Two men have been killed after clashes with police in South Yemen. The two men have been taking part in demonstrations against increasing food prices in the Red Sea state. Read more: TOPNEWSIN.

Physicians for Peace was founded in 1989 and has a slightly different strategy in helping the developing world in comparison to other aid organisations.

The approach and philosophy it uses, believes that health care in the third world countries can best be improved by providing training and education to professionals and health organisations in those countries. The long term medical education programme is conducted by volunteers such as physicians, dentists, nurses, physical therapists and other professionals in the respective countries.

Physicians for Peace has been working with the local government and hospitals in Asmara to help educating and training Eritrean doctors as well as to treat patients.

In its latest project with the Halibet Hospital in Asmara the organization has send a team of specialized surgeons from Chicago and Arizona, which spent two weeks performing limb reconstructive operations and trained Eritrean orthopedists in latest techniques.

According to the Physicians most of the patients suffer from polio, clubfoot, cerebral palsy and cerebral injuries. The result of working 10 hours each day for 9 days was 59 surgeries and newly trained Eritrean orthopedists. Read more: Physicians for Peace Eritrea.

According to the Basketball Association of Uganda (FUBA), Eritrea is going to take part in this year’s Africa Zone 5 Club Basketball Championship. The cup will be in Kampala from the 27th July to the 2nd of August. Other participating countries are Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Rwanda. Each country will be represented with a men’s and women’s team. Read more: Daily Monitor.

After last nights Champions League final a disappointed Manchester United supporter drove with a van into a group of Barcelona fans killing four people. The incident happened in the Nigerian town of Ogbo. Read more: BBC.

The social online platform Facebook has revolutionised and facilitated the means of communication and self-expression in today’s world. In the past, “Internet Phobia” was widely spread amongst the early generations of Internet users.

People were scared to use their credit card online or would be very cautious to display personnel information in the world wide web. “There were times you would go to the travel agency to book a flight!.”

This was because people would fear internet fraud or simply would give their personal privacy a high priority. Things have changed and with Facebook a new opportunity had been opened to thousands of young Eritreans around the world. Suddenly, they were able to find easily their alike in order to share and express their common identity.

Facebook for example has functionalities, where people can create groups or become members. The largest group has 2.178.278 members and is called “Can we get all the facebook users in one group ???”, which seems to be quite an ambitious target considering that Facebook has in total 200 million members worldwide.

Young Eritreans have created 334 groups in Facebook out of which 133 are organised under the topic Eritrea and 201 under the topic Eritrean.

A total number of 43.713 Eritreans have joined these groups in order to follow common interests, exchange topics and create new friendships.

The number of 43.713 members can include double counting, because some people have signed up for several groups at the same time. The topics range from “Eritrean mums” to “All Eritrean Manchester United Fans on Facebook” to “Summer 2010 in Eritrea”.

The largest Eritrean platforms within Facebook in terms of members or followers are:

• “Eritrea” 4304 fans (page)
• “Eritrea” 2409 members (group)
• “Da Eritrean Lover” 1640 members (group)
• “How Eritrean are you?” 1590 members (application)
• “You know you’re Eritrean when” 1334 (group)

Facebook has opened new possibilities for Eritreans to get directly in touch with each other, without having to travel far to Eritrean events or having to get to know new Eritreans through relatives or friends.

Goitom a 36 year old Eritrean, who grew up in rural Italy, is saying that for him it was impossible to get in touch with other Eritreans as a teenager, because major Eritrean communities used to be distributed around big cities such as Milan, Rome, Frankfurt or London.

The advances in Internet technology and surely Facebook have changed this for today’s generations of young Eritreans, Goitom adds.

The press in New Zealand is reporting about a recently married man, who has been refused to bring his Eritrean wife with him to New Zealand after he returned from a job assignment in Eritrea. The issue highlights the importance of non bureaucratic laws as well as the need for legislative flexibility in certain cases.

Legislation in New Zealand requires the husband Greg Cromack to be married to his wife Saba Cromack for at least one year, before he will be granted permission to live together with her in New Zealand.

Plenty of such laws have been introduced around the world, in order to minimise the number of false marriages for immigration purposes.

