Archive for the ‘General News’ Category

By Or Kashti | Haaretz Eleven new immigrants from Ethiopia have yet to be placed in Petah Tikva schools, and some have been waiting as long as three weeks for an assignment. Municipal officials claim that the city’s private religious schools – which sparked a nationwide outcry when they refused to accept Ethiopian students at the start of the school year – are also refusing to ... Full story

By Susan | Wild Yeast Here’s what we did six or seven weeks ago: We raised bread with sourdough starters made from several ancient grains: amaranth, sorghum, quinoa, millet, and teff. My favorite of these was teff. It’s best known for the Ethiopian staple flatbread injera, but it makes a wonderful addition to loaf breads as well (although it contains little or no gluten, ... Full story

By Israel Moskovitch | YNet Dozens of youth village directors have organized a joint trip to Ethiopia in which they will travel through various cities,villages, immigrant camps and Jewish centers. The trip is not for recreation, nor is it being sponsored by the Ministry of education – these leaders will pay for their own visit to Ethiopia in the upcoming Hanukkah holiday, in hopes to better ... Full story

According to the World Bank, as much as three-quarters of Ethiopia’s arable land is not under cultivation, and agronomists say that with substantial capital expenditure, much of it could become bountiful. Since the world food crisis, Meles Zenawi, a former Marxist rebel who has turned into a champion of private capital, has publicly said he is “very eager” to attract foreign farm investors by offering ... Full story

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Bureau of African Affairs Karl Wyckoff and Woyanne Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin held talks on Thursday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. On Friday, in a meeting with reporters, Mr Wyckoff expressed concerns about the restrictions on opposition parties in Ethiopia ahead of elections next year, which is scheduled to be held on May 23, 2010. "The US is concerned by what ... Full story

The missing 8.6 million Ethiopians, where art thou? By yilma bekele I couldn’t sleep all night. I kept turning and tossing to no avail. What was bothering me was what I heard on VOA yesterday afternoon. VOA is Voice of America for those of you not in the know. I found out I can listen to VOA on my smart phone and things haven’t been the ... Full story

By Douglas McGill (The McGill Report) — Okwa Omot is sleeping safely in a warm bed at his home in Washington, D.C. this week. That is something of a miracle considering that only a week ago –- and for 107 days before that -– he was sleeping on freezing cold concrete floors in Ethiopian prisons, accused ... Full story

WASHINGTON – The publication today of the 2009 Open Doors Report, the leading comprehensive account of international student enrollment throughout American institutions, shows that despite the global economic downturn, record numbers of international students are traveling to the United States to study at institutions of higher education. Equally important, these numbers showcase the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Open Doors Policy of balancing efforts to secure ... Full story

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — An Ethiopian court on Thursday convicted 26 people who were accused of taking part in an alleged coup plot earlier this year and acquitted five others. Judge Adem Ibrahim said most of the defendants in the case had said they were tortured by police into submitting false testimonies. But he said the witnesses had not convinced the court of the torture ... Full story

The Beta Israeli Sigd festival falls on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan. It is the 50th day, starting with Yom Kippur (analogous to counting 50 days from Pesach to Shavuos), and is a festival unique to the Beta Israel community. For their forebears in Ethiopia, the Sigd was a religious holiday renewing their covenant with ... Full story