U.S. 'reasonably certain' drone strike killed ISIS mouthpiece 'Jihadi John'

(CNN)He hid his face, but "Jihadi John" was the English-speaking voice of ISIS. His twisted, videotaped taunts and acts of terrible cruelty -- beheading hostages who had gone to the Middle East to report stories and help others -- symbolized the Islamist militant group's depravity and ruthlessness.

Not anymore, it appears.

U.S. Army Col. Steven Warren said Friday that a drone strike the previous night killed everyone in the targeted vehicle, with Mohammed Emwazi -- a.k.a. "Jihadi John" -- likely among them.

"We are reasonably certain that we killed the target that we intended to kill, which is Jihadi John," the Army spokesman said. "...This guy was a human animal, and killing him is probably making the world a little bit better place."

The United States had been tracking Emwazi closely since Wednesday, and he was seen leaving a building and getting into a car Thursday, U.S. officials said. Three drones went after that vehicle, which also had another person inside, and two Hellfire missiles were fired.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a Syrian activist group, said a missile hit Emwazi's car directly at 11:51 p.m. (4:51 p.m. ET) in front of an ISIS court in Raqqa. Citing a source in ISIS' de facto capital, the same group said that ISIS militants then ringed that vehicle and two others that had been struck to prevent anyone from getting closer.

Speaking hours later Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron cast the airstrike as an act of self-defense that, if it is confirmed Emwazi is dead, "will strike at the heart of ISIS."
"We always said we will do whatever is necessary to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others," he said.

But there is no joy or sense of victory from Louise Woodward-Styles. Her friend, British aid worker David Haines, was among the hostages whose beheading videos featured Emwazi. Others included American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid worker David Haines and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

'Jihadi John' victims: Journalists, aid workers making a difference

"There's just sadness," Woodward-Styles said. "It reminds you of the loss of Alan and just hoping it's closure for the family. But also I hope it reminds people that the issue of Syria is still ongoing, and not to forget the reasons why Alan was there."

As to Emwazi himself, Woodward-Styles added, "I don't think he deserves the attention that his apparent death is causing. I think he was a coward."

Breaking News! Ethiopian plane hijacker deemed mentally unsound： ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

ፓይለቱ የተከሰሰበት ወንጀል  ውድቅ ሊሆን ነው：：

A psychiatric evaluation has revealed that the co-pilot who hijacked an Ethiopian Airlines flight and re-routed it to Geneva in 2014 was not of sound mind when he did so. As a result, the Swiss Attorney General will drop all charges against him.

Although the man planned the hijacking beforehand, he was not competent to judge the situation at the time and experienced paranoia, according to the Attorney General’s office.

The co-pilot will stand trial before the Federal Criminal Court, which will decide on the therapeutic measures to be prescribed to him. For now, he remains in a closed psychiatric ward.

In February 2014, the 31-year-old Ethiopian hijacked a flight from Addis Ababa to Rome, rerouting it to Geneva with 202 people on board. He took control of the plane while the pilot was using the restroom.

After landing in Geneva, the co-pilot exited through the cockpit window and turned himself over to authorities. He then asked for political asylum in Switzerland as he felt threatened in his homeland.

In March, an Ethiopian court sentenced him to 19 years and six months in prison for hijacking. The Swiss authorities decided not to extradite him to Ethiopia in order to try him in Switzerland.

Airbus A350XWB visits Addis Ababa while ET’s first enters final assembly

African aviation history was made earlier this week when an Airbus A350XWB flew into Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to showcase the world’s latest state of the art wide body aircraft, and one which will soon join the Ethiopian Airlines fleet.
Coming from the Dubai Air Show, where Airbus had the aircraft on display, is the new bird now completing a mini world tour which notably includes a stop in Africa. Ethiopian Airlines now has 14 A350XWB’s on order. It was therefore only logical that Airbus would give the ET staff in Addis the opportunity to see this aircraft type as they prepare to take delivery of the first aircraft in a couple of months.

Wow Air Will Fly You From the U.S. to Paris for Just $99

The Icelandic carrier already flies direct from Dublin to Reykjavik, which means Irish passengers will be able to connect to the West Coast cities with an estimated total journey time of 13.5 hours.

Prices will not be confirmed until flights go on sale in January 2016, the airline has told Independent Travel, but lead-in rates are likely to be considerably lower than the €329 each-way fares quoted for direct flights from Dublin to LA by Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus is to fly direct to LA from May 2016, while Ethiopian Airlines has been operating a direct service from Dublin Airport since June.

