The victory elevated Adama to second place behind leader Harar Brewery, who has a better goal difference (+2).

Four teams, namely Harar Brewery, Adama City, Mugher Cement and EEPCO, currently share the top position with 5 points each from 3 matches..

Meanwhile in Bishoftu, newly promoted Ethiopian Air Force failed to take home field advantage as they lost 1-0 to Dedebit. Dawit Fekadu scored the lone goal of the match.

Ethiopian Air Force has lost all their matches by an identical score of 1-0.

Dire Dawa Kenema (City) defeated last year’s runner-up St. George 1-0 thanks to an 81st minute goal by Remedan Nassir.

It seems like Dire Dawa is rebounding from their season opener defeat (1-2) at the hands of Mugher Cement. They have now collected 4 points in their last 2 matches.

Adama-Kenema

“Today we have taken a large step forward in completing our Africa strategy,” said Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance, “With Ethiopian Airlines now part of the Star Alliance network, we offer our customers the widest choice of flights connecting to, from, and within Africa. Moreover, Ethiopian Airlines will bring the Star Alliance customer benefits to more markets across Africa, a region of the world in which air travel is enjoying steady growth rates.”

With the addition of Ethiopian Airlines, the Star Alliance network in Africa grows to cover major commercial and political cities of the continent particularly in East, Central, and West Africa. In total, the 16 Star Alliance member carriers serving Africa offer more than 750 daily flights to over 110 destinations in 48 countries on the continent, with Addis Ababa, Cairo, and Johannesburg serving as the main hubs.

“It is another historical milestone for Ethiopian to join this most prestigious and longest-serving alliance in the world,” said Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, “This day will remain colorfully marked in our history book. It is in line with our efforts to lay a strong foundation for the airline to achieve its vision 2025 objectives.”

On a global scale, with the addition of Ethiopian Airlines, the Star Alliance network now counts 28 airlines, offering a choice of more than 21,000 daily flights to 1,290 destinations in 189 countries.

Through its Star Alliance membership, Ethiopian Airlines now offers its customers the benefits of being a member of a global airline alliance: world-wide reach via the extensive network, seamless travel, and status recognition through the frequent flyer programs.

Ethiopian Airlines ShebaMiles participants can now earn miles when flying on any Star Alliance member carrier, with the collected miles counting towards achieving ShebaMiles Silver Club or Gold Glub status. All collected miles can be redeemed for flights operated by any Star Alliance member carrier. In addition, all ShebaMiles Silver Club and Gold Club customers will receive the respective Alliance Silver and Gold benefits every time they travel on a Star Alliance member carrier.

By the same token, Ethiopian Airlines will be extending the Alliance Silver and Gold benefits to status customers from all other Star Alliance member carriers when they fly on Ethiopian Airlines.

Ethiopian Airlines will also participate in and sell the various Alliance fare products. On the corporate side, Ethiopia is an important destination for meetings and conventions. Indeed, its capital city, Addis Ababa, is often referred to as the “political capital of Africa.” This stems from the fact that the city is home to organizations such as the African Union or United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. By participating in both Star Alliance Conventions Plus and Meetings Plus, Ethiopian Airlines will now be able to offer worldwide flight connections at special rates for delegates and participants.

On the leisure side, Ethiopian Airlines will begin participating in the various Star Alliance fare products as of January 1, 2012. The airline’s African routes will be added to the offer of the Star Alliance Africa Airpass, a special fare designed for those wishing to criss-cross the continent by air.

At the same time, Ethiopian Airlines will also become part of the Star Alliance Round the World fare, opening the airline’s network for globe trotters.

PHOTO: Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance (left) applauds as Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO Ethiopian Airlines (right) celebrates the entry of his airline into Star Alliance. Lufthansa CEO Christoph Franz and Siza Mzimela, CEO South African Airways, and uniformed staff from the airlines look on.

Source: Star Alliance
AFRICA AFRICA AIR SERVICE AFRICA AIRLINES AFRICA FLIGHTS BUSINESSTRAVEL ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES STAR ALLIANCE

The leaders of Ethiopia’s main religious denominations faced journalists briefly in an Addis Ababa conference room Tuesday. Abune Paulos, the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was there, along with representatives of the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, the Roman Catholic Church, and Protestant denominations.

