Missing Ethiopian athletes seek asylum

Four Ethiopian athletes who were due to compete at an international meeting in Scotland today were missing last night after fleeing from their hotel in London.

A statement from scottishathletics said the athletes were seeking asylum.
The sports organisation confirmed the four team members "fled from their hotel" yesterday at lunchtime and failed to make their connecting flight to Edinburgh.
300 x 250 They had been due to take part in the Falkirk Cup athletics event at Grangemouth Stadium.
Geoff Wightman, scottishathletics' chief executive, was forced to report the athletes to police as missing persons.
He said their disappearance could have consequences for his organisation with the UK Borders Agency.
Under rules introduced last year, sponsors of visiting sportsmen "have a duty to ensure that their visitors leave before their visa runs out," according to the Home Office. "If sponsors fail in their duties, they face a ban on bringing anyone else over, penalties of up to £5000 or a jail sentence."

Mr Wightman said: "It was our invitation that brought them here. It is a contract between us and the Ethiopian Federation. The athletes would have been paid a per diem allowance in lieu of prize money. It's very disappointing. There's coach-loads of supporters from Manchester and Glasgow, and I feel sorry for them."
Scotland will compete against England, Ethiopia, Ireland and a Bank of Scotland Development Team in the event.
Dagmawit Amare, a member of the Ethiopian management who has been working on a placement at the governing body's Edinburgh headquarters, said a colleague in London had tried to restrain two of them but they ran off.
Mr Amare said: "This is such a sad thing to happen for my country and the sport."
Last year, several members of the Eritrean cross-country team successfully sought political asylum after the World Championships in Edinburgh. They are now members of Shettleston Harriers in Glasgow.

East Africa: 'Kenya and Ethiopia Have Killed Cross Country' Europeans couldn't make it to what it takes to be where Ethiopians and Kenyans went so, they have to cutt of the the game)

Europeans should get off their butt and run like Ethiopians and Kenyans rather than wining and complaining. This is not a magic or a gift but duty neither status, after getting embraced for centuries by East Africans, Europeans and other racists are just taking another step forward troth their regional target, Africa and Africans are no more needed, transition from being dependant to independent is on it way African countries are showing significant developments and getting economically united, that is a back pain for those whom thought Africa will stay their milking cow forever, whatever you can not do is illegal. It is Ethiopians and Kenyans fault that you couldn't run and win.

Elias Makori

23 August 2009
Berlin — It is now emerging that the domination of cross country running by Kenya and Ethiopia is ultimately killing the sport.
At their council meeting held on the fringes of the World Championships in Athletics here, the International Association of Athletics Federations ruled that the World Cross Country Championships will now be held once every two years rather than annually.
The IAAF council members argued that this would allow the continents to organise continental championships on the alternate years.
But the Daily Nation established on Sunday that Kenya and Ethiopia have dominated the discipline so much that European television interest in the sport has taken a nosedive.
"The World Cross Country championships have become not only an African affair but an East African affair, and these days you don't even get athletes from West Africa competing," IAAF president Lamine Diack said when confronted by the Daily Nation at the Berlin Intercontinental Hotel. "Even the Kenyan delegates at our meeting agreed that East Africa's dominance was killing the sport."
Athletics Kenya chairman Isaiah Kiplagat sits on the IAAF Council while AK secretary, David Okeyo, is in the IAAF's cross country commission.
Gianni Merlo, the Italian president of the International Sports Press Association, agreed with the IAAF supreme, saying European countries were no longer interested in competing for the minor positions at the World Cross Country Championships.
Teams too large
"The problem is also that the teams are too large. It would have been better to, perhaps, have three runners in each team, but with as much as six runners per country per race, Ethiopia and Kenya will automatically take the first 12 places and the rest will compete from the 13th place," Merlo, an editor with leading Italian daily sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, said.
"European broadcasters are no longer interested in covering these championships and some European federations are no longer interested in sending athletes to these competitions. Why should they invest to fight for 13th place?"Relevant

But the decision to have biannual global cross country championships have not gone down well with some Kenyan officials who see cross country running as the best way for athletes to launch preparations for their track season.
Kenyan and Ethiopian runners made their world cross country debut in Madrid in 1981 when Kenya finished third overall. Bekele Debele of Ethiopia, 20, became the youngest World Cross champion, with Kenyan Some Muge taking the bronze.
Spain's Pierre Casacuberta was the last man from outside East Africa to win the junior men's race in 1984 while John Ngugi became the first Kenyan to win the senior men's title in 1986 in Neuchatel, Switzerland, the first of his five global titles.
Kenya's Paul Tergat has also won the World Cross title five times while Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele won his seventh 5,000m world title at the Berlin Olympic Stadium on Sunday.

