Ethiopian pop star to leave jail shortly (AngolaPress)

Ethiopia's famous pop star, Teddy Afro, is set to leave jail within five months following an Ethiopian Supreme Court judge decision to reduce his six-year long sentence to two years on appeal, reports said.


Ethiopian Supreme Court Judge Daniel Melaku ruled on Wednesday that the popular pop star, jailed in December 2008 for dangerous driving and killing a homeless man on the streets of Addis Ababa and fleeing from the scene of the accident, would be freed within five months, in effect dismissing the manslaughter charges against him and re-sentencing him for a driving offence.


The judge ruled that the only crime committed by the pop star, whose anti-government lyrics made him a symbol of the opposition, was that he fled from the alleged scene of the accident and failed to help the victim.


The victim of the accident, identified as Degu Yibelte, was drunk and lay on the road before the accident occurred and the other witnesses also failed to assist the victim, the judge ruled.


Afro, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, remains one of the most famous Ethiopian pop stars.


The High Court Judge, who sentenced him to six years, said he avoided giving him the maximum sentence to allow him to reform while in prison.

Ethiopian troops again cross into Somalia (Xinhua)

www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-19 00:12:35

 

BIADOA, Somalia, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Heavily armed Ethiopian troops have entered a district in south Somalia nearly a month after the troops left the war-torn country, witnesses said Wednesday.  Villagers in the southern Bakool region say the troops have crossed the border and set up bases in the village of Yeet, in Rabdhure district, 28 km south of the regional capital of Hudur.  Ethiopia withdrew its forces from Somalia after two years of presence in the country following the defeat of the Islamists that run much of southern and central Somalia in the later half of 2006.  It is not clear why the Ethiopian troops entered the region but there have lately been reports of troop movement by Somali government forces in Hudur in the Bakool regional backing officials who fled the southern town of Baidoa when it fell into the hands of the Al-Shabaab insurgent fighters last month.  Baidoa has been the seat of Somali parliament before its capture by the hardline Islamist group of Al-Shabaab which opposes the new Somali government leadership.  Residents in the villages around the border district of Rabdhuure say that the troops arrested a number of locals soon after entering the area.  In January, local officials charged that Ethiopian troops crossed over into the other Somali border region of Hiran in central Somalia, two weeks after their withdrawal from the country but the Ethiopian government denied the allegations.