But before anything could be said, Ethiopia’s Health Minister Tewodros Adhanom arrived and asked for a word with the religious leaders in private.

Abrupt postponement

After nearly an hour, the leaders left without comment. The Reverend Iteffa Gobena Molte, president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Council Mekane Yesus told reporters the event would be rescheduled.

“It’s postponed to another time. And when they are ready they will call upon you to come and record them,” said Iteffa.

Reporters initially were told the news conference had been called to condemn a planned conference on “men who have sex with men.”

The website of a group called the African Men for Sexual Health and Rights, or AMSHER, says the meeting is to be held Saturday at an Addis Ababa hotel. A list of speakers posted on the website include Michel Sidibe, director of UNAIDS, and Eric Goosby, the United States Global AIDS Coordinator.

Fighting AIDS

That gathering was to coincide with the 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, which opens Sunday in the Ethiopian capital. More than 8,000 experts and activists are expected to attend, and former U.S. President George W. Bush is slated to be an honored guest.

The sudden cancelation of the news briefing underscores Ethiopia’s strong anti-gay sentiment. At a 2008 meeting with reporters, many of the same religious leaders urged passage of a constitutional amendment banning homosexuality.

News reports at the time quoted the clergy as calling homosexuality “the pinnacle of immorality.” Ethiopian Orthodox leader Paulos was quoted as condemning gay sex, saying, “for people to act in this manner, they have to be stupid, like animals.”

Condemnation of gay sex

Reverend Iteffa said Ethiopian Protestants believe homosexuality is unnatural.

“The Protestant church teaches about homosexuality that it is not God’s creation. God had created man and woman. So that is the proper creation and it continues to be there, and the Bible explicitly says in many parts of the Bible, so we claim that to be our faith as a Protestant,” he said.

A statement distributed to reporters at Tuesday’s canceled news conference quoted a survey showing 97 percent of Ethiopians consider gay behavior immoral. It said scheduling a conference on homosexuality in Addis Ababa shows a disregard for Ethiopia’s laws and morals.

An email asking for AMSHER’s response was not immediately answered.

An official standing outside Tuesday’s news conference site suggested that the intervention of the Health Ministry, a major backer of the AIDS conference, indicates that the AMSHER meeting might not take place. A call to the hotel being advertised as the meeting site showed no facilities are currently reserved in AMSHER’s name.

Since the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie’s corrupt regime in 1974, the nation has been riven by conflicts involving rebel movements that have been brutally suppressed, and with its neighbors to the north and south, Eritrea and Somalia.

Ethiopia has one of the largest armies in Africa and has often clashed with Somalia. Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist movement that then controlled much of the country. But in the process a more radical offshoot of the Islamists arose: the Shabab. The Ethiopian troops remained for about two years, and their occupation was hugely unpopular; thousands of civilians were killed when the troops indiscriminately shelled urban areas. The Shabab capitalized on the intense anti-Ethiopian feelings, and their ranks swelled.

Western and African Union officials say the Ethiopians are now eager to deal the Shabab a crushing blow and to install their own proxies in Somalia, which could lead to even more power struggles and factional bloodshed.

In November 2011, witnesses along the drought-stricken Ethiopia-Somalia border reported that hundreds of Ethiopian troops had crossed into Somalia with armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery and tanks, opening a new front in an intensifying international offensive against the Shabab.

Many Somalis say they welcome anyone who can get the Shabab out, even their historic enemy, the Ethiopians.

A senior official with Somalia’s transitional government, a weak and unpopular entity that survives purely on outside support, has said stated that Somalia’s president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, did not want Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, but that he was powerless to oppose them.

The injection of Ethiopian troops is a risky move, Western officials say, because of the historic enmity between Ethiopia, a Christian-led nation, and Somalia, which is almost purely Muslim. The neighbors have clashed repeatedly since Somalia became independent in 1960.

