Ethiopian Airlines has announced its London to Addis Ababa route will become a daily service from July.

Ethiopian Airlines has announced its London to Addis Ababa route will become a daily service from July.The additional weekly service will start on 8 July with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
“We are very happy to finally be able to give daily service to our customers to and from London. Due to the airport congestion at London Heathrow, we were constrained to 6 weekly flights. Now our customers to and from London can enjoy convenient and hassle free daily connections with our state-of-the art B787 aircraft,” said Ethiopian’s CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

የመረጠውን ህዝብ የሚሰድብ ፒለቲከኛን ምን ይሉታል

The urban hyenas that attack rough sleepers አዲስ አበባ ጅብ ውጭ የሚያድሩትን እየበላ ነው ተባለ

Urban hyenas are becoming a dangerous problem in the Ethiopian capital, where they attack rough sleepers.

It is late evening in Addis Ababa. Stephen Brend, a zoologist with the Born Free Foundation, is driving me to the airport to catch a flight back to London.
"Have you got time for a ten-minute detour?" he asks, as we passed the British embassy. "Of course," I reply.
So he turns off the road and up a dirt track between some rough shacks and a collection of battered old jalopies that passes for a taxi rank in Ethiopia's capital.
"There! Look there!" Stephen exclaims. In the beams of his headlights I see several pairs of eyes glinting in the darkness like tiny mirrors. As we drive closer I begin to make out the shapes of the animals behind those eyes. They are hideous beasts, as large as the largest dogs, with coarse spotted brown fur, elongated necks and front legs much longer than their back ones so their backs taper away from their powerful shoulders.
As we watch, a group of teenagers walks up the track, right past the animals. "They're mad," Stephen remarks. Hyenas have jaws as powerful as those of great white sharks, he explains. They can crush an elephant's leg. They devour every last morsel of their prey - bones included. "I mean - there's nothing left," he says.
London is infested by urban foxes. Delhi is besieged by urban monkeys. Addis Ababa is plagued by urban hyenas who have moved in to the city from the surrounding hills and taken up residence in the capital. In some ways they perform a useful service, keeping the city's growing population of stray dogs and feral cats under control and consuming the carcasses of dead horses and other animals. But there are now reckoned to be somewhere between 300 and 1,000 of them living in the city and they are dangerous.
In 2011 the airport authorities had to call in hunters to shoot a pack of hyenas that was posing a threat to planes landing and taking off. People living near the Ketchene public cemetery have complained of hyenas digging up and eating the corpses of the poor that are buried in very shallow graves. The hyenas tend to hunt in groups, and one night a guard at the British embassy saw a line of 40 running along the back fence of the compound.
Periodically they attack some of the many Ethiopians who sleep rough on the streets of Addis every night. A volunteer at a clinic run by a Mother Teresa mission in the city said that a couple of times a month he has to treat homeless and destitute people who have had fingers and toes gnawed by hyenas while they were drugged or drunk. On one occasion a man was brought in after a hyena had ripped much of his scalp away while he was sleeping, leaving it hanging down over his eyes. Last year a mother camping outside St Stephanos church near the Hilton Hotel had her baby son snatched from her arms and killed by a hyena.
Periodically they attack some of the many Ethiopians who sleep rough on the streets of Addis every night. A volunteer at a clinic run by a Mother Teresa mission in the city said that a couple of times a month he has to treat homeless and destitute people who have had fingers and toes gnawed by hyenas while they were drugged or drunk. On one occasion a man was brought in after a hyena had ripped much of his scalp away while he was sleeping, leaving it hanging down over his eyes. Last year a mother camping outside St Stephanos church near the Hilton Hotel had her baby son snatched from her arms and killed by a hyena.

