Hollywood actor Alan Rickman has died at the age of 69 after waging a secret battle with cancer, his family said today, the Daily Mail reports.
The star, known for his roles in films such as Harry Potter and Robin Hood, kept his fight with illness private before his death.
Photo: Kadir Konuksever/Al Jazeera Turk
A car bomb blast has hit a police headquarters in south-eastern Turkey, killing five people and injuring at least 39, officials say, the BBC reports.
A woman and a baby are among the dead. Rescuers are continuing to search through rubble at the scene in Cinar district, Diyarbakir province.
Officials blamed the blast on Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) militants, who are active in the mainly Kurdish province.
No group has so far said it carried out the attack.
Today, President Serzh Sargsyan received the Head of the European Union delegation to the Republic of Armenia, Ambassador Peter Switalski.
At the meeting, the parties discussed issues pertinent to the Armenia-EU relations. Serzh Sargsyan stressed once again that Armenia’s cooperation and development of her relations with the European Union remain a priority for Armenia’s foreign policy. The President of Armenia expressed gratitude to the EU for the assistance in carrying out reforms in Armenia and underscored that especially after the constitutional changes Armenia has entered a new stage of large-scale reforms. Serzh Sargsyan expressed hope that assistance provided by the EU for the implementation of the reforms will be continuous, considering the efficiency of the assistance provided so far for the country.
The Head of the EU delegation in Armenia, Ambassador Peter Switalski also expressed hope that in 2016, the Armenia-EU bilateral relations will acquire a new quality and before the end of the year, negotiations on the new comprehensive Armenia-European Union legal document will have been concluded. Ambassador Switalski reiterated the EU’s interest in assisting Armenia in the development of cooperation and implementation of the reforms.
The Azerbaijani side fired more than 450 shots from artillery weapons of different caliber last night.
The rival also used 60 mm mortars and HAN-17 grenades, the NKR Ministry of Defense reported.
The activeness of the rival was pressured as a result of the retaliatory measures taken by the front divisions of the NKR Defense Army.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue on his home island of Madeira has been vandalised with Lionel Messi’s name and shirt number painted on it, reports.
The graffiti appeared on the statue in the island’s capital Funchal on Tuesday night shortly after Barcelona’s Messi claimed a fifth Ballon d’Or ahead of the Real Madrid star.
Messi’s name and the number 10, both scrawled in red, had been removed on Wednesday after officials were alerted to the damage.
“It’s a shameful act committed out of jealousy towards him,” said Ronaldo’s sister Katia Aveiro.
“The rage that some unloved and frustrated fatheads display in public in a disgraceful way which leaves me as a Portuguese person ashamed and sad.”
Ronaldo unveiled the 11-foot bronze effigy of himself in December 2014 on the Funchal seafront, a few hundred metres from his own self-financed museum.
Putting aside a sudden crisis with Iran, President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Americans in his final State of the Union address to reject the politics of tribalism and fear that have rocked the campaign to find his successor and to build a “clear-eyed, big-hearted” and “optimistic” nation.
Delivering his annual report to the nation, Obama did not name Republican 2016 candidates. But he took clear, implied shots at them nevertheless, particularly front-runner Donald Trump, as well as Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. America’s destiny, the President said, was imperiled by a political system festering in malice, gridlock and in the grip of the rich and the powerful.
Obama also took on critics who accuse him of weakening American power abroad and Republicans who say he is underplaying the threat from radical Islamist groups such as ISIS. He mocked the contention that fighters on “on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages” represented an existential threat to America.
The President acknowledged that a torrent of change, technological advances and economic dislocation has left many Americans fearful of the future and anxious as social structures that have underpinned the life of the nation for decades fray. But he urged them not to fall prey to the periodic temptation that has emerged throughout history to alienate minorities and resist social change.
“Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control,” Obama said. “And each time, we overcame those fears.”
“We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did — because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril — we emerged stronger and better than before.”
