Sunday 31 January 2016 | THE GUARDIAN East African country has been especially hard hit by the seasonal warming over the Pacific Ocean – brought on by the El Niño climate phenomenon The head of the US Agency for International Development has announced $97m in emergency assistance to Ethiopia to combat the devastating effects of a drought brought on by … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2016
THICK END OF THE WEDGE: How Ethiopia didn’t invent the wheel
Peter Bruce | 29 January 2016 | BUSINESS DAY YOU just cannot run a modern economy in an undemocratic country. The Chinese are discovering this right now as their currency, the yuan, falls precipitously. No matter how the Chinese respond, money continues to leave the country in a flood. Analysts reckon more than $1-trillion (a thousand billion dollars) has left China in the … [Read more...]
Mugabe hits out at Obama for ‘failing to help black people’
HENRY OWUOR | Saturday, January 30, 2016 | DAILY NATION ADDIS ABABA, Saturday - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe delivered an hour-long speech as he handed over the chairmanship of the African Union to Chadian leader Idriss Debby, hitting out at US President Barack Obama “for failing to help black people”. Mr Mugabe said as long as he was alive, he would remain the … [Read more...]
Burundi government refusal blocks African Union plan to deploy troops
2016-01-31 | FRANCE24 African leaders failed on Sunday to authorise a proposed peacekeeping force to stem violence in Burundi in the face of vehement opposition from the government in Bujumbura. Instead, the African Union is to send envoys for more talks, although previous negotiations have done nothing to end months of conflict. The United Nations has warned that … [Read more...]
Ethiopia seeks donor support to meet drought needs
OGOLCHO, Ethiopia | Edmund Blair | Sun 31 Jan 2016 | REUTERS Ethiopia urged international donors on Sunday to offer aid promptly for relief operations to support 10.2 million people critically short of food, and said it was committed to allocating as much of its own funds as necessary. Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonen was speaking beside U.N. Secretary General Ban … [Read more...]
African Union backs away from imposing peacekeepers on Burundi
ADDIS ABABA | Aaron Maasho | Sun 31 Jan 2016 | REUTERS The African Union will send a team to Burundi to try to convince the government to accept a peacekeeping force that it had rejected, backing away from an earlier plan to send them with or without consent, a top AU official said. The AU's Peace and Security Council announced plans to deploy a 5,000-strong force in … [Read more...]
Freedom by the Numbers
Ilya Lozovsky | 29 January 2016 | FOREIGN POLICY Freedom House’s index of freedom in the world is flawed — but the story it tells is indispensable. It’s January, which means we’ve just learned that freedom around the world is declining. This — for the tenth year in a row — is the conclusion of an annual report released earlier this week by Freedom House, the venerable … [Read more...]
The Burundi Ultimatum: The African Union Tests Its Right to Intervene
Paul D. Williams | 28 January 2016 | FOREIGN POLICY After rebel forces in Burundi coordinated a round of attacks on military facilities in Bujumbura on December 11, the government began rounding up suspected militants the following day and killing them execution-style on the streets. Dozens died, many of them civilians. The African Union’s Peace and … [Read more...]
What is the Zika virus and how can you avoid catching it?
James Rothwell, video by Claire Lomas | 28 Jan 2016 | THE TELEGRAPH Scientists believes the virus can cause birth defects such as microcephaly, which leads to an abnormally small head The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that it expects 3-4 million cases of the Zika virus. WHO is set to publish a study establishing the correlation in time … [Read more...]
Cotton bud in ear: Why can’t we resist the temptation despite the warnings?
Roberto A Fredman | Thursday 28 January 2016 | THE INDEPENDENT Their makers have printed the caution on every packet for more than 40 years - but their biggest use is still the exact one we're warned against. Roberto A Ferdman looks into things best left alone Years ago, my mother complained about a terrible earache. The pain was unbearable, and it wouldn't go away. For … [Read more...]