Ethiopia mourns Meles Zenawi

from an Ethiopian Airlines flight in the early hours of the morning, a ceremony also attended by political, military and religious leaders as well as diplomats.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (47), who has also been foreign minister since 2010, will take over interim power, officials said.
He wept as the body was carried to the hearse.
Meles died overnight Monday to Tuesday following a long illness.
The 57-year-old had not been seen in public since the G20 summit in Mexico in June.
His two daughters and widow Azeb Mesfin, dressed in black, walked ahead of a military band as Azeb wailed loudly.
People carried candles and portraits of Meles, following a convoy of cars accompanying the body.
The coffin was taken to the prime minister’s official residence at the national palace, where Meles’ body is lying in state until the funeral, said national television, which broadcast live footage from Addis Ababa streets as the coffin passed slowly.
Several hundred mourners gathered to pay their respects at the palace.
Much of the capital appeared to return to normal late yesterday, although in shops and offices across the city, coverage of the leader’s death blared from televisions and radios. No date for the funeral has been set.
Newspaper headlines were solemn, with the Amharic-language daily Addis Zemen announcing “Ethiopia has lost its great leader.”
Tributes continued to pour in from world leaders, with US President Barack Obama saying Meles deserved “recognition for his life-long contribution to Ethiopia’s development”, while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed his “exceptional leadership”.
Meles was a key Western ally in a region home to Al-Qaeda-linked groups.
But while world leaders praised his legacy, rights groups said his death offered a chance to end a brutal crackdown on basic freedoms. — AFP.