http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL09327212.html Ethiopia eyes biofuels, says no risk to crops
Mon 9 Jun 2008ADDIS ABABA, June 9 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Monday it planned to produce biofuels to cut high oil import bills, but dismissed fears the strategy could hit food production in a country suffering a severe drought.
Some 4.5 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid due to failed rains and high food prices, reviving grim memories of the country's 1984-1985 famine, which killed more than 1 million.
But the government also faces an annual fuel bill of up to $900 million, and aims to reduce that over time using biofuels.
"There is no shortage of agriculture land in Ethiopia for food production," Melis Teka, coordinator of biofuel development in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, told Reuters.
"We have up to 23 million hectares which could be developed both for crops and biofuel. Biofuel plants are being developed on arid and barren land not suitable for food production."
The government says it could make one billion litres of ethanol a year from four state-run sugar estates, and has also issued 37 licences to private investors to set up biofuel plants. The country also plans to produce biofuel from jatropha, castor beans and oil palm plantations.
"As the country accelerates its economic development, the demand for petroleum is anticipated to increase," Melis said.
"The development of biofuel is expected to be an alternative source of energy to meet the anticipated demand."
______________________ http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOMALIA_JOURNALIST_KILLED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-07-18-17-35 AP June 7, 2008
Somali journalist killed in Kismayo
MOHAMED SHEIKH NORGunmen in southern Somalia fatally shot a local journalist who had been a contributor to various news organizations including The Associated Press and the British Broadcasting Corp., his wife and a doctor said Saturday.
Nasteex Dahir Farah, 26, was shot several times in the chest in the southern port city of Kismayo, said Dr. Mohamed Aden Dheel of Kismayo Hospital. He died at the hospital, Dheel said.
"His death is the total destruction of my life," Farah's wife, Idil Farey, told the AP. She is six months pregnant with the couple's second child, she said. Their oldest child, a son, is 10 months old.
Somalia, which has been mired in chaos and violence since 1991, is among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. At least nine other journalists have been killed in Somalia since February 2007, according to Amnesty International.
Farah, who was the vice chairman of the National Union of Somali Journalists, had occasionally contributed news reports, photographs and television footage for the AP from Kismayo since 2006. He was not known to be working on a story on Saturday.
In a statement, the journalists' union condemned what it termed "the targeted assassination" and said Farah had received anonymous death threats.
"There is no authority in Somalia that (provides) justice and no one is protecting journalists," the group's secretary-general, Omar Faruk Osman, said in the statement.
"This deplorable, senseless killing of a courageous journalist is another sign of the fragility of press freedoms in Somalia and too many other countries around the world," said John Daniszewski, AP's managing editor for international news. "Our hearts go out to Farah's wife Idil Farey, their infant son, and to his many friends and colleagues in Kismayo, Mogadishu and elsewhere."
The BBC, in a statement from its London headquarters, extended condolences to the family.
"We are shocked by what has happened and are trying to ascertain further information," the statement said.
The Somali Coalition for Freedom of Expression, a Somali journalists' organization, urged reporters in the country "to be extremely vigilant."
Ahmed Said Ali, a nurse at the hospital where Farah died, said Farah told the medical staff that two men shot him with AK-47s. He said he fell in front of the gate to his house, according to Ali.
Ali said that Farah bled to death while the medical staff waited for the arrival of a doctor to perform surgery.
Farah contributed an essay on the dangers of working in Somalia to a Spring/Summer 2008 publication by the Committee to Protect Journalists, called 'Dangerous Assignments.' He wrote about Somali journalist Hassan Kafi Hared, who was killed by a land mine in January.
"Although answers about his death are sadly elusive, this one thing is certain," Farah writes. "Every day, his colleagues and family remember Hassan and what he made of his life."
___________________________________ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7442181.stm BBC June 7, 2008 Somali BBC contributor shot dead
Gunmen in the southern Somali city of Kismayo have killed a local journalist.
Nasteh Dahir, who worked for both the BBC and Associated Press news agency, was shot in the chest and stomach outside his home.
The National Union of Somali Journalists said it was a "targeted assassination" and that the 26-year-old had received death threats.
Somalia, mired in chaos and violence since 1991, is among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.
At least nine other journalists have been killed in Somalia since February 2007, according to the human-rights group Amnesty International.
Islamist insurgents are suspected in the attack on Mr Dahir, correspondents say.
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