Kenyans, Ethiopians sweep Tokyo Marathon

Dickson Chumba won the men’s race at the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday in a meet record of two hours, five minutes and 42 seconds as Kenyan and Ethiopian runners dominated the event.
The 27-year-old Kenyan was followed home by Tadese Tola of Ethiopia at 2:05:57 and fellow countryman Sammy Kitwara at 2:06:30.
Chumba broke his own personal best time of 2:05:46 he clocked in winning the Eindhoven Marathon in 2012.
Runners from the two African countries swept the top seven spots in the men’s race and the top five in the women’s.
Ethiopia’s Tirfi Tsegaye won the women’s race in a meet record of 2:22:23.
Fellow Ethiopian Berhane Dibaba finished second at 2:22:30 and Lucy Kabuu of Kenya third at 2:24:16.
Tsegaye, 29, made her marathon debut in 2008 when she won the Porto Marathon. She won the Paris Marathon in 2012 and the Dubai Marathon last year. She set her personal best of 2:21:19 when she finished second at the 2012 Berlin Marathon.
Under cloudy skies, about 36,000 runners took part in the eighth staging of the Tokyo event which was upgraded last year to one of the world’s major marathons, with the others comprising Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York.

Ethiopia: "Co-pilot hijacked plane to expose brutal rule in Ethiopia" - cousin

February 20, 2014 (SEATTLE) — Amid a flurry of government propaganda to label the hijacker of an Ethiopian Airlines plane a mental patient, a family member of the co-pilot says her cousin was an activist who has been resentful of the brutal rule in Ethiopia.

Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn

Speaking to the Ethiopian Satellite TV (ESAT) by phone on Wednesday, a female cousin of co-pilot Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn, who landed the passenger airliner in Geneva early on Monday and sought asylum there, said the act was politically motivated, and nothing else.

"He was living a comfortable life, and was a frequent traveler to the US and Europe. If he had the desire to live in the West, he had plenty of chances. But he was an activist who very much resented the gross human rights violations that the government is committing in the country," she said.

Swiss police said on Monday all 202 passengers and crew were safe as the "act was motivated by the fact that he feels threatened in his country," and wanted asylum.

The woman, who didn't reveal her identity for fear of political retribution, said 31-year-old Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn and she would call each other frequently, and the co-pilot was very much opposed to the government because of lack of freedom, including harassing airlines employees to be members of the ruling party or lose their jobs.

"Many of his friends have been fired because they failed to toe party lines," she said, adding he was also resentful of the brutal measures the ruling party was taking against the Amhara in particular and the entire Ethiopian people in general.

Asked whether she is in contact with family members in Addis, she said the phone lines were blocked with all family members but one. "My uncle is virtually under house arrest as others are under surveillance. We have also learned that Airlines officials have come under fire, being threatened to reveal how come they kept dissidents in the business."

Though in police custody in Geneva, the woman said several calls to her cousin were never answered.

The government in Addis will definitely push the Swiss government to extradite my cousin. If they succeed, there is no doubt that they will cut him to pieces as he would expose their crimes if left free, she said. "All Ethiopians should rally to block any extradition attempts."

The pro-democracy Ethiopian Diaspora is considering to hire lawyers to defend the rights of the co-pilot, who is now hailed as a human rights champion among Ethiopian activists both at home and abroad

Ethiopian Airlines Hijacker Co-Pilot to Stand Trial

Swiss officials have revealed that the Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot, Hailemedhin Abera, who hijacked his own flight on Monday, will be charged for taking hostages.
A Swiss court has reportedly appointed a defense counsel for Abera and ordered that he is held in custody until his trial begins. However, his trial date is yet to be announced.
Reports have emerged that the 5-year employee of Ethiopian Airlines hijacked the flight heading from Addis Ababa to Rome by locking the pilot, who was visiting the washroom, from the cockpit.
Reports further indicate that Abera threatened to crash the plane if the pilot did not stop demanding entrance into the cockpit by knocking on its locked door.
Although earlier reports claim the 200+ passengers and crew of the Boeing 767 flight were largely unaware of the situation in the cockpit, new reports indicate otherwise.
According to reported accounts of passengers, oxygen masks were let down at some point and a distressed male voiced warned “sit down, sit down or I’ll take your oxygen.”
Reports further indicate that the flight attendants continued to hand out refreshments and reassure the disturbed passengers of their safety. All the passengers and crew members were reportedly safe.
On Wednesday, Alemu Asmamaw, an uncle of Abera, revealed to reporters that the loss of a close relative of the airman had made him emotionally distressed.
His family have expressed shock at the news of his terror act, noting that he was a loyal employee of Ethiopia’s national airliner. However, they have also revealed that he had been withdrawn in the past year and reportedly revealed to them that he suspected he was being monitored.
The Boeing 767 plane Abera hijacked has been released to Ethiopian Airlines on Wednesday and everything has returned to normal at the Geneva airport he landed.
Swiss officials say an investigation is ongoing into the incident to create better understanding of the curcumstances surrounding the hijacking.
While pro-government supporters say authorities have been exonerated from direct complicity in the airman’s weird move, other pundits are calling for a revision of security protocols in aircrafts to prevent them from being hijacked with such ease.
Photo by Sudan Tribune.

