Author: Jhanna Virabian

Armenia captain Henrikh Mkhitarayn will face former teammate Yura Movsisyan, as Manchester United take on Real Salt Lake on July 17 within the framework of the summer tour to the US.

Manchester United will play five games in the USA this summer, including matches against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City on the club’s Tour 2017, presented by Aon, according to the club’s official website.

United will kick off their pre-season in North America with two games against Major League Soccer sides, taking on Los Angeles Galaxy at the Stubhub Centre on Saturday 15 July, followed by a match against Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Monday 17 July.

Days later, United will take part in the International Champions Cup (ICC), kicking off the tournament against rivals Manchester City on Thursday 20 July with the venue to be revealed in due course for the highly anticipated Manchester derby.

Jose Mourinho will then come up against his former club when United face Real Madrid at the Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, on Sunday 23 July.

The tour will then conclude in Washington DC with a game against Barcelona on Wednesday 26 July at FedEx Field, in what will be the first meeting between the two sides since United claimed a 3-1 victory in the sell-out clash in California two summers ago.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has admitted he does “not know which team to play” against FC Rostov on Thursday due to the state of the pitch at the Olimp-2 stadium.

The United squad landed in Russia on Tuesday evening ahead of this week’s Europa League Round of 16 first-leg tie. The manager personally inspected the playing surface on Wednesday morning before holding his pre-match press conference, which he duly used to discuss his concern for the players’ safety.

“It’s still hard for me to believe we are going to play tomorrow,” the manager told reporters. “I know we have to but it’s hard for me to believe we are going to play on that field, if you can call it a field.”

Responding to a question about Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s possible involvement, Mourinho continued: “I don’t know which team to play, really. I don’t know which team I will play, I don’t know if Mkhitaryan if going to play. I have a lot to think because I was expecting something more playable.

“I didn’t have any contact with anyone until now; I just had a quick contact with one gentleman from UEFA when I was looking at the pitch. And when I told him about my concerns, the gentleman told me the plays are insured so if something happens, no problem.”

Mourinho would also not comment on the confirmation that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will serve a three-match domestic ban for his role in an incident with Bournemouth’s Tyrone Mings during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. However, the boss did confirm the Swede “would play” against Rostov on Thursday night.

United’s travelling squad in full: De Gea, Romero, O’Hara; Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Smalling, Blind, Darmian, Young; Carrick, Herrera, Fellaini, Pogba, Mata, Lingard, Mkhitaryan; Martial, Rashford, Ibrahimovic.

 

 

 

Azerbaijan’s failed act of sabotage continues on the information field. Coordinator of Razminfo website, military expert Karen Vrtanesyan says Aliyev’s administration had a problem with presenting the unsuccessful action to the public.

“Even Azerbaijanis say the action was meant to distract public attention from Mehriban Aliyeva’s appointment as Vice-President,” Karen Vrtanesyan told reporters today.

Some suggest that the action was meant to give a positive impetus to Mehriban Aliyeva’s appointment, but the intention failed, bringing about even worse comments. “Aware of the impossibility of succeeding on the field of propaganda, Azerbaijan started flooding the media with videos of the April war and absurd statements and misinformation to soothe the public,” the expert said.

Expert of Azerbaijani studies Taron Khachatryan noted, in turn, that people in Azerbaijan have long stopped trusting the information disseminated by the ‘closed system’ and therefore, use the Armenian sources. This is why Razminfo started reporting news in Azerbaijani, forcing Azerbaijan to consider banning flow of information from Facebook.

Experts say that unlike Azerbaijan, open discussions on most various issues are taking place in Armenia. At the same time they urge users to be on alert, as there are groups of Azerbaijani users on social media instructed directly from the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs have been informed about the Azerbaijani offence attempt.

“Armenia informed OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries on Azerbaijan offensive attempt,” the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Twitter post.

