These days, one of the world’s great bandleaders is dedicating his energy and time to giving African traditional music its rightful place in the world

“I was doing world music 42 years ago, long before it became a genre,” says the Ethiopian composer and performer Mulatu Astatke during a recording session in Nairobi last week.

The 67 year old is credited with successfully fusing Western jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies, and elements of music of the ancient Coptic Church. “I became a student of jazz composition and combined that knowledge with Ethiopian music to give birth to Ethio-jazz,” he says.

Ban Ki-moon said “confronting discrimination is a challenge”
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged African leaders to respect gay rights.
Discrimination based on sexual orientation had been ignored or even sanctioned by many states for too long, Mr Ban told an African Union summit.
Homosexuality is illegal in many African countries – a situation which has drawn increasing criticism from activists and the West.

An African Union summit has opened with the selection of Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi as AU chairman for the coming year. The opening speeches reflected Africa's increasing shift toward the East.

China is the honored guest at this summit, and the opening session was filled expressions of gratitude for Beijing's gift of a new $200-million AU headquarters.

Speakers referred to China's rising influence in Africa, and to the continent's growing resentment at what is widely perceived as Western interference in African affairs.
AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping described 2011 as a year of trials and hardship, as Western institutions imposed solutions to crises in Libya and Ivory Coast, rejecting or ignoring African proposals.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - After delays lasting several months, Sunshine Construction is close to seal a franchise agreement involving the management of what will become the first Marriott apartment and courtyard hotels in Ethiopia to be built and owned by Sunshine Construction Plc. The company is expected to sign an agreement with Marriott in two months’ time, according to sources.

BRUSSELS -- The suspension of Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele and 34 others was lifted Tuesday, clearing the way for the Ethiopian great to run at the London Games. "We have agreed to discuss all the matters concerning their problems," Ethiopian Athletics Federation president Bisrat Gashawten Tirfe told The Associated Press. The athletes were suspended last week for not reporting for an early pre-Olympic camp to improve performance and competition. Bekele won the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Beijing Olympics and holds the world record in both events. He was suspended along with Tirunesh Dibaba, winner of the two women's long-distance titles in Beijing. The suspension would have prevented them from running at this year's Olympics.

President John Evans Atta Mills at the weekend unveiled the statue of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President at the forecourt of the new African Union (AU) building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

He was assisted by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, out-going Chairman of the AU, and Dr Jean Ping, Chairman of the African Union Commission, moments after the building was inaugurated.

The building stands at the former site of Ethiopia’s maximum security prisons.
President Mills was the Guest of Honour at the ceremony, which was performed in the presence of a number of African leaders attending the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU.

President Goodluck Jonathan who flew out of Nigeria Friday to attend African Union’s 12th Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia appears set to emerge Chairman of the AU, a position already zoned to West Africa.

Feelers from Addis Ababa indicate that other members of the Economic Community of West African States where Jonathan is already its head are routing for him to emerge the next Chairman of the union in an election that will form part of the major highlight of the Summit.

The global trade in khat is worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year and in one Ethiopian town daily life centres almost entirely around the drug.

Drive along any road between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia and you are likely to see pick-up trucks, piled high with bundles of fresh green leaves, hurtling past you at terrific speed, horns blaring, lights flashing.

A bit like ambulances. Or fire engines.
Land at any airport and you will see planes stuffed with the same green leaves, being unloaded at a frenzied pace.
Whether there is war, drought or famine, the leaves get through. The khat industry booms.

African leaders have started arriving here for the 18th African Union (AU) Summit that will discuss measures of boosting intra-African trade amidst growing global economic uncertainty.

Equatorial Guinea President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who is also the AU chairman on Saturday opened the 26th Summit of the New Partnership for Africa's Economic Development, Africa's blue print plan to fast track economic development.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame also attended the meeting that was opened by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss a deepening crisis over sharing their oil wealth

When South Sudan became independent last July, Sudan lost most of its oil.
However, the export pipelines go through Sudan, which has seized some $815m (£520m) in oil revenue, accusing the south of not paying transit fees.
South Sudan last week said it was suspending oil production, accusing Sudan of "stealing" its oil.
The leaders of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are trying to broker a deal between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his Sudanese counterpart - and old enemy - Omar al-Bashir.

Towering above the Ethiopian capital, cloaked in urban smog, the new Chinese-built African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa is a bold symbol of China’s rapidly changing role in Africa.
Once seen as strictly interested in extracting raw resources and investing in infrastructure, China has interests on the continent that are increasingly shifting to investing in institutions and governments, experts say.
“China has always been seen as less good at dealing with regions and continental bodies,” said Alex Vines, Africa director of Britain’s international affairs think-tank Chatham House.

UK-based asset management firms Duet Group and Vasari have partnered with the TIRET Group, an Ethiopian endowment fund, in the brewery sector, in what will become the largest private equity investment in Ethiopia to-date.

Duet Group has a made significant investment into Dashen Brewery in the form of an equity injection from the newly-formed Duet Beverages Africa company, which will be managed by the Duet Africa Private Equity team together with Vasari as the company’s industrial partner.

Deaths during childbirth in Ethiopia are expected to be halved thanks to a $43 million investment from the Australian government.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday signed an agreement promising the money over four years to help Ethiopia reach its millennium development goal targets on child health.

The cash is expected to dramatically increase the number of trained midwives from 2002 to 8635 and boost attended deliveries from 18 to 62 per cent.
The number of women who die during childbirth is expected to drop by half from 590 to 267 per 100,000 births, while infant deaths should fall from 59 to 31 for every 1000 births.

African heads of state and government have begun arriving ahead of the African Union (AU) summit scheduled to begin in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Sunday.

Observers say a record number of African leaders are expected to attend this year’s summit.

“Everything is in high gear on preparations for the opening of the summit Sunday,” said AU adviser Keizire Boaz.
Boaz says the leaders are expected to elect the new head of the African Union commission, as well as formulate a framework to promote trade and commerce among African countries.

Petrol is already beyond the price range of many Africans while surging population levels should force governments in Asia to limit car use, political and business leaders said Wednesday.

While economic gloom in the Eurozone is the most immediate concern of delegates gathered here for the annual Davos forum, the challenge of feeding and powering an ever expanding planet is the main long-term headache.
As tensions with Iran and Nigeria once more raise fears about oil supplies -- and Japan's Fukushima disaster undermines the appeal of nuclear energy -- titans of politics and industry admit it is time for a radical reappraisal.