Ethiopia to bid for 2017 African Cup

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia will bid to host the 2017 African Cup of Nations after Libya pulled out citing security concerns, the president of the national football federation said, a tough task for a country with only basic sports infrastructure.

There is government backing for the bid, Ethiopia football federation president Junedin Basha said.

"We are both willing and able to host the games," Junedin said, adding new facilities are being planned and built across the country. "We see no problem in hosting."

Ethiopia will lodge its bid with the Confederation of African Football by the end of the week, Junedin said.

CAF is racing to find a new venue after Libya's withdrawal and has given countries until the end of September to register bids. Countries normally have four years to prepare for the African Cup but the winning bid will have just over two to prepare for 2017.

Ghana and Kenya have also shown interest in bidding.

Ethiopia is a founding member of CAF and hosted early versions of the Cup of Nations in 1962, 1968 and 1976. The East African country struggled to keep up, though, and didn't qualify for Africa's top tournament for more than 30 years before returning in South Africa last year.

Junedin said the National Stadium in Addis Ababa and a stadium in the northern city of Bahir Dar would be two of the venues, although the National Stadium would have to be upgraded, he said. Other stadiums are being constructed.

A country needs at least four grounds for the 16-team African Cup.

CAF will announce the 2017 host next year. It will award the 2019 and 2021 tournaments next month, putting it in the strange position of having hosts for those African Cups before the 2017 version.

Algeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Zambia are bidding for 2019 and 2021. The next African Cup, which is held every two years, is in Morocco in January and February.

Ventura nonprofit's effort in Ethiopia featured in documentary

Kit Stolz

5:59 PM, Aug 28, 2014

6 hours ago

ventura | local news

 

 

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

VENTURA, Calif. - Sharon Daly taught elementary students in Oxnard for 37 years but had a past life she rarely mentioned to her young students.

Evan Cantrell, one of her former students, remembers how patiently she taught him to read when he was struggling in third grade, and he remembers how surprised he was to find out years later that Daly had gone on to devote her life to eradicating a disease found mostly in tropical Ethiopia.

“Wow, my teacher is like Indiana Jones, going to Third World countries and helping people,” said Cantrell, who reconnected with Daly after a business networking event. “I knew her as a schoolteacher in Oxnard. She had mentioned this disease called mossy foot, but she didn’t get too much into it, so I was really surprised.”

Daly runs the Ventura-based Mossy Foot Project, started by her father, Nathan Barlow. The nonprofit’s efforts were featured in a short documentary called “Operation Change: Ethiopia,” which aired this month on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The Mossy Foot Project began in 1945 when Barlow and his young wife moved to Ethiopia so he could offer his medical services to an indigenous population with no experience in Western medicine.

“Being the only doctor for over a million people (in southern Ethiopia), working 24 hours a day with a full surgical load, training medical assistants, traveling constantly to identify epidemics, he didn’t have time to specialize,” Daly said. “But in the early ’50s, a woman came to his clinic. She couldn’t walk. She had to scoot on her bottom and push herself with her hands. She had this foot disease that no one had ever heard of, now called mossy foot.

“My father thought it might be elephantiasis, but he looked it up in his medical books and found he could treat it. She responded well to skin grafts and was able to go on to live a normal life.”

Barlow and his family had to leave Ethiopia in 1977 when the government was overthrown by communist rebels. Daly settled in Ventura County with her husband, Jim Daly, and had no plans to go back to Africa.

But the Ethiopian government in 1997 invited Barlow, who had become a legend in the region, to return, and he decided to open a clinic specializing in treating mossy foot.

The disease, formally called podoconiosis, is caused by exposure to rich tropical soils containing silica or volcanic glass. Sufferers can develop massive infections and swellings. The disease is not contagious and can be cured if caught early relatively simply, by careful washing with soap, water and a disinfectant, or by surgery if necessary.

“Because these people suffered so much, so much stigma, and were shunned like lepers, my father started the Mossy Foot Project,” Daly said. “My father passed away in 2004, but he had been telling people who asked: ‘Oh, I’m not concerned about the Mossy Foot Project. I have a strong daughter who will take care of it.’ I guess somehow we knew.”

Daly and her husband split their time between Ethiopia and Ventura. Locally, they raise money for the Mossy Foot Project, which works with other Christian aid projects, including the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

The Mossy Foot Project treats up to 3,000 people a month, Daly said, reaching about 60 percent of the population of Ethiopia at a cost of about $100 per year per patient, or about $22,000 a month overall. Daly said that although it is a Christian ministry, it treats anyone in need.

“It’s just heartwarming,” she said. “I often come to tears when I am sitting in the clinics and hearing the patients’ stories. It’s very rewarding. These patients’ lives are changed forever and for the better.”

Cantrell, who now co-owns a film production company based in Ventura County, continues to admire his former teacher and support her work.

