Addis Ababa (AFP) - At least 58 people were killed during ethnic violence at the weekend on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital, an Amnesty International researcher told AFP on Wednesday.

And another source involved in the investigation, who saw and counted the corpses, told AFP a total of 65 people had been killed, mostly in the city's western suburbs.

The figures are more than twice that given by state media which on Monday said the death toll from violence in and around Burayu stood at 23.

Fighting broke out last week in Burayu, a western suburb of Addis Ababa, and continued through the weekend, forcing hundreds to flee and sparking protests that paralysed the city on Monday during which police killed five people.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the investigation source said most of the deaths had occurred in the city's western suburbs although others were killed in the centre.

"The 65 cases are from Burayu, Ashewa Meda, Kolfe and Kirkos," the source said, referring to three areas in the west and Kirkos in the centre.

Some of the victims had been stabbed while others died after being beaten with sticks and rocks.

None had been shot and the toll does not include five alleged looters killed by police on Monday.

- Targeted by Oromo mobs -

Fisseha Tekle, a Nairobi-based researcher with Amnesty International, said he had compiled a similar tally of 58 dead.

Residents told Amnesty International they saw "eight dead bodies on Friday, 21 on Saturday," he said.

"On Sunday they saw about 11 people and on Monday the number of dead bodies they've seen was 18."

Government spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

Burayu lies on the outskirts of Addis Ababa but within the Oromia region that surrounds the capital and which is home to the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group.

People who fled the clashes told AFP they were targeted by Oromo mobs because they are members of minority ethnic groups.

- Police failings -

Fisseha said the government must investigate the conduct of the Oromia and federal police, whom he accused of failing to quell the violence.

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"They have to investigate why they have not responded on time, why they have failed to protect the vulnerable communities there," Fisseha said.

The violence began last week in the run-up to Saturday's return of the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group that returned to Ethiopia following a string of radical political reforms pushed through by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

An Oromo himself, Abiy took power in April and has won popularity for his aggressive reform agenda which has seen him freeing jailed dissidents and overhauling the security services, who have long been accused of violating human rights.

He has also pushed through a landmark peace deal with Eritrea, which was signed in July, ending two decades of enmity sparked by a border conflict.

But bloody ethnic clashes have broken out repeatedly since his inauguration, with the worst clashes occurring in the south where fighting between the Oromo and Gedeo minority has displaced nearly one million people.</s>Terefe Berlie Asmare moved to Addis Ababa in 1980 and spent much of the next decade driving. He worked at a garage in the Ethiopian capital by day, and studied engineering by night. At weekends he would roam the countryside in his father’s car, with a tent bought from the German embassy in the boot, and a Konica in his pocket.

“I always took the camera with me,” he says, standing in the garden of Addis Ababa’s iconic, though fading, Wabi Shebele hotel, which is still owned by the family of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia’s last emperor.
• None Children of the Kuas Meda area during an Eid celebration in 1960.

Asmare, now in his 60s, documented his road trips extensively, being one of the few people he knew with a camera – he was the lucky owner of the world’s first commercial autofocus. “There were no photographers at that time,” he recalls. “So I did most of the pictures myself, often with a self timer.”
• None Terefe, soaking it all in during a road trip to Langano in the 80s.

In one carefree shot he leans cockily against his Mazda car in view of Lake Langano, a spot popular with Addis Ababa’s middle classes then and now. His white socks are pulled up high and a red baseball hangs nonchalantly from his fingers. It’s a world away from the land of famine and war that foreign photojournalists etched in the popular consciousness of the 1980s.
• None Zemecha (development through cooperation campaign) was an ideological community service campaign during the communist Derg regime.

Terefe’s photos – he believes has more than 1,000 from this period – might have disappeared were it not for Vintage Addis Ababa. A website that started in July 2017 as a Tumblr page, the project Vintage Addis Ababa invites Ethiopians to share old photos from family archives as a part of an effort to document the lives of various people throughout the country’s tumultuous 20th century of empire, war and revolution.

