Category: News

Azerbaijan has let its currency float freely, leading to its sharp depreciation as global oil prices hit new lows, the Associated Press reports.

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said Monday’s move to let the manat fluctuate was made to “preserve hard currency reserves … and ensure the national economy’s competitiveness on the international arena.”

Immediately after the move, the manat fell by 48 percent, ending at 1.55 a dollar.

The ex-Soviet nation has spent more than half of its hard currency reserves so far this year as it tried to shore up the embattled currency.

The sitting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Moscow today under the chairmanship of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The participants discussed the process of implementation of the decisions made during the September session of the Collective Security Council and approved a number of draft documents on the agenda of the Collective Security Council expected later today.

The Foreign Ministers of CSTO member states agreed on a draft statement on fighting international terrorism.

CSTO Secretary General briefed the participants on the sitting on the activity of the organization and the results achieved within the framework of cooperation.

Issues related to the rotation of officials in CSTO permanent bodies were also on the agenda.

Photo: AP/SERGEY PONOMAREV

 

Russia has reinforced its military base in Armenia with attack and transport helicopters, the Defense Ministry’s Southern Military District’s press service announced Monday, reports.

“Six modern attack Mi-24P and transport Mi-8MT helicopters from the Army’s aviation have been delivered [to the Armenian military base] from a military airbase in the Krasnodar region,” the press service said.

The Erebuni base was formed in 1995 and the MiG-29 Fulcrum multirole fighters were deployed there in 1998, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. In July 2001, the units at Erebuni were incorporated into an air division of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Gyumri, Armenia.

The killing of minorities by so-called Islamic State should be recognised as genocide, more than 60 British parliamentarians have said in a letter to the PM, the BBC reports.

They urge David Cameron to use his influence to reach an agreement with the UN that the term genocide be used.

This would send the message that those responsible would be caught, tried and punished, the letter adds.

IS has been systematically killing minority groups including Iraqi and Syrian Christians and Yazidis, it said.

The letter, written by MP Rob Flello and Lord Alton, said there was clear evidence of IS assassinations of church leaders, mass murders, torture, kidnapping for ransom in the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria and “the sexual enslavement and systematic rape of Christian girls and women”.

It also said the group was carrying out “forcible conversions to Islam”, the destruction of churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and Christian artifacts, and theft of lands and wealth from Christian clergy.

The letter said: “This is not simply a matter of semantics.

“There would be two main benefits from the acceptance by the UN that genocide is being perpetrated.

“First, it would send a very clear message to those organising and undertaking this slaughter that at some point in the future they will be held accountable by the international community for their actions; they will be caught, tried and punished.

“Second, it would encourage the 127 nations that are signatories to the Convention to face up to their duty to take the necessary action to ‘prevent and punish’ the perpetrators of these evil acts.”

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as at fired more than 1,700 shots in the southern direction (Hadrut) of the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

According to the NKR Ministry of Defense, the Azerbaijani side used 60, 82and 120 mm mortars, TR-107 missile units and 122 mm D-30 howitzer cannon.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to retaliatory actions to pressure the activeness of the rival and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact.

Shock and disbelief have erupted online after the wrong Miss Universe winner was crowned, the reports.

Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez was announced winner of the 2015 beauty pageant before organisers revealed she was actually the first runner-up.

Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was later declared the winner.

#MissUniverse2015 also became Twitter’s biggest trend of the night as thousands of social media users began to express disbelief using jokes and memes.

Facebook users also expressed their opinions on a post shared on the pageant’s official page.

Ms Wurtzbach has since told reporters that she wishes Ms Gutierrez well following the incident.

“I’m very sorry, I did not take the crown away from her and I wish her well in whatever she wants to pursue after this pageant,” she said.

Ms Gutierrez also addressed fans in a backstage video that has been shared on the pageant’s official page.

She said: “Everything happens for a reason so I’m happy for all that I did.”

At the end of the night, Ms Gutierrez was named first runner-up followed by Olivia Jordan from the United States.

Host Steve Harvey responded, saying it was “his mistake” and he would take responsibility for not reading the winning card correctly.

“I’d like to apologize wholeheartedly to Miss Colombia & Miss Philippines for my huge mistake. I feel terrible,” he said in a tweet that was re-tweeted more than 51,000 times.

