An open letter to UK Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. David Cameroon Requesting the British Government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Take the Credit of Re-affirming the UN Membership of the Republic of Somaliland

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

With all due respect, Sir, we request the Government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, which you head, to vouch for the Republic of Somaliland, Somaliland for short, as a missing United Nations member state as one couldn’t be better informed on that matter than the British Government and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) of which the UK IS a Permanent member..

We appeal to the Government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the UNSC to change course; Let the Republic of Somaliland sit on its rightful seat in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) among the nations of the world to represent its people in the august chamber.

We appeal in particular to the Government of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II, which you head, to get the credit of being the first to concede and to re-affirm the UN membership of the Republic of Somaliland, the Ex- Somaliland British Protectorate.

Presently, Somalilanders, the survivors of the heavy-handedness of Somalia, are the only people in the world who are represented in the United Nations by their arch enemy, Somalia.

Not even Palestinians are doomed to such a predicament. It is intolerably many times even more painful than adding insult to the injury.

Mr. Prime Minister, we are certain that you will agree with us that the Republic of Somaliland had already gotten its (1) full sovereignty, (2) self determination, (3) recognized independence and (4) UN membership like any other Ex-colonies which enjoy the above rights sitting on their UN seats while Somaliland is categorically denied to enjoy all of the above..

The Goebbels-scale propaganda that Somaliland lacks recognition and should fight for it, has thankfully consolidated a strong desire on the part of Somalilanders to salvage their country from going down the drain with Somalia, but needs to be reversed after long last with the assistance of the royal grace of the British Government.

Somaliland need not win again what it already has gotten. Somaliland does not lack recognition, it already has got it.

The onus is on the United Nations Security Council and its Secretariat to prove, if they could, that the Republic of Somaliland lacks recognition and is not a missing UNGA member.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II has returned full sovereignty over Somaliland in 1960 to the Somali clans who had in the 19th century entered with the British crown treaties of protection by a royal decree and in good faith. Then the Harold Macmillan government of the period extended recognized independence to the Sovereign State of Somaliland. The then British government was also one of the UNSC Permanent 5 members (P5) which had witnessed Somaliland’s ascension to UN membership on 20th September 1960 as a constituent component of the [quasi-United] Somali Republic together with Somalia.

All and any subsequent UK governments are obliged to go by the former decisions of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen on Somaliland as indicated above..

After a long story spanning half a century, Somalilanders have not enjoyed representing themselves alone in the UN even for a single day due mainly to their self-inflicted demotion of their Sovereign Somaliland state a part of an illegitimate union with Ex-Italian Somalia against the good counsel of many local wise men and women and international traditional friends.

After long last and with lots of bruises, however, Somalilanders reclaimed their separate sovereign state, which didn’t need permission from Somalia to leave the union, on 18 May 1991 as the Republic of Somaliland in exact consistence with international law, i.e. before the imposition of Chapter VII of the UN Charter on Somalia as a failed state. An absentee but healthy UN member state described as a beacon of hope and as a rare democratic experiment need not be included by the UNSC as part of a failed state. A whole UN member state cannot simply be reduced to and counted as a region of another county by the UNSC. The UNSC Should be the first to protect the legality of member states, including Somaliland, not to be included in failed states and not to be kept outside. The UNSC should not tolerate to see the people of Somaliland represented in the UN by another antagonistic member stat, the failed state of Somalia,

A country which is not kind to its own children, won’t be any kinder than before to Somalilanders who had survived its genocide attempt on them..

The formerly un-ratified union between Somaliland and Somalia is legally dissolved and the failed state of Somalia should not be sitting in the UN representing, not only its self, but also the totally different, sound and peaceful absentee member state of the Republic of Somaliland..

It should be discontinued that Somalilanders are continued to be represented in the UN by the same Somalia which they had fought out from at a high cost.

It does not reflect well on the UNSC that a whole member state, the Republic of Somaliland, whose rights the UNSC is supposed to protect in the UN and its people, are represented there in the name of an already dissolved, non-existent union called ‘Somalia’ under which Somaliland is tucked. Somaliland has unilaterally, and legally so, abandoned its union with Somalia.

Somalia should be representing itself only in the UN. Who should be representing Somalilanders in the UN, their own government or Somalia which all the world knows Somaliland had legally rejected to be in union with? You realize, sir that Somaliland declined, too, to participate in the process of formation of a federal state for ‘Somalia’.

Somaliland is not and does not want to be in federation with Somalia.

Somaliland stood clear on its own and was so for the last 24 years, totally divorced from Somalia and the last thing in the world its people would agree to is to reduce their independent country to be made what they call ‘an autonomous region’ of Somalia.

Wouldn’t maintaining Somaliland in union with Somalia in the UN amount to bullying it back to a union its own people had chosen not to be part of since nearly quarter of a century ago?

The UN which is supposed to be neutral and impartial between member states has admitted back in Somalia, without telling it to get re-recognition from the African Union (AU) The same UN tells Somaliland, which is not a region seceding from Somalia, but an already existing UN Member state, to get re-recognition from the AU.

It must be inadmissible under UN rules and regulations that a member state which had withdrawn from a union with another in exact consistence with international law be kept away from the UN by others who have no more right to be UN members than it has.

Believe me, Sir, it has proven to be extremely tiring to be oriented to find what you already have got with you. We reckon it is time to call the Republic of Somaliland by its legal name and to announce its UN membership without a vote as automatically as is required by law. It is not permissible in the UN that one or more member states slam the door on the face of another member state returning legally to its unoccupied seat.

I hope, Sir, you will agree with us that the Republic of Somaliland is no lesser UN member state under international law than any of the rest of the UN General Assembly and Security Council members, including the P5. Somaliland is a missing UN member state and should be allowed to sit on its hitherto unoccupied UN seat.

The application of the late president of the Republic of Somaliland, Hon. Mohamed I. Egal to the former UN Secretary General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghalli to simply re-activate the former recognized Somaliland membership in the UN remains practically unanswered to date as Somaliland is not still re-admitted automatically to sit on its UN seat

As nothing is ever late, we are glad to send you this request as an open letter to your Excellency so that Her Majesty’s government becomes the first to concede and to re-affirm the UN membership of the Republic of Somaliland, which feels to be bullied out of its UN membership. The African Union (AU) will then remember that Somaliland was among its 32 sovereign makers as the Organization of African Union (OAU) in 1963 and will let it in, too..

Sir, we are waiting for your Excellency’s favorable reply at your earliest convenience.

Thank you,

Ahmed Abdi Da’ar ahmed.daar@gmail.com

Director Somaliland Peace and Development Consultancy, registered in London, UK

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Toronto — International mining firms rushing to invest in Eritrea’s burgeoning minerals sector risk involvement in serious abuses unless they take strong preventive measures. The failure of the Vancouver-based company Nevsun Resources to ensure that forced labour would not be used during construction of its Eritrea mine, and its limited ability to deal with forced labor allegations when they arose, highlight the risk.

The 29-page report, “Hear No Evil: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Eritrea’s Mining Sector,” describes how mining companies working in Eritrea risk involvement with the government’s widespread exploitation of forced labor. It also documents how Nevsun – the first company to develop an operational mine in Eritrea – initially failed to take those risks seriously, and then struggled to address allegations of abuse connected to its operations. Although the company has subsequently improved its policies, it still seems unable to investigate allegations of forced labor concerning a state-owned contractor it uses.

“If mining companies are going to work in Eritrea, they need to make absolutely sure that their operations don’t rely on forced labor,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, business and human rights senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “If they can’t prevent this, they shouldn’t move forward at all.”

Eritrea is one of the world’s poorest and most repressive countries. In recent years the country’s largely untapped mineral wealth has provided a badly needed boost to its economic prospects. The Bisha project, majority owned and operated by the small Canadian firm Nevsun Resources, is Eritrea’s first and so far only operational mine. It began gold production in 2011 and produced some $614 million worth of ore in its first year.

Other large projects led by Canadian, Australian, and Chinese firms are in the pipeline, however. Numerous exploration firms are scouring other leases for new prospects.

Eritrea’s government maintains a “national service” program that conscripts Eritreans into prolonged and indefinite terms of forced labor, generally under abusive conditions. It is through this forced labor program that mining companies run the most direct risk of involvement in the Eritrean government’s human rights violations. Human Rights Watch has documented how national service conscripts are regularly subjected to torture and other serious abuses, and how the government exacts revenge upon conscripts’ families if they desert their posts. Many Eritreans have been forced to work as conscript laborers for over a decade.

Most national service conscripts are assigned to the military, but others are made to work for state-owned companies. Some of those companies are construction firms that the government pressures international companies to take on as contractors.

Nevsun Resources operates the Bisha mine through a joint venture with Eritrea’s state-owned mining firm, the Eritrea National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO). Nevsun acknowledged to Human Rights Watch that it initially failed to carry out any kind of due diligence activity around the human rights risks involved with the project. At the government’s urging, it then employed a state-owned contractor called Segen Construction Company to build some of the infrastructure around the mine site. Segen has a long track record of allegedly deploying forced labor in connection with its projects.

