Author: Antonian Lara

Photo: DSNS

 

Some 20,000 people are being evacuated after a series of explosions at a massive arms depot in eastern Ukraine described by officials as sabotage, the BBC reports.

The base in Balakliya, near Kharkiv, is used to store thousands of tonnes of ammunition including missiles and artillery weapons.

Rescue teams are overseeing a huge evacuation effort for people living in the city and nearby villages.

The total area of the dump spans more than 350 hectares, the military says.

Sabotage was said to be the cause of explosions followed by fire at an ammunition depot in the city of Balakliia in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region, causing their detonation, the country’s military prosecutor said Thursday, according to Sputnik.

“As a result of sabotage, an explosion occurred (fire broke out) at 03:02 a.m. [01:02 GMT] at several rocket and artillery weapons storage sites (125 and 152 mm tank and artillery shells), which caused the detonation of ammunition,” Anatolii Matios wrote on his Facebook page.

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the groundbreaking ceremony for Yerevan’s new Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in Erebuni administrative community, in the vicinity of Yerevan’s Thermal Power Plan. Present at the ceremony were the Vice Prime Minister, Minister for Economic Integration and Reforms Vache Gabrielian, Minister for Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources Ashot Manukian, Director General of Renco Company, President of Armpower Company Jovanni Rubini, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Italy to RA Giovanni Ricciulli, other high-level officials.

According to the responsible officials and experts of Renco company, the Yerevan TPP, which is working on combined thermo- and gas cycle, has been designed with the implementation of the most advanced and high-quality equipment and scientific experience, which guarantees high efficiency of the station and its safety. Participants of the event assessed the construction of the station as an important step in providing energy security and prosperity for the residents of Yerevan in coming decades.

In the framework of the groundbreaking ceremony, Minister Ashot Manukyan and Director General of Renco Company Jovanni Rubini signed a joint memorandum which was put in a case and placed in the ground of the future TPS.

The construction plan for the TPP envisages the design of a power station working on gas, which can produce nearly 250 megawatts of power and has up to 53% general coefficient of efficiency, as well as plans for its development, financing, construction, operation, and technical maintenance. According to the responsible officials, the investments will be close to 285 million USD.

Construction works will last for 26 months and will be completed in the second half of 2019. During the construction alone created will be 900 temporary jobs, and after it becomes operational, 200 permanent jobs with high wages will be created. The Thermal Power Plan and its technical maintenance is designed for 20 years.

The responsible officials noted that the construction works for the third line of the double-lane Armenia-Iran 400kw and Armenia-Georgia 400kw new high voltage energy lines will be concluded in 2019, and considering the fact the construction of this new TPS will also be concluded in 2019, all this can provide the opportunity for Armenia to ensure a secure and dependable supply of electric energy to the neighboring countries, becoming a major player at the energy market of the region.

Manchester United were held to a draw by FC Rostov in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie in Russia, the BBC reports.

On a challenging pitch at the Olymp-2 Stadium – which was criticised by United manager Jose Mourinho before the match – midfielder Paul Pogba miscued from inside the box early on.

But United grabbed a vital away goal through Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s close-range finish following excellent work by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Swede shot over the crossbar in the second half, before Rostov forward Aleksandr Bukharov latched on to Timofei Kalachev’s pass for the equaliser.

Aleksandar Erokhin stabbed a shot wide for the hosts from a promising position and United’s Marouane Fellaini headed straight at the goalkeeper from a corner.

The return leg takes place at Old Trafford next Thursday (kick-off 19:45 GMT).

The Azerbaijani side undertook another attack on the front troops of the Artsakh Republic last night. The enemy incurred losses and was thrown back, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

“The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan had been aggravating the situation at the line of contact for several days and spreading misinformation.

After the losses incurred last night, the Azerbaijani side was again speaking about “attacks” of the Armenian side to mislead its own people and the international community.

“The Armenian side is committed to the maintenance of the ceasefire regime and calls on the Azerbaijani party to refrain from further aggravation of the situation,” the Defense ministry said.

“The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for tension at the line of contact,” the Ministry said.

Blogger Alexander Lapshin’s lawyers have appealed the decision on his extradition to Azerbaijan at the Supreme Court of Belarus, TASS quotes the Court’s Press Secretary Yulia Lyaskova as saying.

“Tomorrow (February 7) the Supreme Court will consider the legality and validity of the ruling of the Minsk City Court, which recognized the decision of the Belarus Prosecutor General’s Office on his extradition to Azerbaijan valid,” she said.

Alexander Lapshin, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship, was detained in Minsk in December 2015 at the request of Azerbaijan for his prior visits to Nagorno Karabakh.