The Azerbaijani side used special equipment as it in the southeastern and eastern directions of the line of contact at 03:00 and 04:00 respectively

The Supreme Court of Belarus ruled today to leave the decision of the Prosecutor General’s office on blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition to Azerbaijan in force, RIA Novosti reports.

On December 15, 2016, police in Belarus detained Mr. Lapshin, a popular travel blogger based in Moscow, for his prior visits to the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and for his criticism of the Aliyev regime.

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.

On 20 January 2017  the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus decided to have Mr. Lapshin extradited to Azerbaijan.  An appeal to the ruling was recently denied by Minsk City Court.

Thus, the decision on Lapshin’s extradition comes into force, as the Supreme Court is the highest instance, where the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office could be appealed.

On January 24, 2017, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission will conduct a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, in the north-west of Seysulan village of the NKR Martakert region, the NKR Foreign Ministry informs.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring will be conducted by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova).

The NKR authorities have expressed their readiness to assist in conducting the monitoring and to ensure the security of the OSCE Mission members.

Armenia and the United Arab Emirates will eliminate the visa regime. The Armenian government approved the proposal to sign an agreement on the elimination of visa requirements for citizens of the two countries at a sitting today.

The signing of the document corresponds to Armenia’s foreign policy and international commitments, the government said.

Phto: AFP    

Hollywood musical La La Land has broken the record for the most Golden Globe Awards, winning seven prizes, the reports.

It won in every category in which it was nominated – including best musical or comedy film and acting trophies for Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.

It also won the awards for best director, screenplay, score and song.

The Globes are seen as pointers to the Oscars. Moonlight was named best drama film, while Casey Affleck and Isabelle Huppert won other acting prizes.

Affleck was named best actor in a film drama for his role in Manchester By The Sea and French star Isabelle Huppert was the surprise winner of the award for best film drama actress.

Her performance in thriller Elle – which was also named best foreign language film – beat contenders including Natalie Portman, who had been considered the favourite for playing Jackie Kennedy in Jackie.

Viola Davis was named best supporting film actress for playing a woman in 1950s Pittsburgh in Fences – a role she first played on Broadway six years ago.

In a surprise result, British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson was named best supporting actor for his role in Nocturnal Animals – a prize that had been widely expected to go to Mahershala Ali for Moonlight.

Zootopia was named best animated feature film at Sunday’s ceremony, which was hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

Photo: NBC

 

Police in New York City are looking for a quick-thinking thief who stole an 86-pound bucket of gold flakes worth nearly $1.6 million off an armored truck in Manhattan, the Associated Press reports.

The unidentified thief swiped the 5-gallon metal bucket off the back of the vehicle on Sept. 29 when a guard briefly went to the truck’s cab to reportedly retrieve his cellphone.

The incident occurred in broad daylight on West 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The suspect is believed to be hiding out in Florida.

Security video shows the black bucket on a pallet inside the open back door of the truck. The man looks around, approaches the truck and lifts the bucket out.

Two men are standing on the sidewalk beside the truck, engaged in animated conversation, and don’t appear to notice the man with the bucket walking past them.

Lots of other pedestrians and vehicles stream past as he heads down the sidewalk with one arm wrapped around the bucket and his other hand beneath it.

At one point, he sets it down at the curb, takes a breather for a few seconds, then hoists it again and steps into the street.

Police say it took the thief an hour to complete what would normally be considered a 10-minute walk. He then hopped into a white van and fled.

Police say the suspect likely didn’t know what the bucket contained.

Ex-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy had a meeting with the Armenian community at the premises of the National Center of Armenian Memory in the city of Decines last week, Nouvelles D’Armenia reports.

Speaking about the Christians in the Middle East, Sarkozy said “the word genocide must not be trivialized. Its negation is a crime against intelligence and morality. The situation for Christians in the East is genocide.”

Referring to the perspectives of Turkey’s EU membership, Sarkozy said: “I went to Ankara to say on the spot that Turkey is certainly a great civilization, but that its place is not in Europe, and also that a great country must recognize the glorious hours as the dark hours in its history.”