Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

A senior United States official voiced concerns on Friday about the restrictions on opposition parties and human rights abuses in Ethiopia ahead of elections next year. "The US is concerned by what we see as reduction in political space and the ability of opposition parties to operate and do what opposition parties should do," Karl Wycoff, deputy assistant secretary of state for East African Affairs, told reporters. "There are continous reports of human rights abuse," said Wycoff, who arrived is in Ethiopia for an official visit. Ethiopia's polls on May 23, 2010 will be the first since 2005 when disputed election results sparked violence ... Read Full Story

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African leaders agreed on Tuesday on how much cash to demand from the rich world to compensate for the impact of climate change on the continent but kept the figure secret ahead of next month's Copenhagen talks. The United Nations summit in Denmark will try to agree on how to counter climate change and come up with a post-Kyoto treaty protocol to curb emissions. "We have set a minimum beyond which we will not go," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who will represent Africa at the talks, told reporters. "But I am not in a position to tell you what ... Read Full Story

African demands for climate change compensation and emission cuts by rich nations are unlikely to be met in next month's Copenhagen summit, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday. "We have only a few weeks between now and Copenhagen... the indications that we get are not very encouraging," Meles said after a meeting of an African Union panel set up to represent the continent at the December 7-18 gathering. "Indeed we have prioritised our requirements. First and foremost we need to make sure that global warming does not go beyond two degrees and that carbon emissions peak by at the latest 2020," he added. ... Read Full Story

An Ethiopian human rights activist who was jailed for 2 1/2 years said Friday that his country is less free today than it was during its disputed 2005 election. Daniel Bekele, 42, is crisscrossing the U.S. and Canada on a speaking tour after being honored for his human rights work by New York-based Human Rights Watch. The soft-spoken lawyer — who won a court order that allowed him serve as an election monitor in Ethiopia in 2005, only to be arrested and charged with treason and attempted genocide later — says a bevy of new, restrictive legislation bodes poorly for a free vote in ... Read Full Story

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark upgraded U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month to a summit of world leaders to try to end deadlock between rich and poor on how to fight global warming. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who will help represent Africa in Copenhagen, criticized world efforts to slow climate change that many African nations say is already causing floods, heatwaves, desertification and disease. Facing long-running splits about a new U.N. climate pact, Denmark said it would ask world leaders to come for the final two days of the December 7-18 conference to push for a deal at the meeting, ... Read Full Story