Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who will lead the African delegation to the Copenhagen World Climate Change conference said on Thursday that Africa is not prepared to rubber stamp any agreements by the powers and will defend its common position.

Special Session of African Heads of State and Government being held in Tripoli, Libya has selected Ethiopia to represent Africa in the upcoming Copenhagen Global Conference on climate change due to be held in the coming December.

The African Union (AU) said on Tuesday it would hold a special summit on regional conflicts in Tripoli, Libiya this coming weekend.

Opening ceremonies were held August 18, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa for the second U.S. Africa Command Academic Symposium.

VOA - Ethiopia says it is vindicated after an international commission ordered neighboring Eritrea to pay about $10 million as compensation for the destruction in both countries during a two-year war.

August 12, 2009: The US has designated a special diplomatic envoy to deal with Eritrea. The envoy's primary mission is to urge Eritrea to quit supporting Islamist rebels in Somalia, but the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict is part of the portfolio. A US diplomatic team met with Eritrean representatives in Libya several weeks ago. That is something of a small victory since Eritrea has been saying it really has little to say to anyone who supports Ethiopia and the Somalia Transitional National Government.

Ethiopia on Tuesday said that member states of the Nile basin, which gathered last week in Egypt in an annual ministerial meeting, have approved Nile Basin Initiatives (NBI), with an objection from Sudan and Egypt.

Reuters - Ministers of water resources from Nile Basin countries are meeting in Alexandria, Egypt on July 27-28 to discuss cooperation and a conclusive Nile River framework agreement.

New York Times - A thin, dusty line is about the only thing separating Kenya, one of the Western world’s closest allies in Africa, from the Shabab, a radical Islamist militia that has taken over much of southern Somalia, beheading detractors, stoning adulterers and threatening to kill any Americans or Europeans who get in their way.

The second Ethiopia and South Sudan regional cooperation consultation is under way in the southern Sudanese capital, Juba.