Human Rights Watch interviewed several Eritreans who worked at Bisha during its initial construction phase. Some said they were deployed there as conscript laborers by Segen. They described terrible living conditions and forced labor at paltry wages. One former conscript said that he had been arrested and imprisoned for several months after leaving the work site to attend a relative’s funeral.

“Nevsun employed a contractor with a long track record of alleged reliance on forced labor, without adequate safeguards in place,” Albin-Lackey said. “What’s worse, Nevsun has continued to operate and to employ this contractor even though it is not allowed to monitor its labor practices.”

During the project’s early stages, Nevsun did not have adequate procedures in place to ensure that forced labor was not being used to build its project. The company has since tightened those policies, largely through an improved screening procedure that is meant to vet all workers at the mine to ensure that they are there voluntarily. Nevsun says that these policies are now adequate to the task of keeping their project free of forced labor.

Mining firms that want to work in Eritrea should refuse to work with any contractor implicated in the use of forced labor, and insist on the right to investigate any and all allegations of abuse connected to their operations, Human Rights Watch said.

All mining firms working in Eritrea should undertake human rights due diligence activity to identify and mitigate the full range of risks posed by the projects they plan to undertake. The importance of human rights due diligence is heavily emphasized by the United Nations-endorsed Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which have been widely accepted as a legitimate benchmark of responsible corporate behavior.

Once projects are under way, companies should keep a close eye on events in the field to make sure that their project is not moving forward through forced labor or other abuses. Companies should insist on unfettered, independent access to all workers at their mine site and the right to fire local contractors that are credibly implicated in abuse.

The home governments of multinational mining companies should regulate and monitor the human rights practices of domestically based companies when they operate in high-risk environments like Eritrea, Human Rights Watch said. The governments should press these companies to uphold high standards and to investigate alleged abuses in their foreign operations. No country currently monitors the extraterritorial human rights performance of its companies except in certain narrow contexts, such as investment in Burma.

“It is negligent for mining companies to ignore the risks of forced labor that clearly exist in Eritrea,” Albin-Lackey said. “It is also long past time for these companies’ home governments to make their overseas human rights records an issue of domestic concern.”

Source Human right

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Here is the list of top 10 countries with highest rape crime. You would be amazed to read that the most developed countries like U.S., Sweden, France, Canada, UK and Germany are the most immersed ones in this crime.

Ethiopia is estimated to have one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world. A report by the UN found that nearly 60% of Ethiopian women were subjected to Sexual violence. Rape is a very serious problem in Ethiopia. The country is infamous for the practice of marriage by abduction, with the prevalence of this practice in Ethiopia being one of the highest in the world. In many parts of Ethiopia, it is common for a man, working in co-ordination with his friends, to kidnap a girl or woman, sometimes using a horse to ease the escape. The abductor will then hide his intended bride and rape her until she becomes pregnant. Girls as young as eleven years old are reported to have been kidnapped for the purpose of marriage. Also the Ethiopian military has been accused of committing systematic rapes against civilians.

Sri Lanka’s security forces are still raping and torturing suspects. There have been recent allegations that rape and torture by the Sri Lankan security forces have continued four years after the civil war ended. The UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence found that 14.5% of the sample of Sri Lankan men had perpetrated rape at some point in their lives. 4.9% had raped in the past year. 2.7% had raped another man. 1.6% had took part in a gang rape. 96.5% of the men who had raped experienced no legal consequences. 65.8% didn’t feel worried or guilty afterwards. 64.9% of rapists had raped more than once, and 11.1% had raped four or more girls or women.

It is an Amercing continent and the total reported cases of rape in this country are 2,516,918. These are only six percent of the total rape cases. It is reported that over one in three women had experienced a Sexual assault and that only 6% of Sexual assaults were reported to the police. According to Justice Institute of British Columbia, one out of every 17 women is raped, 62% of rape victims were physically injured, 9% were beaten or disfigured.

An estimate of 240,000 women and girls has died up till now in Germany because of this crime. Germany is on the number six in the highest rape crime with the figures of 6,507,394 in this year which is really a big figure. German Catholics have allowed the morning-after pills for the victims. The country moving forward in technology is actually moving really backward in humanity.

Many people wish to live or even visit UK as it is one of the most developed countries. But they surely must not be aware that this country is also involved badly in the crime of rape. In January 2013, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Home Office released its first ever joint Official Statistics bulletin on Sexual violence, entitled An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales. According to report: Approximately 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year. Over 400,000 women are Sexually assaulted each year. One in 5 women (aged 16 – 59) has experienced some form of Sexual violence since the age of 16.

Sweden has the highest incidence of reported rapes in Europe and one of the highest in the world. One amongst every four women comes out to be the victim of rape in Sweden. By 2010, The Swedish police recorded the highest number of offences – about 63 per 100,000 inhabitants. The country has third-highest rape crime in the world. In 2009 there were 15,700 reported Sexual offenses in Sweden, a rise of 8% compared to 2008, of which 5,940 were rape and Sexual harassment (including exhibitionism) accounted for 7,590 reports. In April 2009, it was reported that *** crimes had increased by 58% over the previous ten years. According to a 2009 European Union study, Sweden has one of the highest rates of reported rape in Europe.

The country has one of the highest rates of rape in the world, with some 65,000 rapes and other Sexual assaults reported for the year 2012. The incidence of rape has led to the country being referred to as the “rape capital of the world”. One in three of the 4,000 women questioned by the Community of Information, Empowerment and Transparency said they had been raped in the past year. More than 25 per cent of South African men questioned in a survey published by the Medical Research Council (MRC) admitted to rape; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person. Three out of four of those who had admitted rape indicated that they had attacked for the first time during their teens. South Africa has amongst the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world. If the rapist is convicted, his prison time would be around 2 years.

The super power of the world is at the second position in the race of rapes. Males are majorly the rapist holding a proportion of 99%. Out of all the victims, 91% are females while 9% are males. The U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics states that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male, and nearly 99% of rapists are male. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 in 6 U.S. women and 1 in 33 U.S. men has experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. More than a quarter of college-age women report having experienced a rape or rape attempt since age 14. Out of all, only 16% of the total cases are reported. Outdoor rape is not common in USA rather most of the rape cases takes place inside homes.

India is the place where Sexual assault is rapidly increasing. Rape in India is one of India’s most common crimes against women. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012, but experts agree that the number of unreported cases of Sexual assault brings the total much higher. Out of these, 24,470 were committed by parents/family, relatives, neighbors and other known persons implying that , men known to the victim committed 98 per cent of reported rapes. The latest estimates suggest that a new case of rape is reported every 22 minutes in India.

source: http://howafrica.com/10-countries-with-highest-rape-crime-wait-until-you-see-the-1-country/

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“Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in response to any potential aggression against any NATO allies,” says one senior defense official familiar with the updated plans.

“Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine made the U.S. dust off its contingency plans,” says Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. “They were pretty out of date.”

Designing a counteroffensive

The new plans, according to the senior defense official, have two tracks. One focuses on what the United States can do as part of NATO if Russia attacks one of NATO’s member states; the other variant considers American action outside the NATO umbrella. Both versions of the updated contingency plans focus on Russian incursions into the Baltics, a scenario seen as the most likely front for new Russian aggression. They are also increasingly focusing not on traditional warfare, but on the hybrid tactics Russia used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine: “little green men,” manufactured protests, and cyberwarfare. “They are trying to figure out in what circumstances [the U.S. Defense Department] would respond to a cyberattack,” says Julie Smith, who until recently served as the vice president’s deputy national security advisor. “There’s a lively debate on that going on right now.”

This is a significant departure from post-Cold War U.S. defense policy.

After the Soviet Union imploded, Russia, its main heir, became increasingly integrated into NATO, which had originally been created to counter the Soviet Union’s ambitions in Europe. In 1994, Moscow signed onto NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. Three years later, in May 1997, Russia and NATO signed a more detailed agreement on mutual cooperation, declaring that they were no longer adversaries. Since then, as NATO absorbed more and more Warsaw Pact countries, it also stepped up its cooperation with Russia: joint military exercises, regular consultations, and even the opening of a NATO transit point in Ulyanovsk, Russia, for materiel heading to the fight in Afghanistan. Even if the Kremlin was increasingly miffed at NATO expansion, from the West things looked fairly rosy.

After Russia’s 2008 war with neighboring Georgia, NATO slightly modified its plans vis-à-vis Russia, according to Smith, but the Pentagon did not. In preparing the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon’s office for force planning — that is, long-term resource allocation based on the United States’ defense priorities — proposed to then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to include a scenario that would counter an aggressive Russia. Gates ruled it out. “Everyone’s judgment at the time was that Russia is pursuing objectives aligned with ours,” says David Ochmanek, who, as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development, ran that office at the time. “Russia’s future looked to be increasingly integrated with the West.” Smith, who worked on European and NATO policy at the Pentagon at the time, told me, “If you asked the military five years ago, ‘Give us a flavor of what you’re thinking about,’ they would’ve said, ‘Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism — and China.’”

