Now it's Ethiopia spying on Americans' computer

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a Maryland resident who claims the government of his native Ethiopia spied on him with an electronic program that was created – and is sold to governments – for the purpose of observing the life people have on their computers – unnoticed.

Amid all the reports of spying on Americans by the U.S. government, through the National Security Agency, FBI and others, the complaint filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of a man identified only by the pseudonym of Mr. Kidane takes allegations to a whole new level.

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington alleges the Ethiopian government infected his computer so that it could wiretap his private Skype calls and monitor his family’s every use of the computer for months on end.

“We have clear evidence of a foreign government secretly infiltrating an American’s computer in America, listening to his calls, and obtaining access to a wide swath of his private life,” said EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo.

“The current Ethiopian government has a well-documented history of human rights violations against anyone it sees as political opponents. Here, it wiretapped a United States citizen on United States soil in an apparent attempt to obtain information about members of the Ethiopian diaspora who have been critical of their former government. U.S. laws protect Americans from this type of unauthorized electronic spying, regardless of who is responsible.”

The EFF said a forensic examination of the computer revealed the spyware, which is made and sold to governments by the Gamma Group of Companies, was installed when Kidane opened a Microsoft Word document.

There was an attachment with a program called FinSpy, and that program over months recorded his activities on the computer. It was discovered because the spyware left traces of the files it copied and surreptitiously sent to a secret control server located in Ethiopia and controlled by that government, the claim alleges.

“The problem of governments violating the privacy of their political opponents through digital surveillance is not isolated – it’s already big and growing bigger,” Cindy Cohn, the EFF legal director, said. “Yet despite the international intrigue and genuine danger involved in his lawsuit, at bottom it’s a straightforward case. An American citizen was wiretapped at his home in Maryland, and he’s asking for his day in court under longstanding American laws.”

Officials with the EFF said the attack apparently is part of a systematic program by the Ethiopian government to spy on perceived political opponents in the Ethiopian diaspora around the world.

They said human rights agencies and news outlets elsewhere have made related claims.

And they said Ethiopia is not alone. They said CitizenLab, a team of University of Toronto researchers, has discovered evidence that governments around the world are using FinSpy and other technologies to spy on human rights and democracy advocates.

EFF reports, “Essentially, the malware took over our client’s computer and secretly sent copies of his activities, including Skype calls, web searches and indications of websites visited [and] other activity, to the Ethiopian government.”

“This case is important because it demonstrates that state-sponsored malware infections and can indeed are occurring in the U.S. against U.S. citizens. It seeks to demonstrate that warrantless wiretapping is illegal and can be the basis of a lawsuit in the United States, regardless of who engages in it,” EFF said.

The complaint explains FinSpy can record Internet telephone calls, text messages, and file transfers transmitted through Skype, record every keystroke on the computer, and take a picture of the contents displayed on a computer’s screen. It can even covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone even when no Skype calls are taking place.

The complaint said the Internet Protocol to which the spyware sent data was inside Ethiopia, and was under control of the state-owned Ethio Telecom communications company.

An interview with Ethiopian Airlines ET-702 co-Pilot Mother

An interview with  Ethiopian Airlines ET-702 Pilot Mother 

Ethiopia The Promised Land!

The Promised Land

Drive 155 miles south from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, and you’ll find yourself in a little patch of Jamaica, where dreadlocked Rasta settlers, many born in the Caribbean, have now made their home. Welcome to the community of Shashemane—Ethiopia’s version of “Amish country.”

By Tom Freston

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From left, Ras Hailu Tefari and musician Sydney Salmon. Tefari is from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and runs the “the world’s only banana-leaf art gallery” in Shashemane.

YYou do not have to look far in Africa to see the influence of reggae music. Once I met a Tuareg tribesman in the Sahara Desert who proudly played me a Bob Marley ringtone on his cell phone. Reggae music swept ’round the world in the 1970s, then receded a bit in most places. It still lives large in Africa. There is great reverence for the Jamaican classics, but there are also many lively local scenes. Reggae is music for the dispossessed, and Africa itself plays a leading role in reggae’s narrative. In reggae mythology, Africa is the Promised Land, the destined homeland where the African diaspora will someday be repatriated. Africa—and Ethiopia in particular—is the “Land of Zion” sung about in so many reggae songs.

