Italian officials ordered the suspension of the construction of monument for Rodolfo Graziani. The order was issued by Nicola Zingaretti, a politician from a left leaning party and who was elected as president of the Lazio Region last February.

Saudi Arabia' s Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khalid Bin Sultan has been dismissed by a royal decree issued on Saturday, according the Saudi Press Agency which was reported by several middle-eastern websites.

President Yoweri Museveni has said that Africa needs to address the issue of electricity shortage as one of the means to enhance and enable its development efforts.

In the days following the passing of Meles Zenawi, senior EPRDF officials stood firm in rejecting the conspiracy theories that were running wild in the streets. Although a public statement was not issued on the matter, as journalists did not raise the subject, the official reaction was firm during private discussions.

ኢትዮጵያን ወደ ህዳሴ ያሸጋግሯታል በሚል የኢትዮጵያ መንግሥትና ህዝብ ከፍተኛ ተስፋ ከጣሉባቸው ሜጋ ፕሮጀክቶች ታላቁ የህዳሴ ግድብ አንዱና ዋነኛው ነው። ግድቡ በኢትዮ ጵያውያኖች ሙሉ ተሳትፎና ኅብረት የሚከናወን መሆኑ ልዩ ቢያደርገውም የልዩነቱ መገለጫ ግን ይህ ብቻ አይደለም። ይልቁንም ግድቡ ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝቦች ሁለት ታላላቅ ስንቆችን አኑሯል። የህዳሴ ግድብ ግንባታ ህብረታችን መቻል እንደምንችል አረጋግጧል፤ ከድህነት እንደምንወጣም አመላክቷል።

The state media never gets tired of telling us how the Arabs are grateful that Ethiopia hosted the "First Hijrah" – the relatives and followers of Prophet Mohammed who took refuge in Ethiopia from persecution back home. It reiterates this version of the story whenever it is reporting about the warm relationship with Arab nations and the influx of investors from the region. But, that is not the whole truth.

The letter from the Egyptian Foreign Minister, in November, to his Ethiopian counterpart, re-assuring commitment to cooperation on Nile and distancing Cairo from the remarks of some officials in the media, seems to have laid to rest the months long speculations on the matter.

The UK Guardian newspaper published an article last Friday entitled "UK tenders to train paramilitaries accused of abuses". The story related to a decision by the UK's Department of International Development to provide training for the special police in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, in order to improve the professionalism and accountability of the force and increase security in the region. DfID is going to fund a 13-15 million pound program for this training.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to bolster peace efforts between Sudan and South Sudan, official media said.

On Monday (October 8th) this week the Nile Tripartite Committee, now named the International Panel of Experts, paid its second visit to the construction site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The committee is made up of six experts drawn equally from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, together with four other international figures.