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Hurricane Earl started life in Ethiopia - NASA Scientist

You may have have already heard this before. But here it is again, as the East Coast of the United States prepares for the landfall of Hurricane Earl, a NASA scientist quoted by the Wall Street Journal, said, Hurricane Earl started life as a thunderstorm in Ethiopia.

"Hurricane Earl, with a predicted path up the East Coast, started life last month as a minor thunderstorm forming over the highlands of Ethiopia. Drifting west across the African continent, it crossed the coastline and encountered the warmest tropical Atlantic waters on record, about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual. That transformed a minor tropical depression into a major hurricane with surprising speed", said research meteorologist Scott Braun at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

In 2008, ABC news had this headline, "The Real Home of Hurricanes: Ethiopia?"

Ethiopia world's second most expensive place to get a fixed broadband connection

You think your broadband fix is expensive? Think again.

A report released by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reveals that, Ethiopia has the second most expensive fixed broadband service anywhere in the world. A broadband service taken for granted in much of the developed world would literally cost, an arm, a leg and some in Ethiopia. According to ITU figures, it would cost nearly 21 times the average monthly salary in Ethiopia.

The most expensive place for broadband is Central African Republic. Ethiopia which has recently been ranked as the second poorest country behind Niger has one of the lowest mobile and internet subscribers ratio in the world. According to world internet users, less than 1 percent of Ethiopians use internet.

More than five years since Meles Zenawi promised universal internet access in Ethiopia within three years, the country has a shameful record in almost all ICT indicators.

Read related story from BBC News

Six Arrested in Japan for Involvement in 2008 Citibank Scam of Bank of Ethiopia

NTDTV

On Thursday, Japanese police arrested six people who were allegedly part of a multi-million dollar scam. $27.2 million was illegally transferred from the National Bank of Ethiopia account at Citibank in 2008.

The arrested suspects were three Nigerians, two Japanese and one from Ghana.

Sources say the six are suspected of money laundering approximately $6.5 million of the funds wired from the $27.2 million scammed from the Citibank account in the United States.

U.S. prosecutors said that in October 2008, the suspects made a total of about 24 wire transfers amounting to almost $27.2 million to various accounts they controlled in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States.

Sources say most of the $6.5 million transferred to the Japanese accounts have been withdrawn, although it's not known at this time where the money has gone.

From September through November of last year, the suspects sent fake-signed documents to Citibank appearing to match signatures of officials at the National Bank of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia denies rebels chased oil, gas firms away

* Petronas has not pulled out of Ethiopia, minister says

* Govt negotiating deals with three more oil and gas firms

By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Rebel claims that Malaysia's Petronas has stopped oil and gas exploration in Ethiopia are lies and three more firms are in negotiations to start exploration in the country, its mines minister said on Thursday.

Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) separatists and local media said state-owned Petronas had pulled out of the Horn of Africa nation after a gas field it was exploring was overrun by the militants in May.

"The rebels took no gas field," Mines and Energy Minister, Alemayehu Tegenu, told Reuters in an interview. "That didn't happen. Petronas have not ceased operations. They have just suspended work to evaluate their portfolio."

Petronas have yet to comment on the reports.

The ONLF is fighting for independence for the mainly ethnic-Somali Ogaden and has warned international oil and gas companies to stay away or face attack.

Firms including Petronas and the Vancouver-based Africa Oil Corporation are exploring the Ogaden for potential oil and gas reserves. Twelve foreign mineral firms are exploring Ethiopia for deposits.

Apart from a small discovery of natural gas, which Petronas has signed a $1.9 million deal to extract, Ethiopia has not uncovered significant oil or gas deposits.

The government says the Ogaden basin may contain gas reserves of 4 trillion cubic feet and points to oil-producing neighbours such as Sudan and Yemen as evidence there could be major oil deposits under Ethiopia's vast deserts.

Alemayehu said Ethiopia was secure and the government was negotiating new exploration licenses with three foreign firms. He did not name them.

'OUR MILITARY IS IN CONTROL'

"We have no complaints from companies exploring here about our security," the minister said. "We have secured them. Our military is in control."

Alemayehu also said peace negotiations with one faction of the ONLF were at an advanced stage. ONLF spokesmen have denied a deal is imminent.

The Ethiopian government has reported some skirmishes with the rebels in the past six months, but regular accusations from both sides are hard to verify. Journalists and aid groups cannot move in the area without government escorts.

Ethiopian forces launched an assault against the ONLF -- who have been fighting for more than 20 years -- after a 2007 attack on an oil exploration field owned by a subsidiary of China's Sinopec Corp, Asia's biggest refiner.

"Since that attack, we have secured the area," Alemayehu said.

A British geologist was shot dead in the Ogaden last July while working for IMC Geophysics International, subcontracted to Petronas. The ONLF denied involvement and the government said 'bandits' were responsible.

Analysts say the rebels are incapable of ousting the government but can hamper development and weaken security forces in the Ogaden with hit-and-run attacks. (Editing by George Obulutsa and James Jukwey)

Ethiopian Runner Berhanu Took his own life

By David Monti

letsrun.com

September 1, 2010

Ethiopian distance runner Dejene Berhanu, who was reported dead at the age of 29 last Sunday by his management firm, took his own life. Two independent sources contacted by Race Results Weekly who had knowledge of the situation, one in the United States and one in Ethiopia, confirmed the news. Neither source wished to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation.

"It is true that Dejene Berhanu died on Sunday from suicide and was buried on Monday," said the Ethiopian source. "The cause of death is suicide. These are the facts I know at the moment."

Berhanu first became known in 2000 when he took the silver medal at 10,000m at the African Championships in Algiers. He would eventually improve to make the 2004 Ethiopian Olympic team and finish fifth at the 5000m. He also won the Great North Run Half-Marathon later that year. He had lifetime bests of 12:54.15 for 5000m, 27:12.22 for 10,000m, 59:37 for the half-marathon and 2:08:46 for the marathon.

A versatile athlete, Berhanu also ran on the U.S. road circuit, competing in the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10-K in Cape Elizabeth, Me., three times, including a 14th place finish at this year's race on August 7. According to a report in the Portland Press Herald, it was in Cape Elizabeth where Berhanu met an ophthalmologist, Dr. Jeff Berman. Berman diagnosed Berhanu with a droopy eyelid, and arranged for doctors in Maine to correct it through surgery after the 2009 edition of the Beach to Beacon.

"We're crushed," Dr. Berman told the Press Herald earlier this week after hearing the news. "It's like a member of our family died. What a tragedy."

Berhanu left behind a wife and a three year-old daughter.