Warming to Moscow

The thinking around Washington was that Mikheil Saakashvili, then Georgia’s president, had provoked the Russians and that Moscow’s response was a one-off. “The sense was that while there were complications and Russia went into Georgia,” Smith says, “I don’t think anyone anticipated that anything like this would happen again.” Says one senior State Department official: “The assumption was that there was no threat in Europe.” Russia was rarely brought up to the secretary of defense, says the senior defense official.

Then came the Obama administration’s reset of relations with Russia, and with it increased cooperation with Moscow on everything from space flights to nuclear disarmament. There were hiccups (like Russia’s trying to elbow the United States out of the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan) and less-than-full cooperation on pressing conflicts in the Middle East (the best the United States got from Russia on Libya was an abstention at the U.N. Security Council). But, on the whole, Russia was neither a danger nor a priority. It was, says one senior foreign-policy Senate staffer, “occasionally a pain in the ass, but not a threat.”

Ochmanek, for his part, hadn’t thought about Russia for decades. “As a force planner, I can tell you that the prospect of Russian aggression was not on our radar,” he told me when I met him in his office at the Rand Corp. in Northern Virginia, where he is now a senior defense analyst. “Certainly not since 1991, but even in the last years of Gorbachev.” Back in 1989, Ochmanek thought that Washington should be focusing on the threat of Iraq invading Kuwait, not on the dwindling likelihood of Soviet military aggression. For the last 30 years, Ochmanek has shuttled between Rand, where he has focused on military planning, and the nearby Pentagon, where he has done the same in an official capacity: first in the mid-1990s, when he was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy, and then for the first five years of Barack Obama’s administration, when he ran force planning at the Pentagon.

It was there that, in February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin caught Ochmanek and pretty much every Western official off guard by sending little green men into Crimea and eastern Ukraine. “We didn’t plan for it because we didn’t think Russia would change the borders in Europe,” he says. Crimea, he says, was a “surprise.”

War games, and losing

In June 2014, a month after he had left his force-planning job at the Pentagon, the Air Force asked Ochmanek for advice on Russia’s neighborhood ahead of Obama’s September visit to Tallinn, Estonia. At the same time, the Army had approached another of Ochmanek’s colleagues at Rand, and the two teamed up to run a thought exercise called a “table top,” a sort of war game between two teams: the red team (Russia) and the blue team (NATO). The scenario was similar to the one that played out in Crimea and eastern Ukraine: increasing Russian political pressure on Estonia and Latvia (two NATO countries that share borders with Russia and have sizable Russian-speaking minorities), followed by the appearance of provocateurs, demonstrations, and the seizure of government buildings. “Our question was: Would NATO be able to defend those countries?” Ochmanek recalls.

The results were dispiriting. Given the recent reductions in the defense budgets of NATO member countries and American pullback from the region, Ochmanek says the blue team was outnumbered 2-to-1 in terms of manpower, even if all the U.S. and NATO troops stationed in Europe were dispatched to the Baltics — including the 82nd Airborne, which is supposed to be ready to go on 24 hours’ notice and is based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

“We just don’t have those forces in Europe,” Ochmanek explains. Then there’s the fact that the Russians have the world’s best surface-to-air missiles and are not afraid to use heavy artillery.

After eight hours of gaming out various scenarios, the blue team went home depressed. “The conclusion,” Ochmanek says, “was that we are unable to defend the Baltics.”

Ochmanek decided to run the game on a second day. The teams played the game again, this time working on the assumption that the United States and NATO had already started making positive changes to their force posture in Europe. Would anything be different? The conclusion was slightly more upbeat, but not by much. “We can defend the capitals, we can present Russia with problems, and we can take away the prospect of a coup de main,” Ochmanek says. “But the dynamic remains the same.” Even without taking into account the recent U.S. defense cuts, due to sequestration, and the Pentagon’s plan to downsize the Army by 40,000 troops, the logistics of distance were still daunting. U.S. battalions would still take anywhere from one to two months to mobilize and make it across the Atlantic, and the Russians, Ochmanek notes, “can do a lot of damage in that time.”

Ochmanek has run the two-day table-top exercise eight times now, including at the Pentagon and at Ramstein Air Base, in Germany, with active-duty military officers. “We played it 16 different times with eight different teams,” Ochmanek says, “always with the same conclusion.”

The Defense Department has factored the results of the exercise into its planning, says the senior defense official, “to better understand a situation that few of us have thought about in detail for a number of years.” When asked about Ochmanek’s conclusions, the official expressed confidence that, eventually, NATO would claw the territory back. “In the end, I have no doubt that NATO will prevail and that we will restore the territorial integrity of any NATO member,” the official said. “I cannot guarantee that it will be easy or without great risk. My job is to ensure that we can reduce that risk.”

Protect the Baltics

That is, the Pentagon does not envision a scenario in which Russia doesn’t manage to grab some Baltic territory first. The goal is to deter — Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced this summer that the United States would be sending dozens of tanks, armored vehicles, and howitzers to the Baltics and Eastern Europe — and, if that fails, to painstakingly regain NATO territory.

The Pentagon is also chewing on various hybrid warfare scenarios, and even a nuclear one. “As you look at published Russian doctrine, I do believe people are thinking about use of tactical nuclear weapons in a way that hadn’t been thought about for many years,” says the senior defense official. “The doctrine clearly talks about it, so it would be irresponsible to not at least read that doctrine, understand what it means. Doctrine certainly doesn’t mean that they would do it, but it would be irresponsible to at least not be thinking through those issues. Any time there is nuclear saber rattling, it is always a concern, no matter where it comes from.”

There is a strong element of disappointment among senior foreign-policy and security officials in these discussions, of disbelief that we ended up here after all those good years — decades, even — in America’s relations with Russia.

“A lot of people at the Pentagon are unhappy about the confrontation,” says the State Department official. “They were very happy with the military-to-military cooperation with Russia.” There are also those, the official said, who feel that Russia is a distraction from the real threat — China — and others who think that working with Russia on arms control is more important than protecting Ukrainian sovereignty. Not only would they rather not have to think about Moscow as an enemy, but many are also miffed that even making these plans plays right into Putin’s paranoid fantasies about a showdown between Russia and NATO or between Russia and the United States — which makes those fantasies, de facto, a reality. In the U.S. planning for confrontation with Russia, says the Senate staffer, Putin “is getting the thing he always wanted.”

Yet despite this policy shift, the distinctly American optimism is confoundingly hard to shake. “We would like to be partners with Russia. We think that is the preferred course — that it benefits us, it benefits Russia, and it benefits the rest of the world,” the senior defense official says. “But as the Department of Defense, we’re not paid to look at things through rose-colored glasses and hence must be prepared in case we’re wrong about Russia’s actions and plan for if Russia were to become a direct adversary. Again, I don’t predict that and I certainly don’t want it, but we need to be prepared in case that could happen.”

Provocation or preparation?

So far, the Pentagon’s plans are just that — plans. But they are also signals: to Russia that the United States is not sitting on its hands, and to Congress that America’s foreign-policy priorities have shifted drastically since the last Quadrennial Defense Review, which was released as the crisis in Ukraine was unfolding and barely mentioned Russia. It is also a signal that the Pentagon feels that sequestration hobbles its ability to deal with the new threat landscape. In his July confirmation hearing to ascend to the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford made headlines when he said that Russia posed an “existential threat” to the United States and said that America must do more to prepare itself for hybrid warfare of the type Russia deployed in Ukraine.

“It’s clearly a signal to the Hill,” says Smith. “When I come and ask for a permanent presence in Europe or money for a European presence, I don’t want you to say, ‘Gee, this is a surprise. I thought it was all about [the Islamic State].’” Dunford’s statement angered the White House, which saw it as potentially provocative to Moscow, but it was also a signal to everyone else. The commander in chief has the final say on whether to use these new contingency plans, but Obama’s days in office are numbered, and the Pentagon isn’t taking any chances.

Source – foreignpolicy.com

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A CALL TO ACTION

Special note and request: I am asking my readers in the United States, particularly Ethiopian Americans in the great State of Texas and in the Washington metropolitan area, to join me in advocating against confirmation of Gayle Smith who has been nominated to head the USAID.

The United States Senate has independent and full authority to confirm or reject Gayle Smith’s nomination.

I specifically urge Ethiopian American constituents of Senator Ted Cruz to contact one of his district offices or Senate office in Washington, D.C. and register their strong opposition to Smith’s confirmation.

For a list of Senator Cruz’s district offices in Texas and Washington, D.C., CLICK HERE.

I also call upon all Ethiopian Americans who believe in freedom, democracy and human rights to phone, write, email and fax their Senators’ local or Washington offices and register their strong opposition to Ms. Smith confirmation.

To contact your United States Senators, CLICK HERE.

“The President…shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law….” United States Constitution, Article II, section 2, Clause 2.

As I have set forth below in my letter to Senator Ted Cruz, Ms. Smith’s confirmation to head USAID will be a disaster for Africa and an unmitigated catastrophe for Ethiopia.

Let us use the U.S. Constitution and petition our Government to do the right thing:  REJECT THE NOMINATION OF GAYLE SMITH!

“You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”

― Marian Wright Edelman

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September 18, 2015

Senator Ted Cruz
U.S. Senate
Suite SR-404
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Cruz:

I refer to your Letter to President Barack Obama dated July 16, 2015.

In that Letter, you indicated your intention “to block all nominees for the Department of State” until the President provided you certain assurances.

The President has failed to provide you the assurances you requested.

As you pledged in your Letter, I am writing to seek your support in blocking the confirmation of Gayle Smith as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

On June 17, 2015, Ms. Smith’s confirmation was held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate has yet to act on her nomination.

I am opposed to Ms. Smith’s nomination.

On May 12, 2015, I registered my objection to Ms. Smith’s confirmation in The Hill in my op-ed piece, “The Senate should not confirm Gayle Smith”.

I believe Ms. Smith is the wrong choice for the job.

I specifically object to Ms. Smith’s confirmation because of 1) her poor record in promoting and supporting democracy, freedom and human rights in Africa, and 2) for her unwavering support for African dictators for the past three decades and 3) for her foreign policy approach which treats Africans as welfare aid recipients who must be perpetually tethered to the pockets of hard working American tax payers.

Ms. Smith subscribes to a foreign policy of welfare, aid handouts and alms-giving to Africa generously supported by American taxpayers. In 2014, American tax payers through USAID spent over $5 billion in Africa on various health and development programs.

What have American tax payers received for the billions of dollars they have spent in Africa through USAID?

What have American tax payers received for the billions of dollars they have spent in Ethiopia through USAID?

No one really knows. Not even USAID!

In 2010, the U.S. State Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG)  concluded  its “audit was unable to determine whether the results reported in USAID/Ethiopia’s Performance Plan and Report were valid because mission staff could neither explain how the results were derived nor provide support for those reported results.” (“Audit of USAID/Ethiopia’s Agricultural Sector Productivity Activities (Audit Report No. 4-6663-10-003-P (March 30, 2010, p. 1″).

In 2014, the OIG concluded that the USAID HIV project in Ethiopia experienced significant and undue delays and was plagued by poor planning, lack of oversight and monitoring and complete absence of quality control.  (AUDIT OF USAID/ETHIOPIA’S HIV CARE AND TREATMENT ACTIVITIES, AUDIT REPORT NO. 4-663-14-006-P (MAY 23, 2014.)  In one USAID-funded hospital,  the OIG (with photographs)  “discovered several cartons of food supplements that mice had also chewed on. There were mouse droppings in both rooms where food was stored. The rooms were damp and dirty; one had no windows or lighting, and the other had a leaky ceiling (p.12.))

According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI),  “Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365, lost US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009.”

A good chunk of the nearly $12 billion lost in illicit transfer is American tax payer dollars given through USAID and laundered by the leaders of the ruling regime in Ethiopia and their cronies in off shore banks.

GFI concluded, “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry.  No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage.”

If Ms. Smith is confirmed, the capital leakage will be capital hemorrhage, a capital tsunami out of Ethiopia! Ethiopians will be paddling up that famous creek without a paddle if Ms. Smith is  confirmed.

Simply stated, the OIG’s conclusions point to the incontrovertible fact that USAID in Ethiopia has been working hand in glove with the corrupt regime in Ethiopia and asleep at the switch, or shall I say the spigot, as American tax dollars flowed directly out of American pockets and into the pockets of regime officials and their crony contractors.

Confirmation of Ms. Smith to head the USAID will be an endorsement of USAID’s  business-as-usual modus operandi in Ethiopia.

Confirmation of Ms. Smith to head the USAID will mean a “beggar’s feast” for the regime in Ethiopia.

You see Senator Cruz, Ms. Smith  has been bosom buddies with Africa’s worst dictators for decades.

Ms. Smith has been and remains a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of some of the most ruthless dictatorships in Africa.

Ms. Smith was a staunch supporter and spin doctor of the late Meles Zenawi, the late bloodthirsty  and ruthless dictator in Ethiopia,  whose crimes against humanity have been certified by an Inquiry Commissionhe personally established.

It is a little known fact that Ms. Smith was an employee of Mr. Zenawi’s rebel organization the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the mid-1980s.

According to a May 1991 Christian Science Monitor report, “One of the few Westerners who speaks the Tigre language and has had many contacts with Zenawi over a nine-year period, is Gayle Smith, an American who worked for Tigre’s relief agency, REST, during the 1985-6 drought.”

Ms. Smith had long “gone native” with the brutal rebel group that is today ruling Ethiopia.

Smith was a staunch defender and spin-doctor of Meles Zenawi. She is today a protector and guardian of the TPLF.

It is ironic that the TPLF, which employed Ms. Smith decades ago is today is the official regime in Ethiopia, is today  listed in the Global Terrorism Database.

The fact of the matter is that Ms. Smith has tried to humanize the late cut-throat Marxist Meles Zenawi and his TPLF as  harmless ideologues.

Ms. Smith has tried to justify many of Zenawi’s outrageously radical statements as “language that goes along with being a left-of-center guerrilla organization”.

Ms. Smith has even tried to paint Zenawi as a reasonable liberal democrat who “realizes only a broad-based coalition can govern Ethiopia’s diverse ethnic population.”

Ms. Smith has long been a bulwark for a regime with a frightening human rights record.

The facts speak for themselves.

In 2003, Ms. Smith’s old comrade, Meles Zenawi, massacred over 400 innocent villagers in Gambella, in Western Ethiopia.

Ms. Smith was silent and turned a blind eye to the crimes against humanity committed by her old comrade-in-arms.

In 2005, Meles Zenawi ordered the massacre and shooting of hundreds of unarmed protesters following the election that year. In the Meles Massacres, nearly 200 unarmed protesters were killed and some 800 wounded.

Ms. Smith remained dead silent as the very graves the innocent protesters were buried in.

The Meles Massacres of 2005 were a defining moment for me, Senator Cruz.

Overnight, I was transformed from an armchair academic and pugnacious defense lawyer into an indefatigable human rights advocate for Ethiopia and Africa.

For the past nine years, I have written long weekly commentaries (without missing a single week!) exposing the crimes against humanity committed by the late Zenawi and the crimes against humanity that continue to be committed by the TPLF today.  (My commentaries are available at almariam.com  and   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam )

In 2007, Meles Zenawi ordered the indiscriminate bombing of the Ogaden region of Ethiopia results in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent villagers. The massacres in the Ogaden have been described as “genocide”.

Ms. Smith remained silent, deaf and mute in the face crimes against humanity committed by her dear friend Meles Zenawi.

As I am sure you are aware, the TPLF, the party for whom Ms. Smith worked decades ago, this past May declared one hundred percent (100%) victory in the parliamentary election.

In 2010, the same party declared victory by 99.6 percent.

To the shock and horror of the world, President Obama in July 2015 said, “the government of Ethiopia [which “won” the 2015 election by 100 percent] has been democratically elected.”

Ms. Smith was at the side of the President in Addis Ababa when he made the absurd declaration.

Over the past few months, a few of Ms. Smith’s personal friends and associates have written op-ed pieces lionizing her and trying to reinvent her a new public image as a defender of human rights. The latest one appeared in The Hill on September 18  declaring it is “Time for the Senate to confirm Gayle Smith.”

It is time to send back Gayle Smith’s nomination to the White House  stamped, “REJECTED”.

In another forum, I have presented ample evidence to support my opposition to Ms. Smith.

Let me restate my deep concerns that if the Senate confirms Ms. Smith, it will be a holiday for African dictators on the American tax payers’ dime.

I have no doubts that with news of Gayle Smith at the helm of USAID, African dictators will be rubbing their palms and drooling on their jackets at the very prospect of bleeding the American tax payer. They will be like slobbering  hyenas snorting a whiff of carrion.

USAID has long been a candy store for African dictators.

When Gayle Smith takes over, USAID will be a chocolate factory for African dictators.

In 2016, USAID will have some 22 billion in greenbacks to spread around the globe. A good 25 percent plus of it will  go out of the pockets of American tax payers to line the pockets of African dictators.

Gayle Smith’s confirmation will mean one thing for sure: One small insignificant event for the impoverished people of Africa, one giant money-making opportunity for African dictators.

Let me also underscore my deep disappointment over the fact that Ms. Smith believes Africa can develop and sustain itself hooked to the life-support system bleeding American tax payers.

Ms. Smith is wrong on her views on American tax dollars in Africa.

As Dambissa Moyo, one of the most respected African policy analyst has convincingly demonstrated, the “insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment.”

No one has ever escaped poverty by receiving alms or welfare payments disguised as “aid”.

What the USAID needs today is not a coddler of dictators or someone who caters to the whims and fancy of Africa’s strongmen.

The USAID needs the steady hand on the tiller.

Gayle Smith is not a steady hand on the tiller, though her confirmation will certainly mean African dictators will have their hands and fingers in the American tax payers’ till.

On the other hand, you are no doubt aware that USAID development programs have been plagued by widespread allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.

A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that a significant amount of the nearly $10 billion spent by the U.S. in Africa between 2002 and 2012  on various health projects, including malaria and HIV control, “has been partly hijacked by organized networks that steal large quantities of donated malaria drugs and ship them from East to West Africa, where they end up for sale at street markets.”

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in 2013 found  that USAID’s of lack of effective oversight and monitoring placed hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars “at risk of waste, fraud and abuse.”