Vintage Addis Ababa is the brainchild of Philipp Schütz, a Swiss publisher and photographer based in the city, of Wongel Abebe, an Ethiopian photographer, and of Nafkot Gebeyehu, a documentary photographer. The project peels away the popular cliches to reveal a more innocent city with an intimate and familiar past.
• None Gelan, left, photographed with a childhood friend and with him again years later.

Schütz says, referring to some of the 1,800 plus photographs they have amassed so far: “They look exactly like my parents’ family archive, of the photos of my grandparents in the 1950s.” He and Abebe were surprised by the enthusiasm with which the city’s residents accepted the idea. “It was totally unexpected,” he says. “We’re not digging out 100-year-old photos. These are just everyday, family, stories from a time which a lot of people still remember.”
• None “She was a very stylish mother.” Zufan photographed by her husband from their car. She regularly went out to buy flowers for Keflay’s hotel and her home.
• None Celebrating with gursha, a traditional, often playful, gesture of appreciation.

Abebe thinks the project taps into a latent frustration with the way the Ethiopia has been represented over the years. “People are sick and tired of the famine and all that,” she says. “This is about how people want to be remembered.” Many of the photos they have received were submitted by friends and relatives wishing to commemorate their departed, or ageing, loved ones.

Photographs belonging to the late Kassa Gebru, an engineer-turned-businessman who built Addis Ababa hotel in the 1950s, were given to Abebe by his daughter, who felt he deserved recognition for founding the city’s first venue for live jazz.
• None A live band at Shuferochu nightclub, a spot for music lovers opened by Kassa Gebru.

The project also appeals to the occasional nostalgia some Ethiopians feel for their past, even for a period like the 1980s, a decade stained by bloodshed and economic privation under the communist regime known as the Derg.

“I was a bachelor,” says Asmare. “I spent most of my time travelling and I really enjoyed it. In Addis there was less traffic because nobody had cars – the Derg had banned imports – and on Saturday nights there would be parties in Ras hotel, in Ghion hotel, and of course here in Wabi Shebele. When I look at the photos in my albums it’s like a dream.”
• None “A day trip to Debre Markos was one of the most rebellious things I’ve done growing up,” says Genet, pictured second from the right.
• None Genet and Mulugeta on their wedding day in the 1960s with friends Konjit and Tesfay.

“Genet’s father was very strict, like most fathers at the time. She wasn’t allowed to go out of the house besides go to school; she was expected to come straight home afterwards and would be in trouble if she didn’t arrive within 30 minutes after home-time.” Girls at the time were expected to be timid and walk with their heads tucked down. They weren’t allowed to leave their house for just recreation. “One time, a few girlfriends and I took a photo as we celebrated a friend’s graduation at Addis Ababa university, as she earned her business degree. I had to hide that picture for years so my father wouldn’t see it.”

Vintage Addis Ababa is part of a broader trend towards revisiting and rethinking Africa’s recent history. Schütz was inspired by a project that digitises old Ugandan photographs, though his focus was narrower and with more emphasis on family and private lives.

Calling to mind the work of the late Malian photographer Malick Sidibé, and Burkina Faso’s Sory Sanlé, both of whom captured the colourful optimism of post-independence west Africa, these photos of mid-century Addis Ababa evoke a similar mood. They chart the evolution of fashion, hairstyles, and even the city’s physical environment, making Vintage Addis Ababa a rich exercise in cultural history. Some of the districts seen here have long since disappeared, or, like the old Italian quarter known as Piassa, are now on the brink of demolition.
• None Little Albash, the daughter of a businessman from Gojam, as a four-year-old in 1941 with her aunt Berhane and uncle Mengesha. Right: Tsedek Banjaw (middle) and her sisters Abebech (right) Yeshi Gebereyes, a talented Kirar (traditional string instrument) player (left) with their baby brother Zewdu, in 1947.

