HowChow: Maiwand Kabob in Columbia (and elsewhere)

http://nazrett-ethiopian.blogspot.com/2009/08/ethiopian-breakfast-in-burtonsville.html

Ethiopian Breakfast in Burtonsville

You don't have to settle for diner bacons and eggs if you're looking for something more exotic for breakfast.
Eggspectation makes a great breakfast in Ellicott City, but Cafe Oromia in Burtonsville offers Ethiopian options if you run down Rte 29. Cafe Oromia has gradually expanded its Ethiopian menu into a nice, small cafe. They started as a coffee shop, and they still offer a basic breakfast menu with baked goods and a standard "fried eggs and bacon" option (as eaten by Momomom's "won't eat most interesting food" husband).
But there are several Ethiopian alternatives in the morning as well. Start with scrambled eggs with spices and vegetables that are just a Oromia variation on an American breakfast. Go one step farther for Ethiopian wheat grits. Or try a truly traditional breakfast of ful -- the beans and condiments eaten when the sun comes up from the Middle East through Egypt into Africa. I thought the ful was delicious. Warm, creamy and full of flavor from the beans and from the onions, tomatoes and spicy peppers that I stirred around. The beans have the heartiness of oatmeal, but the savory flavors that I prefer even at breakfast.
Cafe Oromia is a really casual place with good coffee. Great if you're stopping quick on the way to do errands or if you're pausing to read the newspaper in peace. (And you can also still order beignets. They're not on the printed menu, but they're whip them up, according to Momomom.)
The stretch of Rte 198 west of Rte 29 offers a few interesting options beyond Cafe Oromia, including Cuban at Cuba de Ayer, Afghan at a branch of Maiwand Kabob, and homemade ice cream at Seibel's.
Cafe Oromia15510 Old Columbia PikeBurtonsville, MD 20866240-390-0044NEAR: This is on Rte 198 just west of Rte 29. From Howard County, you take the first exit on Rte 29 south of the river. That exit puts you on an old piece of Rte 29 that passes an Indian temple and a garden center. Turn right on Rte 198 at the traffic light. Coffee Oromia is a block up on the right next to a Maiwand Kabob outlet. There is a sign.

Rwanda/Egypt: Egypt Poses No Threat-Weiss

Kigali — RWANDA's U-17 national team coach Michael Weiss has played down Egypt's prowess in this year's Cecafa junior challenge cup which kicks off tomorrow in Khartoum, Sudan.
Rwanda starts their title campaign with a match against guest team Egypt on Thursday in Group C at 8.30pm local time.
Weiss told Times Sport before the team's departure yesterday that, "We are going to Sudan to win and our mission starts with Egypt in the opening game, which I am confident we should win."
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"They (Egypt) may be favorites but we are on mission and we will play against them just like any other team.
"We had enough build-ups in Germany and this is a major boost for us. The team is tactically, physically and mentally prepared for the championship," Weiss said.
The team left yesterday aboard Kenya Airways and would have a stop-over in Nairobi before connecting to Khartoum.
Rwanda will then face Eritrea in their subsequent match on August 21, before meeting defending champions Burundi two days later.
Participants in the competition include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Somalia and Eritrea.
Sudan President Omar al Bashir has sponsored the tournament to the tune of $700,000.
Winners of the two-week long tournament will pocket $15000 while the first and second runner-ups will bag $10000 and $5000 respectively.