Mr Cromack, who happens to be the new owner of a software business, which is selling a hotel management system called G4 with good prospects to expand globally, has no intention to be separated from his wife for such a long period. Read the full story

ASMARA - Eritrea’s long-distance runner Zersenay Tadese was such an innocent at his maiden international competition that he missed the starting pistol.

“I thought it would be like home, when the flag goes down. I didn’t know I had to start when a gun went off,” the country’s best-known athlete said, chuckling at memories of the 2002 world cross country championship in Dublin.

Zersenay was also handicapped by over-size shoes for that first big race, yet still managed a respectable 30th.

He went on to take gold in the same competition five years later, in Kenya, in a career that has won him the love of a nation and let Eritrea hold its head high next to more illustrious east African running powers Kenya and Ethiopia.

His greatest moment was bringing home Eritrea’s first Olympic medal — a bronze in the 10,000 metres at Athens 2004.

“To see my country’s flag rise, that was amazing. Yes, I have come a long way,” said Zersenay, who has also won the IAAF world half-marathon championship three times.

No wonder heads turn wherever he goes in Eritrea — Africa’s youngest nation and one of its smallest, with just 4 million people. Children clap and shout greetings as Zersenay trains on the hilltops outside the capital Asmara.

“His popularity in Eritrea is believed to be more than that of David Beckham in Britain,” one local magazine wrote adoringly.

Like many of Africa’s great runners, Zersenay’s roots are rural and humble. He tended livestock as a barefoot boy in the village of Adi Bana in southern Eritrea and laid the foundations for his running career getting to and from the 14 kms to school.

“For about two years, I would run from my house to school every morning. Coming home, I would normally walk, though sometimes too I would run the full 14 kms back,” the 27-year-old told Reuters at his home in Asmara.

“Many of us runners come from these backgrounds. It is basically the lifestyle. If you say to yourself you can do something, you have the strength and will to do it.”

CYCLING FIRST

Despite the school-run training, Zersenay’s sporting life began as a promising cyclist, another popular sport in Eritrea, until a row with team mates cut that short.

Spotted by a local teacher, he then turned to running.

Right now, the Eritrean is training to run the 10,000 metres in the world championships in Berlin in August and a half-marathon in Britain later in the year.

“My goal in the future is to break the world record for the half-marathon,” he said. “You need luck on the day though.”

He plans to run the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics after finishing fifth in the 10,000 metres in Beijing last year.

Whether he brings home more triumphs or not, Zersenay is delighted to have put Eritrea on the map and helped boost a fledgling athletics movement.

“Kenya and Ethiopia have been racing for 60 or 70 years, but us only since 2004,” he said. “Back then, we were four or five. Now there are 300 to 500 people you see every morning jogging and training. That is massive progress.”

Facilities are developing slowly in one of Africa’s smallest economies. Zersenay still trains on a track of dirt, or out in the countryside, but Asmara is soon to unveil its first asphalt track.

Married at the end of last year to a girl he met at school, Zersenay has bought a house in the capital and drives a smart, black 4×4 that looks flash next to the more humble vehicles usually seen on the streets here.

His home is packed with trophies and pictures of him with personalities ranging from Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho, who he bumped into at the Beijing Olympics.

But Zersenay has no pretensions, graciously serving an Eritrean stew on local “njera” bread to visitors from Reuters. “He is a great man. He has done great things for this nation,” said friend and running mate Efraim Ogbegbral.

“After Athens in 2004, many more athletes started, myself included. He taught me everything. He is my friend and coach.” Source: (Reuters)

IRIN News Agency reports that despite the fact that increased rainfall has improved the food security situation in Djibouti, many households in the Red Sea state can not afford to purchase food items due to high prices. Read more: IRIN

The AU is calling on the Security Council of the United Nations to implement sanctions against Eritrea.

These sanctions can imply the suspension of trade relations, rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio as well as the severance of diplomatic relations with a state.

For countries such as Eritrea being able to import goods and services for the national economy can mean the life line for survival.

The threat of sanctions on goods and services in hand with the introduction of tariff and trade barriers, import duties as well as import and export quotas would cause heavy administrative fences for Eritrea. This would make it nearly impossible for a country to supply for the needs of its people.

