Author: Maghakian Mike

Armenian international Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the 36th most expensive footballer of all time. The midfielder moved from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United for €42m earlier this month.

With Manchester United looking to break the world transfer record of 100 million euros ($110 million) in order to sign Paul Pogba from Juventus, has counted down the 100 most expensive players of all time.

Gareth Bale is the most expensive footballer of all time. The Wales international cost Real Madrid €101m in 20013.

Christano Ronaldo, who moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 for €94m is the second in the list.

Barcelona’s Neymar comes third (€88.2m), followed by Luis Suarez (€81.7m) and James Rodriguez (€75m).

At about 5 a.am. today the Police used force to remove the protesters from Khorenatsi street after two warnings. Many have been detained.

In call to th protesters the Police were requesting to immediately stop the illegal gathering and restore transportation on the street. The law-enforcement bodies resorted to force after the demonstrators refused to obey.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is ready to reinstate the death penalty “if the people demand it”, following the recent coup attempt, the BBC reports.

He was addressing supporters outside his Istanbul residence who were chanting for capital punishment to be restored.

EU officials have warned that Turkey’s bid to join the bloc would be finished if Ankara restored the death penalty.

Mr Erdogan has overseen a crackdown since the coup attempt was quashed.

Thousands of police officers, military personnel and judges have been suspended or arrested. Turkey’s Western allies have expressed concern and urged President Erdogan to respond in a measured way.

But speaking to his supporters on Tuesday morning, the president said Turkey was “a democratic state run by the rule of law”.

He said he was ready to reinstate the death penalty if the Turkish people demanded it and parliament approved the legislation, adding: “You cannot put aside the people’s demands.”

“Today is there no capital punishment in America? In Russia? In China? In countries around the world? Only in European Union countries is there no capital punishment,” he said.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to become a member of the EU.

Ten people have been killed and dozens more hurt in a head-on collision involving two passenger trains in southern Italy, the BBC reports.

The two trains were on a single-track line at the time of the crash, between the coastal towns of Bari and Barletta.

Emergency services are trying to free passengers from the wrecked carriages near the town of Andria.

“I think there are many dead,” local fire brigade commander Riccardo Zingaro told Rai TV.

Some of the carriages were badly damaged, he said. There were fears the number of deaths could rise further.

One of those rescued from the wreckage was a small child who was airlifted to hospital.

It was unclear what led to the collision which happened in good weather at 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) in the southern region of Apulia.

Italian reports said one of the trains had come from Andria, and the other from Corato, a short distance to the south-east.

Photos: FIBA

 

The Armenian national basketball team beat Andorra 79:71 in the final to be crowned the winner of the FIBA European Championship For Small Countries.

Andre Speight Mkrtchyan had a game high 27 points and was named the best player of the Championship.

Having made it to the final of the championship Armenia, Armenia retains the right to participate in the group stage of the final stage of the European Championship.

Photo: AP

 

Taliban bombers have attacked an Afghan police convoy outside the capital Kabul, killing at least 30 people and wounding 50 others, officials say, the BBC reports.

Two bombs hit a convoy of buses carrying graduates from a ceremony on the city’s western outskirts.

Paghman District Governor Musa Khan told the BBC that all but two of the dead were police cadets.

The bombing was claimed by the Taliban and follows an attack on a bus just over a week ago that killed 14 people.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s future remains up in the air and it’s starting to frustrate his agent Mino Raiola, who reportedly tossed a chair during heated discussions with Borussia Dortmund, according to .

The Armenian playmaker has his sights set on a move from the Bundesliga to the Premier League and Raiola says Manchester United is his dream club.

Raiola told German newspaper Bild he is happy to fight for what his client wants, which is to play under Jose Mourinho next season, saying: “Henrikh is not the type to have conflicts, he leaves that to me. We will not give up.”

Dortmund is keen to keep Mkhitaryan for one more season, which would conclude his contract, after he delivered 23 goals and 32 assists last campaign.

Raiola, who also represents likely United mega-signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, previously detailed his troubles with securing the move Mkhitaryan wants.

“We have both taken very different views and fight for them like lions,” he told Bild earlier this week.

“Even though it does not look like it right now, I still hope for a sensible solution.

“Such an offer to join Manchester United might only come once in a lifetime for a player and nobody can guarantee us that the door will still be open for Micki next season. Manchester are Micki’s dream club, he wants to join them by any means.”

Following Merkel is US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

United States Federal Reserve Chair and American economist Janet Yellen and billionaire Melinda Gates are the world’s third and fourth most powerful women, respectively.

Last year, Gates was in third place while Yellen was in the fourth spot.

Rounding up the top 10 are General Motors CEO Mary Barra, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Santander Group CEO Ana Patricia Botin.

For this year, Forbes did not include women from the entertainment industry into consideration, “making room for a wide inclusion of female leaders across the globe who have been elected to office.”

This year’s ranking thus represents women from seven categories: billionaires, business, finance, media, politics, philanthropists and nongovernment organizations, and technology.

Armenia and Iran plan to sign an agreement on abolishing visas. The Government is expected to approve the conclusion of a corresponding agreement during its upcoming session on June 2.

The agreement is aimed at further development of relations between the two countries, strengthening of mutually beneficial economic, trade and other relations and regulation of the regime of visits of both countries’ citizens.

According to the document, Armenian and Iranian citizens will not need entry visas for a stay of up to 90 days in a period of 180 days. The corresponding authorities in both countries will reserve the right to extend the period of stay.

The signing of the agreement will promote the development of tourism, in both countries and will create favorable conditions for the reciprocal visits of the citizens.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday expressed concerns to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over plans in Germany’s parliament to recognize the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide, the Associated Press reports.

Germany’s parliament will hold a vote on a motion describing the deaths as genocide on Thursday.

Erdogan’s office said the Turkish leader told Merkel during a telephone conversation that it was “important that a prudent approach is displayed.” His office said Erdogan had initiated the call.

Before departing for a trip to Uganda and Kenya, Erdogan noted that Germany is home to a large population of ethnic Turks and suggested that ties between the two NATO allies could suffer.

“This situation would of course damage the diplomatic, economic, commercial, political and military … relations between the two countries,” Erdogan told reporters. “I believe that this will be thought through.”

The Turkish leader added that any decision taken by the German parliament would not “have any aspect that would be binding under international law.”

In Berlin, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Turks in Germany were unlikely to change their view of Germany because of the resolution.

“The fact that an event happened 100 years ago isn’t an obstacle to Parliament dealing with it,” Steinmeier told reporters.

“What’s still urgently necessary is a reappraisal of this event from different perspectives, which is certainly not going to be easy and would likely be controversial, by the two neighboring countries,” he said, in reference to Turkey and Armenia.