Reggae has its own code and language, infused largely with the ideology of the Rastafarians—followers of a spiritual system that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica. A big influence on the Rastafarians was Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader in the 1920s who led a Back to Africa movement among descendants of slaves throughout the Americas. Rastafarians regard Garvey as a prophet who predicted that one day a black man would be crowned king in Africa and would bring deliverance to dark-skinned people everywhere.

“Follow, follow, follow, follow Marcus Garvey’s footsteps,” sang reggae singer Burning Spear. And where exactly was Garvey going? “We’re leaving Babylon, we’re going to our father’s land,” Bob Marley told us in “Exodus.” Not Babylon, Long Island, mind you, but the metaphorical one where, as Marley sang, “the system is the vampire”—the wicked place that embodies all of what’s wrong with Western culture. Babylon, as Steel Pulse said, “makes the rules . . . where my people suffer.”

Shashemane was made possible by a 1948 land grant that accommodated, for free, any Caribbean of African descent who wanted to “come home.”

When Haile Selassie I was declared emperor of Ethiopia, in 1930, the followers of Garvey believed Garvey’s prophecy had been fulfilled. They declared His Imperial Majesty to be the Messiah, or “Jah.” Selassie’s pre-coronation name, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was adopted to name their movement.

Last November, I had some business in Ethiopia, but I went a couple of days early. We know much about the influence of Ethiopia on the Rastafarians. I was curious to see the impact of the Rastafarian movement on Ethiopia. Rastafarians encourage their followers to pick up and head to Ethiopia, to repatriate. Underneath reggae’s cool backbeat rhythms are endless messages to get thee back to Zion. Billions of dollars worth of that message have been repeated over and over, all around the planet, for the past 40 years. With more than a million Rastafarians in the world now, shouldn’t Ethiopia be teeming with Rastas?

Well, “teeming” isn’t quite the word, but there is a thriving community. In 1948, Haile Selassie made a substantial land grant to accommodate, for free, any Caribbean of African descent who wanted to “come home.” A wave of Rastafarian settlers in the late 60s made that community come alive. The land grant was in a village called Shashemane, deep in the beautiful Rift Valley, a six-hour drive south from Addis Ababa, the capital. I got a car and headed down.

Ethiopia these days is very much a country on the move. Once synonymous with famine (think Live Aid), it now has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. People in the capital told me that the Rasta settlement in Shashemane was today a bit of a tourist attraction for middle-class Ethiopians. Ethiopia has been through a lot of changes in the last 40 years. Haile Selassie and the monarchy were overthrown in a violent communist coup in 1974. That new regime, called the Derg, fell to rebels, in 1991, and then a new federal republic was declared in 1994. Anything connected to Selassie fell out of favor, and Shashemane endured some tough decades. Much of the land grant was reclaimed. Still, hardcore settlers hung on, and although the number of new arrivals diminished, immigration continued. I wondered if this Jamaican outpost had now become some sort of dreadlocked attraction for day-tripping sightseers—the African equivalent of Amish country.

From left, Sandrine and Alex, the newly arrived founders of the Zion Train Lodge, where visitors can “return to the source, and come and share the positive vibration.”

The road south out of Addis was initially rough and congested with belching Chinese dump trucks, but it soon opened up to a clear new highway. Traffic thinned to mostly just donkey carts, the occasional cattle herd, and the constant stream of pedestrians you see on African roads. It was a stunning drive and got better as we went along. The sky was clear blue, expansive, and dotted with striking cumulus-cloud formations. We drove on past beautiful lakes. The scenery got progressively more verdant, almost tropical. A few miles outside of Shashemane, I saw a sign with Bob Marley’s image and the red, yellow, and green Rasta colors.

Shashemane’s main drag is a major highway lined on both sides with rickety wooden stalls selling Rasta gear and drinks. Scooter taxis, with dreadlocked drivers, were parked at all angles. There is a small museum, signs for lodges and juice restaurants, and various temples for worship. A few aggressive hawkers aside, it seemed to be a friendly and happy place. People smiled, warmly greeting “brothers and sisters” with back-and-forth salutations in the unmistakable Jamaican patois. There were no throngs of Rastas or tourists, though. The vibe was very quiet, very small town. The real action seemed to be on the many dirt lanes that run off into the jungle.

