Ethiopian Receives an Award for Pioneering the African Renaissance from President Girma

Ethiopian Airlines is pleased to announce that it has received an award from H.E Girma Wolde Giorgis, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, for being a pioneer of the bright future of the Africa Renaissance.
Ethiopian CEO Tewolde Gebremariam received the award during a ceremony celebrating the 89th birthday and 60 years of Diamond Jubilee of the president held at the Sheraton Addis on Tuesday, January 8, 2013.
Ethiopian was given the award for continued growth and performance and for putting Ethiopia and the continent on the map by being the first airline outside of Japan to own and operate the Dreamliner.
"Ethiopian Airlines, from its beginning, has been the pride of Ethiopia and Africa. Its continued excellence and performance has always been unparalleled and contributes to the development of the continent. Ethiopian recent acquisition of the Dreamliner is the crowning jewel of its close to seven decades of operation," said President Girma presenting the award to Tewolde.

FACTBOX-Soccer-African Nations Cup finalists Ethiopia

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Factbox on African Nations Cup finalists Ethiopia ahead of this year's tournament in South Africa from Jan. 19 to Feb. 10:

Previous appearances in African Nations Cup finals: 9

Best performances: Winners in 1962; Runners-up in 1957

FIFA world ranking Dec 2012: 110

Coach:

Sewnet Bishaw will be among seven local coaches in charge of their national teams at the 2013 finals. The 60-year-old worked briefly as a club coach at Al Ahli Sanaa in Yemen but has spent most of his coaching career at a variety of Ethiopia's top clubs and has had two separate spells in charge of the national team.

Saladin Said believes in Ethiopian dreams

We have lost only one game in the last year, so I believe we can have a good tournament, God willing.
Saladin Said on Ethiopia

Later this month, Ethiopia will return for their first CAF Africa Cup of Nations appearance in 31 years, a victory in itself. However, the Walya Antelopes were drawn into a tough group that will see them face off against Burkina Faso, holders Zambia, two-time African champions Nigeria. And yet, after spectacularly upsetting Benin and Sudan in qualifying - each time on away
goals - the Ethiopians believe they can again tear up the form book and get past the first round. That, certainly, is the view of star striker Saladin Said.

Said, who plays for Egyptian side Wadi Degla, admitted that the east Africans face a daunting test in the 19 January-10 February tournament in South Africa, but he insisted Ethiopia will fight hard to earn a quarter-final berth. “Our group is very difficult. Nigeria is a big team, and so is Zambia, who won the Nations Cup the last time,” Said, who has scored nine goals in 12 international appearances, told FIFA.com. “However, our team is also strong. We have lost only one game in the last year, so I believe we can have a good tournament, God willing. We will play with the aim of reaching the next round.”

Addis Ababa Housing Agency Close to Launch 90-10 Housing Project

The Addis Ababa Urban Housing Development Agency is close to begin registration for the 90-10 housing project.

The agency offered training for data encoders to be assigned to the 116 Woreda in Addis Ababa to coordinate the registration period. It is expected that 12 encoders will be assigned to each Woreda to facilitate the registration process using Woreda net the network created for the process.

The city has upgraded the data capacity of its network system from its previous capacity of 512 MB to 2 GB in anticipation according to sources.

The three types of registration to be used in the process have been printed out for distribution to the Woredas in the coming few days.

Registration will be launched when the Mayor gives the go ahead when all the groundwork is complete said Mesfin Mengistu, General Manager of the Housing Administration and Development Agency.

The Woreda are expected to begin re-registration of those who have already registered for the 60-40 housing scheme it was said.

It is to be remembered that 90-10 and the 60-40 housing programs were introduced last July by the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction. The 90-10 scheme is intended to meet the housing needs of low income households earning less than 1 thousand birr a month.  The 60-40 plan is designed for middle income households.

www.2merkato.com

On the road in Addis Ababa

Zhou Yongsheng and his team have built many of Addis Ababa's major highways.

Efficiency and price competitiveness are key to success of Chinese enterprises, says project manager
Zhou Yongsheng has probably done more than anyone to tackle the bustling city of Addis Ababa's traffic problems.

The 41-year-old is general manager of the highways subsidiary of one of China's largest state-owned enterprises, China Communications Construction Company, and has built many of the Ethiopian capital's major highways.

"You know, in Addis Ababa, around 60 percent of the new roads have been built by me," he says with a hint of pride.

Zhou was taking time out on a Friday afternoon in his sparse office in the Bole sub-city area of the capital but there will be no weekend respite.

Road building in Addis Ababa is now a 24-7 operation, a marked contrast from when he first came to the city in 1998.

Ethiopia among the top 10 Saddest Nations in the World

The influential Forbes Magazine, has listed the country as ranking high in global index for habouring one of the world’s saddest people, saying the country’s leadership must move from corrupt practices and official profligacy to render quality leadership to the people.

This is contained in the annual development analysis index that was released on Thursday culled from the Magazine’s website, stating that citizens of the country ranked 20th amongst their
counterpart sampled across the globe, thus making the country one of the worst country to live in.

Ethiopia and Zimbabwe also shares the same unenviable position with several other African and Asian countries of the world with the war torn Central African Republic topping the chart as the country harbouring the saddest people in the globe. Below are the first 10:

1. Central African Republic

2. Republic of Congo

3. Afghanistan

4. Chad

5. Haiti

6. Burundi

7. Togo

8. Zimbabwe

9. Yemen

10. Ethopia

indepthafrica.com

Ethiopia arrests two over murder of Austrian rafter

Ethiopian police have arrested two men suspected of involvement in the murder of an Austrian rafter shot dead during an apparent robbery of his travel group, an official from the force said.

The 27-year-old man was killed as he camped on the banks of the Blue Nile river on Sunday in a remote area near Bahir Dar, about 570 km (350 miles) north of the capital Addis Ababa.

Three other Austrians on the scene were not injured, Reuters reports.

"We have caught two suspects who were found in possession of clothing, money and other items that belonged to the victims," said Solomon Mohammed, spokesperson of the regional police commission in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region.

Solomon said police were also looking into whether there was a political motive to the killing, but declined to go into details. Rebel groups are active in some of Ethiopia's remote regions, but there has been no reports of such activity recently in Amhara.

The incident occurred almost exactly a year after five Europeans, including an Austrian, were killed when their travel group was attacked in the northeastern Afar region bordering Eritrea.

www.defenceweb.co.za