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Armenia is placed 113th in the Corruption Perceptions index 2016 released by the Transparency International today.

Other countries in the region are placed as follows: Georgia 44th, Turkey – 75th, Azerbaijan 123rd, Iran – 131st.

Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Kazakhstan share the 131st place with Iran, Belarus is 79th, Kyrgyzstan is 136th.

According to the report, more countries declined than improved in this year’s results, showing the urgent need for committed action to thwart corruption.

The Corruption Perceptions Index aggregates data from a number of different sources that provide perceptions of business people and country experts of the level of corruption in the public sector.
The methodology follows 4 basic steps: selection of source data, rescaling source data, aggregating the rescaled data and then reporting a measure for uncertainty.

Each source is then standardized to be compatible with other available sources, for aggregation to the CPI scale. The standardization converts all the data sources to a scale of 0-100 where a 0 = highest level of perceived corruption, and 100 = lowest level of perceived corruption.

Each country’s CPI score is calculated as a simple average of all the available rescaled scores for that country (note, we do not use any of the imputed values as a score for the aggregated CPI). A country will only be given a score if there are at least three data sources available from which to calculate this average.

The CPI score is reported alongside a standard error and 90% confidence interval which reflects the variance in the value of the source data that comprises the CPI score. The standard error term is calculated as the standard deviation of the rescaled source data, divided by the square root of the number of sources. Using this standard error, we can calculate the 90% confidence interval, assuming a normal distribution.

Today (Jan. 19, 2017) marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Dink was shot dead by a young Turkish ultranationalist outside the office of the Agos newspaper, where he was editor-in-chief.

Ten years have passed and the investigation into the killing drags slowly on, but Dink’s shining legacy remains undimmed despite seismic shocks in Turkey in the years since.

Born in the Anatolian city of Malatya – which once had a large Armenian population but now almost none – Dink moved to Istanbul and in 1996 sprung to prominence by founding Agos. Agos was not the first or only Armenian newspaper in Turkey but it was the first to be published in Turkish as well as Armenian, allowing a debate of issues that had long remained taboo.

Dink’s death became a symbol of the peril of such moves. The photograph of his corpse covered by a sheet, with just the soles of his shoes complete with a hole showing, underlined the tragedy. And although his assassin, just 17 at the time, was rapidly arrested and sentenced, the trial into the killing still grinds on with Dink’s supporters losing confidence on its ability to shed light on the plot.

Dink’s assassin, Ogun Samast, is still behind bars but the trial into dozens of police accused of covering up the plot rumbles on.

Photo: Reuters

 

Tehran has shown interest in signing a temporary deal with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). While Iran has already established close relations with Russia and China, Tehran’s future membership in the EAEU will further strengthen the country’s alliance with the Eurasian major players, Iranian expert Hamidreza Azizi told .

Iran may sign a temporary agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) opening the door to the creation of a free trade zone, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signaled Monday following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Armenia.
“The president of Iran has shown interest in signing a temporary deal with the EAEU, leading to the creation of a free trade zone. Armenia is actively assisting the negotiations between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Commission, aiming to sign the agreement fast,” Sargsyan said at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in St. Petersburg.

Speaking to Sputnik Persian, Hamidreza Azizi, assistant professor of regional studies at Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, and expert in Eurasian affairs, underscored that one of Tehran’s foreign policy imperatives is to bolster economic ties with Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Phto: AFP    

The Syrian army says it has retaken full control of Aleppo, following the evacuation of the last group of rebels, the BBC reports.

In a statement, the army said it had “returned security to Aleppo” and called it a “crushing blow” for rebels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed “all civilians who wished to be evacuated have been, as well as the wounded and fighters”.

This is the biggest victory for President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against him began in 2011.

Photo: Sergey Bobylev/TASS    

An IL-18 aeroplane belonging to the Russian defence ministry has crashed in Yakutia in Siberia with 39 people on board, teh BBC reports.

The defence ministry said 16 people were seriously injured, correcting earlier reports that 27 had died.

The plane was carrying 32 passengers and seven crew when it came down near Tiksi in the Bulun district of Russia’s far east.

Weather conditions were reportedly bad in the area when the crash happened.

The plane was carrying out a scheduled flight from Kansk when it came down about 30km (18 miles) short of Tiksi at 04:45 (19:45 GMT Sunday).

The plane broke into three pieces in what appears to have been an emergency landing.

Three Mi-8 helicopters were despatched to the crash site by Russia’s Emergency Ministry.

As well as the 16 seriously injured, another seven people on board the plane required hospital treatment.