I had arranged to meet some of the community’s “elders” and also with a reggae musician, Sydney Salmon. “Like the fish,” he says,” but they call me Solomon here.” Born in Jamaica, he migrated to New York, studied music, played with many notable reggae artists, including Beres Hammond, became a Rasta, and then, in 2000, released a single, “Shashemane on My Mind.” It must indeed have been on his mind, because he soon packed up and moved here, marrying an Ethiopian woman, and forming the Imperial Majestic Band. He has become a bit of a star in Ethiopia. Thirteen years on, “a newcomer,” he does not see himself going back.

An advertisement for a juice restaurant in Shashemane; the settlement has become a popular tourist destination for middle-class Ethiopians.

I met one of the Shashemane’s latter-day pioneers, Maurice Lee, in a local juice bar. (Rastas to not drink alcohol, and, for the most part, are also vegetarian.) Lee is a burly 62-year-old man with gray dreads tucked under a knit Rasta cap. He had arrived from Jamaica, in 1976, with a “brother.” Many of the original settlers had left by then, and building out the community was difficult. But he said that these had been “the best 37 years” of his life. To survive as a Rasta in Shashemane, one must live with great ingenuity. Ras Hailu Tefari, a gentle, handsome 60-something Rasta from St. Vincent, runs the Banana Art Gallery. It is surrounded by a lush tropical garden, and sells remarkable pieces made by gluing together banana leaves of different colors—“the world’s only banana-leaf art gallery,” according to Tefari. Alex and Sandrine, a Rasta couple, new arrivals via Paris and Martinique, opened the Zion Train Lodge with 16 colorful bamboo huts for the growing tourist trade. Its brochure invites you to “return to the source, and come and share the positive vibration.” Alex, a kindly man with a perfectly dreadlocked beard, pointed out a blissful lineup of Japanese Rasta guests sitting silently on the lobby porch. Shashemane, he said, had become an iconic place of “pilgrimage” and curiosity for Rastas everywhere, but admitted that most of his customers are Ethiopians.

It was evident that the Exodus, the “movement of Jah people,” as Bob Marley put it, never really came to pass in Zion, despite all that singing and proselytizing. Best estimates put the Rasta settler population in the 400 to 700 range, down from a peak of more than 1,000 before 1974, and there are few new arrivals. Reasons for this run the gamut, from the fear that “lions are eating people there” to cost, but the main problem is the Ethiopian government. No “repatriates” have ever been granted citizenship or even an identity card. You can sense a feeling among the settlers that they did not get the welcome home they thought they deserved. They came, however, to create a perfect spiritual community, not to fit into Ethiopian society. Therein lies the rub. They have never really assimilated, and have a complex relationship with the “outside,” made more complex by religious and language differences. In that regard, the Amish parallel holds up.

For all the difficulties, though, the Rastas who came and stayed seem happy with their choice. They have built a very tight-knit, peaceful, and spiritual community, albeit with a few rough touts trying to peddle ganja. Their land is rich, they live in natural beauty, and the people look healthy and satisfied. They have a school and even a Web site (shashamane.org). As for ganja, that Rastafarian staple, although it is illegal in Ethiopia, it seems to be quietly tolerated in Shashemane. One Rasta told me, “It’s a holy sacrament. We use ganja instead of wine, but we are not arrogant about it and do not want to provoke the system.”

For all the drum-beating and religious and musical encouragement—for all the exhortations about Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie—the Back to Africa movement never really happened. If they are going anywhere, most descendants of African slaves are not “going home.” Even Bob Marley, the most famous Rastafarian of all, did not do it, though he visited Shashemane in 1978. (His wife, Rita, wanted to transfer his body to Ethiopia, his fatherland, but his grave remains in Jamaica.) More than a million people have emigrated to the United States from the Caribbean, in contrast to the few thousand that ever made it to Ethiopia. But the settlers of Shashemane seem to have few regrets. Desmond Martin, an old-timer Rastafarian who came in 1975 from Kingston, told me, “I escaped from Babylon. It was difficult, but I’m never going back.”

You do not have to look far in Africa to see the influence of reggae music. Once I met a Tuareg tribesman in the Sahara Desert who proudly played me a Bob Marley ringtone on his cell phone. Reggae music swept ’round the world in the 1970s, then receded a bit in most places. It still lives large in Africa. There is great reverence for the Jamaican classics, but there are also many lively local scenes. Reggae is music for the dispossessed, and Africa itself plays a leading role in reggae’s narrative. In reggae mythology, Africa is the Promised Land, the destined homeland where the African diaspora will someday be repatriated. Africa—and Ethiopia in particular—is the “Land of Zion” sung about in so many reggae songs.

