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Ethiopia on verge of political crisis
The US and the EU are likely to keep playing a waiting game with Ethiopia - a game that favors Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawo - until one of the government’s adversaries gains a clear advantage.

Commentary by Dr. Michael A. Weinstein for PINR (27/10/05)

During the week of 10 October, Ethiopia - the dominant power center in the Horn of Africa - moved closer to a political crisis with the seating of a new parliament elected in a May 2005 vote that was succeeded by a period of uncompromising conflict between the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and opposition parties, which contended that Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had stolen the elections.

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This is a press release signed by Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merera Gudina who were relived of their duties from UEDF.

Press Release

We called the UEDF office in Washington DC and was told that Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merera Gudina are no longer in leadership positions at UEDF.

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Oct 27th 2005 The Economist
Backing the favourite
Ethiopia defies an international ruling and its western allies do nothing

"Eritrea has no such posh pals. Most of the international sympathy it accrued during a bitter three-decade-long struggle for independence from Ethiopia—which it won in 1993—has since been squandered by its despotic leader, Issaias Afwerki. Last week, an agency that monitors the world's media said that only in North Korea were journalists less free." The Economist [Read the World Press Freedom Index here ]

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Ethiopia prepares for bird flu

Updated December 2 2005

Ethiopia probes possible bird flu

EASTERN AFRICA: Countries prepare to control possible spread of avian flu

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27/10/2005 12:33 - (SA)
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia said on Thursday it has established a task force to pre-empt the outbreak of bird flu. It will ban the import of poultry products and watch against the migration of possibly infected birds from Europe and the Middle East through the Ethiopian Rift Valley during the winter season.

The task force, from various concerned government agencies, would work to put in place urgency measures to help prevent the spread of the H5N1 virus fatal to human beings, the ministry of agriculture and rural development said in a statement.

It said measures already taken included a ban on import and transfer of poultry and poultry products from countries known to have already been affected by avian flu, and upgrading laboratories in the country to undertake identification of the disease.

Panic

The ministry said the public should not panic. But it urged people to take precautions in swampy areas, lakes, rivers and ponds along the Rift Valley area of northeastern Ethiopia where migratory birds from some European countries are expected to arrive shortly via the Middle East.

Government agencies, agricultural development agents and the public in the rural areas were also called upon to immediately notify the task force if they thought the disease has struck anywhere in the country.

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Mamitu Gashe: Nazret.com Person of The Year 2005

The New York Times

'The Illiterate Surgeon'

"After that operation, 42 years ago, Ms. Mamitu was given a job making beds in the hospital. Then she began helping out during surgeries, and after a couple of years of watching she was asked by Dr. Reg Hamlin to cut some stitches. Eventually, Ms. Mamitu was routinely performing the entire fistula repair herself.

Over the decades, Ms. Mamitu has gradually become one of the world's most experienced fistula surgeons. Gynecologists from around the world go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to train in fistula repair, and typically their teacher is Ms. Mamitu.

Not bad for an illiterate Ethiopian peasant who as a child never went to a day of school.

A few years ago, Ms. Mamitu tired of being an illiterate master surgeon, and so she began night school. She's now in the third grade." Read More From NY Times

Even though she is only in the third grade, Mamitu is one of the world's premiere obstetric fistula surgeons.

Watch NY Times Video

Read the op-ed piece first published on June 12 2005 by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

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Donate Online HELP Ethiopian Mothers

Learn more about Fistula.

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People Magazine October 26, 2005

One thing Angelina Jolie has realized since becoming a mom to Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 9 months is that she wants to adopt again.

At the gala event, which Jolie attended with brother James Haven (beau Brad Pitt was in Winnipeg filming), the actress announced she is partnering with Dr. Jane Aronson, the foundation's founder, to build a pediatric AIDS center in Ethiopia, where Zahara was born.

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