Author: Boris Nahapetian

Thousands marched in Yerevan in memory of the soldiers killed along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact over the past days.

The participants of the March of Silence visited Yerablur Pantheon to pay tribute to the memory of the fallen soldiers.

“The search for the bodies continues, no ceasefire violation has been registered,” Spokesman for the NKR Defense Army Senor Hasratyan told Public Radio of Armenia.

He said that the “period of silence” announced at 3 p.m. will be maintained until 8 p.m.

The parties agreed to cease all hostilities today to search for the bodies of the killed soldiers.

Two explosions have been reported in the departures area of Zaventem airport in Brussels, the BBC reports.

The Belgian fire service told local media there were at least several dead and wounded.

The cause of the explosions is unknown. The airport is being evacuated and has been closed to flights.

The blasts come four days after the capture in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris attacks in November.

Images on social media showed smoke rising from one of the buildings, amid reports of panic as people fled the airport.

Rail transport to the facility has been halted and people have been told not to come to the airport.

Other reports say at least one of the explosions was close to the American Airlines check-in area but this has not been confirmed.

Adele has been crowned Queen of the Brits, winning four prizes including best British female and best album, the BBC reports.

“To come back after so long away and be so warmly received means so much,” she said.

The star, who closed the show by performing When We Were Young, also received best British single and the Global Success award.

Adele has been crowned Queen of the Brits, winning four prizes including best British female and best album.

“To come back after so long away and be so warmly received means so much,” she said.

The star, who closed the show by performing When We Were Young, also received best British single and the Global Success award.

Oldman then accepted a Brits icon award on behalf of the singer and his family.

“David you were mortal, but your potential was superhuman,” he said, “and your music lives on”.

Bowie’s band then performed a medley of his hits, before New Zealand singer Lorde joined them to sing Life On Mars.

The ceremony was opened by Coldplay, who gave a colourful, floral performance of their single Hymn For The Weekend, showering the audience with confetti petals as they played on one of two separate stages at London’s O2 arena.

They went on to win best British group – making them the most successful band in the ceremony’s history.

Chris Martin and co now have nine trophies to their name, although the figure pales in comparison to Robbie Williams’ 17 awards (12 as a solo artist and five with Take That).

Other awards went to James Bay, for best male, and Australian psych-rock band Tame Impala, who picked up best international group.

Canadian singer Justin Bieber, who performed his chart topping singles Love Yourself and Sorry, won best international male.

One Direction, who are officially on hiatus, also picked up best video for the space-themed Drag Me Down.

Samsung’s latest flagship phones restore a couple of popular features dropped from the previous generation, the BBC reports.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge both accept MicroSD cards, allowing their storage to be expanded, and can also be submerged underwater.

In addition, they feature new gaming tech and a rear camera that should cope better in low-light conditions.

Their overall design, however, is similar to the Galaxy S6 line-up.

The new devices were unveiled in Barcelona on the eve of the Mobile World Congress tech show.

While the Galaxy S7 retains the same sized screen as the S6, the S7 Edge’s display has grown slightly from 5.1in (13cm) to 5.5in (14cm).

The Edge version is also slightly curvier than before and its camera protrudes less far out.

In addition, the “edged” parts of the screen now provide shortcuts to email, different photo modes and third-party apps.

February 16-17 an Armenian delegation headed by Armenian Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan participated in the High-Level Military Doctrine Seminar organized by the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation.

Some 350 high-level military officials and experts from the OSCE’s 57 participating States and 11 OSCE Partners for Co-operation are attended the meeting held once in five years.

Addressing the meeting, David Tonoyan said “Armenia plans to implement a number of measures to reach the objective of ensuring the country’s security and creating favorable conditions for the negotiations under way within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.”

“Among them is the Deterrence system, which Armenia is applying to ease the current military confrontation. ‘Deterrence’ is gradually oust the ‘static defense’ approach from our doctrinal approaches, which could be seen by the rival as an evidence of “insufficient might.” Our defensive position of the past 25 years has done nothing but encourage provocative actions,” the Deputy Defense Minister said.

Tonoyan said “Armenia will implement qualitative solutions to neutralize the quantitative inequality, at the same time remaining committed to the restrictions existing in the field of armament control.”

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He inspired the likes of Elvis Costello and Frank Sinatra. Singing legend Charles Aznavour spoke to CNN about his passions, which go far beyond music.

For a young man, whose critics said he was too ugly, too short and had a terrible voice, Charles Aznavour has been very successful. “Unfortunately for the critics, who have said all that, they have disappeared, but I’m still here,” Aznavour said.

What is the secret of his success? “I read a book every night for one hour. I learn something in different languages every night,” Aznavour told the CNN.

What does being Armenian mean to Charles Aznavour? “Being French means much more to me, than being Armenian, but I am Armenian. I’m not going to deny it. It’s terrible, when people hide something, fearing of not being welcome. You don’t like the Armenians? I leave. Good bye!” Aznavour said.

Charles Aznavour was in Armenia for the centennial commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Speaking about the recognition of the Genocide, he said: “The Frenchmen, the Germans have recognized their errors, why not the Turks?

“What was the reason Turks killed Armenians? Religion? I don’t believe that. I read the Koran to understand if there was anything in it. I didn’t find anything. So it was not religion,” Aznavour said.

The French Armenian singer said he’s next song is going to be about migrants. “Why not allow people to come and become French? I’m not French, and many others aren’t. That’s what makes France. They all bring something with them and have a plenty of things to teach us.”

Photo: Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images

 

In his youth, Charles Aznavour was dismissed as being too short (at 5 feet 3 inches), too unattractive (he often jokes himself about his nose job), and having an unusual raspy, hoarse voice.

However, the French Armenian singer proved his early critics wrong, by building a successful career spanning nine decades, writes.

“They said I shouldn’t sing, but nevertheless I continued to sing until my throat was sore,” he says. His tenacity paid off – and then some.

Now 91, he has appeared in more than 60 films, written more than 1,200 songs, sung in eight languages and sold more than 180million records.

His style revolutionized the classic French chanson style, creating his own “Aznavourian” genre: a mix of French soul music, blues, jazz, ballads, pop music and lyrical poetry.

After starting his career at the tender age of 9 – when he dropped out of school and started performing with his sister Aida in plays – he is still writing and releasing new songs and albums, touring the world and performing live.

Charles Aznavour made his UAE debut with a concert at Dubai World Trade Centre on Friday, organized by Alliance Française Dubai, as part of Dubai Classics.

What keeps him going after all these years?

“My love for life,” he said, in an exclusive interview with The National. “I am very lucky to have found my vocation and met interesting people who have fuelled and nourished my curiosity.

“I was able to lead this life because I was born and raised in an artistic family with few means but rich with love and support. “

Last month, he topped People With Money magazine’s list of the highest-paid singers of 2015, with an estimated $46 million in combined earnings.

He is often described as “France’s Frank Sinatra”. He teamed up with the American legend in 1993 for a duet on You Make Me Feel So Young.

Just a tiny sample of this prolific artist’s French hits include: La Bohème(1965), his signature song; his first hit Sur Ma Vie (1956); Tu t’laisses aller(1960); Il faut savoir (1961); Les comédiens (1962); La mamma (1963); Et pourtant (1963); Hier encore (1964); For Me Formidable (1964); Que c’est triste Venise (1964); Emmenez-moi (1967) and et Désormais (1969).

His signature tracks in English are 1970s hits She, which has been covered by artists including Bryan Ferry, Il Divo and Elvis Costello, and was the theme song for the 1999 film Julia Roberts movie Notting Hill; and The Old Fashioned Way, which was also recorded by artists as diverse as Fred Astaire and Shirley Bassey.

As well as Sinatra, he has collaborated with musical greats including Julio Iglesias, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, Liza Minnelli and Placido Domingo.

Known for his powerful stage presence and his charisma, Aznavour says a sense of humour has proved important through the years.

“Humour plays an important role in my life because it enables me to face even the most difficult of situations,” he says.

Inspired as a child by another legend, Maurice Chevalier, and having worked with Édith Piaf, whose song La Vie en rose has become a national treasure for France, it is fitting that as the last surviving artist from the golden age of entertainment, he has have earned a seat next to them.

“I have had a beautiful life, for a son of an immigrant,” he says. “I’m grateful for what life has given me. Even though I had to work very hard in my career, working makes me happy. The memories of my family and my childhood are my favourite ones.”

Born Shahnour Varenagh Aznavourian in Paris on May 22, 1924, to an artistic father and mother who had fled the ­Armenian genocide. The family, including older sister Aida, intended to travel to the United States but a visa never came.

Aznavour was dubbed “Charles” by a hospital nurse who couldn’t pronounce his name – and it stuck. His parents settled in Paris and opened a small Armenian restaurant, Le Caucase, to which they would invite Hungarian orchestras, and offer free lunches to the less fortunate and friends.

The family’s struggle with poverty, and life on the road as a young performer during the second world war – when his father hid several Armenian and Russian Jewish immigrants from the German Army – made their way into his songs.

“Like most Orientals, we had a very united family,” he says. “I loved my youth, even if it was sometimes a bit harsh – but we could always count on our family and on all the immigrants that were around us.

“We were genuinely happy and it had nothing to do with money or power. We were all just thankful to be alive and together in France.”

Married three times, with six children, Aznavour values his privacy.

“One of the most painful memories I have is losing my son, Patrick, in the 70s,” he says. “I don’t like to talk about it a lot and I try to keep my private life to myself.”

Besides being an artist, he is also a diplomat and a humanitarian, with a special focus on Armenia, “the country of my soul and roots”.

“My culture has traces of Armenian culture but the country of my heart and of my language is France,” he says. “I hope Armenia will finally live in peace and that all the problems will be resolved with its borders. We are all cousins and brothers, when you think about it, and it is only politics and religion that separate us.”

In 1975 Aznavour, wrote the ballad Ils sont tombés to mark the 60th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. In 1988, he launched a fund-raising campaign to help his stricken homeland after an earthquake killed 50,000 people. Unesco appointed him as their permanent ambassador to Armenia. In 2008 he was given Armenian citizenship and, a year later, he accepted the position as Ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland.

“I am not trying to boast but I have to admit that for an uneducated son of an immigrant, I could have done far worse,” he says.

His most recent album was last year’s Encores, which included tracks about his childhood, Piaf and a tribute to the French wartime resistance movement. But do not ask him to rank it against any of his previous work.

“I think of my songs as my own children, so I have no favourites,” he says. “I love them all equally the same – but there are a few songs that I am especially proud of.

“Some of them are not very well known. I could, perhaps, mention L’instant Present because it’s about the present moment, which is challenging to write about. I also like the songs on my last album, Encores, because they are recent – but really I like think of all of them as my babies.”

And if he could change anything, what would it be?

“For myself, I already had a nose job 60 years ago,” he says. “For the world around me, I know it seems a bit cheesy but if people could live together in peace and harmony that would be great.”

Photo: Getty Images

Former El Salvador national team footballer Alfredo Pacheco has been shot dead, officials say, the  reports.

A man approached Pacheco, 33, and fired several shots at a petrol station in the city of Santa Ana, 76km (47 miles) west of the capital San Salvador.

Police say two other people were injured in the attack, the motive of which is being investigated.

The defender, who was El Salvador’s most-capped player, was banned for life in 2013 for match-fixing.

Pacheco and another 13 members of the national team were found guilty of receiving bribes to lose several matches between 2010-13.

He played 86 times for his country.

For years, El Salvador – a small nation in Central America – has had one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Earlier this month, Honduran international footballer Arnold Peralta, 26, was shot dead while on holiday in his hometown.

“The downing of the Russian Su-24 by Turkey was a challenge to the fight against international terrorism, the efforts targeted at the settlement of the situation in Syria and establishment of peace in the region,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said, addressing the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council. He added that “any support to terrorism should be strongly criticized.”

“In case of the developments connected with the downing of the Russian jet we witnessed how a practical military-political alliance is being formed. The unequivocal support of the NATO member states, i.e. Greece, to Turkey, obviously shows that the principle of “one for all and all for one” is a compulsory condition for the effectiveness of such alliances. Even though Turkey’s actions contradicted all norms and principles of friendship and good-neighborly relations, even though it shot down a jet on military mission against terrorism, no NATO member state questioned the auctioned the actions of the Turkish side. We must draw lessons from this,” President Sargsyan said.