Reggae has its own code and language, infused largely with the ideology of the Rastafarians—followers of a spiritual system that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica. A big influence on the Rastafarians was Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican political leader in the 1920s who led a Back to Africa movement among descendants of slaves throughout the Americas. Rastafarians regard Garvey as a prophet who predicted that one day a black man would be crowned king in Africa and would bring deliverance to dark-skinned people everywhere.

“Follow, follow, follow, follow Marcus Garvey’s footsteps,” sang reggae singer Burning Spear. And where exactly was Garvey going? “We’re leaving Babylon, we’re going to our father’s land,” Bob Marley told us in “Exodus.” Not Babylon, Long Island, mind you, but the metaphorical one where, as Marley sang, “the system is the vampire”—the wicked place that embodies all of what’s wrong with Western culture. Babylon, as Steel Pulse said, “makes the rules . . . where my people suffer.”

Shashemane was made possible by a 1948 land grant that accommodated, for free, any Caribbean of African descent who wanted to “come home.”

When Haile Selassie I was declared emperor of Ethiopia, in 1930, the followers of Garvey believed Garvey’s prophecy had been fulfilled. They declared His Imperial Majesty to be the Messiah, or “Jah.” Selassie’s pre-coronation name, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was adopted to name their movement.

Last November, I had some business in Ethiopia, but I went a couple of days early. We know much about the influence of Ethiopia on the Rastafarians. I was curious to see the impact of the Rastafarian movement on Ethiopia. Rastafarians encourage their followers to pick up and head to Ethiopia, to repatriate. Underneath reggae’s cool backbeat rhythms are endless messages to get thee back to Zion. Billions of dollars worth of that message have been repeated over and over, all around the planet, for the past 40 years. With more than a million Rastafarians in the world now, shouldn’t Ethiopia be teeming with Rastas?

Well, “teeming” isn’t quite the word, but there is a thriving community. In 1948, Haile Selassie made a substantial land grant to accommodate, for free, any Caribbean of African descent who wanted to “come home.” A wave of Rastafarian settlers in the late 60s made that community come alive. The land grant was in a village called Shashemane, deep in the beautiful Rift Valley, a six-hour drive south from Addis Ababa, the capital. I got a car and headed down.

Ethiopia these days is very much a country on the move. Once synonymous with famine (think Live Aid), it now has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. People in the capital told me that the Rasta settlement in Shashemane was today a bit of a tourist attraction for middle-class Ethiopians. Ethiopia has been through a lot of changes in the last 40 years. Haile Selassie and the monarchy were overthrown in a violent communist coup in 1974. That new regime, called the Derg, fell to rebels, in 1991, and then a new federal republic was declared in 1994. Anything connected to Selassie fell out of favor, and Shashemane endured some tough decades. Much of the land grant was reclaimed. Still, hardcore settlers hung on, and although the number of new arrivals diminished, immigration continued. I wondered if this Jamaican outpost had now become some sort of dreadlocked attraction for day-tripping sightseers—the African equivalent of Amish country.

From left, Sandrine and Alex, the newly arrived founders of the Zion Train Lodge, where visitors can “return to the source, and come and share the positive vibration.”

The road south out of Addis was initially rough and congested with belching Chinese dump trucks, but it soon opened up to a clear new highway. Traffic thinned to mostly just donkey carts, the occasional cattle herd, and the constant stream of pedestrians you see on African roads. It was a stunning drive and got better as we went along. The sky was clear blue, expansive, and dotted with striking cumulus-cloud formations. We drove on past beautiful lakes. The scenery got progressively more verdant, almost tropical. A few miles outside of Shashemane, I saw a sign with Bob Marley’s image and the red, yellow, and green Rasta colors.

Shashemane’s main drag is a major highway lined on both sides with rickety wooden stalls selling Rasta gear and drinks. Scooter taxis, with dreadlocked drivers, were parked at all angles. There is a small museum, signs for lodges and juice restaurants, and various temples for worship. A few aggressive hawkers aside, it seemed to be a friendly and happy place. People smiled, warmly greeting “brothers and sisters” with back-and-forth salutations in the unmistakable Jamaican patois. There were no throngs of Rastas or tourists, though. The vibe was very quiet, very small town. The real action seemed to be on the many dirt lanes that run off into the jungle.