The project started out as a website aiming to reach as many Ethiopians as possible, but it is soon to be published as a book. The team also hope the idea will eventually spread to other Ethiopian cities.

As it stands, Vintage Addis Ababa offers a glimpse into the past but only a fleeting one. “We don’t want to be misleading,” says Abebe, of the project’s title. “You can never represent the whole of Ethiopia in pictures.”
• None Tsehay Teferedegn, was of the 62 women who went to the academy in Holetta to receive full military training in 1964.</s>ADDIS ABABA (ETHIOPIA): At least 58 people were killed during a weekend of ethnic violence in Ethiopia's capital, an Amnesty International researcher told AFP on Wednesday, citing a figure more than double the government estimate of 23 dead.

Another source involved in the investigation, who saw and counted the corpses, told AFP a total of 65 people had been killed, mostly in the city's western suburbs.

"The 65 cases are from Burayu, Ashewa Meda, Kolfe and Kirkos," said the source on condition of anonymity, referring to three western areas and one in the centre.

The victims were either stabbed or died after being beaten with sticks and rocks.

None had been shot and the toll does not include five alleged looters killed by police on Monday.

Fisseha Tekle, a Nairobi-based researcher with Amnesty International, said he had compiled a similar tally of 58 dead.

Residents told Amnesty International they saw "eight dead bodies on Friday, 21 on Saturday, on Sunday they saw about 11 people and on Monday the number of dead bodies they've seen were 18," Fisseha said.

Government spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.

The violence began last week in the run-up to Saturday's return of the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group that returned to Ethiopia following political reforms introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.</s>This past weekend over 1,500 Oromo freedom fighters made a triumphant return to Addis Ababa from many decades of exile in Eritrea to a jubiulant rally of over 100,000 where a giant photo of Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki graced the stage. Thats right, not the Oromo Prime Minister of Ethiopia Dr. Ahmed Abi, no sir, Issias picture was front and center at this victory celebration, for the Oromos, like the Amhara leadership two days earlier know full well who made Ethiopia’s Peaceful Revolution possible.

Dr. Abiy so famously stated this at the Unity Music Concert in Addis on July 8 where he shared the stage with President Issias as he spoke of the difficulties facing Ethiopia in the days to come, concluding that don’t worry “Issias [Aferwerki] is leading us.”

For us here in Eritrea the sight of Issias picture taking center stage at a rally by the Oromo heros in the middle of Addis Ababa is pretty much a mind blower, for hundreds of thousands of Oromo conscripts bones lie in to many Eritrean fields to remember, cannon fodder in the 30 year independence war fought against Eritrea.

Of course the international media made sure most footage of this monumental photo of Issias was removed from their broadcasts, though the Oromo satellite channels broadcast it over and over for all of us to see.

This is a tough one to swallow by those defenders of human rights in the west who have spent so many years villifying the President of socialist Eritrea. I mean how is it that Issias is a villian yet the heros of the Ethiopian freedom struggle lionize the guy, even more than their own Oromo brother, PM Ahmed Abiy?

Issias, the grizzled veteran of decades of guerilla war followed by decades of diplomatic and economic warfare, saw to it that Eritrea spent million$ growing the Ethiopia freedom fighters even when devastating drought left Eritreans hungry. For years all we heard from Issias at his annual Independence Day speeches was visions of a future of peace and cooperation between fraternal neighbors, not the fratricidal invasions and no war no peace policy being endured by we Eritreans for decades.

Eritreans used to complain, we are suffering and all we get is pie in the sky one day from our President? People said we needed water, electricity and better salaries, not exhortations to stick it out a little longer, better times were coming by and by…

But damn, didnt Issias get it right, peace is upon us almost to fast to comprehend and the largest nationality in our traditional enemy Ethiopia hails our President Issias as their foremost hero?