Somalia, which has not had an effective national government since 1991, is rapidly becoming an arena where Kenya, Ethiopia and even Uganda, which has contributed thousands of troops to the peacekeeping force, vie for influence and use their involvement in the war-ravaged country for leverage with Western aid donors.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development asked the authorities in Addis Ababa to provide assistance and “there was a promise from the Ethiopian government that they would do so,” IGAD Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim told reporters today. He wouldn’t say what support Ethiopia may provide, adding: “We leave that to the national security forces to decide.”

Maalim made the announcement after a meeting in Addis Ababa between Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and Djibouti’s president, Ismail Omar Guelleh.

Kenya deployed troops in Somalia in mid-October to wipe out al-Qaeda-linked militants and secure its borders, following the abduction and murder of at least five foreign tourists and aid workers that it blamed on al-Shabaab. Kenyan authorities are concerned the attacks will deter travelers and damage the tourist industry, its second-biggest foreign-exchange earner.

The New York Times reported that hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers with artillery and tanks crossed into Somalia on Nov. 20. Ethiopia denied its troops had moved in.

Ethiopia withdrew its forces from Somalia in 2009 after a three-year intervention aimed at ousting an Islamist government that had seized southern Somalia. The incursion had become bogged down in a guerrilla war with al-Shabaab, which has fought for the past four years to defeat the United Nations-backed government and establish an Islamic state.

Eritrea Condemned

IGAD accused Eritrea of supplying arms to the al-Shabaab militia, a charge the authorities in Asmara have previously denied.

The political grouping, which admitted South Sudan as its seventh member today, also asked Kenya to consider integrating its troops into the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and work alongside government troops.

The UN-backed force has helped push out most al-Shabaab fighters from the capital, Mogadishu, and needs more soldiers to wrest control of rebel-held central and southern Somalia, Commander Fred Mugisha said on Oct. 7.

Somalia has had no effective government since the removal of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago.

–Editor: Paul Richardson, Karl Maier.

“There are several hundred Ethiopian troops here in lorries and some armoured vehicles too,” said elder Abdi Ibrahim Warsame, speaking by telephone from Gurel town, in Somalia’s central Galgudud region.

Ethiopian forces were also reported in the Hiran region at the town of Beletweyne, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) into Somalia, an area contested by Islamist Shebab rebels and pro-government militia.

“They are here, the Ethiopian soldiers in trucks have reached Beletweyne with many forces,” said elder Ahmed Liban. “The Shebab in the area are pulling back, away from them.”
But Ethiopia dismissed the reports outright.

“It is absolutely not true, there are absolutely no troops in Somalia,” said Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti. “People are simply speculating.”

Small numbers of Ethiopian forces have been reported operating in Somali border regions in the recent past, but witnesses said the scale of troop movements was this time far larger.
If confirmed, it would be Addis Ababa’s first large scale incursion since it invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing.

Ethiopia pulled out three years later after failing to restore order in its lawless neighbour, which has lacked a functioning government for two decades.
The Galgudud area is largely under the control of an anti-Shebab militia called Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, factions of which have close ties with Ethiopia.
Ethiopian soldiers were reported to be up to 50 kilometres (30 miles) inside Somalia in that area.
Hardline Shebab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, but are battling both the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and Kenyan troops in the far south, who crossed the border last month to attack rebel strongholds.

African Union officials and members of the regional peacekeeping body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held talks this week on bolstering the 9,700-strong AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

But no decision for Ethiopia to join Ugandan and Burundian forces in the mission had been made, Dina said.

“There is an intention on the part of IGAD members to bolster peacekeeping forces, because as you know the regional countries are working on increasing the numbers of AMISOM,” Dina said.
“As to Ethiopian (troops) there is nothing that has been decided.”
The humanitarian crisis in central and southern Somalia sparked by years of conflict and extreme drought is the worst in the world, the United Nations said Friday, with nearly 250,000 people facing imminent starvation.

Although the UN downgraded three famine alerts Friday to emergency levels, three other famine zones remain, and aid agencies warn that conflict is hampering access to those in need.