Swiss Air Force Waited 3 Hours To Respond To Hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Because They Hadn't Started Work

SWISS fighter jets could not be scrambled when a hijacked Ethiopian passenger plane entered the country’s airspace as its air force only works daytime hours.

The country’s jets remained grounded throughout the entire drama because it happened outside normal office hours.

Instead, Italian Eurofighters escorted the plane with 202 passengers and crew on board to the Swiss border, where French mirage jets accompanied it to Geneva airport on Monday morning.

Switzerland’s air force chiefs were alerted to the drama at 4.30am, but did nothing because they do not start work until 8am.

Swiss airforce spokesman Laurent Savary said: “Switzerland cannot intervene because its airbases are closed at night and at the weekends. It’s a question of budget and staffing.”

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET702 from Addis Ababa to Rome was hijacked by its own co-pilot Hailemedehin Abera Tagegn, 31, who locked himself in the cockpit while the captain went to the loo.

He then threatened to crash the plane unless he was given permission to land in Geneva where he wanted to claim asylum.When the plane touched down at 6am, Geneva police arrested Tagegn after he scaled down a rope out of the cockpit window.

Prosecutors have described the chances of his asylum demands being met as ‘slim’, and he now faces a 20-year prison sentence.

Audio was allegedly recorded of the hijacker by Twitter user @matthewkeyslive.In it he says:

"We need asylum or assurance that we will not be transferred to the Ethiopian government."

Ethiopian Airlines Wins the GOLD Boeing Performance Excellence Award

Ethiopian Airlines is pleased to announce that it has received the 2013 “GOLD Level Boeing Performance Excellence Award” for its outstanding performance at the Wire Kits Harness Manufacturing Plant. This is the second Gold award the plant has received from Boeing. The Boeing Company issues the award annually to recognize suppliers who have achieved superior performance.
Ethiopian established the aircraft wire production plant in July 2009. The plant manufactures certified seat to seat aircraft interior wires of different types and supplies them to Boeing, which uses the wires for 737, 747, 767 and 777 jet aircraft. Yet, the majority of the wires, close to 85%, are produced for the ultra-long range 777-200 LRs.
“Obtaining Gold level Boeing performance excellence award is a testimony of Ethiopian high standard and capabilities in the skill driven aviation industry. The pursuit of excellence is not just a hallmark of our wire kits harness manufacturing plant. It is also the defining characteristic of Ethiopian and the bedrock of its continued success in all areas of its global operations,” said CEO Tewolde Gebremariam.

Ethiopian Airlines Wire Kit Harness Manufacturing Plant is one of only 124 suppliers to be awarded the Gold level recognition among thousands of Boeing suppliers.
About Ethiopian
Ethiopian Airlines (Ethiopian) is the fastest growing Airline in Africa. In its operations in the past close to seven decades, Ethiopian has become one of the continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success.
Ethiopian commands the lion share of the pan-African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 79 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 aviation group in Africa with seven business centers: Ethiopian Domestic and Regional Airline; Ethiopian International Passenger Airline; Ethiopian Cargo; Ethiopian MRO; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian In-flight Catering Services; and Ethiopian Ground Service. Ethiopian is a multi-award winning airline registering an average growth of 25% in the past seven years.
For more information about this press release, please contact:
Manager PR & Publications 
Ethiopian Airlines
Tel: (251-1) 517-84-07
Email: publicrelations@ethiopianairlines.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ethiopianairlines
Twitter: @flyethiopian

The big secrete revealed

ለየትኛው ነዎት?

