By Obang Metho

The response to the call for an Ethiopian rally for Freedom and Justice on May 15-18, 2008 has been overwhelming! I have heard from Ethiopians in thirteen countries and in over thirty cities within these countries, all voicing their desire to participate. Just to name a few we heard from Tel Aviv to Toronto, from London to Los Angeles, from Addis Ababa to Amsterdam, from Stockholm to Johannesburg and from Zurich to Sydney. More on Response to May 15 rally

TIME – Even by the standards of Somalia, a country gripped by chaos for 17 years, it has been a horrible couple of weeks. First came the killings of two British Somali teachers and their Kenyan colleagues, all said to have been shot in the head. Then pirates waylaid a French yacht traversing the country’s territorial waters. And now, renewed fighting in Mogadishu has killed at least 100 people and driven thousands more to join the country’s swelling refugee population — already estimated at more than 1.5 million. Meanwhile, aid groups have found themselves targets in the fighting across the country, from the north, where foreign reporters and volunteers have been held for ransom by gangs, to the south, where they’ve been executed to show the low regard their Islamist captors have for the West. More on Somalia Takes a Turn for the Worse

Fairfax, Virginia, USA, 22 April 2008:  Over two hundred Somali-Americans gathered in front of the US State Department to express their outrage about the blatant war crimes and human rights violations committed at the hands of the Ethiopian (Woyanne)forces in Somalia. They are equally outraged by the State Department’s misguided approach which is creating a wide spread anti-Americanism in the Horn of Africa. There is an utter lack of integrity and moral authority on the part of the U.S. State Department because it provided tactical support the invasion and the subsequent occupation of Somalia and has remained silent about the war crimes and human rights violations committed at the hands of the Ethiopian (Woyanne)forces. More on Protest Against Somali dictator at the U.S. State Department

Amnesty International has accused Ethiopian (Woyanne) troops of capturing 40 Somali children during a raid on a mosque last week, and called for their release.

The rights group condemned the killing of more than 20 people, including some religious scholars, during the raid. More on Woyanne troops ‘took children’

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Britain is circulating a draft U.N. resolution calling for the United Nations to move its Somalia political operation to the conflict-wracked nation, step up efforts to restore peace, and keep planning for a U.N. takeover of peacekeeping from the African Union.

The draft, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, calls on all countries in the meantime to provide money, personnel and equipment to beef up the AU force now on the ground in Somalia. It is authorized to have 8,000 soldiers but has only 2,600 from Uganda and Burundi. More on Britain proposes UN peace effort operate within Somalia

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By Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Amnesty International accused Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers on Wednesday of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Mogadishu mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit.

The rights group said the soldiers had also captured dozens of children during the raid on the Al Hidaaya mosque in the north of the Somali capital earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents. More on Woyanne troops slit throats in Somali mosque

By Elizabeth Blunt

(BBC) Addis Ababa — Ethiopia’s most popular pop singer, Teddy Afro, has pleaded not guilty to causing the death of a young man in a hit and run incident 18 months ago.

Thousands of young people mounted an impromptu protest after the High Court hearing, running through the streets, shouting, “Teddy is innocent”.

Unauthorised demonstrations are almost unheard of in Ethiopia and there was a heavy paramilitary police presence.

At a previous hearing, the noise of his fans almost drowned out proceedings.

This time the case was moved to a building at the back of the court area, well away from the crowd.

The singer appeared under close police guard, dressed in a pink t-shirt and looking subdued.

He spoke only to plead not guilty to negligent driving, driving without a licence, and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

The incident in question took place in November 2006 and since then the singer, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, has been free on bail.

It is not clear why he was rearrested last week and has now been charged.

He was remanded in custody until next Tuesday.

As the news spread in the street that Teddy was going back to jail, the crowd erupted and a large group of youths started jogging past waving and shouting that the singer was not guilty.

The police chased them with batons until they finally dispersed into the surrounding streets.

This kind of demonstration has not been seen in Addis Ababa since the period after the elections in 2005 when Teddy Afro’s songs were playing everywhere and his music was the anthem of the anti-government protesters.

A child-naming craze is sweeping across western Kenya, where parents are naming their babies after figures in the news.

A record number of boys are being named after new Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and the former UN chief Kofi Annan who helped mediate an end to the violence.

Baby girls have been named after Graca Machel who also helped broker the recent power-sharing agreement.

US presidential hopefuls, Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, and Hillary Clinton, have also been popular.

Among the Luo and Luhya tribes in Kisumu, serious consideration goes into the choice of name, as it is believed the baby will adopt the traits of the person it has been named after.

Breaking taboos

The BBC’s Muliro Telewa in Kisumu says even Asian couples are joining in -despite a different heritage.

Aslam Khan is one father who has named his son after the new prime minister.

“Mr Odinga is a courageous politician whom we adore, and he has brought freedom to Kenya. I expect my son to follow in his foot steps,” Mr Khan told the BBC Network Africa programme.

“Some members of my Asian community may be against this, but we are well assimilated into Kenyan society and that is not a problem,” he says.

Magdalene Atieno, a trader, named her son Barack Obama, after the Illinois senator visited Kenya.

“Barack Obama is a hard-working young man, and he is the first black man to contest the presidency in America. We admire him,” Ms Atieno said.

Our reporter says there is a long tradition of naming children after heroes in Kisumu, and it is common to meet a Nelson Mandela, a Steve Biko or a Kwame Nkrumah.

Obama and Odinga are the star names right now, but no doubt new names will be in fashion next year, he adds.