Her Majesty Queen Sophia Margaret Victoria Frederica of Spain (middle) was excited to see the picture of the 3.2 million-year old skeleton of Lucy. Yonase Beyene, director of the Collection Curation and Laboratory (right) seems thrilled to invite the Queen to take a close look at Lucy. Carmen Morem, director of Cooperation African cheers for the moment.

Federal High Court sentenced Elias Senur and Abebe Woldehana to 18 and 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a 50,000 Br fine and 45,000 Br fine, respectively, for corruption involving 6.9 million Br.

Elias was charged for withdrawing 6.9 million Br through checks at various times from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) forging the signatures of the general director and the head of the Civil Service Reform Office of the Disaster Prevention & Preparedness Agency (DPPA). He managed to do this while he was an employee of DPPA with the authority to withdraw money from the NBE.

The other convict, Abebe, was charged for his participation in the crime by accepting the money into his account at Nib International Bank (NIB) and later on making use of it. Abebe was apprehended from Sudan and was brought to court. The court sentenced Elias and Abebe on March 16, 2010.

An art exhibition entitled “Sem ena Werk” (wax and gold) organised by painter and designer Seifu Abebe is to open on April 23, 2010, at Chef Fasil Restaurant.

Seifu is a painter focusing on digital art pallet, piano art, and chalk art exhibitions with an experience of over 10 years as a graphic designer. There will be 25 paintings on display at the exhibition.

The exhibition is inspired by transforming the Amharic language “Sem ena Werk,” the use of words and phrases with double meanings, one straightforward, the other hidden, in visual art. The organisers believe that the exhibition will inspire other people in the art industry.

The paintings are hoped to convey dual meaning in terms of technique and analysis.

Residents of Kebele 02/03 along Africa Avenue (Bole Road) in Kirkos District in the compound next to Getu Commercial Center had their houses demolished allegedly without being given sufficient time for relocation, on Friday, April 16, 2010, residents claimed.

“Only a one room house was given to me and today I have nine children. I do not know how it is going to fit me, and what is more, they have demolished this one,” Siranesh Tsetarge, an evicted resident, told Fortune.

Other residents have similar complaints that kebele officials are rushing to demolishing houses. An official declined to comment on grounds of bureaucratic problems.

The kebele officials will solve the problem with the utmost care, they said and admitted their mistake. The 29 houses which were owned by the kebele have been demolished in accordance with the redevelopment project of the area.

East Africa International Electricity Promotion (EAIEM) has been selected to organise the Ethiopian New Year’s trade fair and bazaar at the Addis Abeba Exhibition and Market Development Centre (AAEMDC), after making a winning offer of over two million Br.

The event will be promoted on a new weekly radio programme, Tradeshow, to be aired by the AAEDMC for 24 minutes, according to an official at EAIEM.

The event organiser will get half the airtime, according to this source.

The radio programme will deal with various issues related to tradeshows, including the responsibilities of governmental and non-governmental bodies.

Newspaper spaces will be purchased to propagate similar messages to the public on a regular basis, a press statement sent by the company said.

The trade fair and bazaar is expected to be held from August 28 through September 10, 2010. Local and international manufacturers will be invited for the event, with a special call on food and clothing manufacturers to sell to the public at factory prices.

The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) signed an agreement with Gilat Satellite Network to expand broadband service to reach to over a hundred places in the country. The corporation hopes to improve the current communications system including mobile Internet service provision.

Gilat Satellite Network is also involved with mobile communications upgrading in various parts of the country. Gilat is an Israeli company that designs, develops, and markets satellite and hybrid networking products, services, and solutions and provides broadband solutions worldwide.

The company also provides the broadband communications service for various African countries including Kenya, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Namibia, and South Africa.

Ethiopian airlines celebrated the 35, 30, and 25-year service anniversaries for current as well as former employees of the airline on April 17, 2010 at 9:00am at the Employees’ Main Cafeteria located at the Airlines’ Headquarters.

The event, which is conducted annually, gives recognition to long serving employees and retirees of the airline. The event was followed by a lunch party for the attendants at the Main Cafeteria.  

Girma Wake, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, and other board members attended the event with staff members, both long serving Ethiopian nationals and foreigners who were expected to arrive from various countries for the occasion.

The designated project includes the establishment of surgical device management and provision of phachoemulsification services. On the job training for local staff will also be part and parcel of the project. The project, which will be implemented through the mutual consultation of KOICA and the hospital, is expected to be completed in one year and benefit more than one thousand people per year.

The Revenue and Customs Authority under the Addis Abeba City Administration’s Economic and Finance Bureau managed to collect exactly half of the 5.4 billion Br it targeted for the whole 2009/10, fiscal year during the last seven months.

The 2.7 billion Br revenue collected from tax and non-tax income, including land lease fees, has shown a 49pc increase from what the authority achieved during the same time last year, according to Belay Tafesse, director general of the authority.

Its business process reengineering (BPR), efficient information gathering (collecting finger prints and cash register machines), and law enforcement contributed to achieving the amount gathered.

“But this is not that much satisfactory, considering the potential,” Belay said, also indicating that the rising number of illegal trades in the city has contributed negatively to the number.

The Addis Abeba Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) made a feasibility study of the master plan for waste disposal in the city.

The plan to dispose of waste through pipelines has been presented to stakeholders prior to the commencement of construction.

AAWSA currently deploys trucks and pipelines for sewerage disposal. However, the authority plans to upgrade the city’s disposal by an additional 800 pipelines.

The design for the eastern sewerage system’s master plan, which has been finalised will benefit residents around Kotebe, Yeka, Bole and CMC areas and will upgrade capacity by over 40pc, according to a press release by the Addis Abeba City Government Communications Affairs.

The master plan for the eastern sewerage system has been finalised and construction will begin in the next fiscal year as soon as the budget has been secured, according to Getnet Gessese, communication affair work process leader at the authority. 

The implementation is expected to benefit some 840,000 residents.

The Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association held an award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on March 3, 2010, occasioning the closing of the 14th Addis Chamber International Trade Fair.

The first award for Best Stand was given to Al-Sam Plc, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Lucky Exports, Italian Trade Commission, MIDROC Technology Group, SNS Household and Office Furniture, Techtra Engineering, Petram Plc, MCO of the Federal Republic of Germany, Holland Car Plc and Q Diagnostics Plc. The second award for Special Partnership was given to GTZ-AMES-E.

The last award for sponsorship was given to Al-Sam Plc, the Development Bank of Ethiopia, Equatorial Business Group, Ethiopian Airlines, Omicron Engineering Plc, Sonic Screen Advertising, I-Print Advertising, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation and United Insurance SC.

The trade fair that took place at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from February 25 to March 3, 2010 brought together more than 118 local business companies and 108 foreign companies from 23 countries 

The inauguration of the new Ethiopian Institute for Agriculture, Building Construction and City Development (EIABC) was held yesterday, March 6, 2010, at Addis Abeba University (AAU) South Campus.

Demeke Mekonnen minister of Education, Junedin Sado minister of Science and Technology, Andreas Esheté (Prof) president of AAU and Dirk Hebel, Scientific Director of EIABC attended the inaugural ceremony and presented speeches on the significance of the institute.

The EIABC is one of the eight new semiautonomous institutes of technology being introduced in the country at various universities and is part of the overall university reform being conducted by the Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) and the Ministry of Education.

The university reform component is focused on the restructuring of governance and study programmes as well as technology transfers, standards, and benchmarks.

The ECA hosted the Civil Society Assembly for Assessing Development Challenges in African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on March 4 and 5, 2010.

The assembly reviewed the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Brussels Programme reviewed the last 10 year plan since coming to a close and proposed action plans for the coming 10 years.

There are 33 LDCs from Africa including Ethiopia. Cape Verde recently got off of the list of LDCs.

The action plan is to enable the LDCs to reach at least seven per cent of commodity driven growth. The LDCs economic growth is dropping because they are only engaged in exporting primary commodities.

Their exports face structural difficulties since there is no diversified exports, according to Adrian Gauci, economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

In light of these problems, the proposed growth rate may not be possible for the coming two years. The inadequate infrastructure, small economy, less skilled human power is to blame for slow growth rate.

The new package of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), concessional facilities, to support low-income countries, became effective as of January 7, 2010.

This far-reaching reform more than doubles lending resources, provides exceptional interest relief, and offers new lending instruments that are more flexible and responsive to individual country needs, according to an IMF press release.

Key elements of the reform include three new lending instruments, interest relief, and permanently higher concessionality.

The Extended Credit Facility will provide flexible medium-term support; the Standby Credit Facility will address short-term and precautionary needs; and the Rapid Credit facility will offer emergency support with limited conditionality.

The Fund has also relieved developing countries from paying interest on outstanding IMF concessional loans until the end of 2011 to help low-income countries cope with the global crisis. Permanently higher concessionality of Fund financial support refers to regularly reviewed annual interest rates so as to preserve a higher level of concessionality.

People rushed to Miki's Fashion attracted by a big sale that involved 15 to 70pc discounts starting from Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Women enjoyed "broad selections at bargain prices" while some male shoppers were heard complaining of "lack of size options, selection varieties and next to zero discounts." The sale is expected to last for a month unless Miki's runs out of stock by then. It is in all its branches in Addis Abeba. Miki's shop at Getu Commercial Center was overwhelmed by large numbers of eager shoppers.

Meaza Ashenafi (left), founder and former executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is now the chairperson of the committee which initiated the idea of starting a women's bank, currently under formation. Last Friday evening, November 13, 2009, the initiators invited prominent businesswomen to a consultation meeting held at the Belgium Embassy. Rahel Zewde, wife of Gunther Sleeuwangen, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia, is one of the ten women initiators who are involved in different business sectors. The initiators, who submitted their application to the National Bank of Ethiopia more than a week ago, are waiting for its approval to open a blocked account and start selling shares to the public. They expect the approval to come within a week or two.

The Ethio Poultry Expo was held at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from November 4 to 6, 2009. The expo was organized by a Sudanese company, Expo Team Services Co. with an Ethiopian partner Prana Promotion. The organizers expressed their hope that the expo would be a springboard to attract international companies to enter the poultry markets in Ethiopia and other African countries. Culture and Tourism State Minister, Mahmoud Ahmed Gass, visited the expo where various poultry technologies were displayed.

The construction of the condominium houses of the Gergi site were completed six months ago. Since then, residents have started moving in. Nonetheless, the houses have no electricity and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) was only able to provide power to some of the residents. Consequently, residents with no access to power are sharing with those who have power by using cables which they have extended themselves. Some of the cables extend for 400 metres, Abebe Daneo, a resident, told Fortune. The cables cost about one Birr per metre and the selling residents could charge the buyers up to 50 Br for a month's share of electricity.