The New Nation - Internet Edition

Rice in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA: US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on Wednesday arrived in Ethiopia for talks with several African leaders on the conflicts in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions. She landed in Addis Ababa early Wednesday and was expected to hold talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, one of Washington's key allies in the region.

The two are expected to discuss the situation in Somalia, where Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional government are battling Islamist insurgents.

'Half-Widows’

Srinagar: A prominent human rights organisation, the Coalition of Civil Society, says there are between 1,500 and 2000 half-widows in Kashmir. Most have given up hope that their men will ever return. Yet hardly any are ready to marry again. "Every day I wake up in the morning, I think he might be at the door. In the evening while I lay the table for dinner, my eyes are fixed at the door in the hope that he may just come in," says Zainab, whose husband went missing 10 years ago. Zainab's husband was allegedly arrested by soldiers fighting separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir in a conflict notorious for its human rights abuses. There has been no information about him since then. Zainab is someone that people in Kashmir refer to as a "half-widow".

Heaviest ever baby

JAKARTA: A woman has given birth to Indonesia's heaviest ever baby, a boy weighing 6.9 kilogrammes (15.2 pounds), hospital staff said Wednesday. The baby was born at a private maternity clinic on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, a nurse on duty there told AFP. "He was born at about 4:30 pm (0930 GMT) on Monday, but because of respiratory problems, the baby was taken to Fatmawati (hospital) a few hours later," the nurse said.