WOW's stopover time in Reyjkavik is likely to be two hours, the airline says, and the Reykjavik-US route will be serviced by three new Airbus A330-300s aircraft, the first wide-body planes in its fleet.

Low-cost transatlantic travel is gathering momentum as fuel prices drop and the economy recovers, with Norwegian set to fly direct from Cork Airport to Boston from next May using narrow-bodied Boeing 737-800s.

WOW's "ultra-low-cost" transatlantic services also connect Dublin, via Reykjavik, to Boston and Washington, with its lead-in fares gaining wide publicity.

Flights from Dublin to Boston are currently quoting from €149 each-way on its website (wowair.ie), for instance, though they rise to as much as €454 on certain dates, excluding baggage fees.

By contrast, as we publish, Ethiopian Airlines' website (ethiopianairlines.com) is quoting return fares to Los Angeles from €449 next May.

WOW Air allows one cabin bag of less than 5kg for free, while charging €15 each-way for cabin bags of 5-12kg and €31 for checked bags of up to 20kg.

WOW's capacity will more than double to 1.8 million next year, it says

Ethiopian Aviation Academy graduates 201 aviation professionals

Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the largest aviation academy in Africa, a full ICAO TRAINAIR Plus member and IATA authorized global training center, has graduated 24 pilots, 96 aviation maintenance technicians, 37 cabin crew and 44 marketing professionals at a ceremony held at Ethiopian Headquarters on Tuesday.The graduates include nationals from Rwanda. The training equipped the graduates with sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge to qualify them in their carrier as Aviation professionals, according to a press release issued by the airlines on Wednesday.
On the occasion, Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam congratulated the new graduates and welcomed them to the airline’s fast growing and dedicated workforce, gave out diplomas to all the graduates, flight wings to graduating pilots and cabin crew and achievement award to graduates with outstanding academic performance.
Tewolde said, “Ethiopian Aviation Academy is the bedrock of the airline’s success. Self-sufficiency in training of all aviation Services expertise right from the inception of our business has been one of the major success factors of Ethiopian Airlines. That is why we have invested huge amount of time, energy and money for the expansion of our Aviation Academy to meet the demand for trained aviation expertise of the 21st century and to set the standard in high-level quality education demanded by the aviation profession.â€�
“We will continue to invest in the Academy to scale up its capacity both in scope and scale not only to meet our internal demand for more than 17,000 employees envisaged in our vision 2025 but also to address the critical shortage of trained and qualified aviation professionals prevailing in the continent of Africa. Shortage of trained and skilled human power is one of the major reasons why our continent is lagging behind in all measurements of development in the civil aviation sector,” he added.
Ethiopian Aviation Academy is certified by the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, the U.S Federal Aviation Administration, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and IATA Safety Audit (IOSA).
The Academy has been providing training for pilots, maintenance technicians, cabin crew, and marketing personnel and in leadership development for Ethiopian and 50 different countries from all over the world for more than six- decade.

BREAKING: “Sniper” in San Diego Shuts Down Airport

There’s word that an “active shooter” in San Diego — specifically a “sniper” with a “high powered rifle” if the news media is to be trusted — is firing somewhat erratically into the air and as a result the local authorities have decided to shut down the local airport. The scene of the police standoff is directly below the approach path to San Diego’s local airport and officials are concerned that an errant bullet might hit an airliner and cause millions of dollars in damage or even some deaths. Stay tuned for more as we get it.

Ethiopian to launch new flights to Chicago and Houston? Good news..

Ethiopian to launch new flights to North America and Asia

By T3 News Network, Oct 30, 2015

Ethiopian Airlines is set to expand its network to North America and Asia next year. The expansion is made possible by the delivery of Ethiopian’s first batch of 343-seat A350-900s along with additional 270-seat Boeing 787-8s, according to a report by Centre for Aviation (CAPA).
As per the plan, New York will be Ethiopian’s fourth destination in North America joining Toronto, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles as the new flights kick off in June 2016. The report added that Ethiopian is also looking at Chicago and Houston, which could be launched in 2017.
In Asia too, the airline is planning to launch services to Chengdu (China), Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Jakarta (Indonesia) as well as Singapore. East Asia has been the main driver of Ethiopian’s rapid expansion in recent years – with two destinations added in 2015 for a total of nine – and will continue to be the Airline’s focus as it doubles its fleet over the next decade.