USAID does not need a namby-pamby leader at the helm.

USAID needs a strong consensus builder with the proven ability to resolve serious internal administrative issues.

USAID needs a visionary leader who could envision Africa holding a plough and sickle, not an Africa with outstretched arms holding a begging bowl for American tax payer dole out.

USAID needs a leader who can clean house, not house sit.

USAID does not need a leader who will sweep out the dirt, not hide it under the rug.

USAID does not need an administrator of welfare programs for African dictators.

USAID needs a leader with the ability and commitment to root out fraud, waste and abuse in the USAID.

If confirmed, Ms. Smith will oversee the administration of billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Africa.

Ms. Smith’s long and chummy relationship with Africa’s dictators make it impossible for her to become a strong advocate of human rights, the rule of law and good governance on the continent.

Ms. Smith will be a god-send for African beggar-dictators.

President Obama often invokes the metaphor of being “on the right side of history”.

Ms. Smith is on the wrong side of history; she has always been on the side of Africa’s dictators and strongmen.

President Obama is requesting the Senate’s advice and consent for Ms. Smith to become USAID Administrator.

It is time for the Senate to withhold consent on Smith’s confirmation and advise the President to send a nominee who is on the right side of history, on the right side of the rule of law, on the right side of democracy and on the right side of human rights.

It is time to reject a nominee who is on the side of dictators, strongmen and thugs who cling to power by the barrel of the gun.

For Africa, Senate confirmation of Ms. Smith at this moment will be the equivalent of moving the clock of history backwards for freedom, democracy and human rights.

I trust you will remain true to your promise in your July 16 Letter to President Obama and block Ms. Smith’s confirmation.

Regards,

Alemayehu (Al) Mariam, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor of Political Science &
Attorney at Law
Department of Political Science
California State University, San Bernardino
San Bernardino, CA 92402

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ESAT Special Radio Interview With Neamin Zeleke (Must Listen)

Neamin Zeleke tells ESAT

The struggle for freedom & democracy reached a critical stage

ESAT News (September 21, 2015)

Mr. Neamin Zeleke, Head of Foreign Affairs of Patriotic Ginbot 7 International Leadership and a member of AG7 Council, told ESAT that the formation of United Movement for the Salvation of Ethiopia through Democracy has elevated the struggle for freedom and democracy in Ethiopia to a higher level.

Mr. Neamin travelled to Eritrea and remained there for three months before returning at the end of last week. He said Ethiopian opposition forces unequivocally have full confidence in the government of Eritrea and highly appreciative of the support it has been proving for Ethiopian liberation forces. Mr. Neamin also affirmed that the Eritrean government does not make undue interference in the internal affairs of Ethiopian forces based in Eritrea.
Mr. Neamin condemned certain groups and individuals who have made a carrier out of fabricating baseless stories that would shed negative light on Ethiopian opposition based in Eritrea. He said the misinformation and blackmailing that few individuals disseminate about the government of Eritrea, Ethiopian opposition forces, and the leaders of these organizations are groundless and utterly fictitious. He called for Ethiopians from all walks of lives not be hoodwinked by these uncanny individuals with nefarious agenda that is contrary to the primacy of the struggle and its ultimate objective— the liberation of Ethiopia from the Woyane ethnocentric and brutal dictatorship.

Asked about the defection of Mola Asgedom, Chairman of Tigray People’s Democratic Movement, Mr. Neamin stated that the defection of individuals like Mola, who has been hatching a hidden agenda aligned with the ruling TPLF cabal on Friday September 11, 2015, was not surprising as such. “These kinds of defections are common in other struggles, in our own recent political history too, and that it is a blessing in disguise that Mola Asgedom defected early before inflicting heavy damage at a later stage.”

Mr. Neamin left for Eritrea three months ago with a mission to accomplish several tasks. He said, there was a need to assess and discuss the situation with the leadership on the ground. Second, he went to Eritrea to assess and facilitate the relocation of senior leaders, including Berhanu Nega, to Eritrea. In addition, he said that there was a need to reach to an agreement and understanding on a number of vital issues with members of the leadershipon the ground, as well as many other tasks that could not be discussed on the media.

Asked why he did not remain in Eritrea like the other senior leaders, Mr. Neamin told ESAT that “The struggle for democracy and freedom is multi-faceted , waged on many fronts , and based in several geographic locations; senior leaders such as Professor Berhanu Nega, Ato Ephrem Madebo, and others will be based in Eritrea to coordinate the struggle along with other members of the senior leadership on the ground based in Eritrea and inside the country; others, like me, have to travel back and forth to coordinate foreign relations, intelligence , public relations, and others tasks of the organization that has components both on the ground, inside Ethiopia, and around the world.”

It was reported that Professor Berhanu Nega and other senior leaders would be based in Eritrea until freedom is achieved in Ethiopia. Yet, members of the international leadership would be traveling back and forth to Eritrea and elsewhere when necessary, Mr. Neamin added.

Mr. Neamin stressed the need to mobilize, focus and intensify the struggle of all Ethiopians diaspora in their endeavor to bring about democracy, freedom and justice for the people of Ethiopia under the yoke of the TPLF/EPRDF ethnocentric and dictatorial regime.

Currently Ethiopian armed opposition groups are well organized and have built significant clandestine networks throughout Ethiopia to wage a full scale offensive against the TPLF forces, the senior leader told ESAT.
It is to be recalled that an agreement was reached very recently among four independent opposition forces on programs and outcomes of the struggle in Ethiopia, thus forming United Movement for the Salvation of Ethiopia through Democracy. Last week, Prof. Berhanu told ESAT that Ethiopia did not need several armed factions that lack confidence in each other but claiming to have the same objectives. Hence, building a unified political movement and a liberation force under a unified command is an essential condition to salvage the country from disintegration a top priority.

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By Yilma Bekele

I was present at a festival of resurgence and determination a few days ago. The program was organized to show appreciation to Arbegnoche Ginbot7 Movement’s determination to liberate our country from the grip of TPLF/EPDRF dictatorship. It was a bright California day and it felt like Enkutatash. What was missing was a blanket of Meskel flower coving the East bay hills.

Unlike other gatherings I went to this one was a little different. The people that organized the event and the folks that showed up to attend were there to celebrate our new style of practicing the ‘Art of Self Defense’ not to sit around a table and recite the evil doings of the shameless gangster regime. The atmosphere was that of a weeding not a wake (Lekso Bet). I was perfectly fine with that.

There are over twenty thousand Ethiopians in the greater bay Area where we live. Most of these people are here because the group that is in charge in Ethiopia is not really interested in making our home a safe and sound place to live and raise a family. Some choose to flee rather than die. This is the reason we have mastered the art of getting up and leaving with nothing but our shirts. It is common in our community for people to leave without notice. East Coast, West coast, the South or the Mid West it really do not matter, it is not like the real home. Sure after a while any place is home but there is no way of forgetting the highland on the horn.

No one I know left his country because they are curious about the outside world. We left because there is no future in our homeland. We got our education and stayed because our home is always on fire. We leave because knowing tomorrow would be better than today is an important human condition and that is absent in Ethiopia.

All politics is local. The young Ethiopians that set up this event decided to do what they could to help their people that have resolved to fight on their behalf. The truth of the matter is that many thousands have already sacrificed for the cause and the current attempt is building on that tradition of doing everything to save the motherland.

I said twenty thousand people of Ethiopian origin at the beginning, you really did not expect for all those to show up did you? That only happens in Woyane supervised elections or in North Korea. There are a million and one reason people are unable to be present in person. So the organizers were very accommodating. Tickets were sold ahead of time to those that choose to buy and also donate whatever they could. Those that showed up made up for those that had prior commitments or are just not interested. The few, the beautiful the patriotic Ethiopians made all of us proud.

The meeting Hotel was very charming Inn with beautiful hand carved entry and and large windows making the hall bright. It filled up in no time. The few proud Ethiopians poured their heart out. It is not due to the oratory of our speakers, the smart presentation of the organizers or the bright California sun that made our people respond in such a generous manner. It is all about the cause of freedom and Democracy for our people. They felt the need to help.

It is always a few that echo the cry of their people. The event organized by the young people of Oakland and San Jose was a perfect example of the power of the individual working with a few friends to be able to make a difference. They say every chain event starts with one push our young people were acted as a catalyst to start the long process.

The gathering accomplished a lot of goals that were set up. The invited guests explained the current situation and the goals of the organization. The case for engaging Woyane in a new manner has become obvious to most Ethiopians. We are hopeful people and we waited hoping our Masters would see the folly of their ways and change course. By now most Ethiopians have come to realize that would not happen unless force is used. That is the reason for the positive vibrations around the event. No one wanted it to fail.

The Fundraising went flawlessly pleasing the assembly. The organizers were happy by the generous participation of their family and friends and the Ethiopians that came or sent goodwill. The generous Ethiopians were pleased that they have become the vehicle of change by fulfilling a tiny fraction of the huge debt to their country and people. It looks like we headed the advice of Franklin Roosevelt that said ‘The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.’