4(Four) Ethiopian athletes go missing on trip to Britain

Four Ethiopian athletes have gone missing during a visit to Britain for a major athletics event.
Published: 6:11PM BST 25 Aug 2009
Scottish Athletics confirmed that the four ''fled from their hotel'' in London and failed to make their connecting flight to Edinburgh.
They had been due to take part in the Falkirk Cup athletics event tomorrow night at Grangemouth Stadium.
Geoff Wightman, chief executive of Scottish Athletics, said: ''We invited them, so it's our duty to report it to the authorities.''
Dagmawit Amare, part of the Ethiopian management in Scotland, who has completed a four week placement at Scottish Athletics, said: ''My colleague actually tried to restrain two of them but they ran off.
''This is such a sad thing to happen for my country and the sport.''
The missing athletes are said to be women's 200m runner Betelhem Shewatatek, Feleke Bekele (women's 400m hurdles), Hagos Tadesse (men's 400m) and Tirehas Haileselassie, (men's 400m hurdles).
Scotland will compete against England, Ethiopia, Ireland and a Bank of Scotland Development Team in the event.
Ross Cunningham, the event's manager, said: ''It blows a hole in the Ethiopian team's prospects and it represents our worst scenario in inviting them.
''We will see how Scotland does against England and Ireland and support those Ethiopians who have made the trip and their anticipated 100 supporters from Manchester and Glasgow.

Somali militants use many tactics to woo Americans

By AMY FORLITI (AP) – 3 hours ago
MINNEAPOLIS — One young man attended secret meetings in Minneapolis. Another got a phone call, urging him to leave Minnesota and go to Somalia to fight. Terrorist training videos featuring English speakers pepper YouTube, calling others to the cause.
Details are emerging about how terrorists in Somalia have lured young American men — including as many as 20 from Minnesota — back to their homeland to join their jihad. At least three have died, including one who authorities believe is the first American suicide bomber. Three others have pleaded guilty in the U.S. to terror-related charges.
Court proceedings and interviews with community members, attorneys and terror experts indicate the Somali-based terror group, al-Shabab, uses widespread recruitment tactics including a vast Web-based network.
"Al-Shabab 10 years ago would be a two-bit, paramilitary group that no one would've cared about ... sitting in a basement somewhere stockpiling rocket-propelled grenades and bullets for AK-47s," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist at Georgetown University. "Now, we see them reaching into the United States."
Like many terror groups, al-Shabab uses Internet videos to draw disenfranchised young men into its fold. Many feature typical militant scenes: men with covered faces firing automatic weapons, marching or practicing martial arts. Some show close-up footage of dead bodies and religious documents.
But al-Shabab's propaganda sets it apart.
"I would say they were among the most explicit, the most violent, and the most enthusiastic videos of any jihadi organization out there," said Evan Kohlmann, a terror consultant.
The group, which the U.S. government says has ties to al-Qaida, also uniquely targets Americans and English speakers, Kohlmann said.
Some videos show English-speaking suicide bombers reciting last wills. Others showcase a man with shoulder-length brown hair who calls himself Abu Mansour the American commanding fighters and glorifying jihadists killed in Somalia.
Al-Shabab's online propaganda proliferated in recent years after messages from Osama bin Laden appeared on jihadist forums encouraging followers to go to Somalia. The country of 7 million has not had a functioning government since 1991.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was concerned al-Shabab uses foreign fighters and there was no doubt the group wants to take control of Somalia and "launch attacks against countries far and near."
Experts say Western recruits' passports and cultural awareness make them valuable.
"You can't take someone from the slums of Mogadishu and take them on some suicide mission to Rome, Paris, New York," Hoffman said. American deaths also bring more attention to al-Shabab's cause, he said.
In Minneapolis, home to the largest population of Somali immigrants in the U.S., a federal investigation into the missing men is illuminating the recruiting.
Salah Osman Ahmed, 26, of New Brighton, told a judge last month that he attended "secret meetings" in Minneapolis starting in October 2007. There, he said, a group of "guys" talked about returning to Somalia to fight Ethiopians. At the time, the Ethiopian army, which many Somalis viewed as abusive, occupied parts of Somalia.
When Ahmed got to Somalia, his attorney said, he realized what al-Shabab really was.
Hoffman said the underground meetings fit a pattern.
"The conspiratorial air is part of this group bonding," Hoffman said. "That kind of atmosphere makes these young men think that what they are doing is all the more important."
Hoffman also said terror groups use a network of friends, many of whom act like persuasive salesmen, to help recruit.
One man who filled that role in Minneapolis, by one account, was Zakaria Maruf.
Stephen Smith, an attorney who represents several young Somalis questioned by authorities, said his clients describe Maruf as someone with a bravado that appealed to younger men he met on the basketball court or at mosques.
Smith said one of his 18-year-old clients got a phone call from Maruf, in Somalia, asking him to join the fight. Maruf and the teenager also exchanged e-mails and had a brief conversation in a chat room, Smith said.
Smith said the teen didn't go but felt uncomfortable turning down someone he looked up to.
Maruf's whereabouts aren't known. Some family members say they believe he was killed in Somalia last month, but federal officials could not confirm that.
Many young Somalis in Minneapolis say friends who left have stayed in touch through Facebook or phone calls. In those conversations, friends said, the men talked about life in Somalia being harder than expected, and of missing American food and Starbucks.
The Facebook accounts are private. While the FBI said it can't comment on specific communications, spokesman E.K. Wilson said the agency continues to investigate "who or what motivated" the young men to go to Somalia.
In Minnesota, imams are trying to counter al-Shabab's message by speaking out against violence and radicalism, reminding the faithful that Islam is peaceful.
Farhan Hurre, the executive director of Minneapolis' Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, which has rejected suspicions it played a part in recruiting, said mosque leaders also are advising parents to keep their eyes open.
"If you have computers, if you have Internet, you have to know the sites that your boys are visiting and what they are listening to," Hurre said.