African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles

African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles
African Immigrants Express Frustration Over Driver's License Hurdles
Story tools

New America Media, News Report, Elena Shore, Posted: Oct 27, 2015


OAKLAND, Calif. – African immigrants in the Bay Area are upset that many of them have to go through a secondary review process in order to apply for a California driver’s license under AB 60.

But DMV officials say the reason some countries don’t appear on the list of acceptable passports has to do with security requirements, not geography.

At a recent forum in Oakland with DMV officials, several African immigrants said they didn’t understand why they were sent into secondary review. Attendees asked why more than half of African countries were not on the list of acceptable passports, leaving their nationals to provide more documentation in order to apply for a driver’s license.

Ekow Croffiie, an Oakland resident originally from Ghana, pulled out his passport and birth certificate, saying he had been in secondary review for months.

“Every time I call, they say, ‘You should wait for 90 days,’” said Coffie. “I’m just frustrated because I have a family, my wife doesn’t drive, and my kids have to go to school.”

Adoubou Traore, project director of the African Advocacy Network in San Francisco, has been meeting with DMV officials to answer some of the questions and concerns that he hears in his community.

“They contacted us,” Traore said about the recent forum in Oakland, one of more than 200 public forums the DMV has held across the state to provide information about how to apply for a license. Traore saw that as a hopeful sign. “It shows that there’s a will to see this issue taken care of.”

Still, he said, “You could feel people’s frustration.”

Since January 2015, the DMV has issued more than 500,000 driver’s licenses to unauthorized immigrants in California under AB 60. To be eligible, they must provide proof of identity and California residency, as well as pass all required tests.

Passports and other documents accepted by the DMV must meet all of the standards of security. This includes questions like how easy it is to forge a passport, and how the country verifies people’s identities.

Mexican nationals, whose country has a security agreement with the DMV, need only present one document to prove their identity. This can include a Mexican passport issued in 2008 or later, a Mexican consular card (matricula consular) or a 2013 Mexican federal electoral card (Instituto Federal Electoral Credencial para Votar).

A second group, including those from some other Latin American countries and those whose passports are approved by the DMV, needs to present two documents.

Those who do not fall into either of the first two groups, including nationals of many African and Asian countries, are sent to secondary review, where they are asked to provide additional documents to verify their identity.

According to the DMV, a majority of those who have been sent to secondary review in January and February have gotten approval to move forward with their application.

But Armando Botello, deputy director of the DMV’s Office of Public Affairs in Sacramento, noted that the number of applications that required a secondary review exceeded the DMV’s expectations. As a result, the wait time in some cases exceeded four months.

“To everyone who has been waiting for their secondary review,” Botello said, “we apologize and ask them to be patient.”

Traore said he plans to continue to meet with DMV officials to help more African immigrants take advantage of AB 60.

“Education is needed on both sides,” Traore said. “It’s in everyone’s interest,” he said, to allow people to apply for a driver’s license – not only for those who get a driver’s license through AB 60, but for the safety of everyone sharing the road.

For more information about how to apply for a California driver’s license under AB 60, go to: DMV.ca.gov.

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Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner declares emergency over the Atlantic after one of its engines 'shuts down'

The crew of a US-bound jet was forced to dump thousands of litres of fuel and return to Dublin after they experienced engine problems over the Atlantic.

Ethiopian Airlines flight ETH-500 left Dublin shortly after 6am on Friday but was forced to turn around an hour later.

The flight had been travelling from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Washington DC via Dublin. The flight arrived in Dublin at around 4.45am.

The Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner had been cruising at 40,000 feet and was about 600km northwest of Donegal when the pilot declared an emergency at about 7.30am.

The crew had been in contact with controllers at the Irish Aviation Authority’s North Atlantic Communications Service centre in Co Clare and advised them that they had to shut down one of the jet’s two engines.

The crew requested clearance to descend to 25,000ft and told controllers they would also need to dump fuel so they could land within safe weight limits.

After spending 10 minutes jettisoning fuel, the crew was asked by controllers whether they were diverting to Shannon or Dublin. The pilot opted to return to Dublin where fire and rescue crews were placed on standby.

The jet reached the airport on it’s one remaining engine and landed safely at 8.35am. The aircraft was pursued along the runway by emergency vehicles which also remained with the jet until it reached the terminal building.