140 Italians, 11 Americans and 5 Nigerians onboard Ethiopian Airlines

The Ethiopian government has revealed that five Nigerians were among the 193 passengers on board the Rome-bound Ethiopian Airplane, Boeing 767 which was hijacked by the co-pilot on Monday.
The Ethiopian minister of information and communication, Redwan Hussein, who confirmed this during a news conference in Addis Ababa, said other passengers included 140 Italians, 11 Americans among others.
He apologised to the passengers for the “undue emotional stress and inconvenience they faced in the course of the hijack.”
He said the suspected hijacker, whose name was given as Hailemedihn Abera Tegegn, 31, was under custody pending investigation by authorities of the two countries.
According to him, the Ethiopian government and its Swiss counterpart are making efforts to expedite the travel of flight 702 passengers to their intended destination.
Hussein said the act of the said asylum seeking co-pilot was in violation of article 32 of the Ethiopian Constitution, which guaranteed the freedom of citizens to travel out of the country.
“It also represents a gross betrayal of trust that needlessly endangered the lives of the very passengers that a pilot is morally and professionally obliged to safeguard.”
He commended the Switzerland government for the care it provided for the passengers and the prompt apprehension of the suspect.
Hussein confirmed that the suspect allegedly locked the cockpit door when the pilot went to the toilet and hijacked the aircraft.

The official said that the suspect, who is seeking asylum from the Switzerland Government, was being questioned by the Swiss Police.

The scary truth about what happened on board hijacked Ethiopian flight 702/ማን ይናገር የነበረ፣ ማን ያርዳ የቀበረ እንደሚባልው ስለ በረራ #et702 ትንሽ ዜና አለ

 

ማን ይናገር የነበረ፣ ማን ያርዳ የቀበረ እንደሚባልው ስለ በረራ #et702 ትንሽ ዜና አለ

By: Bradley Wint -
It’s not everyday we see planes getting hijacked, and with the advent of social media, the story of hijacked Ethiopian flight 702 had spread across the world long before main stream media picked up on it.

The story had initially blown up on Twitter, Facebook, as well as on two aviation blogs, AirlineReporter.com and NYCAviation (live tweet session). The hashtag #ET702 also started trending worldwide, which is where I got most of my information from, along with live ATC audio streams from LiveATC.net. By the time Ethiopian 702 was on the ground, only then did actual news agencies like BBC and Sky News, pick up on the situation.

From an outsider’s perspective, it sounded like a very minor takeover. From information posted by the media, we were given the impression that the co-pilot locked the cockpit’s door once the captain went on his bathroom break. The co-pilot then flew the plan to Geneva instead of Rome, its intended destination. The aircraft circled the area a number of times in the area and then landed once fuel was too low to remain airborne. Finally, the hijacker (a.k.a co-pilot) escaped through the cockpit’s windows down a rope emergency ladder and gave himself up to Swiss authorities. Sounds like a relatively simple scenario, right? Unfortunately it wasn’t so rosy for the passengers on board.

Redditor OK3n detailed his ordeal for those harrowing hours from start to finish. I also included his luggage tag photo as proof. Here’s his story:

======

I’m a male, 25 Years old, I was in transit at Addis Adaba for flight ET702.

The plane was hijacked one hour after take-off. This is how it went down.