Eritrea is already one of the poorest nations in the world, with an average yearly per capita income of $US 200 and ranking 157th out of 177 states in the World Development Index (World Bank 2006). Thus, it seems obvious that the introduction of sanctions could have a crushing impact on trade and food security levels for the population of Eritrea.

Especially, as the country is already highly vulnerable to external factors such as commodity prices and foreign exchange flows.

Previous examples of countries which have been sanctioned resulted in impoverishment, increase of child mortality and the lack of elementary items for living. This has led to a majority of people not being able to feed themselves, the GDP falling extremely and the gradual run down of necessary facilities.

In the eye of the increasing economical advances made in the country, the call to sanction Eritrea by neighbouring countries is definitely representing an ethical and humanitarian injustice against the people living in Eritrea.

The WHO has stated recently that good progress has been made in Eritrea to improve life expectancy for its people.

For the first time in years, foreign investment seems to not be scared away from the nation in the Horn of Africa and willing to provide with heavily needed foreign exchange.

Further, the World Bank is underlining that the prospect to ensure food security, develop human resources and physical infrastructure has improved for Eritrea. Moreover, the World Bank is referring to the positive outlook for economical growth with the introduction of a free trade zones as well as the development of the mining sector in Eritrea.

Between 2005 and 2007 Eritrea had an average GDP growth rate of 1%. Experts have estimated that Eritrea requires a sustained real economic growth of 7% or higher in the long term, to reach its Millennium Goal to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty by 50% until 2015.

Sudan Airways made its first flight from Kassala in Sudan to the Eritrean capital Asmara. According to the Sudan Tribune, the airline chose the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the independence of Eritrea to launch the first flight.

Sudan Airways was formed in 1947 and began as a subsidiary operation of the Sudan Railways System. In 1954 the airline added its first international flights.

However, the airline had in the recent past some safety issues regarding accidents involving passenger fatalities. On 23 June 2008, the Sudanese CAA announced grounding of Sudan Airways citing the carrier’s failure to take corrective meassures following an audit of the airline.

In 2007 the company carried 500.000 passengers with a seat occupation of 50% and employed 1353 staff. Sudan Airways has a mixed fleet of 12 Aircraft consisting out of 4 Airbus, 1 Russian build Antonov, 2 Boeing and 7 smaller planes for regional operations (ATI).

The Airline has its major hub in Khartoum and is owned to 49% by the AREF Investment Group, 21 % by Faiha Holding Company and 30% by the Sudanese Government.

Last October, the managing director of Sudan Airways Ahmed Omer Abdelrahman announced big expansion planes and a fleet modernisation during the Arab Air Carriers Organisation conference in Tunis. The expansion plan was including the introduction of long-haul flights to China and India by 2010.

Eritrea is a country rich in culture, diversity and has multi ethnic heritages, which not many people know about. One of these heritages is the Greek Community of Eritrea.

In the 19th century after the Greek war of Independence many Greek merchants had set up homes and trade relations with countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea as well as with Alexandria in Egypt.

The merchants and their business ventures brought along many family members, Greek teaching schools and the Greek Orthodox church.

According to Costas, an Eritrean born in Asmara with Greek ancestors, the first Greeks arrived in Eritrea in the middle of the 19st century coming from Egypt and Sudan (www.mybaobab.com). Their first settlement was established in the Eritrean town of Keren by Vlassis Frangoulis and soon grew towards a community of 178 Greek settlers during the Italian census in 1894.

Asmara’s first Greek community was founded in 1900 and was at that time under the protectorate of the Greek Embassy in Addis Abeba. In their 100 years of history in Eritrea the Greeks reached their peak with around 400 people during the initial decades of the Italian intrusion of Eritrea.

In the course of the rule of the Italian fascists in Eritrea many Greeks were sent to a concentration camp in Quoran.

The strain caused to the Eritrean Greeks by the Italians ceased soon after the British took over the administration of Eritrea in 1941, because high ranking Greek Cypriot officers amongst the British Army came to their aid.

Latest estimates about the number of Greeks in Eritrea are from 2004 and show that around 30 Greeks live in the country today. Let us remember that the name Eritrea is derived from the Greek word Erythrea, which means red a colour known to symbolize blood, love and our heartbeat.

Happy National Day Eritrea