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የእለቱ ጥቅስ Quote of the day!

Ethiopian Airlines eyes RwandAir as strategic partner

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The management of Ethiopian Airlines has shown an interest in becoming a strategic partner of RwandAir, the national flag carrier of Rwanda.

RwandAir is a small but fast growing airline in Africa. The government of Rwanda is currently looking for a strategic partner that can help it in taking the national flag carrier forward. The Government of Rwanda has hired an international consulting firm, Ernst & Young, and is studying a turnaround strategy. Currently, the airline is not making profit.

Reliable sources at Ethiopian told The Reporter that the management of Ethiopian has shown a keen interest in buying a stake in RwandAir. Sources said a delegation comprising senior officials of Ethiopian recently visited the headquarters of RwandAir and held discussion with officials of RwandAir and government officials. Senior executives of Ethiopian have expressed their interest in becoming a strategic partner of RwandAir.

Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam, confirmed his management’s interest in RwandAir but declined to give further details as the discussion is at an early stage.

RwandAir was established in its present form in 2009. It existed before as RwandAir Express which was semi government-owned. With only one wet leased twin otter aircraft RwandAir Express was a small airline.

Read more at: The Reporter

ዘንድሮ የአሜሪካ ብርድ ______ ያሳቅፋል::

Snow and Freezing Rain Could Hamper Travel in Midwest and Northeast

Snow, sleet and freezing rain are snarling travel across the Midwest and Plains and in much of the Northeast during the first weekend of the New Year.

Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan could all see up to 3 inches of accumulation Saturday, said Weather Channel meteorologist Michael Palmer. Meanwhile, wind-whipped snow in New England is expected to cause poor visibility on the roads, with freezing rain stretching from Pennsylvania to upstate New York, reported Weather.com. Chicago, parts of Michigan, Maryland and Washington, D.C., can all expect bouts of freezing rain. Some counties in Maryland are also under a snow emergency plan, according to NBC Washington, meaning all vehicles are required to chain their tires.

The southern part of the country didn't escape the precipitation, but saw rain and severe thunderstorms, which prompted the National Weather Service to issue tornado warnings in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Pasts of those states were also under severe flood watches, as was the western half of Tennessee.

This latest winter weather wallop follows snowfall in parts of the Northeast on Friday that caused a massive chain-reaction pileup in New Hampshire. Twelve people were injured in the 35-vehicle accident on Interstate 93, state police said. Parts of New Hampshire, as well as Vermont and Maine, could see another 3 to 6 inches of snow through Sunday morning, reported NBC affiliate WMUR.

The wintry blast preempts a cold front that will bring temperatures that are 10 to 30 degrees below January averages to the Plains and Midwest next week, according to Weather.com.

ራምቦ ቁጥር 5 Rambo 5: Last Blood and Scarpa coming soon

ጥያቄው " ሰውየው  አያረጅም ወይ?" ነው :: ቁጥር አንድ የወጣው የዛሬ 28 (1987) አመት ገደማ ነው::

Although 2014 is just about over, Hollywood multi-hyphenate Sylvester Stallone is among those already looking to the future. Stallone revealed via Twitter that he has lined up his next three projects: He’ll begin production in Philadelphia on the Rocky spinoff Creed immediately, then shoot Rambo: Last Blood (confirming ComingSoon.net’s own title scoop from earlier this year) and follow both with the mobster biopic Scarpa.

Ethiopian Christmas Special Offer starting at $970

Ethiopian Airlines, the largest and most profitable airline in Africa, is pleased to announce that it is offering a special Ethiopian Christmas round trip fare from the US to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia starting from $970.
Travelers need to purchase their tickets between January 5-6, 2015 and can take advantage of the special offer to travel between January 11 through March 31.
About Ethiopian
Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing and most profitable airline in Africa. In 2014, IATA ranked Ethiopian as the largest airline in Africa in revenue and profit. In its operations in the past close to seven decades, Ethiopian has been a pioneer of African aviation as an aircraft technology leader providing the first jet service in the continent in 1962, and availing the first African B767 in 1984, the first African B777-200LR in 2010 and the first African and second only to Japan B787 Dreamliner in 2012.
Ethiopian commands the lion share of the pan-African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 83 international destinations across five continents. Ethiopian fleet includes ultra-modern and environmentally friendly aircraft such as the Boeing 787, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777-200LR Freighter and Bombardier Q-400 with double cabin. In fact, Ethiopian is the first airline in Africa to own and operate these aircraft.
Ethiopian is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading airline group in Africa with seven strategic business units: Ethiopian International Passenger Service; Ethiopian Regional Service; Ethiopian Cargo; Ethiopian MRO; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian In-flight Catering Service and Ethiopian Ground Service. Ethiopian is a multi-award winning, including SKYTRAX and Passenger Choice Awards in 2013 and has been registering an average growth of 25% per annum in the past seven years.

Ethiopia Building Station To Launch Rockets

Ethiopia is building a station at the northern part of the country to launch rockets up to 30km distance into space, project manager Eng. Mulualem HileMarian said.

According to him, construction of a station, Alpha Meles named after the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, is being built at the Tigray regional state.

Constructions of two underground stations, in which preparation activities and testing will be carried out are also being built.

Testing for the system and capacity of the rocket to be launched will be finalized in these underground stations until the end of the month of July, he added.

Sixty engineers drawn from various fields are working day and night for the success of the project.

