Kenya Broadcasting Corporation: - KBC News

The militia crossed into Kenya through Lake Turkana

The Kenyan government has beefed up security along the Kenya-Ethiopia border following Monday's attack by the Merille militia from Ethiopia that left 20 Kenyans dead.

According to internal security PS Francis Kimemia, members of the Merille militia crossed over into the country through Lake Turkana killing one Kenyan and injuring another.

This prompted members of the Turkana community to trail the raiders and kill four of them.

It was an altercation that was to prove costly after word of the retaliatory attack spread to neighboring Ethiopia prompting a violent reprisal by the raiders' kinsmen that resulted in the death of 19 more Kenyans.

A security team led by Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Osman Warfa and Turkana North MP John Munyes and officials from Ethiopia was on Tuesday holed up in a security meeting. A similar session is due to be held between the Kenyan government and a governor from Ethiopia.

The Kenyan government has since written a protest letter to Ethiopia over the incident.

Ethiopia Declines to Respond to US Rights Charges -VOA

Ethiopia Declines to Respond to US Rights Charges

Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa April 24, 2011

Photo: AFP

Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hailemariam Desalegn, right (file photo)

Ethiopia has ended its practice of formally responding to the annual U.S. human rights report, as it has done the past two years. A statement said the government views the Congressionally-mandated report with contempt, and has no plans to answer the charges.

The most recent State Department report paints a troubling picture of human rights conditions in Ethiopia.

It depicts a state with a widespread system of paid informants reporting on people’s activities, where criminal courts are subject to significant political intervention and influence, and where non-governmental organizations say hundreds of political prisoners are being held.
The 56-page report documents restrictions on academic and press freedoms, including intimidation and detention of journalists, jamming foreign broadcasts, blocking internet websites, and prohibiting political activity on college campuses.

It also implicitly questions the existence of a multi-party democracy, noting that the ruling party and its affiliates won almost every one of 3.4 million local council seats in 2008 elections and all but two seats in parliament in 2010.

The report quotes what it calls multiple credible sources saying party membership is an important factor in obtaining university admissions, employment opportunities, food aid and other benefits controlled by the government.

Additionally, it notes that a new law regulating non-governmental organizations has sidelined two prominent domestic human rights defender groups, including the only one doing actual investigations and reporting on alleged abuses.

Ethiopia’s reaction to the report, which covered abuses reported in 2010, was furious. A foreign ministry statement charged that 80% of the material was a rehash of groundless and unverifiable allegations from dubious sources contained in previous reports. It said the rest was mostly a few new lies, added to the old ones, and questioned whether the U.S. government’s motive was simply to tarnish Ethiopia’s image.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn dismissed the document as a meaningless “cut and paste” exercise.

"We said this is a methodology failure. So if the United States is worried about the human rights challenge, then it should be critically evaluated. So if it is ‘cut and paste,’ then it doesn’t give any meaning to anyone. So we said, if it continues like this, it has nothing to do with changing and improving the human rights situation in Ethiopia."

In response to the two previous State Department reports, in 2008 and 2009, Ethiopia published a rebuttal challenging the accuracy of the charges. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called the pamphlets a sign Ethiopia takes the U.S. criticisms seriously, unlike reports from groups such as Human Rights Watch, which the government categorically dismisses.

But Foreign Minister Hailemariam says the latest U.S. report does not merit a response, and would be treated with what was called "the contempt it deserves."

"The last two years we have engaged ourselves with the authorities of the United States and discussed several meetings on the human rights situation in Ethiopia. We thought we had convinced each other on many of the issues… If this is not considered at all, then there is no need to accept this report as something that can help us. So that’s why we dismissed the report totally because it is based on unfounded allegations which are baseless."

Hailemariam made clear, however, that the report would not affect what he called the "cordial relationship" between Addis Ababa and Washington. He said, "we dismiss the report, we have not dismissed the United States."

