World Championships in Athletics Berlin

TheWorld of sport is eagerly awaiting the forthcoming World Athletics Championships. The 12^th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin will be held in Berlin (15–23 August 2009) . Since the 1^st Championships were held in 1983, in Helsinki, this will be the biggest Athletics event to take place. 2101Athletes from 202 countries will be competing in the Olympic Stadium of Berlin. The spectacular athletics event will be broadcasted in over 190 countries.

The enthusiasm for Athletics in Germany is still unbroken. It has always been great with the German fans. We all remember the electrifying atmosphere at the 1993 Stuttgart Championships. Probably the best athletics event to-date. Berlin could only make it better!

If we look into the last three Championships;

• In 2003, in PARIS, the 9^th Athletics Championships were attended by 1679 athletes from 198 countries

• In 2005, in HELSINKI, by 1688 athletes from 191 countries

• In 2007, in OSAKA, by 1800 athletes from 197 countries

From Ethiopia perspective, top stars to watch:

• Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 5.000m + 10.000m

• Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) 5.000m + 10.000m

• Dire Tune (ETH) Marathon

The first two outstanding Athletes dominated their corresponding disciplines like no other distance runners before, except, the great Haile Gebrselassie.

The Queen of long-distance, Tirunesh made history last year at the Beijing Olympics, by becoming the first ever female runner to win over both the 5k and 10k runnings. As a 17-year old Athlete, she already was the darling of the Parisian spectators, during the 2003 Championships. Her great cousin, Derartu Tulu, was the first ever African woman to win an Olympic Medal. She became Olympic Champion in Barcelona 1992 and Sydney 2000.

The King of long-distance, the 27-year old star from Ethiopia, Kenenisa Bekele, is as bright as other Ethiopian long-distance legends like Abebe Bikila, Miruts Yifter or Haile Gebrselassie.

Can you imagine, since 2003, Kenenisa has never been defeated in the 10k distance. He still holds the records for both 5k and 10k. Like Tirunsh, he was also able to win the 5k and 10k distance at the Beijing Olympics. Despite having a foot injury last November, I don’t see anyone who could beat him in Berlin. Besides, he is still in contention to grab the 1million Dollar Jackpot at the Golden-League competitions.

And when asked what she expects in Berlin, Tune does not think even twice. “I think it will be one, two three for Ethiopia,” she says. “That is how confident I am about our chances.”

I am also confident that our Athletes they will show a lot better performance in Berlin, than in troublesome and humid Osaka. Besides, Haile Gebrselassie broke his two Marathon World records in Berlin.

Good luck to all the Athletes!

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World Championships in Athletics Osaka

Osaka 2007

Rank					Total
1	USA	14	4	8	26
2	KENYA	5	3	5	13
3	RUSSIA	4	9	3	16
4	ETHIOPIA	3	1	0	4
GOLD Athlete Discipline Kenenisa Bekele 10,000 Metres M Tirunesh Dibaba 10,000 Metres W Meseret Defar 5000 Metres W SILVER Athlete Discipline Sileshi Sihine 10,000 Metres M
5	GERMANY	2	2	3	7
6	CZE	2	1	0	3
7	AUS	2	0	0	2
8	JAMAICA	1	6	3	10
9	BAHAMAS	1	2	0	3
10	GBR	1	1	3	5

World Championships in Athletics Helsinki

Helsinki 2005

Rank					Total
1	USA	14	8	3	25
2	RUSSIA	7	8	5	20
3	ETHIOPIA	3	4	2	9
	GOLD Athlete Discipline Kenenisa Bekele 10,000 Metres M Tirunesh Dibaba 10,000 Metres W Tirunesh Dibaba 5000 Metres W SILVER Athlete Discipline Berhane Adere 10,000 Metres W Sileshi Sihine 10,000 Metres M Meseret Defar 5000 Metres W Sileshi Sihine 5000 Metres M BRONZE Athlete Discipline Ejegayehu Dibaba 10,000 Metres W Ejegayehu Dibaba 5000 Metres W
4	CUBA	2	4	0	6
5	BELARUS	2	2	1	5
6	FRANCE	2	1	4	7
7	SWEDEN	2	0	1	3
8	BAHRAIN	2	0	0	2
9	JAMAICA	1	5	2	8
10	KENYA	1	2	4	7