Not only that but the leadership of the Amhara freedom fighters made a pilgrimage to what is known here in Eritrea as “Camp David”, the site of the giant water reservoir outside of Asmara that Issias personally oversaw construction of, where he has taken up daily residence. Amharas, some of the fiercest opponents of Eritrean Independence paying homage to the man that engineered their defeat on the field of battle, recognizing just what a giant of Ethiopian freedom wedi Afom, Issias Aferwerki is in their peoples eyes?

This isn’t Eritrean “propaganda”, no, no, no, this is the leadership of the Oromo and Amhara peoples of Ethiopia making it crystal clear what their feelings are toward Eritrea and our President Issias Aferwerki. After decades of comradely care in exile in Eritrea these freedom fighters know all to well just what went into the sucessful peaceful overthrow of one of Africa’s if not the worlds most corrupt and brutal regime, the TPLF gansters recently removed from power.

Even as the Oromo freedom fighters partied in Addis violence flared up with ethnic massacres breaking out in Addis and further into the hinterland, many instigated by the remaining TPLF installed reactionaries still entrenched in much of the beauracracy bringing front and center just how much work remains to be done in the transformation of Ethiopia from a facist, gangster dictatorship to a modern peoples democracy. But as Dr. Abiy told his people dont worry “Issias is leading us”. And no honest person can deny just what the Oromo freedom fighters think about Issias, not if placing a giant picture of the man center stage at their victory rally is any indication.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook, thomascmountain on Twitter or best contact him at thomascmountain at g mail dot com</s>The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) launched an initiative to strengthen air quality management in Addis Ababa. The Megacity Partnership brings together the Addis Ababa Environmental Protection Authority, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in collaboration with a UN Environment demonstration project on air quality management. The initiative will raise awareness about the health and economic impacts of air pollution, assess the challenges facing air quality in Addis Ababa, and support local capacity to develop and implement an air quality management plan (AQMP) by 2020.

At the launch ceremony U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Troy Fitrell framed the importance of the project, saying “Clean air is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Quite literally, we can’t live without it.”

Globally, air pollution is the largest single environmental health risk. The estimates vary, due to sparse health and air pollution data, however, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that over 45,000 African children under the age of 5 die annually due to air pollution, one of the highest regional child mortality rates in the world. In Ethiopia, the Global Burden of Disease estimates that air pollution is the number 2 risk factor for death and number 3 risk factor for disability.

Mr. Fitrell also highlighted the economic importance of healthy air, “The United States believes that an investment in improving Ethiopia’s air quality is an investment worth making. In part, that’s because of the undeniable link between a healthy population and a healthy economy. In the U.S. we know from our own experience that the benefits of environmental standards can far outweigh the costs and through this project, we want to share those lessons with Ethiopia. Since 1970, U.S. emissions of six key air pollutants dropped by an average of 70 percent, while our GDP grew by 246 percent. This is not a coincidence. We made those gains through sensible policy and more efficient technology. Moreover, we have enjoyed greater productivity due to improved health.” Estimates of the economic cost to Africa of indoor and outdoor air pollution approach $250 billion annually.

The USEPA designed the Megacity Partnership to support governments to develop integrated air quality action plans that reduce harmful air pollution and improve public health. The Partnership was piloted in Accra, Ghana, with the approaches, tools and strategies applied there offering a model for other cities in Africa. Likewise, the project Addis will deliver successful practices and policies that be applied to other cities and Ethiopia and throughout the world.</s>Addis Ababa, 19 September 2018: The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has received with utmost sadness and shock the news of the attack during the weekend against innocent civilians in the locality of Burayu, near Addis Ababa, in the course of which a number of people were killed and many others wounded and displaced.

The Chairperson of the Commission strongly condemns these cowardly acts, and stresses that the African Union shares the grief of the Ethiopian people. He expresses the African Union’s condolences to the Government of Ethiopia and the families of the victims, as well as its full solidarity at this moment of mourning.