Ethiopia remains an important U.S. partner in the volatile Horn of Africa region. The United States is Ethiopia’s largest bilateral aid donor, with assistance totaling roughly $1 billion a year
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JJ bikes through tough conditions in extreme Ethiopia

SooToday.com has received the following update of JJ Hilsinger's latest fund-raising venture, a cycling journey through Ethiopia:

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JJ Hilsinger passes half-way point of his extra-challenging bike trip through extreme Ethiopia, raising money to plant 20,000 trees in this beautiful but forest-ravished country

Ethiopia, the cradle of civilization, has a current population of 85 million people.

It is 3.2 millions of years after Lucy, currently the oldest fossil discovered on earth proven to have walked on two legs, lived.

After 800 kilometres and eight days of riding in the Ethiopian Highlands, it has taken a lot of mental positioning to cope with the term “millions” during our Ethiopia Extreme venture!

Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia is where we began our bike journey, choking our way through the diesel-fueled smog to head north to Lalibela.

The first leg of Ethiopia Extreme would immerse us in altitude challenges, coping with hordes of children, subsistence living, staying alert, and unexpected frustrations.

The road we travelled through the Ethiopian Highlands took us from a 6,000-feet elevation at Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, to a high point of 10,500 feet.

Every day was a roller coaster with many tough climbs, up to 24 kilometres long, and many long downhill descents that seldom remained “down” for long.

Every day, I was treated to multi-layered vistas taking me past agricultural terraces and fields, beyond to deep valleys and high mountains that faded into the mist.

It was a pure joy greeting the endless streams of people along the way, especially the children.

We generally camped in school yards and were literally swarmed by kids upon arrival.

You had to be very vigilant until security was established.

But what was mostly pleasurable became tainted at times as I rode along, by the annoying shouts and pleas, the staccato calls for your attention “you, you!!” Or the persistent heckling for “money, money”, or “pen, pen.”

Hitting those infrequent flat parts of the day or the up-hills, and you had a band of kids calling out or running after you with these persistent chants.

It wore you down and you had to search for the right approach, many more “saloms” and increasingly many more terse “no money” to cope with the incessant calls.

In some areas, herds-keepers, who were mostly kids, were so demanding they took to stone tossing.

I lost a pair of sun glasses in one battle when they became dislodged and probably ended at the side of the road for someone’s treasure.

The average family in the undeveloped parts of the country now have six offspring.

That’s an economy-sized family needed to grow into workers to sustain the family’s meager subsistence.

From oxen-ploughed fields, to treks for water, to scavenging and small-area farming, to goats, donkeys and cattle . . . the very small kids and the wives do a lot of very toilsome work.

The roads are virtual people and cattle ways . . . who make room when commanded by horn-blaring buses, trucks and other vehicles.

Bicycles are scarce; riders on fast mountain bikes are unique!!

The road ahead is quite often a crap shoot for passage, with animals and people totally unpredictable.

Extreme vigilance can’t be forgotten or crashes with pedestrians, of the kind that bounced our leader Scotty off the pavement or the kind that bruised rider Russell, are the result.

On day seven, after a brutally steep 24-kilometre climb from camp, we swooped across a broad plateau, eventually reaching a café where we gathered prior to finding camp at a school yard.

All along the way you saw people walking up to eight kilometres to get to market, and you saw the clothing and appearances that bespoke poverty.

We were greeted by the school supervisor and the expected crowds of kids, who we attended to with conversations and entertainment, guarding our bikes, waiting for things to settle down.

Distant thunder accompanied our journey, and at the camp it finally found us.

We waited it out, then thinking it was over, pitched the tent and crossed fingers towards the brightening sky.

I mistrusted the sky.

I found the school supervisor and prepared for plan B.

Sure enough, the rain began in earnest and after waiting in the tent with rain pounding on steel-roofed classrooms, we finally abandoned the tent through streams of mud to take refuge in the dirt-floored classroom.

It is here you are confronted with the desperate education situation for millions of kids.

We gently move dilapidated wooden benches, fearful of having them collapse to make room for our bed.

We viewed the random schedules and drawings around the room, centered by a deteriorating black board.

There are no lights.

The metal window cover falls into my hands.

We rush through the darkened schoolyard through the slippery muck to get to another classroom, where supper is being prepared by candlelight prior to a fitful overnight rest.

The rain finally subsided after pounding a virtual monsoon-like volume onto the metal roof for five hours.

In the morning we packed the sodden, muck-bottomed tent and prepared to depart.

School opening exercises included our group greeting the desperate, cheery kids, about 800 in total, standing in the morning sun, somewhat distracted by the riders’ presence and excited about the soccer balls we would leave behind.

The school supervisor became increasingly anxious about access to the class room we were vacating, and informed us of his frustration at lack of money to run the school.

He gave me a list of needs and asked about to preparing a financial proposal.

The needs for millions…of money, of pens, of note books, of clothing, of modern tools is compensated by the beauty of the land and the people.

This is Ethiopia in the extreme.

Next, we’re off to a Coptic Christian religious ceremony in Lalibela, in the granite-hewn 12th century church of Bet Medhane Alem.

Then tomorrow, it’s over to ride the Danakil Depression for 10 days, in one of the 10 lowest altitudes on earth, 500 feet below sea level.

It took millions of hours for angels and workers to carve into the surface of the earth to create the local churches of this region; it took millions of years for the earth to become the Danakil Depression.

It takes minutes to see an Ethiopian smile.

JJ Hilsinger is cycling Extreme Ethiopia, 2,000 kilometres from the capital city Adis Ababa to the inhospitable terrain of the Danakil Depression, one of the world’s deepest and hottest regions at 500 feet below sea level.

JJ would like to plant 10 trees for every kilometre he pedals . . . 20,000 trees for this drastically deforested country.

He needs to raise $10,000 to meet this goal.

Donations are being accepted at Algoma’s Water Tower Inn & Suites.

One hundred percent of funds raised go to the Ethiopian Tree Fund foundation.

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts including an Ethiopian | The White House

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

· Susan Athey, Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
· Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges, Member, Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
· Robert Stanton, Member, Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
· Bill Stetson, Member, Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
· Brady J. Deaton, Chairman, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
· Gebisa Ejeta, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
· Jo Luck, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
· Marty McVey, Member, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
· David Blitzstein, Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
· Joyce Mader, Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Susan Athey, Appointee for Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Susan Athey is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University and co-director of the Market Design Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her current research studies the design of auction-based marketplaces, the statistical analysis of auction data, and internet economics. Dr. Athey was the first female recipient of the highly prestigious John Bates Clark medal, awarded by the American Economic Association, and she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She recently served as an elected member of the executive committee of the American Economics Association as well as the Council of the Econometric Society. Dr. Athey received her B.A. from Duke University in economics, mathematics, and computer science and her Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges, Appointee for Member, Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges was appointed as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida in 1971 after practicing law in Tampa. Judge Hodges has served as Chief Judge of his Court; as a member of the Circuit Council of the Eleventh Circuit; and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States as well as Chair of its Executive Committee. In addition, he has served as a member and as Chair of several committees of the Conference and the Federal Judicial Center and as Chair of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. He has been President of two Chapters of the American Inns of Court, and has received the Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award conferred by the American Judicature Society. Judge Hodges received his B.S., J.D., and Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Florida.

Robert Stanton, Appointee for Member, Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Robert G. Stanton is a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. He advises the Secretary on a wide range of environmental, educational, organizational and management challenges and opportunities, and provides executive leadership and program direction for the Interior Museum at the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, and the congressionally authorized Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Prior to assuming this position in 2010, Mr. Stanton served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Program Management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the Department of the Interior. From 1997 until 2001, he was the Director of the National Park Service. Since 2001, Mr. Stanton has served as an Executive Professor at Texas A&M University, a Visiting Professor at both Howard and Yale Universities, and consultant to a number of national conservation organizations. Mr. Stanton earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas, and did his graduate work at Boston University. He has been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees.