Eritrea Ruled by Trigger-Happy Government, Says Ethiopia’s Minister

The Hague-based commission awarded Eritrea about 161 million dollars, while Ethiopia received 174 million dollars.
Eritrea accepted the ruling, but Ethiopia complained, describing the amount as too small.
The awards, announced Tuesday, concluded a complex arbitration that was part of the 2000 peace agreement closing out a border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that left tens of thousands dead.
Ethiopia's communications minister Bereket Simon told VOA that his government is pleased the commission blamed Eritrea for instigating the war.
"Once again this is a vindication of Ethiopia because the commission in their previous ruling had obviously ruled that Eritrea has been the one who had caused the war and caused harm to Ethiopia,"Simon said.
He said Eritrea was ordered to pay the money after the commission faulted Asamara for being the aggressor.
"Eritrea has to pay certain amount of money because of the damage that it had inflicted upon Ethiopia," he said.
Eritrea's President Issaias Afeworki
Simon reiterated that Addis Ababa is not pleased with the amount of money Eritrea was ordered to pay.
"Ethiopia believes the fines against Eritrea were lesser than what we expected. Nevertheless, this is another vindication of Ethiopia's position," Simons aid.
He said Eritrea embraced the ruling because it started the war.
"Of course Eritrea must be happy because this cannot be equivalent to what it has brought in terms of damage to (Ethiopia)," he said.
Simon accused Asamara of warmongering.
"Eritrea is ruled by a government, which is trigger-happy. I think this ruling is much lesser than what it should have been under normal conditions," Simon said.
Ethiopia had sought more than $14 billion for damages, but the commission rejected the claim.
Simon said the damage caused by Eritrea is real for all to see.
A Canadian UN peacekeeper (L) monitors the redeployment of Ethiopian tanks leaving from the Eritrean town of Senafe, 2001 "It is true that Ethiopia has claimed a lot of damage and this was not a (manufactured) figure, it is a real damage Eritrea has inflicted on us," Simon said.
The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia took place from May 1998 to June 2000. Both countries spent hundreds of millions of dollars and suffered tens of thousands of casualties as a direct consequence of the conflict, which resulted in minor border changes.
But a Hague-based international commission ruled that Eritrea broke international law by invading Ethiopia and subsequently the war.

The Africans Are Hearing Footsteps

By DAVID BIDERMAN
Sunday in Berlin, Kara Goucher, America's greatest hope in the marathon, will try to claim the top podium spot at the world track and field championships—something no American-born runner has ever done.
If she pulls it off, the 31-year-old will become the standard bearer for a new approach to training distance runners.
In a bold move aimed at catching the Africans who have owned this event, Ms. Goucher has taken all the tactics generated by U.S. running experts in the last 20 years—the charts, the mileage recommendations and high-tech motion-sensing computer readouts—and stuffed them in a dumpster.
Getty Images
Kara Goucher’s free-wheeling training style has helped her become a leading contender in the marathon.
"I want to be one of the best runners in the world," she says, "and winning an event like this means that's what you are."
The glory years of U.S. distance running started in 1969 with the arrival of Steve Prefontaine, the charismatic runner from the University of Oregon who won seven NCAA championships between 1970 and 1973 and was known for his all-out style and fearlessness on the track. "Pre" as he was known, would jump out to early leads, race as hard as possible and wear out opponents. Before he died in a car accident at 24, he set U.S. records in every event between 2,000 and 10,000 meters.
Though he never trained for marathons, Mr. Prefontaine ignited interest in distance running. Frank Shorter, one of America's greatest marathoners, took Olympic gold in 1972 and silver in 1976. Later that decade Alberto Salazar earned a 1978 NCAA championship and won three consecutive New York City marathons from 1980 to 1982. Joan Benoit Samuelson won gold in the 1984 Olympics. This time span was the most prosperous international running period for the U.S. since 1908.
On the sport's elite levels, new theories about strategy and training took hold. The Runner's Handbook, first written in 1978 by Bob Glover and Jack Shepherd, told would-be marathoners to focus on highly structured training, while articles in Runner's World told them how many miles to run on how many days and how quickly to do it.
Trouble was, U.S. runners didn't improve—they started sucking wind. Ms. Benoit Samuelson's Olympic gold medal in 1984 was the last for an American over the next two decades.
Some experts blamed the decline on a lack of competitive fire. Others believed Americans were too afraid of failure or too busy partying through the roaring 1980s to make the necessary sacrifices in training.
Meanwhile, African runners began winning everything in sight. Since 1983, runners from places like Kenya and Ethiopia have won 28 marathon medals in 18 major international events, while Americans have won four. Some went as far as to suggest the Africans weren't just more motivated—they might be genetically superior. A recent study by Swedish and South African scientists concluded that the biochemical phenotypes of many Africans' muscles are better suited for distance running than those of western Europeans.
Jim Estes, associate director of long-distance running programs for USA Track and Field, says many American runners of that era (himself included) hated the rigors of training—but the Africans never seemed to care. "Their threshold for pain just seemed much higher," he says.
Tom Ratcliffe, an agent for several Kenyan runners, says Africans "enjoy the battle" in endurance running while most Westerners "race with anxiety." He says his runners usually have no idea how many miles they run per week, or how fast. They just want to win.
Felix Limo, a Kenyan runner who has won the 2006 London and 2005 Chicago marathons, says U.S. runners rely too much on structure and scientific programs—the sorts of things described in those books in the 1970s. They fix their minds on certain speeds, he says, and aren't flexible enough.
"I don't need a mileage like the runners here," he says. "I can push myself."
One of the first Western runners to figure out the Africans was Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who has won eight major marathon events since 2000. She's got some structure to her training, but she's known more for her relentless attacking and competitiveness.
Ms. Radcliffe's emergence coincided with the 2001 founding of the Mammoth Track Club in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., whose mission is to advance the naturally aggressive "run first, ask questions later" style the Africans run with.
Deena Kastor, one of the club's most successful runners, finally broke through in 2006 to earn a No. 1 ranking. She won a bronze medal in the women's marathon in Athens in 2004. Another Mammoth runner, Ryan Hall, is the best American male in the event. He finished third in Boston in 2009—the only non-African runner in the top 10. "For so long, people here were focused on figuring out the exact science behind setting records," Ms. Kastor says. "But there is no exact science."
Though she never trained with the Mammoth club, Ms. Goucher is the latest and potentially greatest disciple of this new approach. At the University of Colorado she was the NCAA champion in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. In 2007, she finished third in the 10,000 meters at the world championships. One year later, her coach, Mr. Salazar, talked her into running her first marathon. She set the track scene ablaze with third-place finishes in her first two races—2008 in New York and 2009 in Boston.
During marathon training, Ms. Goucher runs twice a day, but says she hardly ever considers specific times and distances. She focuses on running hard and fast for as long as it seems right. "We think she has the chance to do something big," Mr. Salazar says.
This April at the Boston Marathon, Ms. Goucher says she learned a valuable lesson. While leading the race in the closing miles, she says she got caught up in strategy. Rather than simply running naturally hard, she sped up to try to end the race. "I was having doubts," she says. Both Salina Kosgei, a Kenyan, and Dire Tune, an Ethiopian, caught and passed her. It's a mistake she vows not to make again.
"It's not that Americans can't win," Ms. Goucher says, "it's just sometimes we get obsessed with time. You can't win a race like that."
Write to David Biderman at David.Biderman@wsj.com