Ethiopia seeks to lead Africa over climate talks

For the first time, 53 African nations have come under one umbrella to speak in one voice on the upcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.
Africa took a strong stand on some critical points and identified the continent's common interest, and prepared a document, African Common Position on Climate Change, which is now in the hands of an African delegation.
It was not yet clear who would lead the delegation, but the Ethiopian government has openly requested for the position in the upcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ethiopia presented the request at the closed door session of 10 African environment ministers and government representatives meeting in Addis Ababa African Union headquarters on Monday.
Sources told the Nation that Ethiopia presented the request with a list of strong arguments and demanded its Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to lead the African delegation to Copenhagen in December.
Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Special adviser minister Dr Neway Gebreab confirmed Ethiopia’s request and emphasised that his government wanted to play a role in the climate change agenda.
Ethiopian climate change negotiator Mr Desalegn Mesfin on his part said the African ministers' conference welcomed the Ethiopian request and the final decision would be made by African head of states special session next week in Libya's capital Tripoli.
Mr Mesfin pointed out that Meles Zenawi is the one who proposed African common position on climate change and campaigns for huge cash compensation to Africa.
“We are confident on his commitment and knowledge” Mesfin said.
Current NEPAD chairman and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has represented Africa in G8 and G20 summits and has gained considerable acceptance in the international arena.
Sudanese deputy ambassador in the United Nations in New York and chief negotiator of Group 77 and China in the Climate talk Mr Lumumba Di-Aping noted that nomination of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi seemed “unquestionable”. “He [Zenawi] proofed his efficiency and knowledge on the Climate Change issue” Di-Aping added.
So far, there is no objection from the African climate change delegation team. However, this nomination will be endorsed by African head of states meeting next week in Libya.

New front opens in Somalia as Ethiopian fighter jets strike (1st Update)

Mogadishu/Addis Ababa
- Fighting between Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and troops loyal to the government erupted on a new front on Sunday, as Ethiopia acknowledged for the first time to fighting against troops loyal to the UIC.
Forces loyal to the UIC and the government have been clashing for five days on several fronts near the government's base in the western town of Baidoa, some 250 kilometres west of the capital Mogadishu.
Ethiopian jet fighters allegedly struck Baladweyne, 320 kilometres north of Baidoa, killing at least 50 UIC troops, witnesses and officials said.
'I saw two fighter jets bombing the outskirts of Baladweyne. They killed two people in a displaced camp for the flood-affected people,' said Abdurahman Sheikh Omar, a witness in Baladweyne. 'They also targeted a UIC recruitment center but no casualties can be confirmed.'
Fighting continued on several fronts on Sunday, as fear of a regional war continued to mount, after Ethiopia admitted it sent fighters to the country.
'The Ethiopian National Defence Forces on Sunday started taking measures to foil the attack launched against Ethiopia by fundamentalist forces gathered in Somalia,' a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Addis Ababa had previously said it sent several hundred military trainers to prop up the transitional government, but witnesses near the front lines said earlier this week they saw Ethiopian tanks and helicopters involved in the conflict.
The Defence Ministry also said its forces took 'decisive measures' against 'terrorist forces that attempted to infiltrate into Ethiopia to launch attacks.'
The UIC have vowed to wage jihad (holy war) on any Ethiopian troops in the country. Ethiopia, the greatest military power in the Horn of Africa, has long branded the UIC terrorists.
On Thursday, UIC leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said the group was not fighting the government, but rather the Ethiopian troops said to be in the country training the government forces. The Somali transitional government has also denied that Ethiopian troops are fighting alongside its forces.
The first clashes erupted overnight Tuesday in Idale, 60 kilometres south-west of Baidoa, a day after an EU envoy had successfully pushed the warring sides to agree to attend peace talks. Tuesday also marked a one-week deadline given to Ethiopia by the UIC to remove its troops or face attacks.
As of Sunday, a stretch of about 700 kilometres was embroiled in the fighting with both sides reporting heavy casualties.
In the capital Mogadishu, street protests against Ethiopia raged on Sunday, with angry residents burning tires and urging anyone over 15 to head to the front lines.
'We are taking our guns to fight against Ethiopia. We will commit all tactics including suicide attacks if they don't stop the occupation,' said 14-year-old Hussen Hirre Abdi at a Mogadishu protest.
The UIC dramatically rose to power this year, taking the capital Mogadishu in June and a series of other southern and central Somali towns afterwards. They seek to establish a religious state based on Islamic Sharia law, drawing in ethnic-Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia as part of a 'united Somalia.'
The weak transitional government, divided and limited to its base in Baidoa, is the 14th attempt at establishing central rule in the country.
Somalia has been without a strong government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords plunged the country into lawlessness