Ethiopia

A treasure trove of 4.4-million-year-old fossils from the Ethiopian desert is dramatically overturning widely held ideas about the early evolution of humans and how they came to walk upright, even as it paints a remarkably detailed picture of early life in Africa, researchers reported Thursday. The centerpiece of the diverse collection of primate, animal and plant fossils is the near-complete skeleton of a human ancestor that demonstrates our earliest forebears looked nothing like a chimpanzee or other large primate, as is now commonly believed.

Pictures of emaciated children dying in their mothers' arms during Ethiopia's famine in 1985 cemented the country's image as a barren land where nothing grows. But just 30 minutes south of the capital, Addis Ababa, green hills and lush valleys abound, perfect for cultivating the country's fastest growing export -- flowers. Tsegaye Abebe opened his farm, ET Highland Flora, three years ago. Now, he employs 400 people and exports 90,000 to 120,000 stems every day. At this time of year, he is busy.

"A Walk to Beautiful," a new documentary opening Friday, focuses on five poor Ethiopian women who have suffered traumatic childbirth injuries. After enduring sometimes more than a week in labor, these women delivered stillborn babies that left them with obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal that causes incontinence. Abandoned by their husbands, shunned by their families and villages, they live in shame and in hiding.

Sporadic street fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist fighters trying to bring down Somalia's shaky government has killed 81 people in two days, the head of a local human rights group said Sunday. "The casualties . . . were caused by Ethiopians using heavy artillery and tank shells in residential areas" of the capital, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization. The Somali rights group tracks casualties through hospitals and morgues.

They call it the green hunger. Four-foot cornstalks sprout from rain-soaked earth, and wind billows fields of teff, the staple Ethiopian grain. Goats and cattle are getting fat on lush grasses -- but the children are still dying. "It's strange to see hunger when everything is so green," said Wariso Shete, 26, a southern Ethiopia farmer who recently buried his 3-year-old son. "But there is no food. The boy just starved."

Sequestered in a dank prison cell here, Ethiopia's biggest reggae star awaits trial in a deadly hit-and-run case that has galvanized the nation. Federal prosecutors say Tewodros Kassahun, dubbed the Bob Marley of Ethiopia, fled after striking a homeless boy with his BMW. They call it a case of celebrity bad behavior. Fans say the singer, also known as Teddy Afro, is being framed because of his music's perceived anti-government message.

Islamic fighters abandoned their final stronghold around the southern port of Kismayo and were fleeing south toward Kenya, witnesses and government officials said early today. Residents reportedly took to the streets to welcome the advancing government and Ethiopian forces, but there also were reports of looting and violence, particularly at the Islamic Courts Union's abandoned military base.

Kenyan soldiers and helicopters bolstered defenses Wednesday at this nation's border with Somalia as Ethiopian warplanes attacked fleeing Islamists. Residents of Liboi, a Kenyan border post, said they saw Ethiopian fighter jets and helicopters over the Somalian town of Doble, 15 miles away, late Tuesday. They heard shooting, which tailed off after midnight.

By launching a war against Somalia's Islamists, Ethiopia says it was drawing a line in the sand against religious extremism in East Africa. But without quick diplomacy and international aid, analysts caution that the war could radicalize the region's traditionally moderate Muslims. "This could bode ill for both Somalia and eastern Ethiopia, but perhaps even northern Kenya," said John Prendergast, Africa analyst at International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution think tank based in Washington.

Gunmen attacked Ethiopian troops in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, residents said, as Somalian and U.S. officials pledged to work together to stabilize the chaotic nation. Attackers opened fire on forces backing the interim government in the second day of violence directed at Ethiopian troops, who helped oust Islamists who had taken the capital. The violence came after Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi met in Nairobi, Kenya, with Washington's top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi E. Frazer.