U.S. Citizen held in Ethiopia for 1 year

JIJIGA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Officials have held an American citizen in custody for more than a year in Ethiopia's restive Somali region, the region's top security official said Sunday. Mohammed Farah Hassan has seen no American officials since being jailed in the regional capital of Jijiga, Somali regional security chief Abdi Mohammed Umar said. He said an Ethiopian court had sentenced the man, but did not say for how long or on what charges.The region's president, Abdullahi Hassan, said Friday his government had held ''many'' foreign nationals of Somali heritage, including Americans and Europeans, in regional jails on suspicion of ''international terrorism.''http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Ethiopia-US-Citizen-Detained.html