Bill Stetson, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Eugene William Stetson III is an environmental consultant and film, television, and radio producer. He served as an advisor to the HBO movie Earth and the American Dream and has produced both narrative feature films and documentaries, including the 2002 documentary, A Closer Walk, which aired on PBS. Mr. Stetson has established several regional film festivals, including White River Indie Films in Vermont, and, this year, served as the external affairs consultant for the Environmental Film Festival In Our Nation’s Capital. For over twenty years, he co-produced Dartmouth College Radio's "Environmental Insight." For nearly 15 years, Mr. Stetson advised former Governor Howard Dean on media and environmental issues, establishing the Vermont Film Commission, for which he served as founding president, a position he again holds for Governor Peter Shumlin. He presently serves on the board of Vermont Public Radio and the founding board of the Center for the Environment at Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree and subsequently studied at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Brady J. Deaton, Appointee for Chairman, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Brady J. Deaton is Chancellor of the University of Missouri. During his tenure, Mr. Deaton served as Provost, Deputy Chancellor, Chief of Staff to the Chancellor, Chair of Agricultural Economics, and Social Science Unit Leader. Since 2010, he has served as vice-chair of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri. He has also served on the Board of the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, and the Commission on International Programs. Mr. Deaton holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics, an M.A. in Diplomacy and International Commerce from the University of Kentucky, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin.

Gebisa Ejeta, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Gebisa Ejeta is currently a Professor at Purdue University and serves as the Executive Director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security. He previously served as Principal Plant Breeder for the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics assigned to Sudan. Dr. Ejeta serves on the Consortium Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, the Sasakawa Africa Association, and the Chicago Council for Global Affairs Agricultural Development Program. He is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Sciences, the Crop Science Society of Agronomy, and the American Society of Agronomy. Dr. Ejeta was the recipient of the 2009 World Food Prize. He holds a B.S. in Plant Sciences from Alemaya College of Agriculture in Ethiopia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Genetics and Breeding from Purdue University.

RELATED: Dr. Gebisa Ejeta – Journey from Olonkomi, Oromia, to Laurette of WFP (Video)

Jo Luck, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Jo Luck is President of Heifer International, a global organization working to end hunger and poverty. Ms. Luck previously served as president/CEO of Heifer International beginning in 1992 until 2010. During her academic tenure, she attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she served on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Advisory Board, and the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Session on Governing for Nonprofit Excellence. Ms. Luck was co-recipient of the 2010 World Food Prize. She holds a B.A. from Lipscomb College and honorary doctorates from several colleges and universities.

Marty McVey, Appointee for Member, Board for International Food and Agriculture Development
Marty McVey is President of McVey & Co. Investments, a private equity firm that focuses primarily on Healthcare, Real Estate and Energy Investments. Mr. McVey is also the founder and Chairman of Safi Energy, a renewable energy company that has interests in alternative energy and real estate. He is a member of the Indus Entrepreneurs board. He holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from American University.

David Blitzstein, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
David Blitzstein is currently the Special Assistant for Multiemployer Plans for the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). From 1990-2009, Mr. Blitzstein served as the Director of the Negotiated Benefits Department of the UFCW. Mr. Blitzstein represents the UFCW as a member of the Steering Committee of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, a member of the Employee Benefits Research Institute, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and a Director of the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, he was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve a four year term on the Board of Trustees for the Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems. Mr. Blitzstein received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Joyce Mader, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
Joyce A. Mader is a partner at O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue LLP, a Washington, DC based law firm, where she has represented multi-employer pension, health, and other employee benefit plans for more than 30 years. Ms. Mader is currently a member of the of the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Labor and Employment Law and serves as the Council’s Liaison to the Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. She is a frequent speaker before labor and industry groups and at educational programs on issues relating to employee benefit plans, and, in 2000, she was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. Ms. Mader received her law degree from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Dickinson College.

Microsoft Launches Windows 7 Amharic Language

Microsoft officially launches this week Windows 7 Amharic language interface pack which is now downloadable for free.

Amharic speakers now have access to a broader range of software programmes available in their native language. “The availability of Microsoft Windows 7 in Amharic is definitely a remarkable step towards elimination of language as a barrier to technology access,” said Louis Otieno, Microsoft’s General Manager for East and Southern Africa.