After entering the plane, I went to my seat: economy class, window-side and next to the right wing. As it was around midnight, I quickly fell asleep during take-off. I was waken up an hour later due to the sound of all the oxygen mask going down. I immediatly thought « what the… » I looked at my neighbor, she seemed as confused at me: the plane was not behaving oddly so I thought it was a simple technical glitch or somebody pressed the wrong button. Everybody looked at each other, thinking what’s going on. Suddenly, a deep and angry voice talked through the cabin radio: “SIT DOWN, PUT YOUR MASKS ON, I’M CUTTING THE OXYGEN”, three times. At this point, I realized that the situation is serious: someone is in the pilot cabin and has hijacked the plane. Within a few seconds, the oxygen went down in the cabin: I felt very lightheaded and quickly decided to put on the oxygen mask like the rest of the passengers. Quickly after that, the plane suddenly started dropping down for about 8 seconds then went fast back up, then finally stablized. People were crying, yelling, praying. I was in complete panic. Cold. We were then waiting for an update, an information, what was going on. But it never came. We flew for 6 more hours, knowing only that a pirate was at command. Who was he, what was his intentions ? I started thinking, too far. For he was probably alone, he couldn’t possibly be planning to land at an airport, he would immediatly get caught. So I quickly took away the possibilty of landing safely. As I was looking throught the window, all I could see was dark. Dark up, dark down.

For the next 6 hours, I was imagining every possible outcome of this story : from suddenly crashing into the ocean, to hitting a building, to crashing into another plane, to landing and being killed as a martyr. At this point, I remember trying to send a SMS to my family and girlfriend « There is a problem with the plane. I love you, you are the best » on a 5% battery and stressing that another terrorist would see me and shoot me. There was no network, so I decided to shut down my phone and thought of restarting it just before we crashed, so the messages would eventually come through. I held hands the whole way with my seat neighboor, a very nice, simple older italian woman. Every single second of those 6 hours of uncertainty and soon-to-be death was a psychological torture. I broke down, let everything go, said goodbye, though of my family, of moments in the past, of who will inherit my stuff and much more.

The flight was supposed to land at Rome at 4:40am. At 5:30am we were still high, high in the sky. Down throught the window , I could see a coast and some light far away that somehow reassured me. Around 5:45, the plane started suddenly to do circle. Circles left, circle right. It seemed that this went on at least 20 times. I was thinking that maybe the pirate wants to deplete the fuel and stall the plane. We were still at the same altitude, we were not going towards land. After this terribly long sequence of turns, the plane started going down towards land at a normal speed. When we reached the clouds, the wings deployed completely like a normal landing, but it seemed to me like it wanted to cover more area to do more damage. I was thinking : that’s it, we’re crashing into something. Looking down to the window I see a light, two, three, I can’t see what’s ahead. It’s still dark. We’re going fast, we’re flying over many houses now. And suddenly, under us, the airport. Just thinking again about this moment makes me shiver. We are landing. WE, are LANDING. Is this true ? Is this a miracle ? We touched the ground, and the plane eventually stopped completely in a bit away from the plane entrance to the terminal. I remember crying, while most of the people (Italians) were applauding. At this point, for the first time in 6 hours, we got an update from the steward telling us about the copilot, that we are in Geneva and that soon the Swiss police will enter and evacuate the plane. Eventually, the Swiss tactical forces entered the plane, telling is to put our hands on the head and stay calm. It took about 2-3 minutes person person to evacuate. An hour later, I was finally out. We were checked and accompanied very kindly by the swiss. There were sandwitches, hot chocolate, free wifi and psychologues. A few hours later, I could get my luggage and went out through normal gates. My mother was there, we went for a walk along the Leman lake and she cooked some good meal. The psychological impact is not negligible, I’m still in a state of shock. I’m a lucky bastard, I hope none of you have to experience that.

Why was my mother in Geneva? My final destination was Geneva, I work there. I had a flight from Rome to Geneva just after this one. As I was coming back from holidays, she had long planned on taking her days off to visit her friends in my hometown (1 hour away, France) and by the same occasion, visit me. In the end, I am very thankful and lucky to have her outside of the airport when I came out.

======



As a huge aviation enthusiast myself, situations like this are definitely scary and given that the co-pilot was responsible, it really brings about a sense of fear knowing that the very crew members we trust to bring us from point A to B can also put our lives at risk. However it doesn’t deter me from flying again, but I hope never go to through what this guy did.