“She was a great teacher,” he said. “I needed tutoring, and she would stay after school and give me all the time in the world and then drop me off at home afterwards. Her retiring from teaching to continue her father’s work was a really bold move, and it’s a big statement from her, to say that you should do what you love and really go after what you want to do for people.”

On the Net: The documentary is at http://www.operationchange.com/episode/ethiopia

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sour

Ethiopian banks choose BPC Smartvista for national switching operations

Ethiopian banks choose BPC Smartvista for national switching operations

Finextra- BPC Banking Technologies, the leading provider of Open System payment solutions,  has announced that EthSwitch has chosen SmartVista to power its national switching operations in Ethiopia.

SmartVista was selected because of its comprehensive functionality, advanced technology and proven track record in helping payment businesses worldwide capitalize on opportunities presented by the changing payments landscape.

EthSwitch was formed by all the banks in Ethiopia, and with the backing of the Ethiopian Bankers’ Association and the country’s central bank known as the National Bank of Ethiopia. EthSwitch aims to connect all banks to a central transaction switching platform that will provide customers with access to their money and other financial services via any ATM, Point of Sale (POS) device, mobile and Internet channels, regardless of which bank issued their card or in which bank their account is kept.

All connected member banks will benefit from interoperability as well as providing a new level of convenience and access to Ethiopian citizens, merchants, and organizations. Once implemented, it is envisaged that the new system, powered by SmartVista, will drive the Ethiopian financial ecosystem to new levels of efficiency, availability and accessibility while also significantly reducing the levels of cash usage.

BPC will also provide EthSwitch with the ability to interface to International Payments Schemes, such as Visa and MasterCard Worldwide and to enhance local acceptance of these globally branded cards. The SmartVista system will be interfaced to the national Automated Transfer System (comprising ACH and RTGS) to facilitate efficient clearing and settlement of all transactions.

“Our goal is to make inter-bank retail payments processing easier, while increasing security and transparency. Following a rigorous evaluation of a wide range of systems on the market we chose SmartVista because it is the solution that can best meet our diverse needs, today and for the future. We are looking forward to improving Ethiopia’s payments landscape and believe that BPC Banking Technologies’ expertise and experience will help us achieve our goal to build and operate the unifying e-payment platform for all financial institutions in Ethiopia,” noted Bizuneh Bekele, CEO of EthSwitch S.C.

“BPC Banking Technologies is proud to help drive such a vital project for Ethiopia’s economy. We have a long track record with projects such as this and we are certain that EthSwitch will have the most advanced, robust and innovative payments infrastructure, powered by SmartVista. With SmartVista’s unique design not only will EthSwitch be able to offer a wide range of services immediately but they will be well positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the future,” added Daryl Berg, MD BPC-Africa

Source: Zegabi.com

Watch Israel’s Iron Dome Intercept And Destroy 15 Hamas Rockets [VIDEO]

Watch Israel’s Iron Dome Intercept And Destroy 15 Hamas Rockets [VIDEO]

Watch Israel’s missile defense system at work in this video uploaded to YouTube by user Sin Tuesday.

Fifteen rockets are fired overhead and then destroyed by the system, called the Iron Dome, as sirens roar in the background. Several people are seen running for a bomb shelter, but one girl stands outside the door with her phone.

Watch it

Source: news.yahoo.com

Dr. Tedros Adhanom meets the Ambassador of the League of Arab States to Ethiopia

Dr. Tedros Adhanom meets the Ambassador of the League of Arab States to Ethiopia

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Addis Ababa, 27 August 2014 (WIC) - Dr. Tedros Adhanom met with Ambassador Saleh Sahboun, Ambassador of the League of Arab States to Ethiopia and the League’s Permanent Representative to the AU and UNECA on Tuesday.

Discussions centered on elevating relations between Ethiopia and the League of Arab States to new level, building on past achievements and expediting the practical cooperation based on win-win outcomes and common benefits between the League and Ethiopia.

Dr. Tedros welcomed Ambassador Saleh, and noted the friendship and historic ties existing between Ethiopia and the Arab world. He underlined the importance of seizing the present developmental opportunities created in Ethiopia in order to raise relations to a new height for the benefit of all.

Ambassador Saleh Sahboun delivered a message from Dr. Nabil Elaraby, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, to Dr. Tedros Adhanom, referring to intensifying the existing cooperative partnership for mutual advancement and common prosperity.

Ambassador Sahboun, who extended Dr. Nabil Elaraby’s greetings to Dr, Tedros, noted that Ethiopia had become a force for peace and stability in the region, in Africa and beyond.

He praised Ethiopia’s efforts to build a stable, prosperous and harmonious region, and he affirmed the League of Arab States was willing to support Ethiopia’s developmental efforts, its economic takeoff and its national renewal.

He said the League of Arab States was committed to cooperate with Ethiopia with the view to build a better tomorrow. He also appreciated IGAD’s role as an advocate for lasting peace and prosperity in the region. (MoFA)