Arrests made in alleged kidnapping, bank robbery scheme

By Freeman KlopottExaminer Staff Writer 12/29/08 A District man and a Silver Spring man have been charged for their alleged roles in a kidnapping and bank robbery scheme that stretched from Friday night through Saturday, Maryland State Police said Sunday.
Friday evening, Yohannes Surafel, 24, of the District, and Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring, followed a SunTrust Bank employee from a Silver Spring branch to her Clinton home, police said. As the woman made her way inside the house around 7:30 p.m., police said the two men attacked her. Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring, stands accused of kidnapping a Clinton family and attempting to rob a bank. Courtesy photo
They tied up the woman and her husband with electric cords and held them and their two sons, ages 8 and 11, all night, police said. Saturday morning, police said Surafel forced all four family members into a car and made the woman’s husband drive them to the bank, which Surafel planned to rob.
On the way to the bank the husband saw a state trooper and began driving erratically to get his attention. When the trooper pulled over the family’s car around 7:30 a.m., he noticed someone in the back seat making furtive movements, police said.
The father told the trooper that the man in back had a gun, police said. The trooper pulled out his sidearm and promptly arrested Surafel. Police then went to the family’s home on the 6800 block of Briarcliff Drive. They arrived around 10 a.m. and, expecting an armed Tadele inside, formed a perimeter around the house. At 1 p.m. they entered the house only to discover Tadele had already left.
Tadele, however, later met with investigators and was taken into custody a little before 5 a.m. Sunday, police said. He has been charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, two counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, among other charges.
While at the College Park state police barracks, Surafel attempted to hang himself using his shirt, police said. The duty officer discovered him and thwarted the suicide attempt. Surafel has been released from the hospital and charged with four counts of first-degree assault, four counts of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, among other charges.
Police said they believed a third suspect joined the two men in the escapade and are trying to determine his identity.

Ethiopian eatery comes to Hyattsville

Ethiopian natives living in Hyattsville no longer have to travel to Washington, D.C., or Montgomery County to get a taste of home with the opening of Shagga Coffee and Restaurant last summer.
Zewdi Tsegay of Burtonsville, who works near the Hyattsville restaurant, said the food is delicious and authentic.
"It's home," said Tsegay, who is Ethiopian, about why she visits Shagga. "This area needed to have an Ethiopian restaurant and [needs] more ethnic restaurants."
With their restaurant sitting just north of the coming EYA Arts District Hyattsville, Shagga owners Kelem and Adama Lemu hope it will be a good fit for the development that's set to come to the Route 1 corridor.
Also scheduled to open at Arts District Hyattsville are Busboys and Poets and a Thai restaurant.
"We didn't see any other Ethiopian restaurants in that neighborhood," said Kelem Lema. "The area needed us – or we needed it."
Her husband said they hope to benefit from the residents and businesses that will come with the redevelopment of the Hyattsville area.
"We're assuming it will create business for us. Plus, we're the only Ethiopian restaurant in the area. I'm pretty sure we're the first in P.G.," he said.
Adama Lemu said they hope to be a neighborhood restaurant where residents will come with their families.
He said they also plan to install wireless Internet for their customers in the near future.
Shagga, which Adama Lemu said is a variation of "better" or "good" in his language of Amharic, began as a coffee shop in June but the Lemas saw that their customers wanted more than Ethiopian coffee and sambusas – a traditional appetizer made of dough shells filled with vegetables and either chicken, beef or lentils. They decided to add a full restaurant and bar a few months later.
Kelem Lemu said she and her husband decided a few years ago they wanted to open an Ethiopian restaurant somewhere near their Berwyn Heights home.
"I've always loved to cook," said Kelem Lem, who cooked most nights at home. "I learned from my mother. She was a good cook. And I also learned some things at a few restaurants where I worked before."
Kelem Lemu trains all of Shagga's cooks herself, while Adama Lema, who also owns an airport transportation service, said he stays out of the kitchen.
"Sometimes I cook [at home] but my food is not like hers," he said of his wife.
Kelem Lemu said she decided to fill the menu with typical authentic Ethiopian food.
For breakfast, the restaurant offers traditional Ethiopian fare like firfir (a beef stew in red pepper sauce) and kinchu (crushed wheat with butter and chili powder) and even egg sandwiches to go with its house blend Ethiopian coffee – Shagga Harar or other coffee drinks.
"I wanted it to make sure it was like real Ethiopian cuisine," she said.
Bags of the coffee are also available for purchase. Shagga offers a $6.95 lunch special from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday that Kelem Lemu said has been very popular.
Dinner entrees include a number of chicken, lamb, beef and vegetarian dishes.
Kelem Lemu said besides sambusa appetizers, one of the most popular dishes is kitfo ($11), which is steak tartar seasoned with chili powder and herbed butter served raw, medium or well-done.
Alice Smith, who recently moved to northeast Washington, D.C., from Baltimore, said she just stumbled upon the restaurant while in search of a nice, local, eat-in restaurant last week.
"It's important for me to eat local, but there are not many restaurants that aren't franchises around here," she said.
Tsegay also said she is glad to have a little taste of home so close to her office. She said she usually gets her favorite Ethiopian dish, yebeg tibbs – a lamb dish, when she visits Shagga.
"They lived up to my expectations and then some," she said.
Shagga Coffee
and Restaurant
6040 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville
Phone: 240-296-3030
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to
10 p.m.; Friday, 6:30 a.m. to
11 p.m.; Saturday, 7:30 a.m.
to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m. to
9 p.m.

Gazetta.net
Maryland Community Newspapers Online

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Shooting of Ethiopian Restaurant Manager in DC Mystifies Friends | Video

Shooting of Ethiopian Restaurant Manager in DC Mystifies Friends | Video

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Police say two people were shot, one fatally at Ethiopian Restaurant in DC

Source: MPD

The Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating a double shooting which occurred inside of a business establishment located in the 2400 block of 18th Street, NW.

At approximately 11:11 pm on Sunday, September 28, 2008, officers from the Third District responded to the 2400 block of 18th Street, NW, to investigate the report of a shooting. Upon arrival, officers discovered two adult males inside of a restaurant at that location suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.

One of the victims, a 47-year-old male from Alexandria, Virginia was transported to an area hospital and admitted in stable condition. The second victim, identified as 50-year-old Tessaye[sic] Yemane of the 47000 block of Watkins Island Square in Potomac Falls, Virginia was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The identity of the surviving victim is being withheld since he is considered to be a witness in this case.

A preliminary investigation into this case reveals that the two victims may have been involved in a verbal altercation when the decedent produced a handgun and shot the surviving victim. The official manner of death in this case with respect to the decedent will be determined pending an autopsy to be conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia.

Housemaid stabs 2

KUWAIT CITY : An Ethiopian housemaid recently stabbed her two compatriots and colleagues in their sponsor’s house in Abdullah Al-Salem, reports Al-Anba daily. According to sources, the suspect stabbed her compatriots as she suspected their conniving against her so she would lose her job. The victims sustained serious injuries and were referred to a nearby hospital. A case was registered and the suspect was referred to the authorities.

Ethiopian sues Xerox for £ 8million after bullying led to suicide bid

Canary Wharf worker Nardos Mulugeta, 40, said he was bullied at photocopying firm Xerox
A Canary Wharf worker is claiming £8 million in compensation at an industrial tribunal today for the racist ordeal he claims he suffered while working for giant photocopying firm Xerox.
Engineer Nardos Mulugeta, 40, from Ethiopia, told how he was driven to attempt suicide twice after being routinely abused by a colleague who openly expressed racist views about 'foreigners' and support for the British National Party.
The bully wrote the word 'Go' in signing-in and job request books against Mr Mulugeta's name and said he was 'lucky he's working with us - his grandfather used to work as a servant', it was claimed.
Mr Mulugeta said bosses refused to let him attend a counselling appointment when he was referred by his GP.
He was given a formal warning when he went anyway and was told he could only seek medical help in his own time.
Mr Mulugeta took an overdose the next day, Stratford Employment Tribunal in east London heard.
His GP and the company's own doctor then urged Xerox bosses to transfer him to another site to reduce the risk of further self-harm but they ignored the request - even after Mr Mulugeta overdosed again, the hearing heard.
Mr Mulugeta, from Fulham, is demanding £8,068,000 in compensation for race discrimination and constructive dismissal.
He resigned last year. Xerox strongly denies all Mr Mulugeta's allegations.
The tribunal continues.

By Daily Mail Reporter

Ababa Tesfaye gust of honor for the ESFNA DC 2008

Ethiopian sport federation in North America committee announced that Ababa Tesfaye will be gust of honor for the2008 soccer tournament, Ababa Tesfaye is a renowned children story-teller on Ethiopian national television. Every night at the beginning of the popular children's show, he presents folk-tales "teret teret yelam beret "to children accompanied by his characteristic eye-catching passion and enthusiasm. He is a charming character for generations of Ethiopian children and his only one of its kind passion is always integral
He has been putting smiles on the faces of children while providing them with complete grounding in Ethiopian history, cultural practices and etiquette. His stories and the way they are told are among most Ethiopians' favorite childhood memories for they are unique, quite telling, and most of all, enjoyable. June 2006, the day that every body remember the grandfatherly Ababa Tesfaye was fired, after a young child on his program uttered a derogatory word for one of Ethiopia's main ethnic groups.