World Championships in Athletics Paris

Paris 2003

Rank					Total
1	USA	8	7	1	16
2	RUSSIA	7	7	6	20
3	FRANCE	3	3	2	8
4	ETHIOPIA	3	2	2	7
	GOLD Athlete Discipline Berhane Adere 10,000 Metres W Kenenisa Bekele 10,000 Metres M Tirunesh Dibaba 5000 Metres W SILVER Athlete Discipline Haile Gebrselassie 10,000 Metres M Werknesh Kidane 10,000 Metres W BRONZE Athlete Discipline Sileshi Sihine 10,000 Metres M Kenenisa Bekele 5000 Metres M
5	BELARUS	3	1	3	7
6	SWEDEN	2	1	2	5
7	KENYA	2	1	1	4
7	SOUTH AFRICA	2	1	1	4
9	MOROCCO	2	1	0	3
10	SPAIN	1	3	2	6

Facebook, MySpace and Co. Dangerous?

After we’ve heard the latest rumors that Twitter and Facebook might have been taken down by the Russians, I must say, all in all, these past days had been bad days for social networking.

It started on Monday with the leader of the Roman Catholics in the UK, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, saying that social networking sites undermined community life and would lead to teen suicides.

His concern was that teens were treating friendships as a commodity to be traded – the fact that more people might follow someone you know on Twitter than follow you might be seen as a reason for suicide.

Could he be right?

Continue reading…

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Recording Ethiopia’s Red Terror

“We still don’t understand it. We have to study it, so that it never happens again. We will learn from it, and the younger generation will have a better life than we did. That is our hope.” (Hirut Abebe-Jiri)

In the late 1970s Ethiopia’s Marxist military rulers tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands in brutal repressions. Now, one survivor is trying to create a permanent online archive of the so-called Red Terror using the documents the Communist regime, known as the Derg, left behind.

Continue reading…

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Used Cars for Africa

Germany’s €2,500 ($3,200) subsidy for people who scrap an old car and buy a new one has triggered a stampede to dealerships and a run on small cars. It’s also inspiring retailers of other products, from electronics to false teeth, to copy the idea.

The highly successful program, intended as stimulus for an auto industry that saw the floor fall out from beneath it as a result of the economic crisis, also required new car buyers to purchase more environmentally friendly models. By taking clunkers of the road, the thinking went, Germany’s carbon footprint could also be reduced. Both Britain and America have since launched programs similar to Germany’s scrapping bonus, known in Germany as the Abwrackprämie.

To get the €2,500 government check, people must scrap an existing car that’s at least nine years old and buy a new car that meets the latest emissions standards.

According to Germany’s Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) over 500,000 Germans have cashed in on the scrapping bonus so far. The German auto industry has also profited, with new car registrations in Germany up by around 40 percent in June. Germany expects to sell close to 4 million new cars in 2009, as compared to 3 million in 2008.

This subsidy measure is green, it benefits the economy and it puts cash in the pockets of average Germans. But the German government’s “scrapping bonus” stimulus for the automobile industry has apparently also provided a windfall for local conmen. Instead of wrecking old cars, they’re selling them abroad, as racketeering recyclers are making a good business out of this.

According to the German Union of Criminal Investigators (BDK) labor organization, there is a claim that up to 50,000 old German cars had been declared wrecked, but were later sold and shipped to Africa, that includes spare parts — for instance the fronts of cars, including the motors. Africa is hungry for cars, and many of those cars get a second life somewhere in the streets of Addis Abeba or Accra.

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A Camera Can See Human Soul?

A wonder device – a Kirilian Camera can see the soul of a dead man pass away… or at least that’s what the inventor claims.

A publication of the popular Russian tabloid Life.ru gives a dramatic account of the experiments of an inventor from St Petersburg, who has created a device able to see human aura.

Continue reading…

• • Well, who knows what true and what’s not — it would be good to see the images taken by this Soul-Camera. There are indeed psychics and the likes who can tell if there is anyone in the room or if someone has come in their vicinity even when their eyes are closed. The explanation behind this is probably that their auras are so big that they can detect anyone who comes in their aura.

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