Parts of the station are fabricated locally by Mesfin Industrial Engineering and Mesebo Cement, local private companies and the Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), the stated owned military industry.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

British security guard faces death penalty in Ethiopia after being found guilty of terrorism offences

A British man who claims he was tortured in an Ethiopian prison is facing the death penalty after being found guilty of terrorism offences.

Ali Adorus, a security guard from east London, was subjected to electrocution, hooding and beatings during his 18-month imprisonment in the East African country, according to allegations made against Ethiopia and Britain to the United Nations High Commission.

Before leaving Britain to visit family in Ethiopia in 2012, Mr Adorus had complained that he had been targeted by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police over alleged links to Islamic extremism.

His lawyers also allege that some information contained in a false confession – which he claims was beaten out of him in an Ethiopian prison – could have been provided only by “British intelligence”.

Mr Adorus, who has a wife and child in the UK, was found guilty by the Ethiopian courts earlier this month but is now facing the death penalty.

Today, his wife, who is being supported by the human-rights group Cage, described the court process as “shockingly biased and unfair”.

She said: “The Ethiopian court does not even operate according to its own laws. It has refused to acknowledge the torture my husband endured. My husband’s testimony was dismissed by the court, as were the testimonies of the defence witnesses who were witnesses to the torture. The prosecution witnesses were bribed, threatened and some tortured to give false evidence against my husband.”

The Independent has seen  a report written by the British embassy in Addis Ababa  and sent to the Ethiopian government which raises the UK’s “grave concern” about his detention.

The document, written by officials at the embassy, names the Ethiopian senior police officer alleged to have carried out the torture. It says: “The British Government takes all allegations of torture of British nationals very seriously. The treatment alleged is prohibited under international human-rights treaties.”

The report adds that the failure of the Ethiopian authorities to inform the embassy  of his detention is of “grave concern to the British Government”. It says that he alleges he has been “handcuffed for long periods”, was “hooded and then beaten” and “was electrocuted”.

Mr Adorus’s barrister in the UK, Toby Cadman, said that the conviction was “deeply troubling”. He claimed that the authorities had used “beatings and electric shocks to extract his confession” and said Ethiopia “must immediately start proceedings with  a view to an investigation being commissioned”.

Mr Adorus, who was born in Ethiopia before coming to the UK as a young boy, was arrested in January 2013 on a bus during a family visit, and taken to a police station without any access to a lawyer. During his custody, he signed a forced confession in Amharic – a language he does not speak – after four days of beatings, he alleges.

He is accused by the Ethiopians of being a member of a number of terrorist groups and of waging a jihadist war since 2006. But his lawyers say the case against him is fabricated and have petitioned the United Nations, which is now considering the complaint. A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We can confirm the detention of a British national in Ethiopia. We are providing consular assistance.”

Mr Adorus has a history of testicular cancer and was being monitored regularly in London. He and two friends had previously complained that they had been questioned by police and MI5 after returning from a safari holiday in Tanzania in 2009.

Asim Qureshi, a research director at Cage, which campaigns against abuses associated with the war on terror, said: “The case of Ali Adorus is yet another example of a British citizen who was harassed by UK security services and who ends up arbitrarily detained and tortured in a third country. The UK has failed to protect him from torture.”

Last year, Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, said: “We do not participate, incite, encourage or condone mistreatment or torture.”

But the complaint to the UN states: “It is alleged that intelligence officials provided direct and/or indirect assistance to the Ethiopian authorities in carrying out the arrest and torture of Mr Adorus.”

መልካም አዲስ አመት

AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore missing

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani: "Some Indonesian transport officials have been saying it requested a different route"

An AirAsia flight travelling from Indonesia to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control with 162 people on board.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact at 07:24 (23:24 GMT), Malaysia-based AirAsia tweeted.
Search and rescue operations are under way.
Malaysia's national carrier Malaysia Airlines has suffered two disasters this year - flights MH370 and MH17 - but AirAsia has never lost a plane.
Flight MH370 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew, and MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 on board.
The AirAsia flight had been due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30GMT).
The missing jet had requested a "deviation" from the flight path due to bad weather, the company said.
There were 155 passengers on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and one infant, the company said in a statement. Also on board were two pilots and five cabin crew.
Most of those on board were Indonesian, but there were six others on board, AirAsia has said: three South Koreans, and one each from France, Malaysia and Singapore.
An official with the transport ministry, Hadi Mustofa, told local media the plane lost contact over the Java Sea, between the islands of Kalimantan and Java.
He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact and that the weather had been cloudy.
AirAsia has set up an emergency line for family or friends of those who may be on board. The number is +622 129 850 801.
The company's chief executive, Tony Fernandes, tweeted: "Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We must stay strong."

The San Diego Taxi Medallions And Uber became top story for 2014 by KPBS

Top Story: Taxi Medallions And Uber

There are big changes afoot in the way San Diegans get around.

This year the San Diego City Council decided to deal with the problem of exploitative labor practices and low driver pay by removing the cap on the number of taxi medallions so that basically anyone can get one.

But that maneuver may be moot, eventually, as the popularity of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft continues to grow.

Uber in particular is becoming known for its rule-breaking (some say predatory) behavior, becoming established in a city first and asking for permissions and licenses later.

There are several questions that may find answers in 2015. Will Uber be curbed?; Will cab drivers make a living wage?; Will taxis be hailed?