The Chairperson of the Commission is convinced that this criminal attack will only strengthen the resolve of the Ethiopian leadership and people to stand in unity, persevere on the path of reform and ensure the prevalence of the rule of the law. He reiterates the African Union’s support to the efforts of the Ethiopian Government in this respect, and hails the commitment and determination of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.</s>ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopia's stunning political reforms are now threatened by long-standing ethnic tensions that have roared back to life since a young prime minister took power just five months ago and promised greater freedoms.

While exiled groups once banned as terror organizations are welcomed home to join political dialogue, deadly violence erupts on the fringes of celebrations. On Saturday, tens of thousands of people gathered peacefully in Addis Ababa's Meskel Square to cheer one group's return. Two days later, police fired tear gas there to disperse people protesting killings blamed by some on youth from the same ethnicity.

Suddenly, the government of 42-year-old Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appears to be reaching for security tactics whose unpopularity helped to bring down the previous government, while some Ethiopians who cheered Abiy's reforms now accuse him of being soft on the unrest that poses his biggest challenge so far.

The internet winked off this week across the capital, a once-common act to control dissenting voices. The National Security Council has vowed "all necessary measures" against those spreading anarchy, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported. Some have even called for the return of the state of emergency that Abiy lifted in one of his first acts in office.

The prime minister himself, who shocked the country with a dizzying series of reforms that included freeing imprisoned opposition figures and vowing free and fair elections in 2020, has made warning sounds against the unrest.

"There's nothing more shameful than a group of people committing these types of crimes against their fellow citizens," Abiy said Tuesday while visiting a camp for those displaced by the latest violence.

Stability is crucial in a country whose fast-growing economy, 100 million-strong population and security ties make it the powerhouse of the turbulent but strategic Horn of Africa region.

Ethnic-based conflicts mainly over scarce resources are common in Ethiopia, which is home to more than 80 ethnic groups, but now the communal violence is spiraling at a scale that alarms many.

"If this trend continues, I fear a time will come soon when Ethiopians yearn for the old dictatorial times," Mussie Tefera, a university student, told The Associated Press.

Ethiopia since 1991 has been led by a ruling coalition and allied parties that hold every seat in Parliament and for years were accused by human rights groups of suppressing critical voices. That grip on power slipped after anti-government protests that began in late 2015 in the Oromia and Amhara regions, home of the country's two largest ethnic groups.

Abiy's arrival in power was a surprise. He is the first prime minister from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo. As the son of a Muslim father and Orthodox Christian mother who converted to Islam he has spoken out for tolerance. On an exuberant tour of the United States that drew large crowds, he spoke to Ethiopian communities and invited emotional exiles long wary of the government to return.

His appeals to peace and openness, however, have not healed long-standing ethnic fractures between groups such as the Oromo and the Somalis. Some disputes have worsened. The number of the country's internally displaced people has reached 2.8 million, up from 1.6 million at the beginning of the year, according to the United Nations.

For some, the surge in unrest comes with the recent shifts in power.

"Local cadres and officials are instigating this violence for a petty political gain," Ethiopia's disaster prevention chief, Mitiku Kassa, told The Associated Press after fighting between the Oromo and others in the Gedeo and West Guji zones.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Embassy was among those issuing safety warnings amid the violence on the outskirts of the capital as many Ethiopians expressed outrage over the alleged targeting of people based on ethnic identity. More than 20 people were killed.

"We demand justice," some protesters chanted as they passed by the prime minister's office on Monday en route to Meskel Square. By the end of the day, mobile internet service across Addis Ababa was blocked as citizens and Amnesty International pointed out hate speech against non-Oromo groups on social media. Internet service returned on Wednesday.

While some accuse "paid agents" of trying to paint a bad image of Oromo youth emboldened by Abiy's rise to power, others suggest some unrest is being orchestrated by groups in the ruling coalition that lost power when he took office.

Any internal frictions could be exposed when the ruling coalition holds its congress early next month, when it is expected to take steps to implement Abiy's whirlwind political and economic reforms.