U.S. citizen sues Ethiopia for allegedly using computer spyware against him

A Washington area man with ties to Ethiopia’s political opposition sued that country’s government in federal court Tuesday, alleging that agents had used powerful spyware to hack into his computer and snoop on his private communications for more than four months.

The suit says that forensics experts found more than 2,000 files related to a spyware program called FinSpy, including evidence that it had accessed the plaintiff’s Skype calls, e-mails and Web-browsing history in violation of U.S. wiretapping laws.


The case is the latest sign that the government of Ethi­o­pia, an American ally with a history of repressing political opponents, journalists and human rights activists, has used sophisticated Internet technology to monitor its perceived enemies, even when they are in other countries.

“The Ethio­pian government appears to be doing everything it can to spy on members of the diaspora, especially those in contact with opposition groups,” said Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco that prepared the suit.

Ethio­pian officials did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. Last week, for a separate article about the government’s alleged use of spyware against Ethio­pian journalists working in the United States, a government official said, “The Ethiopian government did not use and has no reason at all to use any spyware.”

Tuesday’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, takes the unusual step of not naming the plaintiff, who says in an affidavit that revealing his identity would endanger him, his children and members of his family still in Ethi­o­pia.

The man came to the United States 22 years ago, won political asylum and now is a U.S. citizen living in Silver Spring, Md. He provides “technical and administrative support” to an Ethio­pian opposition group, Ginbot 7, but is not a formal member of that group, the affidavit says. In the suit, the plaintiff uses a pseudonym, “Kidane,” a common name in Ethi­o­pia. A judge must decide whether the pseudonym will be allowed in the suit.

“I would be extremely hesitant to continue to seek legal redress in this case should I be denied this request to proceed pseudonymously, as I fear the litigation would put my life and the lives of my family at substantial risk,” ­Kidane wrote in the affidavit.

Computer researchers tracking the spread of spyware have named Ethi­o­pia among a list of dozens of countries that use such products. The spyware typically can read e-mails, snatch documents and contact lists, record video chats, and remotely activate cameras and microphones, making a computer capable of spying on targets in their homes or workplaces. The market for spyware operates with few international restrictions, although using spyware can violate a range of laws.

Hidden files discovered by ­forensics experts show the hacking of Kidane’s computer began in October 2012, when he downloaded what appeared to be a Microsoft Word file attached to an ­e-mail, the suit alleges. The document, in Ethiopia’s Amharic language, contained a desperate plea from another Ethio­pian expatriate requesting Kidane’s help in protecting a relative in danger. It also contained FinSpy, which gradually took hold of Kidane’s computer.

More than four months later, in March 2013, an independent research group published a report detailing evidence that Ethi­o­pia was using FinSpy, produced by Gamma Group, a spyware maker based in Britain and Germany. That report, by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, singled out a server based at Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications company as controlling the spyware.

Five days after that report was issued — prompting widespread news coverage — the server in Ethi­o­pia went offline and the hackers who had taken control of Kidane’s computer attempted to remove all traces of FinSpy from his machine, the lawsuit alleges.

But the attempted removal was incomplete: It left behind the hidden files that forensics researchers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation eventually found.

Gamma Group did not respond to a request for comment filed through its Web site, which describes the company as an “international manufacturer of surveillance & monitoring systems with technical and sales offices in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.”

The lawsuit, prepared in conjunction with the law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, seeks a court declaration that the Ethio­pian government was behind the hacking of Kidane’s computer, as well as attorney’s fees and $10,000 in damages.

Privacy International, an advocacy group based in Britain, filed a criminal complaint there Monday urging an investigation of the alleged use of FinSpy against an Ethio­pian political refu­gee based in the United Kingdom. Last week, Citizen Lab issued a report detailing evidence that the Ethio­pian government had used a different brand of spyware, produced by an Italian company called Hacking Team, against journalists working for Ethio­pian Satellite Television, a news service with offices in the Washington area.

The latest from Craig Timberg: