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UK Parliament has passed the Brexit bill, paving the way for the government to trigger Article 50 so the UK can leave the European Union, the BBC reports.
Peers backed down over the issues of EU residency rights and a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal after their objections were overturned by MPs.
The bill is expected to receive Royal Assent and become law on Tuesday.
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Lawyer Amal Clooney has urged the UN to act against so-called Islamic State by backing a UK-led investigation into the group’s atrocities in Iraq, the BBC reports.
Speaking at the UN, Mrs Clooney said IS had declared it will “destroy” the country’s Yazidi ethnic group through murder, rape and forced conversions.
The British-Lebanese human rights lawyer said IS was also attacking Christians, and Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Mrs Clooney, who is based in London, accused the UN of “inaction”.
She said: “The UN was created as the world’s way of saying ‘never again’ to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis.
“And yet here we are, 70 years later, discussing the UN’s inaction in the face of a genocide that we all know about, and that is ongoing.”
The UK is drafting a Security Council resolution to establish a UN investigation, but Mrs Clooney said the Iraqi government needs to send a letter formally requesting the inquiry before the 15-member council can vote.
“We are concerned about recent reports of clashes along the Line of Contact in and around Nagorno-Karabakh,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General has said in a statement.
“The Secretary-General underlines his full support for the ongoing efforts of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to reduce the current dangerous level of tensions and to prevent further escalation,” he said.
“He calls on all sides to refrain from any actions that would undermine the ceasefire agreement and urges the resumption of substantive negotiations leading to a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict without delay,” the Spokesman added.
Jose Mourinho has admitted he simply cannot leave Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of the team following his starring role in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup, according to Manchester United’s official website.
The Armenia captain was named Man of the Match by TV broadcasters after a fine display and an excellent counter-attack goal as the Reds eased to a comfortable victory at Old Trafford.
“Do you want me to leave Micki out after him being Man of the Match and playing so well as he did?” asked Mourinho at a press conference to preview United’s Premier League match against Hull City.
“I can’t! I think the players pick themselves, I’m just here to analyse what they do and to try to be fair with them. After such a good performance, Micki has to play. It’s simple.”
Mkhitaryan linked up with Anthony Martial for his goal against Wigan and Mourinho has encouraged the Frenchman to continue to build on that performance against the Latics.
“He has to perform better than the others that are competing with him for the same positions,” the boss said. “His position is where we have lots of options.”
Ethnic Armenian Zhano Gorachyan, 20, has been killed in clashed in the outskirts of Aleppo, reports, quoting its sources.
Zhano was serving in the Syrian Army along with his brother Remo, the source says.
Photo: Sputnik/ Alexei Danichev
Russia’s planned reduction of its military presence in Syria has begun with a Northern Fleet carrier group led by the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy carrier, the chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff said Friday, reports.
“In accordance with the decision of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces Vladimir Putin, the Defense Ministry is beginning to reduce the Armed Forces grouping in Syria,” Gen. Valery Gerasimov told reporters.
Gerasimov said the reduction begins with the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, the Pyotr Veliky battlecruiser and auxiliary ships.
He noted that the nationwide ceasefire in Syria took effect at midnight local time on December 30 (22:00 GMT on December 29).
The Russian Armed Forces’ carrier group led by the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy carrier will embark from the Mediterranean to Northern Fleet’s base later in the day, Gerasimov said.
The decision to cut Russia’s military presence in the Arab republic was made by Putin at the recommendation of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on December 29.
Photo: AP
At least 50,000 militants from so-called Islamic State have been killed since the US-led coalition started fighting in Iraq and Syria two years ago, a US military official has said, the BBC reports.
The senior official described the figure as a “conservative estimate”.
The figure showed air power and a small number of US figures supporting local forces were having an impact, the official said.
The US has, however, repeatedly warned that IS can replace fighters rapidly.
The official on Thursday said that coalition air strikes could be intensified in places like Mosul, which Iraqi troops are now battling to recapture, but that had to be offset against the risk of civilian casualties.
Three films from Armenia have been submitted for consideration for Best Foreign Film in the 74th annual Golden Globe Awards: The Last Inhabitant, Hot Country, Cold Winter, and Earthquake, Asbarez reports.
“As a filmmaker raised in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) I have listened to stories of hardships endured by my family and villagers, and of their struggles into dealing with such a devastating inter-ethnic conflict.” So says Jivan Avetisyan, a prolific 35 year-old Armenian director with a solid documentary background, who was born in mountainous landlocked region in the Southwestern tip of Armenia bordering with Azerbaijan and totaling a mere 4400 square km. He even had to do his mandatory military service there, in the province’s Defense Army from 1999 to 2001.
It is not surprising that he decided to make it the setting of , his eighth feature film. An adaptation of Tsovinar Khatchatryan eponymous novel, a writer who happens to also be an official at the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs where she serves as the Chief Specialist for the head office. To better help understand the intricate complexities of what the filmmaker is alluding too, he offers a brief historical background of the situation he knows firsthand. “From 1987 to 1990, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the most critical inter- ethnic conflict, and one of the most violent, took place, the Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A mass deportation of Armenians from Azerbaijan, URSS, was conducted, including some from the village of Gyurjevan.”
It is 1988 and Abgar is the only Armenian of Christian faith left in the aforementioned village, now devastated and in near ruins, after everyone else has been deported. Because of his skills as a stonemason, he is assigned to help build a mosque by the Azeri occupants. He also has to take care of his daughter Yurga, traumatized after witnessing her husband’s murder. As the situation deteriorates around them with increasing enemy danger and lack of food, they find solace in their memories of an idealized past, when peace and happiness still prevailed. The last resort for those who have not much to hope for. With its often elegiac and poetic approach the film is able to achieve a touching portrait of survival and at the same time humanizing the protagonists and their fate, how tragic it may be…
The 35 year old director hopes that The Last Inhabitant will be seen as “a strong message that we need each other regardless of race, culture and religion in order to survive and preserve our racial identity. This film is about people who have appeared in a hell after they have lost their paradise, people who are saved by love, virtue and self-sacrifice.”
As clashes are happening to this day in that region, this is a message surely to resonate deeply for the Armenian community. But also for all the victims of ethnic cleansing over the world.
is a film directed by David Sarafian about the Armenian experience after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. One can dispute Russian President Vladamir Putin’s remark calling the breakup “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe,” but what is indisputable is that on a personal level a lot of people who lived in the former Soviet republics suffered a lot of depravity when they suddenly became independent countries in August of 1991 and their lives radically changed.
And some of the most suffering people there were the members of intelligentsia, who found themselves without means of existence and no sense of purpose. In the film, Armenian director David Sarafian mixes realism and poetry to explore another dark period in the history of his long-suffering people. But don’t expect to get all the answers to the many questions asked by this film.
is a film is based on the real events surrounding the disastrous earthquake which struck Armenia in 1988. The terrible earthquake claimed at least 25,000 lives and left about half a million people homeless. For director Sarik Andreasyan it was a very special project, in which he wanted, after almost 30 years, to tell the story not only of death and destruction but also to show the hope and community spirit in the face of the nightmare.
Photo: Getty Images
Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed what they describe as a city that dates back more than 5,000 years, containing houses, tools, pottery and huge graves, the BBC reports.
It lies by the river Nile, close to the Temple of Seti the First in Abydos.
Experts say the size of the 15 newly discovered graves indicates the high social standing of those buried.
It is believed the city was home to important officials and tomb builders and would have flourished during early-era ancient Egyptian times.
Experts say the find could be a boost for Egypt’s struggling tourism industry which has been in the doldrums since President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.
Archaeologists have made a range of finds in the newly-discovered city including buildings, shards of pottery and tools.
On November 22, 2016, Deputy Minister of Finance of Armenia, Armen Hayrapetyan, and the Speaker for the South Caucasus at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Johannes Dopffel, signed the results of the bilateral governmental consultations on development cooperation.
The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Matthias Kiesler, praised the good cooperation between Armenia and Germany in his opening speech at the beginning of the consultations. “One of the hallmarks of German development cooperation is partner orientation. That is why our joint projects are so successful,” said Ambassador Kiesler.
For the bilateral financial cooperation via the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), loans and grants of EUR 54.4 million were agreed. The funds will finance the federal government programs of the German-Armenian Fund (GAF) on sustainable economic development (36.1 million euros) and promote the introduction of an agricultural insurance system (5.3 million euros). In the area of municipal infrastructure, EUR 8.3 million will be used for waste management in the Lori region, EUR 2 million to strengthen the water sector, and EUR 2.7 million for integrated water resource management in the Akhouryan River.
The German federal government will provide 22 million euros for regional projects within the framework of the Federal Government’s Caucasus initiative. Of these, EUR 21 million relates to technical cooperation and EUR 1 million to regional projects for financial cooperation.
The ongoing regional projects of the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) in the field of sustainable economic development, energy and the environment as well as democracy, municipal development and the rule of law are being pursued.