Economic opportunity, security and a sustainable, peaceful planet are possible, he said, if the country could return to “rational, constructive debates.”
“It will only happen if we fix our politics,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
Microsoft ended support for Windows 8 on Wednesday, which means the three-year-old operating system will no longer receive the necessary security updates to keep hackers at bay, reports.
This leaves more than 40 million users with the only option to upgrade to a later version of Windows to remain supported.
Microsoft still supports Windows 7 and Windows Vista, which surprises several users about the end of support for Windows 8. Technically, Windows 8 users must be supported till 2022, as per Microsoft’s 10-year support policy. But a quirk in the support life cycle changes that and requires Windows 8 users to upgrade immediately.
Users upgrading to Windows 8.1 Update will be supported till 2023, according to Microsoft’s lifecycle page.
Photo: RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR
By Robin Levinson King
By the time 10,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in the country, Canadians will have fine-tuned their welcome act into a national ritual.
Tuesday was expected to be the day that the 10,000th Syrian refugee arrives in Canada. Two planes carrying 465 refugees were scheduled to arrive at Toronto Pearson International Airport sometime Tuesday, although it’s not known when they will land. Pearson reported some flight cancellations and delays due to snowy weather conditions earlier in the day.
A plane carrying 155 was also bound for Montreal.
When they land, hundreds of volunteers and aid workers will have already arranged shelter, food and clothing for their first night in Canada. Most refugees who land in Toronto will stay at a hotel such as the Toronto Plaza Hotel in North York, where they will find a hot meal and even winter coats.
From there, many will be picked up by volunteer private sponsors who have helped set them up with an apartment and guarantee their financial security for at least one year.
About half of the refugees who have arrived so far have been privately sponsored by groups such as the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto. Since Dec. 10, when the first plane arrived, the centre has accepted more than 700 refugees, says one of the refugee sponsorship organizers, Apkar Mirakian.
It was during that first arrival, Mirakian said, that the refugees started what became a kind of welcome tradition. Instead of bee-lining for the community centre, where they would meet their sponsor family, they headed straight to the adjacent church.
“They wanted to go to the church, because they had to thank God and Canada. God because he gave them an opportunity for living now, and Canada because it gave them an opportunity to live in Canada,” Mirakian said.
Mirakian said that volunteers have been doing everything to make sure the Syrian’s transition to Canadian life is as smooth as possible, but that there are no guarantees.
“I hope there won’t be any regrets, when they don’t find a job or they come into difficulty. We’re trying to keep them — nobody falls through the wire mesh, we’re trying to hold them all together,” Mirakian said.
The biggest obstacles facing refugees right now are finding shelter and work.
“The rest will fall into place, when they’re working and have a place to live.”
Right now, most refugees are spending their first night in Canada at a hotel near the airport. But when vacancies run out — possibly as early as next week — refugees will be headed to Canadian Forces Bases Valcartier, Kingston and Borden.
Space is available for 6,000 people at various bases and facilities throughout Ontario and Quebec, with an additional 7,000 spots also in reserve if needed, the Forces say on their website.
The Red Cross is working with the government to prepare the bases in advance. Chiran Livera, a spokesperson for the organization, said the Red Cross Canada doesn’t expect any refugees to arrive at the military in the next few days, but that they are prepared to welcome them as soon as they are needed.
“We’ve been on the bases for the last couple of weeks now,” Livera said. “We’re ready to go.”
It might not be ideal — escaping war-torn Syria only to spend your first few nights on a military base. But Livera said the facility is well equipped and provides a lot of services, such as private rooms, recreational facilities and internet access.
“In that sense it’s like a little town,” he said. “For sure there will be soldiers there doing their regular work that they normally do, but I think everyone is there to support the refugees and they will receive a very hospitable welcome.”
Approximately 70 Canadian Armed Forces members have returned from Jordan and Lebanon, where they were part of a broader government effort to bring 25,000 Syrians to Canada by the end of next month.