"In a system where party and state have long been indistinguishable, the (coalition's) fragmentation would be a dangerous thing," Michael Woldemariam, assistant professor of international relations at Boston University, wrote this month in Foreign Affairs.

Ethiopians have long expressed grievances over the country's federal structure that is largely based on ethnic lines and has been held together by the ruling coalition and its security forces.

"If the federal structure is implemented properly, it is fine," said Berhanu Nega, whose Patriotic Ginbot 7 opposition group had been listed by Ethiopia as a terror group alongside the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab before being welcomed home from exile by the new government. "But what we have now here is a structure based mainly on ethnic identities and hence creating all these problems."

Abiy's administration is failing to guarantee law and order, said Awol Kassim Allo, a lecturer in law at Keele University School of Law in Britain.

"At this defining moment for this country and its people, the state needs a commander-in-chief that stirs the ship out of the storm," he said. "If we fail to defend this moment of ours and support this understandably challenging transition, we will all lose a great deal."</s>The United States embassy in Ethiopia has closed its doors today (September 19) over what it said was an abundance of caution in the light of large scale demonstrations expected in Addis Ababa.

The embassy subsequently announced a cancellation of all services and appointments asking the public to reschedule their appointments via the website.

“Americans requiring emergency assistance should visit the U.S. Embassy website for contact information. Additionally, the American Center in Addis Ababa and the Satchmo Center at the U.S. Embassy will be closed tomorrow.

“We encourage all those involved in the demonstrations to express themselves peacefully,” the statement issued on Tuesday concluded.

Ethiopians online questioned the basis of the Embassy’s information about a protest to which they issued a response on Wednesday morning.

“Regarding Q’s about decision to close our Embassy today-when we receive info we have to make decisions about security even if info is not specific. US law requires us to share that decision publicly. We decided to be cautious. We hope today is calm & peaceful in Addis,” the embassy said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, state-run Fana Broadcasting Corporate has reported that there were no protests planned for the capital as alleged by the Embassy.

The FBC story cited federal police commissioner Jemal Zeinu as stating that the capital will not experience any protest and that residents should go about their usual day-to-day activities.</s>The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world.

Just five months into the administration of Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, protests rooted in ethnic conflict and the administration of land rights policies have once again taken Addis Ababa by storm and led to the deaths of at least 20 people.

On September 17, in what appeared to be an effort to quell social unrest, mobile internet networks were shut down across the capital city. Ethio Telecom, the country’s sole, government-owned internet and phone service provider, did not offer any public statement about the shutdown.

Abiy Ahmed came into office in April 2018 after nearly three years of mass protests, ethnic conflict and violent military interventions in some regions of the country. Former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn voluntarily resigned from office in February 2018 after his once-ruling coalition had splintered beyond repair, opening the window of possibility for Ahmed’s election.

Hailed as a reformer, the new prime minister has ordered the release of thousands of political prisoners, removed top-level police and security officials from the previous regime and worked to rekindle relations with Eritrea. He also lifted the country’s state of emergency, which had been in place intermittently since 2015.

The resurgence of protests and corresponding internet shutdown, both hallmarks of public life under the previous regime, have raised fears that Ahmed's efforts to restore peace and uphold human rights in the country are already faltering.

Reacting to the shutdown, activist and former prisoner of conscience Atnaf Berhane tweeted about the irony of this move on the part of the new government:

Ukrainian journalist Aleksandr Gorokhovsky was arrested in the northwestern Kazakh city of Uralsk while he was training a group of Kazakh journalists in fact-checking methods. The workshop was organized by regional newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya, that has long been the target of state harassment, due in part to its precarious position near the Kazakh-Russian border, where there are strong political currents of pro-Moscow sentiment. Gorokohovsky was fined two days later by a local court, where the public prosecutor argued that when entering Kazakhstan, Gorokhovsky had failed to indicate who had invited him to the country on his migration form

With ethnic tensions rising, how will Facebook affect Cameroon’s elections?

