Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s aviation pioneer, employing more than 4,700 people and carrying more than 1.5 million passengers a year to 45 destinations, was founded 60 years ago.
On April 8, 1946, when Ethiopian made its maiden international flight to Cairo, air travel was a luxury reserved for a select few and the flights themselves entailed a bumpy ride in World War II surplus C-47 - known in the passenger version as DC-3 - propeller planes. As befitted the historic occasion the Emperor and a large crowd of residents of Addis Ababa were at the airport to see the flight takeoff for Cairo at 8 a.m. more >>
Gambella, 4/29/2006
Installation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) devices has been
finalized with 10 million Birr to network seven woredas in Gambella State,
States capacity Building Coordination Bureau said. Bureau head, Engineer Oubong
Ouman told Ethiopian News Agency on Saturday that the devices were installed
with a view to interlink woredas with zones and federal bureaus with a view
to enhancing their capacity. Procurement of generator and training of experts
in the field gets underway, he said. The Bureau has designed plans to make
other four woredas beneficiaries of the technology, Engineer Oubong added. more >>
By Mikias Makonnen
As it seeks to make Addis Ababa and its ultra modern airport terminal an international hub, Ethiopian Airlines has invested a total of 240 million birr for the construction of a state-of-the-art cargo terminal 1.5km west of the existing Bole Airport passenger terminal.
The airplane taxiway for the terminal will be 235 meters long, connecting the existing north-south taxiway to the cargo apron, whereas the 44,390sqm area of cargo apron can accommodate four cargo planes. Occupying an area of 14,000sqm, the terminal will accommodate 250,000 tonnes of air cargo per year. The cargo terminal will serve as an international hub for perishables such as flowers, fruits, vegetables, meat, and medicine and will handle cargo in accordance with international standards. more >>
Friday 28 April 2006.
By Magn Nyang*
April 27, 2006 — There was no country called Ethiopia before Minelik’s rule. In fact, the word “Ethiopia” came from Greek, meaning “burned faces.” “Ethio” means burned and “pia” means faces.
Passing through the North, the Arab part of Africa, Europeans saw people with burned faces, meaning dark face people, living below Sahara desert. There fore, they referred to every one that was living below Sahara desert as “Ethiopian.” Today’s Ethiopia inhabitants were among the “burned face” people they referred to. In this land, so called Ethiopia today, there were ethnic groups who lived independently from each other. While the Oromo people lived in the East, the central, and the West, the Anuak and the Amahara people lived in the West and the North respectively. However, when Minelik came to power, he invaded Oromo’s, Anuak’s, Gurage’s and every other non-Amhara land. After the invasion, Minelik combined what was called Abyssinia with the new territories and named them “Ethiopia.” The irony part was that a man, who had claimed to have been a descendent of king Solomon of Israel, would take upon him a name that was meant for all” dark faced people” living below Sahara desert. Any how, Minelik consolidated his power over those territories and ruled for years before passing the throne to his cousin Haile Selessie. more >>
Apr 28, 2006, 11:41 GMT
Addis Ababa - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's three-day official visit to Ethiopia starting Saturday is expected to strengthen relations which date back to the establishment of diplomatic ties eight dacades ago, Addis Ababa said Friday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the visit will be the first to Ethiopia by a top leader of Japan since diplomatic relations were set up in the early 1920. more >>
April 28 ,2006
Prime Minister Meles said Ethiopia hopes to register next year an economic growth no less than that of the past three years.
In a press conference he gave to local and international journalists here on Thursday, Prime Minister Meles said necessary plans have almost been put in place to register substantial economic growth in the next Ethiopian year.
The government has designed a package of five-year development plans that would enable to sustain the economic growth the country registered over the past three years, he said. more >>
25 Apr 2006 16:43:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
ADDIS ABABA, April 25 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has appointed an 11-member independent
commission to decide whether security forces used excessive force to quell
post-election violence in June and November 2005, its chairman said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had promised to set up the independent commission to investigate two separate bouts of unrest that erupted over the result a May 15 parliamentary poll. more >>
Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:06 PM GMT
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopian separatist rebels said on Monday they would permit no oil and gas exploration in their eastern Ogaden region, and warned companies vying for a gas concession there against going forward.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), ethnic Somalis fighting for independence from Ethiopia, named India's state-run GAIL Ltd. and its partner Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. Ltd. in its statement.
Earlier this month, GAIL said it had been shortlisted to bid for Calub and Hilala gas fields in the Ogaden onland basin, which are thought to have 4 trillion cubic feet of gas and possibly more. more >>
Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:24 PM GMT
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Monday it would build a monument to honour thousands of people killed during the 1977-78 "Red Terror" purge by Marxist Dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
"The Mausoleum will shelter 27 caskets bearing remains of 55,000 Red Terror victims, exhumed from different mass graves in and around Addis Ababa city," an official said. more >>
April 17, 2006
ETHIOPIAN Airlines has resumed operation in Dakar as it looks to consolidating
its position as Africa's powerhouse airline.
Ethiopian Airlines started flying to Dakar, Senegal on March 26, Libreville, Gabon on March 28 and will start flying to Brussels on June 5.
Coutry Manager Ermejachew Regassa confirmed to Daily Monitor that it is because of the existing big market in those areas. more >>
NEW YORK - The conscience of the auto industry was movingly and uniquely on display at the Volvo for Life Awards ceremony in New York.
Now in its fourth year, the awards program by Ford's Swedish premium brand celebrates and rewards everyday people in the U.S., whose extraordinary efforts to help others deserve special recognition.
This year the grand award went to renowned Detroit heart surgeon Ingida Asfaw, a doctor at Sinai Grace hospital, whose charitable medical work in his native Ethiopia earned him the attention of the Volvo judges. The panel, including celebrities Caroline Kennedy, Val Kilmer, Sir Richard Branson, Paul Newman and Dr. Sally Ride, also picked two other candidates from 4,300 nominations for awards; a Chicago doctor whose unusual crime prevention efforts have been highly successful and a California environmentalist fighting against industrial pollution. more >>
Johannesburg, 7 April 2006 - A high-level delegation of African religious and civil society leaders, including His Grace Njongonkhulu Ndungane, Arch Bishop of Cape Town, are currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to press for the release of civil society prisoners of conscience. The delegation has so far met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi Meles, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and the prisoners of conscience and their families.
In addition to His Grace, the delegation includes Dr Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and member of the International Facilitation Team of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), Salil Shetty, Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, Henry Malumo, African Facilitation Group of GCAP and Elizabeth Eilor, African Women’s Empowerment Network.
The delegation is seeking the immediate and unconditional release of civil society prisoners of conscience who have been detained as part of a government clamp down following the May 2005 elections. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people have been detained since May.
Following the return of the delegation from Ethiopia on 8 April, there will be a press conference on the results of their meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa:
Who: His Grace Njongonkhulu Ndungane and Dr. Kumi Naidoo
When: 4-5pm, Monday 10 April 2006
Where: Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, 9 Jubilee Road, Parktown,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Ethiopia has been experiencing a deteriorating human rights situation and a shrinking of space for both civil society and political opposition. Among the accused are prominent human rights and civil society activists including Daniel Bekele, a lawyer and policy manager of the ActionAid office in Ethiopia and Netsanet Demissie, an environmental and human rights lawyer and chair of the Organization for Social Justice in Ethiopia. Both Bekele and Demissie were active in GCAP and have been imprisoned since November 2005.