There is no doubt in our mind and heart that the road we are travelling today is the right one. We watched the misdeeds of the single ethnic regime for a long time. We tried different approaches to make the regime understand that its ways are not lasting. Today we have decided too much time has been wasted hoping someone somewhere would realize the zero sum of the game they are playing. Our fundraising was to make the job of those that are determined to do what is necessary to clean house a little easier.

Of course we knew it was inevitable that they would come up with some bizarre scheme to take our eyes of the prize. It never fails. Molla Asgedom was their ace. Too bad they chose a clown to lead their stupid play. This kind of disruption used to work in the old days not anymore. Why they thought a betrayal by an insider would work is a little strange. The reason they are copying from an old play book shows how lazy they have become or how they relied on the dead gangster kingpin for ideas is becoming clearer. They thought we forgot Ledetu? Hey Woyane that play was done eight years ago.

Molla Asgedom is old news. The new method is celebrating our new found strength and marching in a straight manner to finish the job we started. It is refreshing to see our people are watching the ‘interview’ by the fake General for entertainment not news. We suggest they de-lice his head before they bring him out next time. It is very distracting to see a grown up person scratching hair mite itches on national TV. Go wash your hair dirty Woyane and while you are at it rinse your little brain with some Ethiopian pride and manliness.

Unlike Woyane gatherings we really did not have anything to offer our guests other than the promise of hard work and sacrifice. We do not own any land to distribute, we do not have any Bonds to sale nor did we have condominium to give out. The folks that came to celebrate with us did not have to hide or feel the burning shame of being seen with Woyane dogs. I am proud the folks that come to our events walk up straight with their heads high and wear the flag with pride and not use it to hide the shame.

As for the people of the bay Area we are on a different zone today. It feels great to do something good without expecting anything back for oneself. Our struggle is about the health and well being of our people and country not a selfish act to enrich oneself. We give because we love our country. Our fighters sacrifice not to take over power and lord it over the rest of us but clean the house and make it ready for all of us decide the living arrangement. We were so overwhelmed by what was done in Oakland that we have decided to do the same in San Jose. Stay tuned for part II. Long live Ethiopia and May God protect our freedom fighters.

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U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice speaks about the U.S.-China relationship at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2015.

U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice warned China on Monday that Beijing-sponsored cyber espionage is a major stumbling block to U.S.-China relations, saying that such spying must stop.

Rice spoke in Washington, three days ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Analysts say this Friday’s meetings between Xi and President Barack Obama are expected to be blunt, focusing in large part on cyber spying, the global economy and China’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

“This isn’t a mild irritation,” Rice said of numerous incidents linking Beijing to large-scale cyber theft. “It’s an economic and a national security concern” that places “enormous strain on our bilateral relationship.”

She told her audience at George Washington University that espionage targeting personal and corporate information “for the economic gain of businesses undermines our long-term economic cooperation.”

She also said Obama will use the meeting to address U.S. concerns on Beijing’s human rights record, and will insist on maintaining navigation and commerce through crowded sea lanes in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

Rice’s comments on cyber security echo those of the president, who last week told U.S. business leaders that China’s theft of trade secrets is an “act of aggression that we must stop.”

U.S. officials have suggested imposing sanctions on China, and the president said Washington is preparing “a number of measures” aimed at showing Beijing that “this is not just a matter of us being mildly upset.”

Ahead of the Chinese leader’s arrival in Washington, he is holding meetings with U.S. and Chinese technology executives in the West Coast city of Seattle.

Source- – VOA News

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After landing in Washington, he was greeted by President Barack Obama and the first lady

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About the New Book

This book covers a wide range of subject matters such as social, religion, politics, and all other community matters that could become even more complex without appropriate action is taken. It emphasised how the Ethiopian political landscape is changed, how the Ethiopian churches and the Ethiopian Community Organizations in America changed to be competitive, and how the Ethiopians changed from self-proclaimed culture to mixed society are few of the main transitions this book is focusing about. No matter what the topic is, the author prose is marked by honesty, clarity. Wit and it is full of insight supported by practical examples about the Ethiopian Diaspora and people who still coming to the USA to prove whom they are and who they want to be.

Published by Allwright and Publishing Company, this book is intended to give a fresh look at the Ethiopian Diasporas’ social history. Since nothing is free from challenges, the transitions have also its own drawback.To read all these and related community affairs, here is the scoop of the new book written by author and freelance writer Kebede Haile. His educational and life experience biography is stated in the book. Previously, the author has published four books, numerous articles and essays about the Ethiopians in America. Though fully abreast of the latest information in the area about which he writes, he focused in this volume on the current practical meaning of his topic for the general prospective readers.

The book is a combined edition of English and Amharic. The book presents ideas that probably will be familiar to many readers. It addresses the current issues about which the author argue that social, religion, and political-life brought divisive sentiments among the community. It also contained number of different opinions. This book is a compilation of essays that focuses on the current affairs of the Ethiopians in America/Diaspora with a detailed examination of key areas of various contemporary issues such as day-to-day life of the Diasporas everything from politics to the community’s social life and causes of division in the Ethiopian religion and civil organizations. May be, because of the unevenness of the each chapter, the reader might wonder if the book has sufficiently unraveled the complexity of the Ethiopian identity, beliefs, and values.

A chapter is designated to the unresolved contention issues that rolled in the years of dialogue between the Ethiopian government and opposition parties. The millennia’s’ responsibility to strengthen the Ethiopian Community Associations in America is also stated. How the role of educational institutions, parents and teachers contributions is important towards the society is briefly covered.

The author is conscious that his views may not be unanimously accepted but will be happy if any disagreement generates healthy discussion on each subject. The author strongly believes that the existed divisive rhetoric should be siezed. As its picture shown below, the book is a hard colored cover with 285 pages. The book is available for public sale on Amazon website and in the Ethiopian stores in the US.

ስለመጽሐፉ

የኢትዮጵያውያን ሽግግር፡በአገር ውስጥና በውጭ አገር

ደራሲና ነጻ ጸሐፊ ከበደ ኃይሌ በማህበራዊ፣ በኢኮኖሚዊ፤ በፖለቲካዊ፤ በሃይማኖታዊ፤በሠራተኛ ግንኙነትና በኮሚኒቲው ተቋማቶች ወዘተ. በተሰኙት ርዕሶች ላይ ከአሁን ቀደም መጽሐፍትን በአማርኛና በእንጊሊዘኛ ቋንቋዎች ጽፎ አስነብቧል፡፡ አሁን ደግሞ ለህብረተቡ ይጠቅማሉ ብሎ ያመነባቸው የተለያዩ ርዕስ ያሏቸው ጥናቶችን በዚህ መጽሐፍ ውስጥ አሰገብቶ በሁለት ቋንቋ አዘጋጅቶ አዲስ መጽሐፍ አውጥቷል፡፡ከደራሲው የረጅም ጊዜ የአሜሪካ ኑሮው ተሞክሮ፤ከኀብረተሰቡና ከባለሞያዎች የተሰነዘሩትን አስተያየቶች እንዲያቅፉ አድርጓል፡፡ መጽሐፉ ያቀፋቸው ሃሳቦች ለአንባቢያን አዲስ ላይሆኑ ቢችሉም፤በአሜሪካና በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ የማኀበራዊና የኮኖሚያዊ ጉዳዮች ከቀድሞው ሥርዓት አሁን ወደ አለበት 21ኛው ክፍለ ዘመን ሽግግር መተላለፍን የሚያመለክቱ ጉዳዮችን ለአንባቢያን ለማቅረብ ነው፡፡ጽሑፎቹ በጊዜያቸው አንገብጋቢ ርዕሶች ሆነው ይታዩ ስለነበር፤ዛሬም ሆነ ነገ ሁናቴዎች መከሰታቸው ስለማይቀር፤ ለታሪክና ለወደፊት ትውልድ ጥናት ለማካሄድ ይረዱ ዘንድ በእነዚህ ወቅታዊ ነጥቦች ላይ አተኩሮ በማጠንጠን ህብረተሰቡን በሚስብና በሚጠቅም ሁኔታ ተመቻችቶ ቀርቧል፡፡ ለዚህም አስፈላጊ መረጃዎችን ከየአቅጣጨው ተሰባስቦ ትንተና ተድርጎባቸዋል፤ ለህብረተሰቡ ይጠቅማሉ ተብሎ በተገመተባቸው ነጥቦች ላይ ጎጂና ጠቃሚ ጎኖች ላይ አስምሮባቸዋል፡፡በኢትዮጵያ መንግሥትና በተቃዋሚ ፓርቲዎች መካከል ስላሉት ያለመጣጣም አንድ ምዕራፍ ተመድቦ ተብራርቷል፡፡የማህበራዊ ችግሮች ጨርሶ ባይወገዱም የሚሻሻሉበትን መንገድና ቀስ በቀስ የሚወገዱበት ዘዴዎች ጠቁሟል፡፡ በርዕሶቹ ላይ ትኩረት ተሰጥቶበት ለተረዳው ታሪክን፤ባህልን፤ማንነትን ለቀጣዩ ትውልድ ለማውረስ እያንዳንዱ ህብረተሰብ መወጣት የሚገባው ብሄራዊ ኃላፊነት ስላለ ከሚከፋፍሉ ጉዳዮች መራቅ እንደሚገባ ይዘረዝራል፡፡ በውጭ ዓለም የሚኖረው ወጣቱ ትውልድም እንዲሁ የተመኘውን ሞያ ለመቅሰምና ሠርቶ የመኖር ዕድሉ የሰፋ ቢሆንም የወላጆቹን አገርና በኮሚኒቲ ማኀበራት ውስጥ ተሳትፎ በማድረግ የማጠናከር ድርሻውን እንዴት መወጣት እንደሚችል የሚያበረታታ መረጃዎችንም በጥቂቱ አዝሏል፡፡

የውጭ የመጽሐፉ አካል ከላይ እንደሚታየው፤የመጽሐፉን ርዕስ ትርጉም የሚያመላክት ምስልና የቀለማት ቅብ ያለው በጠንካራ ሸፋን ተጠርዞ የታተመ መጽሐፍ ነው፡፡

መጽሐፉን amazon.com በመግባት ይገኛል ፡፡ ጅምላ ገዢዎች: visitwebsite.