“All it takes is seeing one little one the same age as my daughter — smiling because they are going to Canada,” said Maj. Drew Willis, who was among 68 soldiers who arrived to waiting family members early Tuesday at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.
About 150 soldiers remain overseas helping process applications and conduct medical tests on the thousands of Syrians who are still passing through the screening process.
Mirakian, who is of Armenian origin, said that when he immigrated to Canada in 1967 he was overwhelmed by the help that Canadians gave him, and he wants to repay the favour.
“That’s why I want to help, that’s why I’m here. Because I’m a Canadian of Armenian origin and Canada has always taught me to be a different man than the rest of the world,” he said.
– Pope Francis could make two additional international trips in 2016, including a possible trip to Armenia.
This possibility is suggested by gaps in the papal events schedule published on the website of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. The prefecture coordinates and prepares all the Pope’s audiences and visits in the Vatican and oversees the arrangements for the Pope’s pastoral visits to Rome and to Italy.
The schedule is published every six months. The latest version includes all papal events from January to June 2016.
Currently, the schedule labels two Angelus prayers and a general audience as “cancelled.” The Pope will not hold the Angelus May 22 or June 26, nor will he hold the June 22 general audience.
This means that the Pope could have time for one short international trip in May and a longer one in June.
At present, this interpretation of the schedule is just speculation. But sources confirmed to CNA that a Papal trip to Armenia is likely in the course of the year.
These sources are corroborated by the remark of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, during his visit to Armenia in September 2015. He raised the possibility of a 2016 papal visit to the country.
In response to a question on whether Pope Francis was willing to visit, Cardinal Sandri told the press agency Ria Novosti that Pope Francis “wishes with all of his heart to go to Armenia,” and that he already “welcomed the invitation Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan made to Pope Francis” last year. Cardinal Sandri noticed that, though “the Pope has a busy schedule,” he hopes “the Pope will find some time to go to Armenia.”
Pope Francis himself expressed his wish to go to Armenia in his Nov. 30 press conference in the flight from Central Africa. In the year 2014, he said, “I promised the three (Armenian) Patriarchs that I would go: the promise has been made. I don’t know if it will be possible, but I did promise.”
The Pope might have time to go to Armenia in June, when a general audience and the consecutive recitation of the Angelus have been cancelled. This means that the Pope will have at least four days to visit the country, from June 22 to June 26.
There are even more options for an eventual international trip to be held around May 22. Every year, the Pope has made a one-day visit to a European capital: in September 2013, he visited Tirana in Albania, while in June 2014 he went to Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some sources speculated that the Pope might go to Kosovo or to Macedonia, to show closeness to the migrants and refugees that go back and forth on the frontier there.
However, the Pope might also choose to go to a European capital not in the Balkans, a capital that faces increasing migration trends while also experiencing a strong secularization.
Pope Francis was supposed to visit Milan on May 6. Both the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Milan had confirmed the trip.
However, the Holy See press office on Dec. 10, 2015 said that the Pope had cancelled the visit to Milan, and postponed every other “pastoral visit to Italy” due to the commitments for the Jubilee of Mercy. However, the communiqué did not mention any possible cancellation of Pope Francis’ trips outside of Italy.
At the moment, Pope Francis is confirmed to make two international trips. He will go to Mexico Feb. 12-18, and he will go to Poland at the end of July to take part in the World Youth Day scheduled July 26-31.
The President of Armenia, Chairman of the Chess Federation of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan today visited the Chess Academy of Armenia and observed the Andranik Margarian 6th memorial tournament, President’s Press Office reported.
The Academy, for the sixth year in a row has been conducting a tournament in different age groups which is open for boys and girls up to 18 years old.
The tournament, which commenced on January 8, 2016, will continue through January 16. The winners will be awarded medals, souvenirs and will be allowed to participate at the meetings of Armenia’s Chess Academy.