(By Alan Taylor, The Boston Glob) — Recent crop failures, drought conditions and the current high price of food have plunged Ethiopia into another food crisis, reminiscent of the famines of 1984-85 which killed over 1 million. People have become so desperate for food that they are eating seeds that were meant for their next harvest. 4.5 million Ethiopians are in need right now.News like this feels familiar, yet distant. Words like famine and crisis describe the situation broadly, but it can be hard to personalize, to put faces to such things. Reuters photographer Radu Sigheti takes us on a brief, painful and intimate visit with the Mohamed family, as they experienced the loss of their young daughter Michu, due to malnutrition, earlier this month.

Statement by Senator Russell Feingold [Democrat – Wisconsin:

Mr. President, Ethiopia has increasingly been an active participant in the international community and a leader on the African continent–as a charter member of the United Nations, a cofounder of what are now the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and a key partner in combating international terrorism. After decades, and some would say centuries of civil strife, the 1994 Constitution and election of the coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, EPRDF, in 1995 seemed to herald the beginning of an era of peace, democracy, and development. Efforts to reform the economy and political dynamics, while slow, reversed the devastating impact of the Derg and gave the people of Ethiopia some hope that a robust democracy was really taking root. In fact, in the runup to the 2005 elections, there was a deliberate and significant opening of political space–which included broad media coverage of opposition parties, relatively unimpeded access for More on US Senator Feingold speaks out against the Meles dictatorship

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought refuge Monday at the Dutch Embassy in Harare, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said, shortly after police took away 60 people from his party’s headquarters. More on Dutch Foreign Ministry: Tsvangirai seeks refuge

ADDIS ABABA (AP) – Opposition politicians are forming a party similar to the alliance that presented the most credible challenge to date to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s 17-year hold on power, the party’s leader said on Friday.

The Unity for Democracy and Justice party will contest the 2010 general elections and is confident of winning, said Birtukan Midekssa, the party’s chairwoman.

NAIROBI (AFP) — Somali opposition leaders Sunday urged hardline Islamists to accept a new ceasefire pact, saying it was the way to bring peace to the shattered east African nation.

“We are negotiating with those who rejected the truce and hope they will join us,” said Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, a top official in the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an umbrella Somali opposition group. More on Somali opposition urges hardliners to accept truce

NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw has agreed to moderate NBC’s “Meet the Press” through the November election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Tim Russert. More on NBC: Brokaw gets “Meet the Press” through election

Tsvangirai said state-sponsored political violence which has claimed more than 80 lives among his supporters and government manipulation of the electoral playing field made it impossible for a credible election to be held. The opposition leader emphasized that his party could not ask Zimbabweans to cast a ballot for him when that action might cost them their lives.

Born out of the need to respond to Ethiopia’s news blockade of the Somali region in 2007, the 2008 images and reports released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAASA) is a timely tool.  It enables the world see the cruel destruction and wanton killings of civilians in this hard-to-access region.

HARARE, Zimbabwe, June 22 (UPI) — Zimbabwe presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangiria said Sunday he’s pulling out of Friday’s national elections, fearing the toll of escalating violence. More on Tsvangirai pulls out of Zimbabwe election

Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator wrested the nomination from Hillary Clinton. With numbers consistently showing rock-bottom approval ratings for President Bush and a large majority of Americans unhappy with the country’s direction, the opposing-party candidate should, in the normal course, have attracted more disaffected voters. Now it looks as if Obama is doing just that. A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.