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One driver says he earns $2.64 an hour after expenses.

This story originally appeared in Capital & Main.
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Twenty-six-year-old Takele Gobena is part of the “on-demand” economy, working full-time as a driver for Uber and part time for Lyft. The Ethiopian immigrant quit his job at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and purchased a new car to drive for the ride-hailing firms, believing it would make him a better provider for his one-year-old daughter. Instead, Gobena now finds himself in debt and, after expenses, making well below minimum wage. But because Uber and Lyft drivers are classified as independent contractors, Gobena is not protected by minimum wage laws.

Gobena’s plight is an increasingly familiar one. A new report from the National Employment Law Project, “Rights on Demand: Ensuring Workplace Standards and Worker Security In the On-Demand Economy,” highlights the problems so many on-demand workers face: “Characterizing workers as non-employees has serious negative consequences for them: non-employees have no statutory right to minimum wage, overtime pay, compensation for injuries sustained on the job, unemployment insurance if involuntarily separated from employment, or protection against discrimination.”

The authors of the report, Rebecca Smith, NELP’s deputy director, and Sarah Leberstein, senior staff attorney, call for workforce-wide enforcement of current and developing labor standards. “New technologies should not be allowed to displace existing protections for the many on-demand workers who are, in fact and in law, employees.”

Gobena is inclined to agree. In a phone interview with Capital & Main, he spoke about driving for Uber and Lyft.

Capital & Main: Why did you leave your job at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to drive for Uber and Lyft?

Takele Gobena: I thought that I could earn a better income driving for these companies. Their ads led me to believe my pay would be $25 an hour.

Capital & Main: How does your airport job compare with working for Uber and Lyft?

Gobena: At the airport, I earned $9.47 an hour as a dispatcher and had health-care benefits. With Uber and Lyft, driving 37,000 miles in 2014, after all my expenses (vehicle financing, fueling, insuring and maintaining) I earn $2.64 an hour and have no health-care coverage if injured.

Capital & Main: Are you an Uber employee?

Gobena: No. I am an independent contractor for Uber. I work without company benefits, and when passengers phone me.

Capital & Main: Has Uber or Lyft retaliated against you for vocalizing displeasure with your treatment?

Gobena: On August 31, I shared my personal experience as an Uber and Lyft driver before the Seattle City Council, which the press reported. [Seattle Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Nick Licata have introduced city legislation that would allow on-demand transportation drivers to bargain collectively with their employers.] Uber deactivated [my account].

Capital & Main: What happened next?

Gobena: I took a screen shot of the deactivation account [notice] and sent it out to the media. They called Uber about it. Then Uber reactivated me.

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014, a taxi on Market Street goes past the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Capital & Main: How did you become a labor advocate?

Gobena: I worked with the immigrant Ethiopian community in Seattle, then with employees pushing to increase the minimum wage at Sea-Tac. I saw how difficult it is to live on the minimum wage, and began to speak out about that.

Capital & Main: In addition to NELP, who are your political partners?

Gobena: I do not have any. I speak for myself and the other on-demand workers like me who receive unfair treatment.

Capital & Main: Describe feedback that Uber and Lyft give you on your job performance.

Gobena: If customers complain, Uber gives me a warning that I must improve. However, the company does not tell me how or what needs improvement.

Capital & Main: Are you looking for another job?

Gobena: No. I have invested $14,000 in buying my car that I drive for Uber and Lyft. I must continue driving passengers in it to recoup my investment.

Capital & Main: What needs to happen next for on-demand workers employed with Uber and Lyft?

Gobena: We like the ride-hailing innovation and transportation for our city, but Uber and Lyft drivers need better treatment and livable wages. This issue affects riders and drivers alike.

The post Uber Drivers Are Running On Empty (Huffington Post) appeared first on Satenaw-Latest Ethiopian News & Breaking News.

September 23, 2015 (NAIROBI) – A group of international development organisations and human rights groups on Tuesday urged authoriities in Ethiopia to immediately drop all charges pressed against two local activists and a former World Bank employee.

Governor of Ethiopia’s Gambella region pictured with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn during a visit to the region (FILE photo)

In a joint statement, six international development and human rights groups called on the Ethiopian government to immediatly release the three detainees who remain in custody after being charged under the country’s controversial counter terrorism legislations.

Authorities reportedly arrested the trio at Addis Ababa airport on 15 March, along with four others while they were on their way to Nairobi to attend a workshop on food security which was organised by an indigenous rights body and two international organisations.

Three were released without charge on 23 April and another on 26 June. However, three of those arrested are reportedly still being held in custody.

The charge sheet refers to the food security workshop, which was organised by an indigenous rights group and the two international entities as a “terrorist group meeting.”

On 7 September, authorities charged Pastor Omot Agwa, Ashinie Astin, and Jamal Oumar Hojele under the counterterrorism law after detaining them for over five months.

Omot worked as an interpreter and facilitator for the World Bank Inspection Panel’s 2014 investigation, which was established following a complaint by the Anuak indigenous people alleging widespread forced displacement and other serious human rights violations in relation to a World Bank project in Ethiopia’s Gambella region.

According to right groups, Omet of the evangelical Mekane Yesus church in Gambella region had raised concerns with workshop organizers about increasing threats from Ethiopian security officials in the weeks before his arrest.

People in Gambella previously alleged that the program was harming them by contributing to the government’s “villagization” program.

Residents alleged the “villagization” program was forcibly evicting thousands of indigenous and other marginalized peoples from their traditional lands.

After studing their case Omet is said to have reported their complaint to the World Bank board of directors, leading to the launch of the World Bank Inspection Panel.

However, Omot’s report leaked to the media in December 2014 putting him on the spot.

“Ethiopia should be encouraging debate about its development and food security challenges, not charging people with terrorism for attending a workshop organized by respected international organisations,” said Miges Baumann, deputy director at Bread for All.

“These absurd charges should be dropped immediately”, added Baumann

The charge sheet accuses Omot of being the co-founder and leader of a rebel group, Gambella People’s Liberation Movement (GPLM) and communicating with its exiled leaders abroad.

Ashinie is accused of participating in the GPLM, and having links with leaders of the group. If they are found guilty, the two could face upto 20 years in prison. Oumar was accused of being part of a “terrorist group” and organising recruits to attend the Nairobi workshop.

In 2011, the Ethiopian parliament designated five entities as terrorist groups. The GPLM was not on the list.

Since 2011, Ethiopia had been under fire from several international human right groups accusing the country of using the counter terrorism law as a tool to prosecute critical journalists, bloggers, opposition politicians and other anti-government protesters.

The food security workshop in Nairobi was organised by Bread for All, with the support of the Anywaa Survival Organisation (ASO) and GRAIN.

Bread for All is the Development Service of the Protestant Churches in Switzerland.

ASO is a London-based registered charity that seeks to support the rights of indigenous peoples in southwest Ethiopia.

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation based in Barcelona, Spain that received the 2011 Right Livelihood Award at the Swedish Parliament for its “worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities.”

(ST)

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The pontiff also warned against luxury and greed.

Antonia BlumbergAssociate Religion Editor, The Huffington Post

Pope Francis arrived in New York City Thursday night and headed directly to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to take part in evening prayers called vespers.

In his address to priests and members of Catholic parishes, the pontiff touched on the clergy sex abuse crisis, which has racked the Catholic church for decades.

“I know that, as a presbyterate in the midst of God’s people, you suffered greatly in the not distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the church in the most vulnerable of her members,” Francis said. “I accompany you at this time of pain and difficulty, and I thank God for your faithful service to his people.”

The pontiff also offered Catholics a stern warning against luxury and greed, saying that danger comes “when we think that surrounding ourselves with worldly comforts will help us serve better.”

Doing so “alienates people who suffer material poverty and are forced to make greater sacrifices than ourselves,” Francis said. He acknowledged that “moments of leisure” are necessary, but said they should not interfere with the responsibility to serve others.

“Closeness to the poor, the refugee, the immigrant, the sick, the exploited, the elderly living alone, prisoners and all God’s other poor, will teach us a different way of resting, one which is more Christian and generous,” the pope said.