The Cameroonian government is targeting the spread of misinformation online with presidential elections approaching on October 7. Online campaigns promoting ethnic violence have become a growing force in Cameroon’s internal conflict, where a separatist movement in English-speaking areas has led to clashes between armed separatists and military forces, with military attacks on Anglophone villages forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. For 230 days in 2017 and 2018, Anglophone regions of Cameroon also suffered one of the longest continuous internet shutdowns known to have occurred on the continent.

Cameroonian officials recently met with Facebook over concerns that the platform poses a threat to public security as calls for ethnic violence continue to spread on the platform.

Writing for Quartz Africa, Amindeh Blaise Atabong questioned whether the officials may have other additional motives: Facebook has been used to share videos that local experts say depict Cameroonian soldiers killing unarmed civilians in the separatist regions, and that the government may have hopes of blocking this material.

Malaysia’s ‘anti-fake news’ law may not last

Malaysia’s Senate blocked an attempt by the lower house of Parliament to repeal the country’s “Anti-Fake News Law”, which penalizes the distribution of “news, information, data and reports which is or are wholly or partly false” with fines of up to 500,000 ringgit (USD $123,000) or a maximum sentence of six years in prison. The law has been criticized by a group of UN special rapporteurs for enabling restrictions on freedom of expression, and its repeal was one of the election priorities of the recently elected Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. It will now return to the lower house for another vote.

Google’s China strategy will include plenty of censorship — and surveillance

After leaving the Chinese market in 2010, citing human rights concerns, Google is now preparing to launch a censored version of its search engine in China. The “Dragonfly” app would automatically identify and censor websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, BBC, Global Voices and many others that are currently blocked in China, and remove Google search results that government officials deem sensitive.

According to new findings by The Intercept, the app will also link users’ searches to their personal phone numbers so that the company (and presumably Chinese state officials) can monitor their queries. This reinforces the concerns of a coalition of 14 human rights groups expressed in an open letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the storage of Google data in China could make users’ data vulnerable to government surveillance, and could make Google complicit in human rights violations.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK’s mass surveillance programs violate the right to privacy and freedom of expression. The ruling, which responds to a challenge brought by organizations including Amnesty international and Privacy International, found that the programs lacked sufficient oversight for how data is collected and violated human rights doctrine and laws. It fell short of stating that the existence of a bulk data collection scheme would itself be in violation of the law.
• Mapping Segregation: Google Maps and the Human Rights of Palestinians – 7amleh
• Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries – Citizen Lab</s>Teddy Afro a famed Ethiopian musician has donated one million birr (about $36,000) to victims of recent violence, according to the Ethiopian reporter news outlet.

Violence in the town of Burayu located on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa claimed over fifty lives and displaced about 12,000 people from the area.

Most of the displaced are currently sheltered in Addis Ababa with the Oromia government having firmly promised that it will take charge of their rehabilitation and return.

In Burayu, local residents said shops were looted and people attacked by people reported to be mobs of Oromo youth who stormed through streets targeting businesses and homes of ethnic minorities.

Teddy Afro’s track titled ‘Ethiopia’ was published on video sharing website Youtube on April 14, 2017 and became an instant hit getting millions of views . The track marked Teddy’s global breakthrough and his fifth album since he started off 16 years back.

The 6 and half minutes track helped him top the Billboard World Albums chart, a feat the musician celebrated on his Facebook page. He told the BBC that the current track has exceeded his expectations. It is said to have sold over a million copies by close of 2017.

‘‘It gives me great joy, there hasn’t been an album that has been this well received to my knowledge. All of my music is based on love, like Martin Luther King said, hate is defeated with love, darkness with light,” he said.
The death toll from the recent spike in ethnic violence in Ethiopia rises to 58. Thousands are still protesting against the killings in the capital Addis Ababa.