Reporters Without Borders is dismayed to learn that Amare Aregawi, the editor of the big-circulation weekly Reporter, was arrested on 22 August in Addis Ababa and was then illegally transferred to a prison in Gondar, 750 km north of the capital, in connection with a libel case brought by the Gondar-based Dashen brewery.

The implementation of the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) study has continued to rock employees of the newly established Revenue and Customs Authority (RCuA). The restructuring has, for the second week in a row, impacted on an additional 37 employees who were given forced leave.

Avorniga, an Israeli company that leases the Addis Abeba Cement Plant from Mugher Cement Factory has procured 22,000tn of clinker from Pakistan. The clinker - a cement input needed to produce cement - docked at the Port of Djibouti last week.

The global food crisis has forced families to make grievous choices.

Fatuma Ali and Tieba Hussein left Hara village in Wollo, Amhara region of northeastern Ethiopia with some of their neighbours, believing that they could improve their livelihoods in the capital city, Addis Ababa.

Sir JOHN HOLMES, USG AND ERC, TO VISIT ETHIOPIA

A statement issued by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry last night says that the presence of the president, the prime minister and the speaker of parliament for talks in Addis Ababa for all of a week indicates there has yet been little progress in resolving the dispute. While it still may not be possible to say when their discussions will end, there is no doubt they are at a critical point. The bottom line is that the peace process in Somalia can have no future unless the president, the prime minister and the speaker can work together.

The President and Prime Minister of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government have reached a preliminary agreement after talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, government sources tell Garowe Online.

A spokesman for Somalia's al Shabaab insurgent group has rejected a peace agreement signed between the country's interim government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

As the Beijing Olympics reached their climax ahead of the closing ceremony on Sunday, African athletes overpowered others to take the top five places in the men's marathon, traditionally the final athletics event.

Nancy Jebet Langat won the gold medal in the women's 1500 metres at the Bird's Nest stadium on Saturday in a time of four minute 00.23 seconds.

Africa put the seal on its dominance of long-distance running in the closing days of the Olympics. On Saturday alone, African athletes won seven medals, sweeping up all the medals in both the men's 800m and 5000m races.

Two rivers in the Gambella region of western Ethiopia have burst their banks following torrential rains that fell in the area for three consecutive days, government officials in the area said.

The chairman of the alliance for the reliberation of Somalia sheikh Sharif sheikh Ahmed has expressed disapproval over the shelling of the main Bakara market on Thursday by the Ethiopian backed Somali troops.

Ethiopian exports to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in the first six months of the year 2008 more than doubled over export levels from the first six months of 2007, the US embassy here said yesterday.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday announced that it was expediting the shipment of nearly 24,000 metric tons (MT) of food aid to help the millions of people in need of assistance in the Horn of Africa.

ET highland farm, one of the companies engaged in Floriculture industry of the country, on Thursday announced that it was striving to replace the use of chemicals by using Integrated Pest Management Programme (IPM) to eliminate harmful insects in its flower farm.

A world record holder, an Olympic champion and an African champion. This is the sort of opposition that Kenyan girls will come up against in Friday's final of the 5,000m at the "Bird's Nest" from 8.40 pm, Beijing time (3.40 pm Kenyan time).

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele on Wednesday cruised into the final of the men's Olympic 5000 metres to keep his bid for an elusive long-distance running double on course.

A regional forum on the development of response framework and the establishment and operationalization of Rapid Response Fund (RRF) for the Conflict Early Warning and Response (CEWARN) Mechanism in the IGAD region is being held here at the Panorama hotel.