Engineers are now investigating the problem.

One inbound flight was placed in a holding pattern for a short time to allow the emergency aircraft a priority landing.

Lalibela the Jerusalem of Africa: African 101

ይህን ፊልም ማየት ያለባቸው የኢትዮጵያን ኦርቶዶክስ ለማዳከም ከላይ ታች ደፋ ቀና ለሚሉት የኢትዮጵያን ታሪክ አይናቸውን ጨፍነው ፈረንጅ  የሚሰራው ሲጠፋው በሚፈጥረው  ሰው ሰራሽ ሀይማኖት ናላቸው ዞሮ  ለማየት  ተስኗቸው ለሚቅበዘበዙት ግለሰቦች ነው ::
የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ለጥቁር ህዝቦች  ኩራት ለአፍሪካ ፋኖስ ነው：： እስኪ ይህንን ቪዲዮ እዮ：：  ኩሩ

Lalibela the Jerusalem of Africa:

የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋህዶ ለዘላለም ትኖራለች
ሰለ ታሪካችን  ነጩ ብሎ ብሎ አልሰማ ብለናል እስኪ በጥቁሩ ደግሞ ሲነገር እንስማው እንዴት እንደሚደነቅ እና እንደሚኮራ：：
  ተባረክ በሉት！

1. The Ethiopian Orthodox found when the pagan emperors were ruling Rome
2.  The Ethiopians has their own manuscript perhaps the only African manuscript
3.  Ethiopian Christianity is SO OLD even its bible is different     
4. Christianity was alive more than 1000 in Ethiopia before the first European missionary arrived in Africa  
5. When the fist European colonist arrived in Africa they faced the uncomfortable truth  
   
   
   
    

World Aviation Summit: Ethiopian Carrier Wins Airline Of the Year

World Aviation Summit: Ethiopian Carrier Wins Airline Of the Year

BY KINGSLEY ALU
— Oct 12, 2015 4:25

Ethiopian Airlines, the largest, fastest growing and most profitable airline in Africa has won the CAPA Airline of the Year Award, one of the top airline awards, at the 2015 CAPA Aviation Awards for Excellence, held on 7 October, 2015 in Helsinki as part of CAPA’s 2015 World Aviation Summit.

CAPA – Centre for Aviation (formerly the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation) is the leading provider of independent global expertise in aviation market intelligence, analysis and data services covering worldwide developments. The CAPA awards for Excellence are independently researched by CAPA and Heidrick & Struggles and selected by an independent International panel of judges.

Ethiopian was selected by the judging panels for its ability to establish pan-African operations and thrive in an increasingly important emerging market; being the biggest standout strategically during the year and emerging as the leader in Africa with a pioneering strategy, which has the greatest impact on the development of the airline industry thereby establishing itself as a leader, providing a benchmark for others to follow.

Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Mr Tewolde GebreMariam, remarked while receiving the award at a gala dinner, “I am humbled to be honoured with this prestigious award of CAPA Airline of the Year which is a demonstration and recognition of our fast and continuous growth, outstanding performance and our Pan-African stance in bringing Africa together and closer to the world. I wish to thank CAPA and the panel of judges for recognizing our contribution in serving Africa and our contribution to the development of the African Aviation. The award goes, first and foremost, to the more than 9000 employees at Ethiopian who are working hard day-in and day-out and managed to make our beloved airline the leading, fast growing and the most profitable airline in Africa, despite the uniquely challenging operating environment prevailing in the continent. It is also a testimony of the remarkable success of our Vision 2025 fast, profitable and sustainable growth strategy.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania progress in World Cup qualifying

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania progressed to the second round of World Cup qualifying in Africa on Sunday.
Ethiopia overcame a surprising 1-0 loss at Sao Tome and Principe in the first leg, winning 3-0 at home for a 3-1 aggregate victory. That set up a second-round meeting with Republic of Congo
Kenya had won its first-leg match 5-2 against Mauritius last week, meaning a 0-0 draw Sunday was more than enough to take the Kenyans through. They will play Cape Verde in the second round next month.
Tanzania held on for a 2-1 aggregate win over Malawi and now faces top-ranked African team Algeria.
The three were the first of 13 lower-ranked teams who will make it to Africa’s second round. The other 10 first-round matchups will be settled Tuesday.

Ethiopia Won