“I don’t want to take away from this amazing night and pageant. As well as the wonderful contestants – they were all amazing.”

“Every time Azerbaijani Armed Forces use automatic guns, mortars and artillery equipment against the Republic of Armenia, they shoot in the direction of Astana, Dushanbe and Bishkek, Moscow and Minsk,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said, addressing the CSTO Collective Security Council.

“Remind that we have a corresponding paragraph in our Charter. If we not only fail to apply that article, to discuss the current situation, if we don’t consider it proper to pick up the phone and call to know what’s happening in allied Armenia, at the same time voting against each other’s interests within the framework of international organizations and adopting bilateral statements with third countries with their texts contradicting the interests of a CSTO partner, we put under fire the whole Organization, its reputation and capacity,” President Sargsyan stated.

“Azerbaijan’s policy is targeted at the aggravation of the conflict. Unfortunately, the situation has not only failed to stabilize, but has even worsened. The Azerbaijani side does not suffice with the use of heavy artillery, including ones of Turkish production. On December 8 they fired from a tank for the first time since the establishment of the ceasefire regime in 1994, and this raises the tension to a new and very dangerous level,” the President added.

Taking into consideration the recent tense atmosphere in the region, we should not rule out that Azerbaijan has been guided or supported by outer forces, the Armenian President concluded.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini have been suspended for eight years from all football-related activities following an ethics investigation, the BBC reports.

They were found guilty of breaches surrounding a $2m “disloyal payment” made to Platini in 2011.

Both men denied any wrongdoing. The bans come into force immediately.

FIFA boss since 1998, Blatter, 79, had already announced he was quitting ahead of February’s presidential election.

Platini, 60, was tipped as a future leader of football’s world governing body and had hoped to succeed Blatter.

A three-time European Footballer of the Year and former captain of France, he had been in charge of UEFA – European football’s governing body – since 2007.

Both men have also been fined.

“The downing of the Russian Su-24 by Turkey was a challenge to the fight against international terrorism, the efforts targeted at the settlement of the situation in Syria and establishment of peace in the region,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said, addressing the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council. He added that “any support to terrorism should be strongly criticized.”

“In case of the developments connected with the downing of the Russian jet we witnessed how a practical military-political alliance is being formed. The unequivocal support of the NATO member states, i.e. Greece, to Turkey, obviously shows that the principle of “one for all and all for one” is a compulsory condition for the effectiveness of such alliances. Even though Turkey’s actions contradicted all norms and principles of friendship and good-neighborly relations, even though it shot down a jet on military mission against terrorism, no NATO member state questioned the auctioned the actions of the Turkish side. We must draw lessons from this,” President Sargsyan said.

On the initiative of Ayb School and MIC Armenia (Microsoft Innovation Center Armenia) and with the partnership of VivaCell-MTS, Menu.am, Ayb High School hosted the Hour of Code event on December 20.

The Hour of Code is an international global movement reaching more than 100 million participants from around 45 000 schools of over 180 countries.  The Hour of Code gives participants an opportunity to learn various programming languages and approaches easily through games and helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic, and creativity. All who are interested in new technologies, games, and programming can participate. There is no age limit, and it is not required to have any knowledge of programing languages. Only English language knowledge is required.

This year, the Hour of Code is going to take place for the second time in Armenia. Last year the event united more than 150 participants from different schools of Armenia. The interest towards this initiative is rising. More than 200 participants took part in the Hour of Code 2015.

“Nowadays, programing is available to everyone. The main aim of the Hour of Code is to develop programming thinking regardless of career. The Hour of Code 2014 showed that such initiatives bring together and inspire many children. Ayb School encourages such innovation formats. We believe that the implementation of such projects is a large investment in the education and development of future generations,” said Aram Pakhchanian, the head of Ayb School.

“Today technologies are used in every aspect of life—from phones to cars, medicine to daily life. That is why in schools of many countries programming is a school subject. Microsoft Innovation Center attaches great importance to this initiative, which aims to show schoolchildren from early ages how technologies that they use are created,” said MIC director Artashes Vardanyan.

Besides the main part of the event, robotics show, creation of new samples out of broken phones, and other activities took place during the Hour of Code. The official hashtag is #HourofCodeEVN.