I had arranged to meet some of the community’s “elders” and also with a reggae musician, Sydney Salmon. “Like the fish,” he says,” but they call me Solomon here.” Born in Jamaica, he migrated to New York, studied music, played with many notable reggae artists, including Beres Hammond, became a Rasta, and then, in 2000, released a single, “Shashemane on My Mind.” It must indeed have been on his mind, because he soon packed up and moved here, marrying an Ethiopian woman, and forming the Imperial Majestic Band. He has become a bit of a star in Ethiopia. Thirteen years on, “a newcomer,” he does not see himself going back.

An advertisement for a juice restaurant in Shashemane; the settlement has become a popular tourist destination for middle-class Ethiopians.

I met one of the Shashemane’s latter-day pioneers, Maurice Lee, in a local juice bar. (Rastas to not drink alcohol, and, for the most part, are also vegetarian.) Lee is a burly 62-year-old man with gray dreads tucked under a knit Rasta cap. He had arrived from Jamaica, in 1976, with a “brother.” Many of the original settlers had left by then, and building out the community was difficult. But he said that these had been “the best 37 years” of his life. To survive as a Rasta in Shashemane, one must live with great ingenuity. Ras Hailu Tefari, a gentle, handsome 60-something Rasta from St. Vincent, runs the Banana Art Gallery. It is surrounded by a lush tropical garden, and sells remarkable pieces made by gluing together banana leaves of different colors—“the world’s only banana-leaf art gallery,” according to Tefari. Alex and Sandrine, a Rasta couple, new arrivals via Paris and Martinique, opened the Zion Train Lodge with 16 colorful bamboo huts for the growing tourist trade. Its brochure invites you to “return to the source, and come and share the positive vibration.” Alex, a kindly man with a perfectly dreadlocked beard, pointed out a blissful lineup of Japanese Rasta guests sitting silently on the lobby porch. Shashemane, he said, had become an iconic place of “pilgrimage” and curiosity for Rastas everywhere, but admitted that most of his customers are Ethiopians.

It was evident that the Exodus, the “movement of Jah people,” as Bob Marley put it, never really came to pass in Zion, despite all that singing and proselytizing. Best estimates put the Rasta settler population in the 400 to 700 range, down from a peak of more than 1,000 before 1974, and there are few new arrivals. Reasons for this run the gamut, from the fear that “lions are eating people there” to cost, but the main problem is the Ethiopian government. No “repatriates” have ever been granted citizenship or even an identity card. You can sense a feeling among the settlers that they did not get the welcome home they thought they deserved. They came, however, to create a perfect spiritual community, not to fit into Ethiopian society. Therein lies the rub. They have never really assimilated, and have a complex relationship with the “outside,” made more complex by religious and language differences. In that regard, the Amish parallel holds up.

For all the difficulties, though, the Rastas who came and stayed seem happy with their choice. They have built a very tight-knit, peaceful, and spiritual community, albeit with a few rough touts trying to peddle ganja. Their land is rich, they live in natural beauty, and the people look healthy and satisfied. They have a school and even a Web site (shashamane.org). As for ganja, that Rastafarian staple, although it is illegal in Ethiopia, it seems to be quietly tolerated in Shashemane. One Rasta told me, “It’s a holy sacrament. We use ganja instead of wine, but we are not arrogant about it and do not want to provoke the system.”

For all the drum-beating and religious and musical encouragement—for all the exhortations about Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie—the Back to Africa movement never really happened. If they are going anywhere, most descendants of African slaves are not “going home.” Even Bob Marley, the most famous Rastafarian of all, did not do it, though he visited Shashemane in 1978. (His wife, Rita, wanted to transfer his body to Ethiopia, his fatherland, but his grave remains in Jamaica.) More than a million people have emigrated to the United States from the Caribbean, in contrast to the few thousand that ever made it to Ethiopia. But the settlers of Shashemane seem to have few regrets. Desmond Martin, an old-timer Rastafarian who came in 1975 from Kingston, told me, “I escaped from Babylon. It was difficult, but I’m never going back.”

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

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