Abay Tigray Republic coming true

Editors Note: readers have a look at the banner of Tigrai Online.Abay Tigray Republic coming true.They have already cleared their map(Tigrai's) and posted it to officalize their hegemony and separation.

Check the web below:

http://tigraionline.com/oct2009.html

Thousands flee south every year from Somalia, Ethiopia

By "We have also sacked some of the corrupt officials who have been taking money from illegal migrants," said James Ole Seriani, north eastern province commissioner, in a telephone interview from the eastern town of Garissa.

Kenya officially closed its 680 km (420 mile) border with Somalia in 2007 fearing the threat from heavily armed militias.

But it has allowed thousands of refugees from Somalia to enter and live in sprawling refugee camps near the border.

RISKY JOURNEY

IOM's 2009 report said organised criminal groups of human smugglers located in eight African countries facilitate the illegal movement.

A 17-year-old Somali boy who travelled from the southern Somalia town of Kismayu to South Africa's Cape Town last year described the journey as risky.

Fearing forceful recruitment by al Shabaab hardline insurgents, the teenager, who asked not to be named, said he travelled in a group of 75 Somalis including a 60-year-old woman and a toddler on the back of an old truck.

"When we entered Zambia, the security forces arrested us and sent us to a prison near the border, where we tilled land on government farms every day for six months," he said.

After half a year in jail, the teenager was released.

He arrived in Cape Town, via Mozambique, 10 months after leaving his hometown of Kismayu.

"South Africa is not my destination. I am now planning to continue to Minnesota, USA," he said. Nyakairu

NAIROBI (Reuters) - At least 17,000 illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa leave their countries for South Africa annually, most of them transiting through Kenya, a top U.N. official said on Monday.

Tal Raviv, a regional programme officer at the U.N.'s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), told Reuters that conflict and poverty were forcing Ethiopians and Somalis to undertake risky trips to better places.

"We estimate the number of people, specifically Somalis and Ethiopians, going from south central Somalia and southern Ethiopia towards South Africa is between 17,000 and 20,000 men every year," Raviv told Reuters in an interview.

Violence in Somalia has killed some 21,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and uprooted a further 1.5 million people.

Southern Ethiopia is also mired in a long-running insurgency against the Ethiopian government, for more autonomy for the underdeveloped ethnic Somali Ogaden region.

"The journey is made possible because of limited border controls all the way to South Africa, but also the fact that you can easily get false documents and pay bribes to move from one place to another," she said.

IOM's 2009 report estimates that sneaking Ethiopians and Somalis into South Africa was a $40 million business.

Police in Kenya's north eastern region said they have stepped up measures to curb human smuggling.

New AU Chair Declares War On freedom fighters

Editors Note: Meles now moves to spinning and twisting the hands and minds of African leaders(lambs).Scared of the fastly moving revolutionary movemnts undertaken by Ethiopian Freedom Fighters , Meles Zenawi and his co-African leaders(lambs) have jointly issued a statment condemnening revolution,coup and war for freedom in Africa.
You African pluderers , we tell you that your time is over,nomore cooperative looting and appeasemnt, real African freedom fighters are popping up in Africa that struggle for the freedom and liberity of our continent from you the colonizers.
VIVA LA REVOLUTION
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — In what appears to be a peep into what his tenure as the Chairperson of African Union will be, the newly elected Chairperson of African Union and President of Malawi Mr. Bingu Wa Mutharika has warned that that the continental body would henceforth declare war on unconstitutional change of government in Africa. MutharikaHe has also said that time has come for the organization to go beyond making decisions, declarations and resolutions, adding that the need to take action was now and urgent, "so that whatever we decide and declare directly benefits the common African citizen. It is only when we act now that our people will come to appreciate the existence, foundations and future of our organization. Let us act now''Mutharika, in his closing remark at the end of 14th Assembly of the Heads of State of AU, called on his colleagues in this year of peace and security and beyond, "we must say 'never again' to conflict and war in Africa. We must declare war on unconstitutional change of government on the African soil and resolve to take strong necessary punitive action against all authors of coup d'etats and those that provide them the means to unseat duly elected governments."The Malawian President who insist, the next five years the issue of food insecurity must be brought to an end in the continent to ensure no child dies of hunger and malnutrition, also stated that unconstitutional change of government threatened peace and security of the continent adding that it also reverses the collective successes of the continent in the democratization process.The AU Chairperson further stated that the continental body has a responsibility "to protect and preserve the legacy of a free democratic society with full guarantees for human rights, personal liberties and social progress".He stressed that the AU's efforts to restore political stability shall require the full cooperation of political players in members states that are engulfed in conflict adding that the regional economic communities had more advantages in facilitating contact and dialogue between parties.Mutharika said that whereas the continental body had noted with satisfaction the positive political developments in Mauritania, Guinea and Guinea Bissau where concrete steps had been taken to restore democracy, the AU still remained confronted by the challenges in Madagascar, Somalia and Darfur as it strives to ensure that peace returns to these troubled spots in the shortest possible time.

US envoy pledges to press Ethiopia on rights

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's nominee to be the next US ambassador to Ethiopia pledged on Tuesday to press the government in Addis Ababa to improve human rights, free political prisoners and make upcoming elections fair.
Donald Booth said the United States had "complex interests" in Ethiopia, and that the two nations, while differing in tactics, saw largely eye-to-eye on the need to bring stability and prevent an Islamist takeover of Somalia.
"We need to try to work with Ethiopia across the board, preserving the cooperation where we share interests such as regional security," Booth, a former ambassador to Liberia and Zambia, said at his Senate confirmation hearing.
But he warned that Ethiopia's "limitations on political expression and economic activities as well as shortcomings in respect to basic human rights run counter to American principles and risk becoming the seeds of future instability."
Under questioning by Senator Russ Feingold, who heads the Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa, Booth pledged to take up the case of prisoners such as Birtukan Mideksa, leader of the largest opposition party.
Ethiopia sentenced Birtukan to life in prison for treason after she alleged that the government rigged 2005 elections. She received a pardon two years later but the life term was re-imposed a month ago.
Booth said the US embassy in Addis Ababa has been seeking access to Birtukan, 36.
"I think we need to find a way to convince them (Ethiopian leaders) that it's in their own interest not to hold people simply because they hold opposing political views," Booth said.
Booth said he would urge Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government to ensure the fairness of elections due in May, including by allowing opposition candidates to run and have access to the media.
Booth also called for domestic and international observers to monitor the election.
The nominee promised Feingold also to look into allegations of human rights abuses in the southern Ogaden region, where Muslim, ethnic Somali rebels are waging an insurgency for independence.
"Clearly the Ogaden is an area that has created great instability and threats to the security of the Ethiopian state over time," he said.
"We need to work with the Ethiopians ... to try to figure out a way that they can not only protect their territorial integrity but also respect the human rights of all their citizens including the Ogadense," he said.

Don't Kill Melaku Teffera

Amnesty International (AI) has called on Ethiopian authorities not to execute Melaku Tefera, a member of the Union for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), the only one of five men sentenced to death on 22 December 2009 who remains in Ethiopia. The other four sentenced to death in absentia are exiled Ginbot 7 party leaders Berhanu Nega, Andargachew Tsige, Muluneh Eyouel and Mesfin Aman. On the same day 33 others, including one woman, received life sentences.

The five men sentenced to death were convicted with 35 others in August and November 2009 on five charges related to an aborted coup attempt in April. Of these, thirty-three were sentenced to life imprisonment. Government officials have also confiscated some of their property.

The accused were arrested in April and May 2009 for involvement in a plan to attack power and telecommunications facilities and carry out assassinations of government officials in an attempt to provoke political unrest. Charges against them include plotting to kill government ministers, destroy strategic facilities and incite rebellion within the army, which can carry the death penalty in Ethiopia.

The federal prosecutor had asked the court to impose the death penalty against all of the accused, except two who pleaded guilty, stating that those convicted committed ‘serious acts of terrorism.’ But on 22 December 33 received life sentences while five were sentenced to death.

Those sentenced to life include opposition party members and family members of opposition party leaders such as Getu Worku, the cousin of Berhanu Nega, in exile in the United States.

They also include Tsige Habtemariam, the 80-year-old father of Andargachew Tsige, in exile in the UK. Tsige Habtemariam is a diabetic who recently underwent heart surgery and requires regular medical care.

Melaku Tefera, the only defendant sentenced to death on these charges who remains in Ethiopia, is a former Coalition for Unity and Democracy prisoner who served 20 months in Kaliti prison, then joined the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party.

Several of the defendants in this case have complained that they were tortured in detention. Amnesty International has called on Ethiopian authorities to grant these prisoners access to physicians of their choosing to assess their claims and treat any diagnosed injuries, in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime as cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

(For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org. International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK.; www.amnesty.org)

Critics claim that Melaku has never been a member of UDJ and is being used by the incumbent as a symbol of hunting down Ginbot 7 and UDJ Parties.

Today: Addis Abeba was under high surveillance

Our sources in Addis Abeba have confirmed that the city is under high surveillance today 27th January 2010.Residents and vehicles are being checked in every 10 meter distance.

"I think the Federal Police are looking for the''black box'' in our pockets'' said a young Addis Abeban describing the scale and manner of search being undertaken.Some army vehicles carrying machine guns drove through the town, checking the streets.

Main Roads of the city remained under high military surveillance.Agazi and Federal police forces are dispersed in every district of the city. Sources state that the main reason for the tension is due the 14th African Union Summit being held in Addis Abeba from 25 January to 02 February 2010 under the theme of ''Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development''.Many African heads of States and ministers are arriving in Addis Abeba to attend the meeting.

The summit agenda covers reports on the Peace and Security Council's activities and the state of peace and security in Africa.The Heads of State and Government Summit is preceded by the 16th Ordinary Session of the executive council and the 19th Ordinary Session of the permanent representatives committee meetings to be held from January 28 to 29 and January 25 to 26 respectively. It also includes a report of the commission on unconstitutional changes Government and of the ministerial meeting on the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court.

Commentators fear the possibility that some opposition groups might use the event to oust the regime

China invests in Ethiopia but at what cost?

MARY FITZGERALD in Addis Ababa for the Irish Times

China’s minister for commerce says trade with Ethiopia will reach $3 billion by 2015

ASK AN Addis Ababa taxi driver to take you to Ethio-China Friendship Road and he might just scratch his head.

The renaming of Wollo Sefer, one of the Ethiopian capital’s main thoroughfares, in tribute to the country’s burgeoning ties with Beijing might be obvious from the new street signs but it has yet to filter down to everyday use.

The road is not the only marker of China’s growing engagement with Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa’s ultramodern airport was built by the Chinese, as was the city’s ring road and flyover.

An extensive renovation of the African Union headquarters in downtown Addis is being financed by the Chinese to the tune of more than $100 million (€71 million).

Across the city, a Chinese government-built school, designed to cater for up to 3,000 students, offers Mandarin classes as part of its curriculum.

Scores of Ethiopians have been given scholarships to study subjects including engineering and architecture in China.

The Chinese restaurants and clinics advertising acupuncture and traditional herbal remedies that have become part of the landscape in almost every African city in recent years are here too. According to local media, some 1,000 Chinese companies operate in Ethiopia.

Besuited Chinese businessmen can be seen discussing deals in Addis hotel lobbies, while engineers and others fresh from working on road and telecommunications projects or building power stations and water supply systems haggle for souvenirs in the city’s sprawling Merkato before flying home to Beijing.

In some Ethiopian towns and villages, it is not uncommon for foreigners to find themselves being greeted by children yelling “China, China”.

Earlier this month Chen Deming, China’s minister for commerce, was in town predicting that trade volume between the two countries will reach $3 billion by 2015. Chinese investment in Ethiopia amounted to just under $1 billion last year, and there is much talk of future investment in agricultural projects.

“China and Ethiopia have been mutually supportive on the political front and closely co-operating on the economic front,” Chen said, going on to use the stock expression Chinese officials trot out when discussing relations with African states: “It is fair to regard the Sino-Ethiopian friendship as an all-weather one.”

China’s new engagement with Africa has played out very differently across the continent, helping revitalise moribund economies in some countries, while breeding resentment elsewhere due to support for unsavoury regimes, poor work practices and threatened local industries.

There have been a few cautionary tales for the Chinese along the way. In 2007, for example, nine Chinese oil workers were killed and seven briefly kidnapped in the restive Ogaden area of eastern Ethiopia.

Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi says African states must be prudent in setting the parameters of the relationship.

“The Chinese interest in Ethiopia has been nothing short of a godsend,” he tells The Irish Times.

“We have benefited massively from it, but like everything else it is capable of becoming a nightmare . . . It is up to the host countries as to how they use the available resources from the Chinese in the best possible manner. Those who do will benefit, those who don’t may not benefit as perhaps they ought to.”

China’s assistance in building infrastructure and its investment in manufacturing has been invaluable for Ethiopia, Meles says.

“We need investment from any quarter we can get it. The Chinese have been more aggressive in investing in Ethiopia than many others and our hope is that Chinese investment will entice not only additional Chinese investment but also investment from other countries.”

But, as in every African country wooing Beijing, there is debate over who stands to gain. A 2008 study by an economist at Addis Ababa University noted that while Ethiopian consumers will benefit from cheap Chinese imports, small local firms, particularly in the clothing and footwear sectors, will lose out.

Opposition figures, like many of their counterparts elsewhere in Africa, mutter darkly about deals agreed behind closed doors, and speculate on the motives of both the government and Beijing.

One told me he suspects that the Meles regime sees China’s overtures as an opportunity to shore up support where it matters on the world stage.

Whatever way the debate shifts, however, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the Chinese are here to stay.

Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed, was a secondhand bought from Ireland

Michael O'Leary CEO of the Irish airways reveals Ryanair may have owned Ethiopian Airlines jet which crashed, killing 90 people

By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Last updated at 9:15 PM on 26th January 2010

The Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed off Lebanon was used by Ryanair until last April, its chief executive Michael O'Leary revealed yesterday.

He said the budget airline had sold the Boeing 737 - serial number 29935 - in April last year and it had previously been used on a number of its European routes.

The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that the aircraft was a former Ryanair plane that had logged 17,750 flight hours in its seven years of service.

And planespotters came forward to say they had photographed the jet at British airports between 2002 and last year.

Mr O'Leary denied any liability in the accident, which saw 90 passengers killed, including Britons Afif Krisht, a 57-year-old businessman from Plymouth, and Kevin Grainger, 24.

'What happened we don't know,' he said.

'It's a bit like selling your car and 11 months later the person driving it has a crash. It had nothing to do with us.'

The accident happened on Monday after the plane had taken off from Beirut bound for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.

Witnesses described seeing the plane crash into the sea and explode in a 'ball of fire'. Investigators said it had left the airport on the wrong route and flown straight into a storm.

Search operation: A plane takes off from taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport today as wreckage is cleared from the coast

It comes as Lebanon’s transport minister revealed the pilot on board the flight went in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the Beirut control tower.

Ghazi Aridi said he was told ‘to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar’ after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

All 90 people on board are feared dead - with so far 34 bodies pulled from the sea - after the plane went down in flames around at 2.30am during a night of lightning and thunderstorms.

Lebanese officials have ruled out terrorism or ‘sabotage’. The plane was headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Wreckage: Army officials looking for the plane's black box to determine the cause of the crash hunt through the debris which washed up overnight

Searchers are trying to locate the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are key to determining the cause of the crash.

Today, rescue teams and equipment sent from the U.N. and countries including the U.S. and Cyprus are helping in the search.

Pieces of the plane and other debris have been washing ashore, and emergency crews have pulled a large, one-metre-long piece of the plane from the water.

An aviation analyst familiar with the investigation said Beirut air traffic control was guiding the Ethiopian flight through the thunderstorms for the first three minutes of its flight.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said this was standard procedure by Lebanese controllers to assist airliners departing from the airport in poor weather conditions.

The Boeing 737-800 jet - which was eight years old - had its last routine maintenance on December, 25, last year, according to Ethiopian Airlines

It is unclear exactly what happened in the last two minutes of flight, the official added.

Patrick Smith, a U.S.-based airline pilot and aviation writer, said there were many possible causes for the crash.

‘Had the plane encountered extreme turbulence, or had it suffered a powerful lightning strike that knocked out instruments while penetrating strong turbulence, then structural failure or loss of control, followed by an in-flight breakup, are possible causes,’ he said.

Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday that the pilot had more than 20 years of experience.

It did not give the pilot's name or details of other aircraft the pilot had flown.

Ethiopian Airlines says the eight-year-old plane was leased from a division of U.S. financing company CIT Group and had its last routine maintenance on December, 25 last year.

It said the jet, a recent version of Boeing's best-selling model, left the U.S. factory in 2002.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246179/Michael-OLeary-reveals-Ryanair-owned-Ethiopian-Airlines-jet-crashed-killing-90-people.html#ixzz0dlEPUT1L

Man dies on flight from Ethiopia, body taken off board at IGI

Geeta Gupta
Tags : Ethiopian man died on flight, delhi
Posted: Tuesday , Jan 26, 2010 at 0037 hrs New Delhi:

A tanzanian national on a flight from Addis Ababa to Beijing died on Saturday on board the Ethiopian Airways, which had a stopover at IGI Airport here.
Since Musak Suleman Amir, 36, did not have an Indian visa, his body was kept at the airside for over three hours till the Tanzanian Embassy was contacted to verify his details.
According to airport officials, Amir complained of feeling uneasy two hours after the flight took off from the Ethiopian capital — he reportedly collapsed inside the airborne-plane.
The Ethiopian Airways flight (ET 604) had a stopover at Delhi, and Amir’s body was be de-boarded at IGI Airport. Airport sources said he was declared dead by doctors after arrival at the city airport around 4.30 pm, and the police followed the standard operating procedure of informing the concerned embassy.
Amir’s body is now awaiting postmortem at Safdurjung Hospital, and further formalities would be performed only once the relatives get in touch with the airport authorities in India, a senior official said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) O P Mishra confirmed the incident. “The deceased person’s body has been preserved at the Safdurjung Hospital mortuary,” he said. “The concerned embassy has been able to contact his relatives, who are trying to get here.”
DCP Mishra said postmortem and other formalities would be done only after someone claims the body.
Unwilling to comment whether it was a case of natural death, DCP Mishra said the cause of death would be known only after the postmortem is conducted.

N. Korean Embassy Worker in Ethiopia Defects to S. Korea

By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter An employee at the North Korean Embassy in Ethiopia defected to South Korea last year seeking asylum, according to a report Tuesday. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did neither confirm the report nor deny it, only saying that it did not publicize every single case of defection via a third country. The 40-year-old defector, who is also a medical doctor identified as a Kim, rushed into the South Korean Embassy in mid-October, the 24-hour news channel YTN reported, quoting an unidentified diplomatic source. He stayed at the embassy for two to three weeks, the report said. The North Korean ambassador there said in a phone call that it might not be good if the South Korean Embassy kept hiding Kim. The North Korean Embassy also sent cars and had them line up in front of the South Korean Embassy in protest against sheltering the defector, the report said. The Seoul government dispatched a ranking official to the African country and brought the asylum seeker here in early November. In a separate development, the foreign ministry's task force will help North Korean defectors staying in foreign countries enter South Korea, ministry sources said. The team, established under the ministry's Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Bureau, will be in operation in June at the earliest, they said.Team members will hold negotiations with officials of foreign countries where North Koreans are waiting for approval to be allowed to enter South Korea. An ambassador or consul will be dispatched to the country, if necessary, to assist them in traveling to the South, the sources said.ksy@koreatimes.co.kr

Meles has been told rightly that these elections will be an important test

The Irish Times - Monday, January 25, 2010
Ethiopia's rulers
ETHIOPIA’S MELES ZENAWI, like Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, was among a new generation of African leaders who came to power in the early 1990s whose role in kicking out murderous regimes and commitment to democratic values was much admired. It seemed like Africa was fiinding a new voice. And there is no doubt that the Ethiopia Meles rules today is a far cry from the famine-ridden brutalised country of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. But on the human rights front Meles does have questions to answer.
Facing elections that will certainly see him re-elected prime minister, he can boast an economy growing at 7 per cent and dramatic improvements in health and education standards. As he tells Mary Fitzgerald in the foreign pages today: “We have succeeded in proving that Ethiopia can grow at Asian growth rates,” rekindling hope “in the possibility that Ethiopia will not for long be the poster child for poverty in the world.”
There is some way to go. Ethiopia remains an important recipent of Ireland’s aid, a “programme coutry”, where we contribute tens of millions to a food safety net programme that feeds 12 million people in return for public works. A further five million people are under threat of famine in the months ahead. Malnutrition is widespread with 47 per cent of children under five suffering from wasting or stunting. Over half the population lives below the national poverty line.
Donor countries have come under fire, however, from human rights groups who complain they are not sufficiently vocal about abuses. The 2005 elections tarnished Meles’s reputation with violence in which some 200 died and opposition leaders and activists were jailed. Although freed temporarily, Birtukan Mideksa, the 36-year-old head of the Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ), has been sent back to jail for life after authorities claimed she flouted the terms of her pardon by denying that she had “expressed remorse”. Her release would go a long way to reassuring civil society about the fairness of forthcoming elections.
Meles is also unrepentant or in denial about widespread concern over recent anti-NGO legislation and the documented use of torture by police and military officials in official and secret detention facilities across Ethiopia. All are issues which Irish diplomats say are the subject of regular “frank” bilateral and multilateral discusssions with the government. Meles has been told rightly that these elections will be an important test of his democratic commitment.

Capitain Habtamu is the name of the pilot

Editors Note: Dear Ethiopians we pass our heartfelt condolences and sorrow to all those killed by the plane crash.

Apparently, we have been informed that the name of the pilot was CapitainHabtamu.And the story of the crash according to our sources goes like this.

Habtamu ,who was in Beirut already when Boeing 737-800 arrived in Lebabon after a long flight from Addis Abeba, was not the man in duty to fly the plane back to Addis. However,he asked if he could fly back the plane to Addis as he wants to return to Addis Abeba soon."please let me fly this route and you will come with the next" was what Habtamu said to the official pilot.Although, the Airlines crew and the former pilot insisted that he shouldn't, Habtamu flew the plane and shortly after 5 minutes in the air,it crashed into the sea.

Article-Lebanese authorities have recovered 34 bodies after an Ethiopian Airlines jet caught fire and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early Monday morning.

Ninety people were on board the Boeing 737-800 -- including one Canadian citizen -- when it caught fire shortly after takeoff from a Beirut airport. It crashed into the sea shortly after 2:30 a.m., local time.

Lebanon's public works and transportation minister, Ghazi Aridi, said the plane went down about 3.5 kilometres off the coast.

The cause of the crash is not immediately known, though Lebanon has seen stormy weather since Sunday evening.

Aridi told reporters "the weather undoubtedly was very bad."

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism is not suspected in the crash of Flight 409, which was headed to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

"Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said.

Pieces of the plane and other debris have washed ashore in the aftermath of the crash, including passenger seats, a baby sandal and bottles of medicine. A Lebanese defence official told The Associated Press that several children are among the dead.

Aridi said the plane's 83 passengers included 54 Lebanese citizens, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.

The nationality of the plane's seven crew members was not immediately released.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs released a statement indicating that a flight manifest indicated "there was one Canadian citizen on board the flight." The department did not provide any additional details about the individual.

The French Embassy reported that the wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, was also on board the plane.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Ato Girma Wake told reporters in Addis Ababa that he had no information about the fate of the people on board the plane, nor about the cause of the crash.

Wake said the plane had been serviced Dec. 25 and passed inspection.

He also said the plane had been leased in September from CIT Aerospace, a U.S.-company based in New York.

Wake also said the airline would be sending accident and crisis management experts to Beirut.

Service Sector Takesover Ethiopian Agrarian Economy

Editors Note:The figure is an indication that easy- profit making businesses such as PLCs are mushrooming like anything.Fo r a country that is not able to feed her population, service sector growth is like the cart before the horse.This is What TPLF tells us : '' look at what i did the modern buildings ,roads and state of art services provided in Addis Ababa" but why don't tell us about the 13 million hungrily starving population?It is a sign of distorted economy. The service sector is full of non-tradables. There is no real production involved in it. It just only end up in lots of spending and lots of money chasing for few agricultural and industrial goods(hence inflation).It is an indication that we are far from feeding our selves.This is also what Meles calss our double digit economic growth while the nation is totally food insecure.

BY NEW BUSINESS ETHIOPIA The fast growing service sector of Ethiopia for the first time takes over the agriculture dependent economy of the East African nation.

Now, the service sector contributes 45.1 percent to Ethiopia’s Gross Domestic Production (GDP) for the fiscal year ended June 2009 (from July 2008 to June 2009). Meanwhile, agriculture sector, which was dominant in the economy, followed the service sector by contributing 43.2 percent to GDP.

According to GDP data released by the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) this week, during this period, the service sector grew by 14 percent while agriculture was limited to 9.9 percent. To the contrary, six years ago agriculture’s annual growth rate was 16.9 percent while the service sector was growing at 6.3 percent.

Industry sector of the nation, which has been contributing between 12.9 to 14 percent to GDP over the last eight years, has now contributed 13 percent to the national GDP during for fiscal year ended.

Eight years ago, Agriculture was leading the service sector by more than 10 percent until the gap between the two narrowed to one percent last year.

Ethiopia’s GDP for the year ended stood at 336.1 billion birr (around 25 billion USD) at current market price from it was around 77 billion birr eight years ago, according to MoFED’s data.