They threw him and two of his brothers in jail, then released them the following morning without explanation.

Since that day three years ago, Kebede estimates he has been arrested 14 times -- sometimes for hours, sometimes for weeks -- for everything from castigating the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for letting Eritrea secede to spreading lurid rumors about public officials.

But last May, the harassment suddenly stopped. Ethiopia went to war with Eritrea and the government has declared a virtual cease-fire in its battle against independent newspapers and journalists.

At the end of March, the number of reporters in jail had dropped to 11 from a high of about two dozen at the end of last year. And only one of the journalists who remains in jail was arrested after the border war began last May, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association says.

Before the war, much of the independent press harshly criticized Ethiopia's friendly relations with Eritrea. Now that hawkish stance dovetails with the government's own anti-Eritrean propaganda, said Makonnen Bishaw, secretary-general of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council.

"The pressure on the free press seems to have eased considerably, and it's understandable, since a large majority of the free press has stood with the government in its war effort," he said.

The government continues to arrest reporters, but those detentions are less frequent and for shorter periods than in the past, journalists and human rights activists say.

In a compound off a side street in Addis Ababa, several frequent residents of Ethiopian jails furiously work on the latest issue of Tobia, an independent weekly newspaper renowned for searing the government.

Tobia's previous office burned down in unexplained circumstances hours after four of the paper's top editors were arrested in January 1998 for printing a foreign organization's warning about street crime in Addis Ababa

The editors were jailed without charge for nearly seven months, halting publication of the newspaper and its sister magazine. Upon their release, one editor was charged with inciting the public against the state, said Goshu Moges, one of those arrested.

Though many of the stories that got the newspaper in trouble had nothing to do with Eritrea, the pressure has eased on Tobia as well.

"They are busy with the war," said Tobia's legal adviser, Derbew Demesgen.

The government contends Ethiopians have more freedom than at any time in their history and says the atmosphere since 1991 is a vast improvement over the days of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, under whose 17-year repressive regime critics were simply killed.

"Here you are looking at seven years of democracy. It's a poor country. It's not the United States," government spokeswoman Selome Tadesse said. "To even see such a thing as a private press is a big thing."

Selome points to the 1992 law guaranteeing freedom of the press.

That law also forbids publishing articles that are defamatory, threaten the safety of the state, agitate for war or incite ethnic conflict. Journalists also can be jailed for publishing secret court records.

Selome said the restrictions are necessary because Ethiopia, with more than 70 ethnic groups, easily could be whipped into chaos by irresponsible newspapers spreading harmful propaganda.

But the law has been used simply to jail any reporter who has fallen out of favor with the government, said Kifle Mulat, president of the journalists' group.

"In theory this is a free press, but look how many journalists are in prison, look how many journalists have cases pending in court," he said. "You can't spoon out democracy."

Journalists deserve some of the blame for the friction because many have little training and print wild, unsubstantiated allegations, some people say.

"The number one enemy of freedom of expression is the press itself," said Amare Aregawi, publisher and editor of the Reporter, an independent newspaper sympathetic to the government. "There are no ethics in Ethiopian journalism. There is no code of conduct."

Bishaw, the rights activist, worries that many more journalists will be back in jail once Ethiopia is no longer distracted by the war.

The $228 million state-owned Finchaa Sugar Factory in western Ethiopia, the country's fourth sugar plant, will process sugar cane grown on surrounding plantations. Most of its production will be exported.

The factory, inaugurated by President Gidada Negaso on Sunday, took 22 years to build.

Negaso blamed delays in construction on regional countries which objected to the diversion of water from the Finchaa river, a tributary of the Blue Nile which runs on through Sudan and Egypt.

``There are powers opposing Ethiopia's strategy to harness its water resources in its effort to eradicate poverty and the effects of drought from the country,'' Negaso said.

In addition to sugar, the Finchaa factory will produce up to eight million litres of ethanol, a by-product of the sugar refining process.

The plant was financed through loans from the African Development Bank, Australia, Sweden, Spain and the Ethiopian government.

Ethiopia's three other sugar estates of Wonji, Shoa and Metehara, all south of the capital Addis Ababa, were built in the 1950s during the rule of the late Emperor Haile Selassie in joint ventures with a Dutch company.

Together they produce nearly 220,000 tonnes of sugar a year, which meets domestic consumption, according to government figures.

The three factories were nationalised under the Marxist regime of the ousted dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and remain under state ownership today.

Briefing local reporters at ESL's headquarters, General Manager Ambachew Abraha and his colleagues, said that the new addition to the fleet of 12 will increase the enterprise's capacity by 20%. The new ship, named after Tekeze river, has a dead weight capacity of 18,145 tons which is 254% bigger than that of "Abay Wenz"-which was the biggest ship the company had.

It was disclosed that the shipping line has two category of ships, high capacity (over 10,000 tons) and low capacity ships. With the recent addition of Tekeze, the fleet size in the high capacity category has now been raised to six.

Tekeze, which has served only for five years, is scheduled to start operation on April 24th along the Far East and India line. Ato Endalkachew Bekele ESL's marketing manager, spoke of the stiff competition now facing the company as other major liners or tram carriers have started sharing the market and driving freight prices down.

The general manager said, however, that ESL enjoys a good cargo damage record, is a very reliable sea transporter and it has its awards to show for it. At a ceremony in Paris on April 12, the Ethiopian Shipping Lines received "The Arch Of Europe Gold Star Award" for its " immeasurable contribution to the business world, for high standing and professionalism demonstrated by prestigious performance" from Business Initiatives Directive, a 25-year-old company based in Madrid.

Moreover, it has received a certificate of compliance from International Management Code for Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention, the official said. The shipping line employs about 431 staff and 302 seamen, has agents in 25 countries, calls 50 ports and has offices in four cities abroad.

``If coffee growers, suppliers and exporters hoard coffee in the hope of making a profit through future changes in its value, they are in for disaster,'' said Brook Debebe, vice-minister of trade and industry.

``Retention of coffee in anticipation of a price hike in the international market cannot solve the problem as the slump will stay around for some time,'' Brook told reporters at the weekend.

Brook said the fall in world prices had hit Ethiopia's foreign currency earnings in 1998/99.

Ethiopia exported only 60,000 tonnes of coffee during the nine months from July 1998 to March 1999 and earned $170.8 million.

Earnings from the same volume exported were down 21 percent on 1996/97 and down 38 percent on 1997/98, he said.

Because of hoarding, the amount of coffee supplied to the central markets in the nine month period were down 14 percent on 1996/97 and 21 percent below 1997/98 levels, he added.

Coffee accounts for 60 percent of the country's foreign currency earnings.

The state Coffee and Tea Authority had forecast Ethiopia would export a record 137,000 tonnes of coffee in 1998/99 to earn $368 million.

Ethiopia exported 133,139 tonnes worth $445.7 million in 1997/98 and 129,155 tonnes valued at $398.2 million in 1996/97, according to the Authority.

``Some 5,000 tonnes of coffee is believed to be in warehouses of coffee suppliers, the amount of coffee retained by farmers and dealers could even be much more,'' Brook said.

Ethiopia is Africa's third largest coffee producer after Ivory Coast and Uganda with annual production ranging between 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes.