Daily View 2×2: 6 February 2009 – punch-up as two people claim to be the opposition’s candidate

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am on the date when, in 1974, Ted Heath called a snap election and, in 1812, Charles Dickens, author of the brilliant opening sentence, was born.

What better way to celebrate than to watch a YouTube clip about letterboxes? But first the blogs and the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Incomprehensible sign comes to Leicester: read Jonathan Calder
• E-campaigning comes to Stockton: read Maureen Rigg’s report

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

You probably know the news from the UK. So here’s the news from Ethiopia, followed by that letterbox movie.

Punch-up at registration office as two people claim to be the opposition coalition’s candidate
Gadaa (surely the news site with the highest proportion of its name made up of the letter a) reports:

This video shows two persons (Mr. Abebe Beri and Major Mekonnen Geleta) in an altercation over each others’ candidacy for a parliamentarian seat representing the Kombolcha electoral district. The scene unfolds inside the district’s candidate registration office. According to the report, each of the gentlemen claims to be the “legal” candidate for a single parliamentarian seat being contested by MEDREK – the Forum, the major opposition coalition challenging the Zenawi-TPLF government in the upcoming election in Ethiopia. As the debate rages on, the altercation turns physical.

But wait! Perhaps this wasn’t just coalition infighting. Perhaps it was government dirty tricks?

According to Dr. Marara Gudina, the Chairman of MEDREK, who was interviewed today by the VOA Amharic Service, the incident was a farce orchestrated by the government in order to score cheap political points.

You can read the full report and watch the film clip (punch up is a little way in) here.

Ethiopia sees higher coffee prices for Africa
Potentially good news for the fight against poverty in Ethiopia with its economy set to get a boost this year:

African coffee producers are expected to enjoy higher prices this year thanks to falling output in Colombia, the world’s third biggest exporter, the chief executive of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) said.

“The outlook for Arabica prices seems to be they will continue upwards because of the shortfall of production in Colombia,” Eleni Gabre-Madhin told Reuters late on Thursday. “We think this is a very good opportunity for African fine coffees.” [Reuters]

Sunday Bonus

Letterboxes. Not nice with nasty dogs behind them. And not very nice with horrible brushes either. So this invention looks very attractive. Doesn’t help with the dogs but does away with the need for brushes. [Alas, the video is no longer on YouTube.]