Francis encouraged those gathered to embrace a spirit of joy, practice gratitude and serve others with hard work and humility. He noted, in particular, the work of Catholic women whose “spirit of courage” places them on the front lines of the church’s mission to share the gospel.

In an unscripted moment, Pope Francis offered sympathies to Muslims on this holy day of Eid: “I am thinking of them, I’m close to them in the face of the tragedy that they suffered in Mecca.”

Thursday night’s vespers mark the fifth time a pope has visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which recently finished a three-year renovation. The first was Pope Paul VI in 1965, followed by Pope John Paul II in 1979 and 1995. Pope Benedict XVI visited the cathedral in 2008, and, like Francis, prayed for healing from the church’s sex abuse crisis during his address.

Also on HuffPost:

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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Spectators wait along Fifth Avenue ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis at St. )
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis waves to guests as he exits Saint Patrick’s Cathedral after leading evening Vespers on September 24, 2015 in New York City.
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis addresses the congregation during evening Vespers at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on September 24, 2015 in New York City.
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis prepares to lead evening Vespers at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on September 24, 2015 in New York City.
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Guests take photos of Pope Francis’ arrivval at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on September 24, 2015 in New York City.
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  Pope Francis waves as he approaches St. Patrick’s Cathedral to lead evening prayers in New York on September 24, 2015.
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  Pope Francis boards a waiting helicopter after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, in New York.
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis arrives by helicopter on September 24, 2015 in New York City.
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  Pope Francis kisses Maria Teresa Heyer, a 1st grade student from the Brooklyn borough of New York, as the pope is greeted by Heyer and other students who gave him gifts as he arrives at John F. Kennedy International Airport Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, in New York.
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  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis departs from Washington, DC en route to New York City on September 24, 2015 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
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  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis bids farewell to Secretary of State John Kerry as he departs from Washington, DC en route to New York City on September 24, 2015 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
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  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 24: U.S. servicemembers prepare for the departure of Pope Francis from Washington, DC en route to New York City on September 24, 2015 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
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  NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 24: People take pictures in front of a road block on Fifth Avenue ahead of the arrival of Pope Francis at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 24, 2015 in New York City. Pope Francis will land at John F. Kennedy Airport after a two-day visit to Washington D.C. and will conduct a number of events while in New York including a motorcade through Central Park and Mass in Madison Square Garden.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis, left, has a selfie taken with Michael Brown as he walks through the crowd during a visit to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Cartrice Haynesworth, center, has a selfie taken with Pope Francis, left, as he walks through the crowd during a visit to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Children wait for Pope Francis to arrive and bless a meal outside the Catholic Charities office September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Michael White listens to hymns while waiting for Pope Francis to arrive and bless a meal outside the Catholic Charities office September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis greets parishioners, immigrants and clients of Catholic Charities as he arrives at St. Patrick’s Church September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis greets people as he arrives to pray at St. Patrick’s Church on September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis is on a five-day trip to the United States, which includes stops in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia, after a three-day stay in Cuba. St. Patrick’s is the oldest Catholic parish in Washington. (Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images)
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis (2-R) pauses in front of a sculpture of Spanish-born Junipero Serra, the Franciscan Friar known for starting missions in California, in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis is on a five-day trip to the USA, which includes stops in Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia, after a three-day stay in Cuba.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis is the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress and will finish his tour of Washington later today before traveling to New York City.
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  Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015, making history as the first pontiff to do so. Listening behind the pope are Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
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  WASHINGTON, USA – SEPTEMBER 24: His Holiness Pope Francis enters the House of Representatives chambers to address a joint session of the United States Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, USA on September 24, 2015.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis is the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress and will finish his tour of Washington later today before traveling to New York City.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Pope Francis is greeted by members of Congress as he arrives to speak during a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) (R) speaks with Pope Francis (L) in the U.S. Capitol building before the Pontiff speaks to a joint meeting of Congress September 24, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  People gather in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 24, 2015 before Pope Francis addresses a Joint Session of Congress on the third day of his six-day visit to the US.
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  Crowds wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the Capitol building.
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  Immigration reform activists hold a banner in front of the US Capitol in Washington, DC
• JAWEED KALEEM/THE HUFFINGTON POST
  Anderson Mayorga, 10, shows off his Pope Francis shirt in Washington DC.
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  People pray while Pope Francis celebrates a Canonization Mass for Rev. Junípero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis is in the United State for 6 days during his first trip as the leader of the Catholic Church. AFP PHOTO/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
• BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGES
  Pope Francis celebrates a Canonization Mass for Rev. Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
• BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGES
  Pope Francis delivers a homily during a Canonization Mass for Rev. Juni­pero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  People sing while Pope Francis celebrates a Canonization Mass for Rev. Juni­pero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
• BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGES
  People listen during a Canonization Mass with Pope Francis for Rev. Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis speaks to bishops during the midday prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
• MARK WILSON VIA GETTY IMAGES
  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis attends the Midday Prayer Service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. The Pope began his first trip to the United States at the White House followed by a visit to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and will then hold a Mass on the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
• NICHOLAS KAMM VIA GETTY IMAGES
  Pope Francis arrives at a midday prayer with US bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2015 on the second day of his six-day visit to the US.. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
• MARK WILSON VIA GETTY IMAGES
  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis stands at the altar of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel for a private prayer before participating in the Midday Prayer Service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew on September 23, 2015 in Washington DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis arrives for the midday prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis leans out and waves to the crowd as he rides in a popemobile along a parade route around the National Mall on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Pope Francis blesses a child handed to him during a parade on the streets around the Ellipse, south of the White House, September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: (L-R) Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack Obama stands for the national anthem of the United States during the arrival ceremony at the White House on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Pope Francis (L) during the arrival ceremony at the White House on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
• MANDEL NGAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
  US President Barack Obama talks with Pope Francis during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, September 23, 2015.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: (L-R) Pope Francis and U.S. President Barack Obama talk in the Oval Office during the arrival ceremony at the White House on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and first Lady Michelle Obama (L) wave from the balcony with Pope Francis (C) in an arrival ceremony at the White House on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC.
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  US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis walk down the West Wing Colonnade to a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, September 23, 2015.
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  Pope Francis speaks during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, September 23, 2015. More than 15,000 people packed the South Lawn for a full ceremonial welcome on Pope Francis’ historic maiden visit to the United States. AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
• MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
• HUFFINGTON POST
  US Secretary of State (C) greets clergy as US Vice President Joe Biden (R) looks on before the arrival of Pope Francis at the White House on September 23, 2015 in Washington,DC. President Barack Obama will host Pope Francis at the White House for the first time Wednesday, warmly embracing the Catholic pontiff seen as both a moral authority and potent political ally. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Children of parents who work at the Lithuanian Embassy take selfies with Pope Francis as he departs the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015.
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  A woman reacts as Pope Francis hugs her as he departs the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, en route to the White House where President Barack Obama will hot a state arrival ceremony.
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Pope Francis greets well-wishers as he departs the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s diplomatic mission inWashington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015.
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Spectators hoping for a glimpse of Pope Francis crowd the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, before the official state arrival ceremony where President Barack Obama will welcome the pope. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Spectators hoping for a glimpse of Pope Francis waves Papal and U.S. Flags on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015, before the official state arrival ceremony where President Barack Obama will welcome the pope. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  A woman holds an image of the Virgin Mary as she and others gather on Pope Francis parade route along the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  The Flag of Vatican City (Papal flag) is displayed next to the American flag on the side of the Old Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015, the day Pope Francis arrives in the United States. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
• ASSOCIATED PRESS
  Workers prepare the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015, the day before Pope Francis visits the White House.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
• CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: Pope Francis waves from the back of his Fiat after arriving from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as pope. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
• POOL VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: (AFP OUT) Pope Francis departs in a Fiat after arriving from Cuba to the United States September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
• CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: Supporters cheer for Pope Francis after he arrived from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
• CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: (EDITORS NOTE: Retransmission with alternate crop) Pope Francis (L) is escorted by U.S. President Barack Obama as he greets and other political and Catholic church leaders after arriving from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
• SAUL LOEB VIA GETTY IMAGES
  Pope Francis greets children alongside US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, September 22, 2015, on the start of a 3-day trip to Washington. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
• SAUL LOEB VIA GETTY IMAGES
  Pope Francis (L) walks alongside US President Barack Obama (C) and US First Lady Michelle Obama (R) upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, September 22, 2015, on the start of a 3-day trip to Washington. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
• MANDEL NGAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
  US President Barack Obama (L) greets Pope Francis (R) upon his arrival September 22, 2015 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
• MANDEL NGAN VIA GETTY IMAGES
  US President Barack Obama welcomes Pope Francis upon his arrival on September 22, 2015 at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
• CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: Pope Francis shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden along with U.S. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and other political and Catholic church leaders after arriving from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
• CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES
  JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD – SEPTEMBER 22: Pope Francis shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden along with U.S. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and other political and Catholic church leaders after arriving from Cuba September 22, 2015 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Francis will be visiting Washington, New York City and Philadelphia during his first trip to the United States as Pope. (Photo by Chip
  The White House released a behind the scenes video on what it’s like to prepare for a papal visit.

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ESAT Radio Hule Addis Sat Sep 26 2015

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