Adding it up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying

By Anupama Narayanswamy and Luke Rosiak, Sunlight Foundation and Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica - August 18, 2009 1:34 pm EDT
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It isn’t just U.S. companies or groups that push for their causes on Capitol Hill. Thousands of times each year, lobbyists for foreign governments and other overseas organizations reach out to members of Congress and other U.S. leaders to make their case on issues important to them.
But counting up those thousands of contacts hasn’t been easy. Records detailing what foreign entities are lobbying, who they’re contacting and why are filed on paper forms, sometimes in handwriting that’s little more than a scrawl. After prodding from open-government groups, the Department of Justice put scanned copies of the forms on its Web site in 2007, but in a fashion that’s barely an advance over the old-fashioned card catalog.
Now, the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica have taken more than a year’s worth of data filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, and put it in a digital format that can be easily searched and analyzed to discover all the players in the foreign lobbying game.
Under FARA, all lobbyists who represent foreign governments, political parties and government-controlled entities in a “political or quasi-political capacity” must file disclosures. The forms list activities, fees received, political contacts and any campaign contributions.
Data for this project is based on filings in calendar 2008. The reports cover lobbying activity that year and in late 2007, and provide an extensive look into how foreign countries advanced their interests in Washington, D.C., during the period.
Among the overall findings:
Lobbyists for various foreign agents, including a handful of for-profit corporations, disclosed receiving $87 million in fees during the period.
Lobbyists contacted congressional offices more than 10,700 times, including 2,280 meetings, nearly 2,600 phone conversations and more than 4,000 e-mails, with the balance of contacts in letters and faxes.
Countries that engaged in the most intensive lobbying campaigns include long-term allies like Turkey and recent adversaries like Libya. Wealthy countries like the oil-rich United Arab Emirates are players, but so are poor nations like Ethiopia, with a per capita GDP of just $800.
What follows is a look at the countries and lobbyists that have been most active, what some of them wanted, whom they contacted and how much they spent pursuing their goals.

Where the big spenders are
Interests in the United Arab Emirates, primarily Dubai, spent the most money on lobbying and public relations campaigns. (Iraq’s spending also includes the Kurdistan Regional Government.)
Country
Amount Spent
United Arab Emirates
$10,914,002
United Kingdom
$6,105,200
Japan
$4,231,656
Turkey
$4,185,248
Iraq
$3,708,368
Morocco
$3,337,392
Saudi Arabia
$3308285
South Korea
$2,941,004
Netherlands
$2,694,604
Equatorial Guinea
$2,408,168
Spotlight: Dubai
United Arab EmiratesUntil it was branded a threat to national security and a federation with “a dubious record on terrorism,” the United Arab Emirates spent modest amounts on foreign lobbying, while Dubai, one of its semi-autonomous emirates, spent nothing.
Dubai’s troubles began in February 2006, when Dubai Port World, a government-owned marine terminal management company, acquired a company with contracts to perform stevedoring operations around the world, including at a handful of U.S. ports. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., charged that the deal would compromise U.S. port security and labeled the U.A.E. a “country that has been linked to terrorism.” Other members of Congress soon echoed the charges. Dubai Port World and the government of Dubai hired lobbyists and public relations firms to blunt the charges, but it was too late: Dubai Port World sold the U.S. port business to another company.
The emirate had learned its lesson. By March 2007, when another government-owned firm, Dubai Aerospace Enterprises, acquired a pair of aviation companies with operations at U.S. airports, Dubai already had in place a sophisticated lobbying operation that contacted some of the harshest critics of the ports deal to gain their support. Dubai’s government relied on three firms to burnish its image: DLA Piper [1] focused on pushing political interests, the Mark Saylor Company focused on crisis communications and Levick Strategic Communications handled press outreach and public relations campaigns.
According to 2008 FARA filings, the Dubai government paid more than $4.6 million in fees to the three firms. Dubai Aerospace completed its acquisition in July 2007 without protest from Congress.
The country’s public relations campaign continued in 2008. Lobbyists promoted such initiatives as “Dubai Cares,” to help educate children in developing countries. They fielded questions about the ruling family’s alleged abuse of jockeys in camel racing, and about Dubai’s sovereign wealth funds. The firms’ lobbyists met with dozens of congressional staffers. They pitched U.S. media on stories such as economic development, Dubai’s transit system and a “Star Wars” theme park.
Spotlight: Japan
JapanThe government of Japan has focused largely on trade through organizations like the Japanese External Trade Organization [2] (JETRO) and the Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization [3] (MIPRO). The country also employs lobbyists from Hogan & Hartson [4] to lobby on a range of issues from blocking congressional resolutions admonishing the conduct of the Imperial Army in the Second World War to gaining a permanent seat for Japan on the United Nations Security Council.
In 2008, lobbyists for Japan met with at least five members of Congress to lobby on defense appropriations and to influence policy on the foreign sales of a military aircraft, the F-22 Raptor. The Obama administration and Congress ended U.S. funding for the F-22, but the House Armed Services Committee directed the Obama administration to look into supplying the fighter jets to Japan.
Spotlight: Pakistan
PakistanPakistan made frequent use of lobbyists when it sought to convince Democratic majorities in Congress to go along with the Bush administration’s plans for “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones,” or preferential trade zones that would be able to export commodities manufactured there duty-free to the United States. Establishing the zones would spur economic development, would decrease unrest in some of Pakistan’s more lawless and underdeveloped regions, particularly on its frontier with Afghanistan, proponents say. The bill to authorize them died in committee in the last Congress, but has been taken up again this year.
Pakistan’s lobbyists also performed damage control over foreign aid — not the first time the country has had to manage the feat. Assistance to Pakistan was halted in 1998 after it conducted at least five nuclear tests, and was not restored until the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, when the Bush administration sought allies in its struggle against al-Qaida. Following a June 2008 Government Accountability Office [5] finding that the Pentagon couldn’t track more than $5.5 billion in military aid, Pakistan’s FARA lobbyists made 104 contacts with seven journalists concerning the GAO report and the “status of U.S. aid.” The Pakistani Embassy paid $514,000 in lobbyist fees.
* Note: Lobbyists for Paul Calder LeRoux, a dual citizen of South Africa and Australia who lives in the Philippines, reported receiving $6,500,000 in fees. The Justice Department classifies LeRoux as "international" rather than assigning him to any individual country; as such, we have omitted him from this chart. LeRoux hired the firm,Dickens & Madson,to "generate policies favorable to [his] business interests," according to FARA filings, principally his effort to lease farmland from the government of Zimbabwe. The firm reported no contacts on LeRoux's behalf; according to FARA records, Dickens & Madson stopped representing LaRoux in December 2008.

