Category: News

Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player for the fifth time, the BBC reports.

The 28-year-old beat club-mate Neymar of Brazil and Real Madrid’s Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

Either Messi or Ronaldo, who became a three-time winner last year, have won the past eight awards.

United States midfielder Carli Lloyd, who scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, won the women’s award.

England coach Mark Sampson was beaten to the women’s football coach of the year award by United States boss Jill Ellis.

Barcelona coach Luis Enrique won the world coach of the year award after leading his side to five of the six trophies on offer in 2015, including the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey.

He beat Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola, who was second, and Chile’s Copa America-winning coach Jorge Sampaoli to the award.

Atletico Goianiense’s Wendell Lira won the goal of the year award for a spectacular overhead kick in Brazil’s Goiano state league game against Goianesia.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s run from halfway and finish in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao finished second, with Roma full-back Alessandro Florenzi’s 55-yard goal against Barca third.

Former Leeds and South Africa captain Lucas Radebe announced the winner of this year’s fair play award – all football clubs and organisations supporting refugees.

There was no shortlist for this award.

Fresno State officials  announced a new partnership with the American University School in Armenia (AUA) yesterday as part of an effort to boost opportunities for Armenian studies, reports.

The new deal, signed into being by Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro, will allow for the exchange of students and faculty between the two schools and promote joint research.

“Through this agreement, we will boldly rise together,” said President Joseph I. Castro. “It’s both important and timely.”

Located in Yerevan, Armenia, AUA is in its 25th year and has a student body of 1,600. Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian, university president and one of three cofounders of AUA, said the campus has a lot to offer Fresno State students including studies in engineering, computer science, economics, public health and law.

“Our university is dynamic and it’s growing,” he said. “There are so many things to see and there is so much to enjoy.”

Studying abroad at AUA would also allow the Central Valley’s Armenian students a chance to connect with their ancestral roots, and Der Kiureghian said the university hopes to eventually be a hub for American universities.

For now, Fresno State is the first U.S. university to establish such a relationship with the school.

The new deal bolsters Fresno State’s current Armenian studies program and is the latest step Castro has taken in strengthening ties between the university and the Armenian community. In April, 2015, university officials unveiled a monument dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide.

Photo: EPA

 

Three foreign tourists have been injured after two suspected Islamic State militants stormed into a hotel in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Hurghada, the BBC reports.

The attackers, armed with knives, were killed by police at the Bella Vista hotel after they stabbed two Austrian guests and a Swede, officials say.

The assailants were aiming to kidnap tourists, officials told the BBC. Reports say they raised the IS flag.

Security forces are still searching for possible further attackers.

Photo: Reuters

 

Belgian prosecutors believe they may have found a bomb factory also used as a hideout by one of the jihadists after the Paris attacks, the BBC reports.

Police found traces of explosives, three handmade belts and a fingerprint of fugitive Salah Abdeslam.

The apartment in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels had been rented in a false name that might have been used by a person already in custody.

Islamic State (IS) suicide attackers killed 130 people in the attacks.

– On Wednesday, January 6, the newly established Football Federation of Western Armenia played its first friendly match against Olympique de Marseille (CFA) where they were short of a comeback and lost 3-2.

Vahagn Militosyan became the first ever scorer for the club as he scored the two goals of the match for Western Armenia.

Recently, the Western Armenian squad was seen at its first training session practicing for their upcoming match in France.

The Football Federation of Western Armenia was established in 2015. It became an official member of the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA) on June 1, 2015. The Artsakh national soccer team is also part ConIFA.

This football federation aims to unite all football players who make up the Armenia Diaspora with the sport of soccer. Currently, the team consists of players from Yerevan, Istanbul, and from different diasporas around the world who’s families have originated from Western Armenia.

If you wish to find out more about the Football Federation of Western Armenia, visit their website at .

Photo: Sputnik/ Valery Melnikov

 

Syrian forces repelled an Islamic State attempt to take control over the strategic Kweiris airbase in the eastern part of Allepo province, sputnik news reports.

Germany must look again at deporting foreigners convicted of crimes following the Cologne sex attacks, Chancellor Angela Merkel says, the BBC reports.

She said “clear signals” had to be sent to those not prepared to abide by German law.

Gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance were reported to be behind the attacks.

Meanwhile, similar incidents from New Year’s Eve have been reported in Finland and Switzerland.

“What happened on New Year is not acceptable,” Mrs Merkel said in a statement.

“These are repugnant criminal acts that a state, that Germany will not accept. The feeling women had in this case of being at people’s mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well.

“That’s why it is important that everything that happened there will be brought to the table. We must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of deportations from Germany, in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order.”

Relative peace was maintained at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan during the holidays, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

The rival fired about 4,500 shots from weapons of different caliber in the direction of the Armenian positions between January 1 and 7.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation and confidently fulfill their military tasks all along the line of contact.

Visiting Armenia in April 2016, the 101st anniversary of the 1915 genocide, is a possibility for the Pope, although this has not been absolutely confirmed, according to .

He hopes to visit the country, but admits, “I am old and these trips are heavy.”

The Pope may also visit three South-American nations: Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are also awaiting a visit from the Pope.

Pope Francis confirmed that he will be visiting Mexico in the first half of 2016.

Pope Francis will also be leading World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland, the city of Pope John Paul II and Divine Mercy mystic, St. Faustina Kowalska.

The real focus of the Pope’s 2016 schedulve will be the Jubilee of Mercy, which may attract 25 million visitors. He will be modeling the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in Catholic doctrine, starting with a Jubilee for Pilgrimage Workers from January 19-21, 2016.

The US, South Korea and Japan have said they will be united in their response to North Korea’s claim to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, the BBC reports.

North Korea said it carried out the test on Wednesday – if confirmed it would be its fourth nuclear test, and its first of the more powerful H-bomb.

The UN Security Council has also agreed to start drawing up new measures against North Korea.

But scepticism remains over whether the North really did conduct such a test.

Experts have said the seismic activity generated by the blast was not large enough for it to have been a full thermonuclear explosion.