“We believe technology has an increasingly important role to play in the maintenance of linguistic diversity, not only to promote mutual understanding and dialogue, but also to strengthen local economies. All too often communities are excluded from IT skills fluency, and the accompanying job opportunities, for lack of technology in their local language” added Mr. Otieno.

Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia where it is spoken by 21 million native speakers and by emigrant communities all over the world (e.g. 40,000 speakers in Israel). Although local languages are spoken in Ethiopian government operations, Amharic is the official language.

Over the last five years, Microsoft has worked with partners across the continent to bring local languages to life.

Currently Microsoft’s Windows and Office products are available in 15 written and spoken languages in Africa: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, English, French, Hausa, Igbo, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Sesotho SA Leboa, Setswana (Tswana), Spanish and Yoruba. That means Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are available in the first and/or second language of the majority of Africa’s 1 billion people.

Commenting on the release of the Amharic language interface pack, Daniel G. Tedros, Country Manager, Alchemy World Projects said “Fundamentals to learning in the information age are exposure to and comfort with technology. Offering people access to computers in their own language means they can learn faster, develop skills quicker and have much-needed computer skills”.

“Having access to technology in a local language creates a platform for greater communication and collaboration among schools, businesses, governments and communities throughout the region”, said Mr. Tedros.

Microsoft’s Citizenship and Education Lead for East and Southern Africa, Mark Matunga says that language preservation is imperative given its complex implications on important elements in life such as identity, communication, social integration and education. “Languages are the vital, but fragile and form ties that can bind cultures, economies or countries,” said Mr Matunga.

Microsoft has over the years worked in cooperation with local governments, universities, language experts, and others to standardize technical terminology in a local language, a process that starts with creating a glossary.

The terminology collected in the glossary acts as the basis for the development of an application called a Language Interface Pack (LIP). This LIP enables customers to install a local language version as a "skin" on top of an existing installation of the Windows operating system and standard Microsoft Office system applications.

Microsoft also supports the local IT ecosystem by helping developers build solutions on top of the LIPs, such as spell checkers, translation dictionaries, screen savers, collaboration tools, and online services.

YouTube - Ethiopia's Golden Years

YouTube - Ethiopia's Golden Years: ""

a New Epithermal Gold Discovery in the Afar region Ethiopia - COMPANY RELEASES | Mineweb

Stratex - New Epithermal Gold Discovery in the Afar region Ethiopia

Tuesday , 19 Apr 2011

Stratex International plc

Afar Project Update: New Epithermal Gold Discovery within Tendaho EEL, Mineralisation Extended at Asal EEL & New Epithermal Mineralisation Discovered in Djibouti

Stratex International plc (‘Stratex' or ‘the Company') announces a positive update on its 3,853 sq km Afar Project that comprises five Exclusive Exploration Licences (‘EELs') in the Afar region of Ethiopia and six EELs in the Republic of Djibouti. Exploration at the Afar Project is currently being funded by the Company's joint venture partner Thani Ashanti Alliance Limited (‘Thani Ashanti'), an AngloGold Ashanti Limited joint-venture company.

Highlights

• New epithermal gold mineralisation discovered within the Tendaho EEL in Ethiopia - quartz float (surficial material) in Akehil prospect assayed 14.0 g/t gold (‘Au')

• Two altered rhyolite domes discovered at Asal EEL in Djibouti, Hercules I and Hercules II, assayed up to 3.08 g/t Au and 1.67 g/t Au respectively

• Quartz vein float north-west of Asal rhyolite domes returned 29.0 g/t Au

• Asal EEL to be extended - additional ground under application

• New target identified within Dimoli Khan EEL in Djibouti - chalcedonic veins up to 2.36 g/t Au

David Hall, Executive Director, commented, "To date, Stratex has made five early-stage epithermal gold discoveries in the Afar region, which highlights the potential prospectivity of the area as an emerging epithermal gold province. The most recent gold discovery, the Akehil target within the Tendaho EEL, has a zone of sinter with quartz vein float and is some 9 km south-west of our original Megenta hot spring discovery. When sampled this float material returned 14.0 g/t Au, which is highly encouraging and illustrates the potential for high-grade veins to be discovered in situ. Follow-up work will be undertaken on the Akehil prospect alongside the 3,000 m drilling programme at Megenta, which is due to start soon.

