Support for the troops returned as an issue to the presidential campaign yesterday with harsh words from both sides. More on McCain misses vote on a new GI Bill, scorns criticism from Obama

The Kangaroo court of Ethiopia sentenced to death eight alleged members of a separatist rebel group for an attack last year which left six people dead, officials told AFP Thursday.
“The Somali State High Court sentenced eight culprits to death for killing and wounding innocent people,” the official Ethiopian News Agency reported.

Six people were killed and more than 40 others wounded on May 28 last year when grenades were hurled into a stadium where some 100,000 people were gathered for a national for a national celebration. More on Woyanne sentences eight Somalis rebels to death

Three years have passed since Sufian Ahmed hastily and injudiciously predicted Ethiopia’s economic wonder and its high-speed transition into a middle–income nation in 20 years. I have no problem with the prediction itself; I love to see the prosperity of Ethiopians no matter which party is in power and regardless of my personal economic and social achievement. As the top executive officer of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance & Economic Development, Sufian Ahmed has all the necessary information to estimate future economic growth in Ethiopia. I wonder what kind of objective data (other than his subjective judgment) he used to make one of the most preposterous predictions of all time.  Unfortunately, three years after his optimistic predication, Ethiopia is yet heading to another phase of drought and starvation.  More on Ethiopia’s paradox: Economic “growth” and starvation

Come 15th of May and they have sworn on hell breaking lose; the naysayers. They trumpeted, with weird satisfaction, the imminent death of the Somaliland’s dream; the doom prophets. They misjudged our people’s wisdom, derided our nation’s resolve and underestimated their history; hired spin doctors. They used all kinds of scare tactics: tribal cards, myopic and jaundiced geopolitical theories, and marshaled all slander expletives in the book; the fifth columnists. They tried to rubbish our peace and stability and our homegrown democratic process as a child’s play before ensuing tantrums; blog pundits. They mistook our political debates as gathering death clouds over our skies; the hate mongers. They predicted doom, death and disarray; all Somaliland enemies. More on Somaliland overrides 17 years of underestimation

 Dictator Meles confined his remarks to six scripted questions submitted by lawmakers. An attempt by one opposition politician to raise another point was overruled.

Dictator  gave a detailed defense of the behavior of Woyanne troops supporting Somalia’s transitional government. More on Dictator accused international media and human rights groups

U.N.-sponsored talks in Djibouti aimed at starting a reconciliation process between Somalia’s secular government and Islamist-led rivals ended last week without a breakthrough. A political reconciliation is considered key to restoring stability in the war-ravaged nation. But as VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, growing divisions within the warring parties are complicating peace efforts as Somalia continues to sink deeper into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More on Somalia Reconciliation Talks Break Down

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. experts investigating violations of an arms embargo against Somalia report that countries and private traders are supplying weapons to warlords and militants, South Africa’s U.N. ambassador said Thursday. More on Woyanne is involved in Somali weapons market – UN