The Addis Abeba Lease Board last week made a decision to resume distributing of land for investment three months after the Caretaker Administration stopped transfers during the transition of power to the new administration led by Mayor Kuma Demeksa.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has appointed former Minister of Revenue (MoR) Melaku Fanta as director general of the newly established Revenue and Customs Authority (RCuA), a merger of the former three revenue collecting agencies.

The Oromia and Amhara Regional States last week on Friday approved a 6.9 billion Br and 4.19 billion Br budget, respectively. The Federal Budget subsidy accounts for a large portion of these budget.

FOOD SECURITY UPDATE

A community-based program to empower women through economic independence has resulted in an improvement in the lives of women affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, CARE Ethiopia said on Wednesday.

The total investment in Ethiopia by 351 Indian companies has become 1.8 billion USD as at April 2008, in a sign of marked surge in number and size of investment from the emerging economy.

It will take Ethiopia a difficult 25 years to join the ranks of countries in the middle income status, as the registered ecomonic growth can not be in par with the ever growing size of poor population, a new study report revealed on Thursday.

The Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority (AWSA) on Friday admitted there was water shortage in the city and said it was doing every thing possible to ensure adequate supply.

Rwanda's second representative in the on going Cecefa/Kagame Cup, Rayon Sport booked their place in the quarter-finals after beating Ethiopia's Awassa 2-0 in a match played last evening at Jamhuri Stadium, Morogoro.

THE Police on Thursday arrested an Ethiopian refugee on suspicion that he raped a 13-year-old school girl in Kakajjo zone, Old Kampala, on Monday.

Reporting on bilateral meetings that took place between the UN Secretary General and Ethiopia's Prime Minister on the margins of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako, Japan, News network asserts: "Melles blasted the UN for not acting on Eritrea for its destructive measures on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border."

Industries must design and plan a mechanism by which they can contribute to reduce environmental pollution, the Addis Ababa City Administration Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) urged on Tuesday.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednesday launched its new multi-million dollar ecotourism program, with the view to contribute to the development of Ethiopia's unique and potentially very "lucrative" ecotourism sector.

The Oromia Education Bureau (OEB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Monday presented successful outcomes of a Community-Based Basic Education Improvement Project.

The Ethiopian Media Women Association (EWMA) said on Monday it prepared a new book which deals with women in leadership.

Babcock & Brown Air Limited (NYSE: FLY), a global lessor of modern, fuel-efficient commercial jet aircraft, today announced that it has leased and delivered two Boeing 757-200 aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines.

The first technical meeting focusing on Family Planning, Reproductive Health and Integration with HIV/AIDS programs officially kicked off on Monday in Addis Ababa.

A two-day lessons bazaar and workshop intended to create the venue for pastoralists to share experience and identify problems in implementing projects in pastoralist areas was held on Tuesday at the Global Hotel.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a $50 million cooperative agreement to U.S.-based Pathfinder International to fund a five-year program that will make sustainable improvements to key family health services and planning in Ethiopia, according to a news website Monday.

Somalia Defense minister Muhyidin Muhammad Hajji Ibrahim met and held discussions with Ethiopia military officers on current security challenges and ways to tackle them, according to a report from the war-ravaged neighboring country.