"In addition, new results from our Asal EEL and a new discovery in the Dimoli Khan EEL, both in Djibouti, identify these as additional priority epithermal targets for detailed exploration. These new zones of gold mineralisation, together with the major Blackrock discovery, emphasise the provincial scale of the epithermal mineralisation discovered by Stratex in the Afar."

Further Information

The Tendaho EEL (including the Megenta project and Akehil prospect) in Ethiopia and the Asal EEL and Dimoli Khan EEL in Djibouti are all located within the Afar Depression of Ethiopia and are amongst the 11 ‘Afar Project' licence areas (5 in Ethiopia and 6 in Djibouti) that the Company is exploring in collaboration with joint venture partner Thani Ashanti (see Press Release 14 January 2011).

Akehil Prospect Tendaho EEL, Ethiopia

The new Akehil target discovery is located within the Tendaho EEL, 9 km southwest of Megenta. Recent work identified extensive sinter exposed over an area of 500 m by 500 m, with reconnaissance sampling returning anomalous gold up to 0.13 g/t Au. One sample of banded chalcedony float material recovered from close to this area of sinter development returned 14.0 g/t Au (with 2.43 g/t Ag). The prospect is now a priority target for follow-up to identify the source of the high-grade vein material, the controls on mineralisation and potential drill targets.

Asal EEL, Djibouti

The Asal EEL was secured on the basis of geology, structure and alteration using Landsat imagery, which led the Company to believe the land area was prospective for epithermal gold. Initial field work defined epithermal quartz vein float with 2.1 g/t and 4.5 g/t Au returned from reconnaissance sampling (see press release dated 9 February 2011). Further detailed mapping and sampling has defined a 4 sq km area of quartz and banded chalcedonic float returning best values of 2.54 g/t Au, 5.07 g/t Au and 7.8 g/t Au, and with a peak grade of 29.0 g/t exemplifying the potential for high-grade veins.

At least two rhyolite domes, Hercules I (previously reported in News Release dated 9 February 2011) and Hercules II, are also exposed in the concession and are highly altered and brecciated and contain pyrite. A total of 14 samples have been taken from the exposed Hercules I dome, with half the samples returning >0.2 g/t Au. Best results are 3.08 g/t Au, 0.89 g/t Au, 0.88 g/t Au, 0.43 g/t Au, 0.35 g/t Au, 0.24 g/t Au and 0.21 g/t Au. Additionally, five samples taken from Hercules II returned 1.67 g/t Au, 0.89 g/t Au, 0.29 g/t Au, 0.13 g/t Au and 0.091 g/t Au.

Stratex has applied for additional ground around the current Asal EEL and will report developments in due course.

The Company now intends to undertake further detailed mapping and systematic sampling of the extensive mineralisation within the Asal EEL and its extensions to define the full extent of the rhyolitic domes and the location and nature of the epithermal veins and structures that they host.

Dimoli Khan EEL, Djibouti

The Dimoli Khan EEL is 100 sq km and is located 30 km west of the Asal EEL. Recently discovered mineralisation is associated with an alteration corridor some 2.9 km in length. Quartz-chalcedony-calcite veins are abundant within altered rhyolitic rocks and returned a peak value of 1.76 g/t Au. Stream sediment sampling of the EEL has further highlighted the gold potential here, with samples returning highly anomalous values of 48 ppb, 89 ppb, and 126 ppb Au in minus 200 mesh samples.

Afar Epithermal Gold District

Stratex's total land package in the Afar region of Ethiopia and Djibouti stands at 3,853 sq km, with 1,144 sq km outside the Thani Ashanti option/joint venture including the new significant Blackrock discovery and the Mille-Serdo licences. The Company also has 138 sq km covering an epithermal target at Gademsa in the Main Ethiopian Rift.

For more information on the Company's Afar Project, please see http://www.stratexinternational.com/operations/exploration/ethiopia-djibouti/rift-valley/afar-project.aspx