Source:AFP

Ethiopian Oromo Culture celbration

Dr. Berhanu Nega of Ginbot 7, Ato Amin Jundi of OLF, and Dr. Aregawi Berhe of Hibret presented their positions in some detail to the public that came to the meeting in great numbers. It is followed by an exciting and sometimes tasty and humorous question-and-answer session. This is the first time Seattle has attracted such a big audience since the days of Kinijit. The expectation and the aura of optimism were very contagious. It seem like people drove to the meeting hall with a sense of hope to ignite the momentum of unity they displayed during and just before the 2005 election in Ethiopia.

Dr. Berhanu argued to accept our differences in ethnic heritage and refrain from imposing our will on others who may disagree with us. He asked for respect, understanding, and dialogue to get to some compromise that is mutually beneficial. He recommended patience and tolerance to work on this difficult process of building trust between ethnic and political organizations as we strive to change the prevailing absolute and racist dictatorship that exists in Ethiopia today into a one-man-one-vote democracy.

Ato Amin Jundi, secretary of OLF, asked all of us to respect each other. He also argued that the Oromo people in Ethiopia, like all the other ethnic groups, have the freedom to exercise their rights as they deem necessary without any unacceptable imposition from any one. By the same token, he also described how we can affect each other’s destiny in a profound way and even possibly disagree as we pursue goals that may go in different or even opposite directions. But he said this is not the end of the world. We can always come to the table and hammer out our differences without giving up our identity. Ato Amin Jundi said that the only way a united Ethiopia will exist is only if we respect each other genuinely expressing it in our daily political actions and practices. And he stressed the fact that is the only way a truly United Ethiopia can be established is when a truly democratic Ethiopia exists where the rights of all ethnic groups are respected not only in speech but in practice. And OLF is working to achieve that goal by coming to the table and discuss with all parties who have a stake in this critical issue.

For Dr. Aregawi, a united Ethiopia is a very important and critical matter to his organization which is true to Ginbot 7 as well. But unlike the so-called unity forces, Hibret does not seem to put Ethiopian unity as a precondition to start a dialogue with those parties like OLF who may be suspicious of unity without democracy based on their perceived experiences in their history.

All the three political leaders asked the audience in the Seattle meeting as well as the Diaspora to start to actively supporting the Ethiopian People’s Forum in Seattle and elsewhere to be established in other areas. They strongly argued this kind of forum is now our best vehicle to communicate, discuss and hammer out our points of disagreements which may gradually lead to some form of a common front. If this front is able to withstand the test of the challenges it is going to face, it may even lead to some form of unity that will form the bases for a united and democratic Ethiopia waiting to be built in the future.

Blaming the political leaders and using them as a scapegoat whenever we get a chance will not solve anything. Responsibility is a two way street. Before blaming politicians, we should ask ourselves if we are doing anything to solve the problem. Are we financially supporting any organization of our choice? Do we come to meetings and demonstrations? How many of us are approaching our community members and ask them to participate in this difficult process of bringing democracy in Ethiopia? How many us contact our city and government representatives on behalf of Ethiopia and the difficulties our people are going through?

If our answers to all these questions are in the affirmatives, then we have every right to challenge these political leaders. If not, then the problem is ours as well. We can’t hide behind the political figures and blame them when we ourselves have not met our obligations. God forbid, if Ethiopia becomes like Somalia, not only politicians but we will all be responsible. Blaming the politicians every time is a cheap trick to avoid responsibility. Let us avoid it and come clean. Let us become responsible citizens to meet our obligations and avoid excuses. An excuse is a lie no matter how you slice and dice it. We should be honest ourselves before we demand integrity and honesty from our leaders.

Seattle patriots are proud to successfully complete this first meeting of its kind that has gotten so much attention in the Diaspora. It was a courageous and risky undertaking. It was a lot of work that cost us a considerable amount of time, money and some heartache. The price was not cheap but it was all worth it. The Ethiopian People’s Forum in Seattle has pioneered such an ambitious and challenging but highly rewarding adventure. It may be still premature to speculate but this type of Forum may be the only panacea we are looking for to solve our forty years old problem- lack of unity and purpose.

Firehiwot Dado

Dado, a three-times Rome Marathon winner, clocked an unofficial time of two hours, 23 minutes 15 seconds to win, with Buzunesh Deba of Ethiopia second and fading London Marathon champion Keitany third.

(Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)