BBC News Friday, 28 March 2008, 13:44 GMT

Ethiopia problems set to continue Fifa are trying to sort out problems within the Ethiopia FA Fifa has confirmed that it will not send a delegation to a meeting on Saturday to restore sanity within the Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF).

This means the internal wrangling which has affected the EFF for the past three months is set to continue.

Fifa will not ratify the event because EFF boss Dr Ashebir Woldegiorgis has not been allowed access to his office.

"The president's denial to the headquarters cannot be seen as a return to normalcy," Fifa said in a statement.

The meeting is part of the road-map to normalize the problems within the EFF.

The EFF's general assembly fired Woldegiorgise in January for what they said was the "dismal" record of Ethiopian football and elected Ahmed Yasin to replace him.

However, the January meeting was not recognised by Fifa who met both parties to find a solution.

Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf) released the road-map last month which was agreed by both parties.

The road-map said that Dr Woldegiorgis and his executive committee are the only leadership that Fifa and Caf would recognise but that an extraordinary meeting of the EFF should be held on 29 March.

The agenda of the meeting would simply be a "motion of dismissal" of the current executive committee.

According to the EFF statutes, for this motion to be approved it would have to supported by two-thirds of the valid votes cast by the official delegates in a secret ballot.

Man's crime likely to lead to deportation to Ethiopia By Kristin Owens Special to the Tribune Article Last Updated: 03/28/2008 01:38:57 AM MDT

A former Utah Valley State College student was sentenced Thursday to serve one more month in jail and three years of probation for felony theft. The 20-year-old will likely be deported to Ethiopia before he finishes that sentence, attorneys said. Kidus Chane Yohannes was convicted in February of third-degree felony possession of his roommate's credit card. Two additional felony charges of buying guns with a false identification number were dropped in December. Judge Gary Stott denied a motion by attorney Richard Gale to reduce the felony charge to a class A misdemeanor. Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander said reducing the charge might have allowed Yohannes to avoid penalties associated with a felony conviction, like deportation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Yohannes, which means federal authorities likely are planning to begin deportation proceedings, Grunander said. Yohannes is in the United States on political asylum from Ethiopia, which could complicate deportation, Grunander said. Yohannes is purportedly "consumed with violent depictions of the death of United States military servicemen, as well as human execution by gunfire," according to 4th District Court documents. He also allegedly made statements about killing a police officer, according to court documents. Those statements contributed to the Utah County Attorney's Office's determination to get a felony conviction, which ensures that Yohannes can never again legally possess a gun in the United States, Grunander said. Stott sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail, with credit for time served since his June arrest.