ADDIS ABABA, 24 November 2009 - The Ethiopian government has vehemently rejected accusations that it has excluded some opposition supporters from a food-for-work programme, charges that are the focus of growing international concern in the run-up to elections in 2010.

As Ethiopians prepare for elections next year some in the opposition say a credible election is impossible without urgent political reforms.

(Ethiopian Music, News) - More kudos for Jersey City’s Alfa Demmellash. The gripping story of Demmellash, an 30-year-old Ethiopian immigrant who started Rising Tide Capital, a business devoted to nurturing entrepreneurs, especially in poor and minority communities, is featured in today’s Star-Ledger.

(Ethiopian Music) - Lured by a new business model, wealthy nations flock to farmland in Ethiopia, locking in food supplies grown half a world away. BAKO, ETHIOPIA — In recent months, the Ethiopian government began marketing abroad one of the hottest commodities in an increasingly crowded and hungry world: farmland. “Why Attractive?” reads one glossy poster with photos of green fields and a map outlining swaths of the country available at bargain-basement prices. “Vast, fertile, irrigable land at low rent. Abundant water resources. Cheap labor. Warmest hospitality.”

Ethiopia should investigate allegations that local officials are keeping food aid from opposition members to force them to join the ruling party ahead of national elections, a British aid minister said on Tuesday.

The U.S. will increase inspections of food aid deliveries to Ethiopians after complaints by members of the countrya s opposition that its members are routinely denied access to foreign aid, a U.S. State Department official said.

A familiar story of looming famine is filtering out of East Africa. Again, a World Summit on Food Security this week is addressing the symptoms but not the causes.

African demands for climate-change compensation and emission cuts by rich nations are unlikely to be met in next month's Copenhagen summit, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday.

The Security Council today welcomed the power-sharing agreement reached by Madagascar's current and former leaders, and urged the political forces to end months of internal strife with the establishment of a new Government.

By Vision Reporter PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni and other African leaders yesterday agreed to ask for compensation from the rich industrialised nations during the climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

Ethiopian Airlines has confirmed its memorandum of understanding for 12 Airbus A350 XWBs, signing a firm contract today at the Dubai air show.

A few hours before Ethiopian Airlines announced its order for 12 Airbus A350-900 aircraft yesterday, I had a chance to sit down with CEO Girma Wake to discuss his airline's plans for global expansion with its three new aircraft types, the A350, 777-200LR and 787.

Ethiopian Airlines confirmed an order Sunday for 12 Airbus A350 XWB aircraft in the first plane sale to emerge from the Dubai Airshow.

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi Eight Ethiopian opposition groups are accusing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party of using its control of the government to systematically crush opponents ahead of next year's national elections.

(Ethiopian Culture) - Until now, it has not been possible to accurately speak the language written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. What we have known up to now about the meanings, spellings, and pronunciations of the ancient words have merely been estimates, arrived through the best attempts of 19th and 20th century Egyptologists. But now, with the release of the new book “Amarigna & Tigrigna Qal Hieroglyphs for Beginners,” (http://books.ancientgebts.org), we can learn how to accurately read, understand, and speak the language most often regarded as the world’s first written language, the way they spoke it 5100 years ago. And for the over 30 million Amarigna and Tigrigna speakers worldwide, it is just a matter of learning to read hieroglyphs.

(Ethiopian News, Music)Ethiopian rebels have launched a wide offensive in the southeastern Somali ethnic Ogaden region and recaptured seven towns from government forces, they claimed Saturday in a statement. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said in a statement received by AFP that it had launched a broad offensive on several fronts on November 10. “The operation involved thousands of ONLF troops and resulted in two days of heavy fighting. A significant number of Ethiopian troops have been killed and their military hardware captured or destroyed,” it said.

(Ethiopia news) - As a teen, Tigist Yemane came to Charlotte from Ethiopia for heart surgery. Six years later, her sometimes lonely search for a better life is over. Staying in Ethiopia was a death sentence for the pretty, thin 17-year-old girl with a heart defect. Tigist Yemane was weak. She couldn’t walk more than a few steps without passing out. Without an operation, doctors told her in 2004, she would be dead in six months. In the United States, the operation to fix her mitral stenosis is relatively simple and involves an overnight hospital stay. In her native Ethiopia, the operation was out of her reach.

(Ethiopian Politics News) - “No alternative in the opposition,” they whispered anonymously. What a disgusting phrase to use in justifying support for a ruthless dictatorship? That is apparently the scuttlebutt on Embassy Row in Addis Abeba. Reuters’ Barry Malone reported last week, “Most Western governments want Meles to continue because there is no alternative in the opposition. As long as the elections are semi-democratic, they’ll probably stay quiet, keep giving aid, hope for liberalisation of the economy and leave full democracy for later.” Is this the ultimate proof of the triumph of Western moral relativism, hypocrisy and skullduggery in Ethiopia and Africa? Is this the new 21st Century Western paradigm of moral capitulation and appeasement of evil? Is the West going to a moral hellhole in a hand basket?

(Ethiopian Culture, People) - Emory University’s School of Nursing is getting more than $8 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help improve birth mother and newborn survival rates in Ethiopia. The 2 1/2-year project will pair Emory faculty and students with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to create better public health practices for the country. The project aims to improve the skills of frontline health care workers like volunteers and birth attendants. The majority of births in Ethiopia are in the home, so the program will try to create a community-oriented approach. According to the World Health Organization, the lifetime risk of a dying during childbirth in Ethiopia is 1 in 27. Infant mortality rate is 77 deaths per 1,000 live births.

(Ethiopian Music) - Gogol Bordello bass player, Tommy T’s debut solo album, The Prester John Sessions, is available today online and at traditional retail outlets via Easy Star Records. Tommy was born and raised in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia’s capital city) and the knowledge of global rhythms he brings to Gogol Bordello is reflected in Sessions, an aural travelogue that ranges freely through the music and culture of Ethiopia.