go back and work on my finishing kick – that’s why I came third,” said Masai, who added that she lacked team tactics after her team-mates Doris Changeiywo and Pauline Korikwiang fell way behind after the trio made their move halfway through the race.

The Ethiopian success, coming days after their men lost the 10,000m race to the Kenyans, silenced the capacity home crowd rooting for a Masai victory to keep the pressure on defending champions South Africa in the medals hunt.

But the South Africans, bouyed by three field medals and a track bronze in the men’s 110 metres hurdles, took their total tally to 16 to top the standings, going into the final day of competition on Sunday.

South Africa cemented their domination in the women’s javelin with defending champion Sunette Viljoen taking gold ahead of compatriot Justine Robbeson.

Viljoen threw of 63.33 metres, while Robbeson achieved 60.24 and Egypt’s Ramada Hassan taking bronze with 55.14.

Nigeria’s Oke Tosin won the men’s triple jump to take his team’s gold medal tally to five for a total of 11 medals, to put them joint second with Kenya.

Source: AFP

In protest of what it calls a religion “of the devil,” a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an “International Burn a Quran Day” on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it’s causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times,” Pastor Terry Jones told CNN’s Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

Preacher wants to burn Quarans

Jones wrote a book titled “Islam is of the Devil,” and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.

Muslims and many other Christians — including some evangelicals — are fighting the initiative.

The church launched a YouTube channel to disseminate its messages.

“I mean ask yourself, have you ever really seen a really happy Muslim? As they’re on the way to Mecca? As they gather together in the mosque on the floor? Does it look like a real religion of joy?” Jones asks in one of his YouTube posts.

“No, to me it looks like a religion of the devil.”

The Islamic advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Muslims and others to host “Share the Quran” dinners to educate the public during the monthlong fast of Ramadan beginning in August. In a news release, the group announced a campaign to give out 100,000 copies of the Quran to local, state and national leaders.

“American Muslims and other people of conscience should support positive educational efforts to prevent the spread of Islamophobia,” said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in the release.

The National Association of Evangelicals, the nation’s largest umbrella evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event, warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions.

“The NAE calls on its members to cultivate relationships of trust and respect with our neighbors of other faiths. God created human beings in his image, and therefore all should be treated with dignity and respect,” it said in the statement.

Dove’s Facebook page, set up for the September event, has more than 1,600 fans.

“Eternal fire is the only destination the Quran can lead people to, so we want to put the Quran in it’s [sic] place — the fire!” the page says.

But another Facebook group with more than 3,100 fans says it stands “against the disrespect and intolerance that these people have for the Muslim people” and encourages people to report Dove’s page to Facebook.

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The sun hadn’t yet risen Wednesday when Yodit Derese’s life began to change.

The 25-year-old Ethiopian woman’s eyes flicked back and forth nervously as one doctor after another hovered over her, checking her vital signs and asking about her health history.

Derese, dressed in a lavender hospital gown, said through an interpreter that she never thought this day would arrive.

“I’m really, really happy,” she said.

Her feelings, she said, alternated between anxiety and excitement — excitement for a new life, one free of a

malformed foot. Soon, she would be able to run, to dance, to walk long distances. At her bedside stood Hilary and Eric Shreves, the North Portland couple who helped make surgery possible.

Finally, after two hours of examinations and waiting, Derese was ready. She gripped and kissed her prayer book as she was wheeled into the hallway and through the doors of an operating room at St. Vincent Medical Center.

Yodit Derese clutches her Ethiopian prayer book as she's wheeled to an operating room for surgery on her right foot. A Portland couple, Eric and Hilary Shreves, worked years with support from others to bring Derese to the U.S. to repair a clubfoot.

“There she goes,” said Hilary. “I just really can’t believe this day happened.”
–
Nearly every step in Derese’s life has caused her pain. But it’s hard to tell. She takes care to hide her condition and has only a slight limp.
“I’m trying my best,” she said at a doctor’s appointment several weeks ago.

“She’s good at that,” Hilary said.

Each year, an estimated 200,000 children worldwide are diagnosed with clubfoot, according to CURE International, a nonprofit in Pennsylvania that establishes hospitals for children with crippling disabilities.

The congenital condition causes one or both feet to twist out of place. While most U.S. cases are treated in infancy, children born in developing countries often don’t have access to surgery, CURE spokesman Noel Lloyd said.

Derese was lucky, receiving four surgeries as a child in Ethiopia. But over time, her right foot grew the wrong way. Now it’s what Hans Moller, her orthopedic surgeon in Portland, calls an overcorrected clubfoot. Only the heel and outside edge of her right foot touch the ground.

“Eventually, it will break down and lead to, at best, amputation,” Moller said.

Back home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Derese endures a condition that is more than a disability. She couldn’t work; she once held a job breaking rocks into gravel, earning the equivalent of $16 a month, but the pain in her foot was too much to bear. Marriage was out of the question. Because walking was her only option for getting around, she often spent her days sitting.

Hilary and Eric Shreves, (left) join family friend and University of Portland nursing student Sarah Caneff in a moment of prayer over Yodit Derese prior to her much anticipated orthopedic surgery at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Faith Cathcart/The Oregonian

Life hasn’t been easy in other ways. She lost both parents as a child and was left to care for a younger sister, Naomi, until poverty forced Derese to take her to an orphanage.

Then a door opened. The Shreveses adopted Naomi and set in motion a plan to transform Derese’s life, too.
–
Eric Shreves will never forget the day he met Derese in 2005. She invited him to her mud hut for coffee just before he was to return to the U.S. with Naomi.

“I was really surprised at the bond I shared with her right away,” Eric said. “I was struck by how graceful and humble she is.”

Eric and Hilary had learned about Derese just a few weeks before. Hilary’s parents tried to adopt Derese, but at 19, she was too old. Still, the family vowed to help her.

“There was definitely a sense of urgency,” Eric said. “She’s part of the family; we couldn’t just leave her in Ethiopia.”

READ THE WHOLE STORY from: Origonlive.com