Ethiopia's foreign debt has been almost halved in the last two years following succesful debt cancellation programmes.

Under a pilot scheme in drought-prone North Welo, farmers are turning away from the use of expensive and potentially dangerous chemical pesticides in favour of ancient methods of pest control to help their crops flourish.

A new radio serial drama that begins airing this Sunday, Nov. 25, in Ethiopia is designed to encourage young adults to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies by depicting characters engaging in either risky or safe sexual behavior.

Two Ethiopian journalists, Wesenseged Gebrekidan, deputy
editor-in-chief of "ETOP" newspaper, and Kidushabet Belachew, editor-in-chief of "Mebrek" newspaper have both been charged by the High Court.

Despite continued differences between the two sides the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea is “on track” a spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Friday.

A new resource center with accurate and up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS will be established by The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) in Ethiopia, a country that has one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates.

Ethiopia's highly controversial education policy is once again proving to be debatable, as the Ministry of Education refuses about a dozen students from the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State entry into higher learning institutions in the country, even though they have obtained the minimum grades that grant them entry.

An estimated 44,387 Eritrean internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain in eight camps in Gash-Barka and Debub provinces, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a press briefing on 9 November.

The International Federation of Journalists, the worlds largest journalists' organisation, representing more than 500,000 journalists worldwide is deeply concerned about the fate and safety of 25 Ethiopian journalists who are presently seeking political asylum through the UNHCR office in Nairobi, Kenya.

A new polio eradication campaign which aims to achieve a polio-free certification for Ethiopia in 2005 will get under way on 9 November, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesman told IRIN on Thursday.

The German government has written off approximately half of the US $24 million Ethiopia owes it, the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported on 2 November, following a meeting held between representatives of the two countries in the German capital, Berlin.

An Ethiopian film, The Father, that has been winning awards across Africa, is serving as a reminder that President Robert Mugabe has been sheltering one of the world’s most notorious dictators in Zimbabwe for the past decade. Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, the "Butcher of Addis Ababa", ruled Ethiopia for 17 years, imposing a regime based on a strategy of total fear that he himself called the "Red Terror".

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that the government had launched a strategic plan designed to reduce malaria mortality by 50 percent by the year 2010.

No society could think of a successful future and sustained development without making the issue of children its priority, Lulit Zewde Gebremariam, an Ethiopian representative told a UN General Assembly meeting on children's rights, on 26 October.

"I wasn't born to be a filmmaker. I was a student at the theatre arts dept at UCLA and one day I just stumbled into the film dept. I saw other students screen their final projects and I was thought this is interesting, I should try."

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, has said the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea is on track.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today completed a fact-finding mission in Ethiopia with a visit to jailed journalist Tamirate Zuma at the Kerchele Penitentiary in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Even though the number of journalists in jail has significantly decreased in recent years, Ethiopia has still some way to go towards achieving genuine press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The United States wants further talks with Ethiopia "on concrete actions and cooperation" in the war against terrorism, AFP quoted a White House spokesman, Ari Fleisher, saying on 5 October.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted the Tigray Regional State (northern Ethiopia) 18.7 million birr (about US $2.3 million) to help people displaced by the war with Eritrea, the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported on 4 October.