TIGRAI Online

Headline News

Nov. 01 2007

The Isaias ship is going down faster than you can say "SOS" and the Eritreans seem to wake up late but not too late to save their country from going down with the brutal dictatorship rigem that is destoying them.

When Fitsum Berihu fled into Ethiopia, he risked death by hyenas, snipers and land mines. Two years later the 35-year-old Eritrean vividly recalls the fear he felt as he made his way through a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone and across the trenches and artillery lines of some of the tens of thousands of soldiers dug in on both sides of the divide. Even worse than all that, though, was leaving behind his 72-year-old mother and two siblings. "I never told my family I was crossing the border," he says. "I never said goodbye." As the situation escalates, more Eritreans are making their way to Shimelba. In October alone some 700 made the journey—more than double the figure from the same month last year.

The U.S. military has stepped up activities in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia, going to the aid of hijacked cargo ships twice this week. American medics treated wounded North Korean sailors on one vessel, and the Navy was tracking another after destroying two pirate skiffs lashed alongside. "It really comes down to a fundamental issue: We're responsible mariners and we help all sorts of people. We help people on small dhows who have problems with their engines. ... We've helped Iranian fishermen, given them water," said Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. "When we get a distress call, we respond. It's beyond nationality." Robertson said the Navy hoped to boost security in the region's seas. "What we're looking to do is promote lawful maritime order. It's about piracy, illegal fishing, smuggling, terrorism. If we can deter piracy, we can deter those other things, too," she said.

Oct. 31 2007

The Other Face of Ethiopia (TOFOE), a non governmental organization announced that a groundbreaking ceremony would be held for the launching of “Remember the Battle of Adwa,” project in Adwa town on Thursday. The ceremony would be attended by senior Ethiopian government officials, officials of the African Union and European Union. Director General of TOFOE, Sabela Berehane told ENA on Wednesday that the project due to be implemented in collaboration with the Tigray State government has the objective of constructing a center that shows the culture and history of Adwa.

Rising tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea have led to an increasing flow of refugees across their common frontier. A border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors from 1998 to 2000 cost an estimated 70,000 lives, and the simmering dispute over the location of the boundary is heating up again. VOA's Peter Heinlein has just returned from a refugee camp in northern Ethiopia where 16,000 people sit, and wait, for resolution of a quarrel that has put their lives, and their dreams on hold, in some cases, for years.

If Africa could increase its share of world trade by just 1 per cent, it could generate $70 billion – five times more than the entire continent now receives in aid. There are no signs of this happening, however. The Ethiopian coffee farmers continue to go hungry; and we continue to line our bellies with endless milky lattes. If we should have a moment’s worry about the ethics of what we are drinking, we can appease it with the bromides which issue from the Starbucks information machine. The perky manageress of the original Seattle branch tells the camera that coffee is not the main business of Starbucks, anyway. “We’re in the people business, selling coffee”, she exclaims, before going off.

Oct. 30 2007

Ethiopia will not issue new mobile licenses to private investors until 2010 once a new $1.5 billion infrastructure roll out is complete, the minister for communications told Reuters on Tuesday. "Our policy at the moment is that we are not looking at a second operator. Once the basic infrastructure is deployed by 2010, then we can look at such an issue," Juneydi Sado, minister of transport and communication, told Reuters. "Because of the universal access issue, sometimes operators might not be interested in the remote areas where financially it might not be viable, so we want to address this issue first and after that we can talk about this public-private issue."

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

New CD released by Rishan Gebre
Support your own home grown talent!

Meskel and Millennium party in Washington DC

Sample letters to be sent to the three important personalities to oppose the bill HR 2003.
Please fill out the form in the following letters and send them via your email or regular mail. You could highlight, copy and paste them from this page.

Happy Ethiopian Millenium
Now that we are here in the year 2000, what should we do in the next 1000 years? We should use the Millennium to rid of our social problems, like hunger, diseases, illiteracy, and backwardness. We should use the new Millennium as a spring board to propel us towards the new era of prosperity, peace, and unity of our people, strength, technology, and the information highway.
Check out some of the third Ethiopian Millennium celebrations videos and more

PRESS RELEASE
Afar Community Association in UK
Read more
August 27 2007

Check out the new album from Haftom G/Michael. More details on www.haftomgmichael.com
July 23 2007