Most congressional contacts
Turkey’s lobbying drive to block a resolution branding the 1915 slaughter of Armenians as genocide resulted in the most contacts with members of Congress. (See related story. [6])
Country
Contacts
Turkey
2268
United Arab Emirates
1957
Republic of Congo
1538
Canada
1328
Libya
1175
Egypt
1071
South Korea
896
Azerbaijan
855
Pakistan
832
Ethiopia
821
*-Contacts include in person meetings, phone calls, emails, letters and faxes.
Spotlight: Egypt
EgyptEgypt, historically one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, mounted a large lobbying effort, employing PLM Group [7] — a joint venture of two well-connected K Street firms, the Podesta Group, headed by Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, and the Livingston Group [8], founded by former Republican Rep. Robert Livingston of Louisiana — to preserve that funding between October 2007 and October 2008. The stakes are not small: Egypt has received more than $50 billion from the United States since 1975.
The United States agreed to large foreign aid payments to Egypt and Israel in 1978 following the historic peace agreement negotiated by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. As the Arab nation’s economy has eroded, excess American aid has allowed it to put off much-needed changes rather than spur them, critics say.
Lobbyists for Egypt had at least 279 contacts on military issues, the bulk of which occurred when PLM Group accompanied delegations of Egyptian military officers to meet members of Congress, administration officials and representatives from defense contractors — including BAE Systems, General Dynamics, General Electric, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. All five have done business with the Egyptian government, selling tanks, fighter jets, howitzers and radar arrays to its military. At the time of the meeting with the contractors, Podesta Group counted BAE Systems, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin among its clients, while the Livingston Group represented Raytheon.
Top lobbyists
Two of the top three best-paid lobbying firms were also among the busiest contacting government officials: DLA Piper and the Livingston Group.
Lobbying firm
Fees Received
DLA Piper US
$ 10,126,273
Dickens & Madson Canada
$ 6,905,000
Livingston Group
$ 4,988,365
Invest Northern Ireland
$ 4,099,664
Cassidy & Associates
$ 2,497,000
Fleishman-Hillard
$ 2,326,151
Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions
$ 2,196,269
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers
$ 2,175,497
Moroccan-American Center for Policy
$ 2,152,467
Japan National Tourist Organization
$ 2,089,846
Spotlight: DLA Piper
DLA Piper [9], a firm whose Web site says is “positioned to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world,” is well suited to helping them in Washington, with a roster of 39 former government officials that includes former House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt. Until his resignation last week, former House GOP leader Richard Armey also worked with the firm. The firm represented some of the most active foreign clients, including Ethiopia, the executive office of Dubai, and the government of Turkey, for whom it promised, among other things, to find “members of Congress who will speak in Turkey’s favor on matters of critical importance to Turkey.” DLA Piper helped Borse Dubai, a United Arab Emirates company that invests in stock exchanges, when a hefty investment by the firm in the Nasdaq market required approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency committee that reviews foreign investments in the United States that might affect national security. The firm also lobbied to keep a sizable U.S. military presence in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz [10] and tried to ease sanctions on Ivory [11] Coast.
Members contacted most
Four of the top five members with the most contacts with the foreign lobbyists served on either the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Member Name
No. of contacts
Wexler, Robert
173
Blunt, Roy
105
Burton, Dan
100
Berman, Howard L.
95
Shuster, Bill
89
Foxx, Virginia
87
Boehner, John
84
Pelosi, Nancy
82
Ortiz, Solomon P.
78
Whitfield, Ed
76

Spotlight: Rep. Robert Wexler
Rep. Robert Wexler (U.S. Congress)Wexler, D-Fla [12]., was the most sought after; he or members of his staff were contacted 173 times, according to the filings. Azerbaijan, which hired the Livingston Group to lobby on its behalf, was among Wexler’s top petitioners. Both Lydia Borland and Robert Livingston of the Livingston Group met with staffers working with Wexler, who serves as co-chairman of the Azerbaijan Caucus. Wexler introduced a bill [13] to repeal earlier legislation that related to the country as a post-Soviet state and led to normal trade relations with Azerbaijan. The strategically important country, which has both Iran and Russia as neighbors, has spent close to $2 million since late 2005 seeking better trade and investment opportunities from the United States, according to FARA records.
Spotlight: Rep. Roy Blunt
Rep. Roy Blunt (U.S. Congress)Blunt, R-Mo., [14] the former Republican House whip, and his staff were contacted at least 105 times by lobbyists of various foreign governments and organizations. Blunt and his taff had several meetings and phone conversations with lobbyists for both Peru and Panama regarding their free trade agreements. A few days before the passage of the U.S. Peru Free Trade Act, lobbyists for the country met with Blunt’s staffers regarding the bill. The trade pact passed with support from Republicans in Congress; 116 Democrats voted against it. The Panamanian Embassy used the Washington Group to intensively lobby Congress in October and November 2008 to pass an agreement. Blunt and his staff were contacted multiple times.
Top campaign contributors
Registered foreign agents reported $4.3 million in political contributions, including nearly $2 million to congressional campaigns. There were at least 74 instances in which lobbyists reported campaign donations to individual members they had contacted.
Lobbyists
Contributions
Bob Dole
$ 104,000
Robert L. Livingston
$ 99,710
John O'Hanlon
$ 83,400
Ed Rogers
$ 71,550
Gregg Hartley
$ 70,960
Paul Cambon
$ 63,300
J. Allen Martin
$ 57,150
Tony Podesta
$ 49,300
Alfonse M. D'Amato
$ 46,425
Lanny Griffith
$ 43,550

Spotlight: Who gave
Of the 74 donations FARA agents made to members they’d personally contacted, 34 came from lobbyists working for a single firm, the PLM Group. PLM was formed in March 2007 as a joint venture of the Livingston Group and the Podesta Group [15]. In all, lobbyists with the PLM Group reported giving nearly $63,000 to members of Congress. Three of the contributions made to Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Dan Burton, R-Ind., and Donald M. Payne, D-N.J., came on the same day they met with lobbyists.
Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, contributed the most among registered foreign agents — $104,000. Dole, who lobbies for Alston & Bird [16], wasn’t nearly as active as Livingston, FARA records show. Most of his activity, on behalf of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office of Taiwan, was confined to writing letters to members, either inviting them to Taiwan or thanking them for meeting with Taiwanese officials. Dole attended a briefing on investment opportunities in Montenegro, another Alston & Bird client.
Livingston contributed more than $99,000. Other PLM group lobbyists who have given liberally include Paul Cambon, J. Allen Martin, Tony Podesta and former Democratic Rep. Toby Moffett.
Spotlight: Who received
Overall, the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Hillary Clinton topped the list, taking in $202,000 and $71,000 respectively. Among congressional campaigns, successful Senate candidate Mark Warner, D-Va., received the most money from FARA registrants — more than $44,000. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was next with $38,000, followed by the House Republican leader, John Boehner of Ohio, with $34,000
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This story can be found on the web at the following address:http://www.propublica.org/feature/adding-it-up-the-top-players-in-foreign-agent-lobbying-718/
Links
1. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?lname=DLA+Piper&year=2009
2. http://www.jetro.org/
3. http://www.mipro.or.jp/english/
4. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?lname=Hogan+%26+Hartson&year=2009
5. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08806.pdf
6. https://www.propublica.org/feature/opening-the-window-on-foreign-lobbying-718
7. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?lname=PLM+Group&year=2008
8. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?lname=Livingston+Group&year=2009
9. http://www.dlapiper.com/
10. http://germany.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/policy/ga_rheinland_pfalz.pdf
11. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2846.htm
12. http://wexler.house.gov/
13. http://wexler.house.gov/pdfs/azerbaijantrade.pdf
14. http://www.blunt.house.gov/
15. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=Podesta+Group&year=2008
16. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=Alston+%26+Bird&year=2008
17. http://www.propublica.org/special/propublica-daily-email
18. http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/
This story was co-published with the Sunlight Foundation. [18]
Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker

Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker, a joint project of ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation, pulls together information from disclosure forms filed by foreign governments and other foreign interests that lobby to influence U.S. policy.
Our Coverage

Adding it up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying: a look at some of the most active players and what they were after (methodology).
About Sunlight Foundation
Founded in 2006, the Sunlight Foundation supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. Through its projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government. Ellen Miller, the executive director of The Sunlight Foundation, is a member of ProPublica’s Journalism Advisory Board. Visit sunlightfoundation.com to learn more.

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Hague Court Rules on Damages for Ethiopia-Eritrea War (Update1)

By Jason McLure
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea damages to settle a range of property and human rights claims stemming from the countries’ 1998-2000 border war.
In a final ruling today that ends eight years of litigation, the court ordered Eritrea to pay Ethiopia $174 million for claims including lost profit to Ethiopia’s state- owned airline, failing to protect Ethiopian civilians during the war and mistreating Ethiopian prisoners of war.
Ethiopia was ordered to pay Eritrea and some Eritrean individuals $163.5 million for damages, including destruction of Eritrean buildings, the seizing of automobiles owned by Eritreans and imprisoning Eritrean civilians under harsh conditions. Both sides were awarded damages against the other for failure to prevent the rape of women near the front.
The Ethiopia-Eritrea war erupted in 1998 after disagreements between the two governments over border and trade matters. The fighting left an estimated 70,000 people dead and displaced 750,000 from their homes. The 2000 Algiers accords ended the war without agreement on a final border. Tens of thousands of troops remain dug in along the two countries’ 912- kilometer (567-mile) frontier.
The net award to Ethiopia of about $10.5 million “is a very small amount given the gravity of the crime of aggression committed by Eritrea,” according to an e-mailed statement from Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry in the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia will continue to study the ruling, the ministry said. Eritrea said it accepted the decision “without any equivocation,” according to a statement posted to the Web site of its Information Ministry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at abolleurs@bloomberg.net.

Hague Court Rules on Damages for Ethiopia-Eritrea War (Update1)

Hague Court Rules on Damages for Ethiopia-Eritrea War (Update1)

By Jason McLure
Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea damages to settle a range of property and human rights claims stemming from the countries’ 1998-2000 border war.
In a final ruling today that ends eight years of litigation, the court ordered Eritrea to pay Ethiopia $174 million for claims including lost profit to Ethiopia’s state- owned airline, failing to protect Ethiopian civilians during the war and mistreating Ethiopian prisoners of war.
Ethiopia was ordered to pay Eritrea and some Eritrean individuals $163.5 million for damages, including destruction of Eritrean buildings, the seizing of automobiles owned by Eritreans and imprisoning Eritrean civilians under harsh conditions. Both sides were awarded damages against the other for failure to prevent the rape of women near the front.
The Ethiopia-Eritrea war erupted in 1998 after disagreements between the two governments over border and trade matters. The fighting left an estimated 70,000 people dead and displaced 750,000 from their homes. The 2000 Algiers accords ended the war without agreement on a final border. Tens of thousands of troops remain dug in along the two countries’ 912- kilometer (567-mile) frontier.
The net award to Ethiopia of about $10.5 million “is a very small amount given the gravity of the crime of aggression committed by Eritrea,” according to an e-mailed statement from Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry in the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethiopia will continue to study the ruling, the ministry said. Eritrea said it accepted the decision “without any equivocation,” according to a statement posted to the Web site of its Information Ministry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at abolleurs@bloomberg.net.