Armenia’s Hripsime Khurshudyan won a gold medal at the European Weightlifting Championships under way in Norway.
She lifted 113 kg in the snatch and 137 in the clean & jerk.
This was the third gold medal of the Armenian team. Andranik Karapetyan became the winner in the 77 kg weight category, with Tigran Martirosyan coming second. Nazik Avdalyan won the gold in the 69 kg weight category.
Simon Martirosyan (105 kg) won a bronze medal.
Azerbaijan distorts the essence of the Karabakh conflict, presenting it as a territorial dispute, NKR President Bako Sahakyan told a press a conference in Stepanakert.
“We are struggling for our Motherland, not territories,” the President said.
Bako Sahakyan said it’s impossible to reach a final solution to the conflict without the official participation of Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiation process. He said it’s not connected with mistrust in Armenia, which represents Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiations.
“Armenia has a strategic docmenet, which clearly mentions that it is the guarantor of Nagorno Karabakh’s security,” Bako Sahakyan said. He added, however, that there is no conflict in the world that could be solved without the participation of the main role-player.
“Inititiually there was no conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it was a conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Armenia was later artificially dragged into it,” Bako Sahakyan said.
“I am grateful to the global community for the relative peace that lasted until April 2, but I have expressed my dissatisfaction that the format of the negotiations is flawed and it is not allowing to achieve real progress in the settlement process,” Sahakyan said.
The President added that “he would like to see interest in Artsakh not only during military actions, but also in peacetime. “We have chosen the path of determining our future, committed to the principles of democracy. We want to be a full-fledged participant of the international community,” Bako Sahakyan said.
Scores of people remain in intensive care following Tuesday’s suicide bomb attacks in Brussels that left 31 people dead, Belgium’s health minister says, the BBC reports.
Maggie de Block said that of about 300 wounded people, 61 were still in a critical condition, and suggested that the death toll could rise further.
Earlier, prosecutors confirmed they had identified two of the four attackers as brothers Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui.
Two other attackers have yet to be named. One died, another is on the run.
Brahim el-Bakraoui blew himself up in the attack at Zaventem airport that killed 11 people while Khalid struck at Maelbeek metro, where 20 people died, prosecutors said.
Unconfirmed reports say another of the attackers was the wanted jihadist Najim Laachraoui, who is thought to have links with last year’s attacks in Paris.
So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attacks.
Tensions were high at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan over the weekend despite the agreement between the parties to refrain from escalating the situation.
The rival fired more than 2,400 shots from weapons of different caliber in the direction of the Armenian positions over the weekend, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.
The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber, as well as 60 and 82 mm mortars in the southern, southeastern and northern directions of the line of contact.
The NKR Ministry of Defense said in a statement the Defense Army keeps control of the situation all along the line of contact, simultaneously trying to prevent any provocative action by the rival.
American celebrity Kim Kardashian-West shared the second photo of her son with hip-hop mogul Kanye West on social media, Saturday (March 12, 2016), whom she referred to as the “sun” in her morning.
Kim first gave her followers a look at her youngest child last February 22, wherein baby Saint West can be seen sleeping soundly in a white onesie. In the latest photo of her son, Saint West can be seen with opened eyes.
“You’re the sun in my morning babe,” captioned Kim in her Instagram post which has immediately garnered millions of likes.
The 35-year-old television personality gave birth to Saint West last December 5, 2015. Saint is her second child with 38-year-old Kanye, following North West who is now two years old.
Photo: AFP
Turkish police have raided the offices of the opposition Zaman newspaper, hours after a court ruling placed it under state control, the BBC reports.
Police entered the building in Istanbul late on Friday, firing tear gas at protesters who had gathered outside.
Zaman is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey says Hizmet is a “terrorist” group aiming to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.
Mr Gulen was once an ally of Mr Erdogan but the two fell out.
Many Hizmet supporters have been arrested.
The government in Ankara has come under increasing international criticism over its treatment of journalists.
Seventeen magnitude 0.5-1.4 earthquakes hit Armenia between 07:03 and 09:24 a.m. today, the National Survey for Seismic Protection reports.
The quakes measured 1-2 at the epicenter (10 km southwest of Gavar), according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
On 1 March Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.
The meeting addressed a number of issues related to the situation along the contact line between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan armed forces.
A jury in the US state of Missouri has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72m to the family of a woman who claimed her death was linked to use of the company’s Baby Powder talc, the BBC reports.
Jackie Fox from Birmingham, Alabama died of ovarian cancer last year, aged 62, having used the talc for decades.
Her family’s lawyers argued that the firm knew of cancer risks from the product and failed to warn consumers.
Johnson & Johnson denied the claim and is said to be considering an appeal.
The verdict at the end of the three-week trial was the first time damages have been awarded by a US jury over talc claims.
More than 1,000 similar cases are pending nationwide and lawyers said thousands more could now be filed.
The jury in Ms Fox’s case deliberated for five hours before finding Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy.
The award constituted $10m in damages and $62m in punitive damages.