As a mother leans over to breastfeed her hungry newborn baby, doctors look on anxiously knowing she could infect her child with the HIV virus. It is a dilemma medics in rural Ethiopia say they are facing almost daily, as the country launches a campaign to prevent mothers infecting their children with the virus.

Tens of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia face severe food shortages early next year, the UN's World Food Programme warned on Tuesday. It has appealed for US $5.3 million to help feed 123,000 refugees – mainly from war-ravaged Sudan and Somalia.

The action to ban the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA) is a reprisal and retribution for the justifiable criticism made by the organisation of the government's new Draconian press law, which, among other things, requires newspapers to pay tax on press releases and gives government officials thirty days to reply to questions raised by the press, according to an organisation, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF).

The Ethiopian government should engage with civil society and give them a voice in shaping the future direction of the country and begin a nationwide debate on land reform, said Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam Great Britain following a seven day tour of the country.

Ethiopia’s teachers' association condemned on Tuesday the government’s newly introduced “cost-sharing” scheme where students must foot part of their fees. Dr Taye Wolde Semayat, president of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) told IRIN that the policy put Ethiopia on a “slippery slope” towards privatising education.

One of the world’s rarest animals is facing a renewed battle against extinction after being hit by a rabies outbreak, a leading wildlife expert has warned.

Meaza Ashenafi founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) in 1995, of which she is still the executive director. After returning to Ethiopia from the US, where she received the Hunger Project Award – known as the African Nobel Prize – for representing women in Ethiopia, she told IRIN about the difference her organisation has made in ensuring women’s rights, but also why Ethiopia is still an extremely difficult country to live in as a woman.

The British government pledged US $2.5 million on Wednesday to combat a massive malaria epidemic threatening 15 million people in Ethiopia. The funding follows an emergency appeal by the UN for $5 million to provide drugs and mosquito nets for affected regions.

In a 10 November 2003 letter to the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), the Ministry of Justice's Associations' Registration Office banned the organisation from carrying out its activities. EFJA obtained official recognition seven years after its establishment and for the past three years has been carrying out its work under very difficult and challenging conditions.

International aid organisations on Tuesday welcomed a government decision to double state pensions, but warned that more had to be done for Ethiopia’s elderly. Peter Bofin, the head of HelpAge International, said that whereas the move was a positive step, it was noteworthy that about 3 million old people in the country were receiving no pension at all.

In a statement broadcast on Radio Ethiopia and Ethiopian Television on the evening of 4 November 2003, the Ministry of Justice's Associations' Registration Office said it is preparing to take measures against the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), which obtained official recognition seven years after its establishment and which for the past three years has been carrying out its work under very difficult and challenging conditions.

There seems no end to the troubles that are dogging the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 2000, the two Horn of Africa countries signed an accord in Algeria to end two years of fighting sparked by a border dispute. The indefinite postponement, last week, of the marking out of a border in the contested area posed a major setback to peace efforts.

Life without discrimination may be a reality for many Western women but in Ethiopia, the road to equality remains a daily struggle. Ethiopian women are still subjected to genital mutilation and arranged marriages, and suffer a lack of access to education - infringements of women's basic human rights which are denying them the opportunity to improve their lives in one of the world's poorest countries.

The European Union is to fund 3.8 billion birrs ($440m) worth of development projects over the next five years, State Minister for Finance and Economic Development Mulu Ketsela said on Wednesday.

Fifteen million Ethiopians are facing a deadly malaria epidemic, according to a warning issued by the UN last Wednesday. This new development comes in the wake of an unprecedented and complex humanitarian crisis hitting the impoverished country, leaving 13 million people in need of food aid.

Ethiopia's Minister of Information Bereket Simon has described the critics of the new draft press law introduced by his Ministry in April as being among other things "ridiculous" and "more Catholic than the Pope". Ato Kifle Mulat, the President of Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), responded that many Ethiopian private journalists face imprisonment and fines and as a result were forced to flee the country and live in exile to "save their necks." The two were making their presentations during the opening of the International Roundtable on Media Law Reform in the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia must boost routine child immunisation to combat deadly diseases, the United Nations said on Thursday as the country began a major house-to-house polio campaign. Abdelmejid Tibouti, deputy head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that immunisations were vital to “protect each child” from easily preventable killer diseases.

Health systems in developing countries have been traditionally geared towards the treatment of infectious disease. How do we transform them to take account of the increasing health burden posed by non-communicable disease (NCD)? This study by the Gondar College of Medical Services in Ethiopia and the Wessex Neurological Centre in Southampton, UK explores how epilepsy could be targeted and treated in rural areas of Ethiopia. It argues that effective treatment is possible using the existing health infrastructure and very few additional resources.

The United Nations has appealed to journalists to stop trying to incite war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. It said it was concerned about the increase in media hate comments on the impasse in the peace process between the two Horn of Africa states which it termed as “currently in stasis”.

Wessenseged Gebrekidan, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper "Etiop", was summoned by the Central Investigation Department on October 9. Gebrekidan reported to police and was released on bail of Eth. Birr 5,000 (approx. US$585) after making a statement. The editor was summoned in connection with a news item entitled "National Military Service Proclamation promptly approved". The item was published in "Etiop" newspaper on 9 April.