Category: News

Mobile phone companies in Brazil have been ordered by a court to impose a block of the popular WhatsApp smartphone application for two days, the BBC reports.

A court in Sao Paulo state made the order because it said WhatsApp had repeatedly failed to co-operate in a criminal investigation.

It is not clear if mobile companies will fully comply with the order.

Facebook owns the app. Its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he was “stunned” by the “extreme” ruling.

WhatsApp is reported to be the most used application in Brazil, with about 93 million users.

Germany and several other nations are to discuss with Turkey ways of settling thousands of Syrian refugees ahead of the final EU summit of the year, the BBC reports.

Those attending the meeting will discuss a proposal to resettle Syrians straight from camps in Turkey.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the driving force behind the plans, faces resistance from other EU states.

Thursday’s full EU summit in Brussels is seRecord numbers of people have arrived in Europe this year, prompting some states to build fences and introduce border controls in defiance of the EU’s border-free Schengen area.t to focus heavily on the migrant crisis which has divided members.

 

 

 

 

The essence of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is being distorted in the negotiation process, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters today, following the government sitting.

“Azerbaijan has adopted a policy of force in the Karabakh conflict, which began with the Sumgait massacres and continues into today. Any progress in the talks is impossible unless Azerbaijan refuses from this stance,” Kocharyan said. He added that “the international community should come to understand that the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is the solution.”

Referring to the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Deputy Foreign Minister said “they are the beginning of a direction.”

“The mediators are always trying to put an equation mark between the parties, but some change is obvious. According to my assessment, that’s not enough, but the change in the statements is apparent. This will further deepen, if Baku fails to return to a pragmatic field,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been voted the player of Matchday 16. The Armenian international convinced the voters with his impressive performance in the match against Eintracht Frankfurt.

With 54 percent of the ballot Mkhitaryan clearly won the first place in the voting on 

Dortmund began determined to make amends and immediately went on the attack. They had a couple of half-chances early on, but it was Frankfurt who broke the deadlock when Alex Meier fired in from the edge of the area following a swift counterattack.

BVB fought back, however, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalizing from close range following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s pass.

Aubameyang should have scored just before the break, but he missed a penalty after Slobodan Medojevic felled Gonzalo Castro in the box – an offence for which the Eagles defender received a second yellow. It was one-way traffic towards the Frankfurt box in the second half and eventually the pressure took its toll, with Aubameyang, Mats Hummels and Adrian Ramos each scoring excellent goals to give Thomas Tuchel’s men a thoroughly deserved victory.

An indictment of the investigation into negligence of public officials in the killing of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalistHrant Dink in Istanbul has been approved by the court, the reports.

A total of 26 police officers, including both current and former police chiefs, will be tried as the indictment in the nine-year-long investigation into negligence of public employees in the shooting death of Dink was recognized by the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes on Dec. 15 following its Dec. 9 approval by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The 26 police officers were charged with one count each of “forming or heading an armed terrorist group,” “membership of an armed terrorist group,” “power abuse on duty,” “manipulating, destroying and/or concealing official documents,” “deliberate murder,” “fabricating official documents by public employees” and “deliberate murder on negligence” in the case filed into negligence of public officials at the time of the assassination. All of the 26 were on duty at the time of Dink’s murder.

The move comes a week after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 9 approved the indictment prepared against the 26 police officers into “negligence on public duty” in the shooting death of Dink, the editor-in-chief of weekly Agos, who was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007.

The indictment prepared by prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü was presented to the Istanbul 14th Court for Serious Crimes after it had been rejected by deputy chief prosecutor Orhan Kapıcı twice.

Having been rejected twice before, lawyers representing the Dink family expressed the reaction against the indictment in the investigation returning to Kökçü. The return means that cases will likely not be opened against the suspects.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü in early November, arguing that “evidence of voluntary manslaughter concerning some of the suspects was not revealed.”

However, Hakan Bakırcıoğlu, a Dink family lawyer, said on Nov. 4 that not opening a case against former police chiefs Ahmet İlhan Güler, Celalettin Cerrah, Reşat Altay, Engin Dinç and other suspects, would exclude their integral responsibility in Dink’s murder.

Recalling the first two versions of the indictment, the latest one drafted in late October, Bakırcıoğlu said the two indictments charged former police chiefs Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Ramazan Akyürek, Tamer Bülent Demirel and Osman Gülbel each with “voluntary manslaughter,” Engin Dinç, Reşat Altay and Ahmet İlhan Güler each with “voluntary manslaughter due to negligence” and Sabri Uzun and Celalettin Cerrah each with “malpractice.”

“Despite resistance and barriers in front of the interrogation and investigation of public servants who took part in Dink’s murder, they were interrogated and investigated by the prosecutor [in charge of the case],” Bakırcıoğlu said.

All the names of the suspects implicated in the investigation were reported to have been on duty in police departments in Istanbul, and the province of at the time of Dink’s murder.

Dink was shot dead outside his office building in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007, by 17-year-old Ogün Samast.

Relatives and followers of the case have claimed government officials, police, military personnel and members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) played a role in Dink’s murder by neglecting their duty to protect the journalist.

The Azerbaijani side undertook infringement attempts in three directions to the east of the line of contract between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army were quick to spot the advancement of the Azerbaijani special unites and force the rival to retreat, incurring losses.

While retreating, the rival left the weapons meant for the special operation.

The NKR Defense Army incurred no losses.

Pep Guardiola will next week announce he is to leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season, according to reports in the German media, reports.

The former Barcelona coach said earlier this week he would make an announcement on his future before Christmas, but German newspaper Bildclaims he has ‘already sorted out his future’.

Last month Barcelona daily Sport reported he had already given his word to former Barca colleagues Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, Manchester City’s chief executive and director of football respectively, that he would join them at the Etihad next season.

“Everything points to his leaving,” said Bild, adding that the 44-year-old was aware of the dangers of ‘out-staying his welcome if he remained at Bayern’.

“He is someone who enjoys a challenge and that is why he joined Bayern Munich in 2013.”

Guardiola has won two titles and a German Cup since taking over at the Allianz Arena in the summer of 2013 following a year out of football. Prior to that he won the Champions League twice, three La Liga titles and two Copa del Reys in a four-year spell at the Nou Camp.

 

 Sputnik/ Grigory Sysoyev

 

President Vladimir Putin says that Russian military operation in Syria will continue until a political process starts. Putin said at a televised news conference that once the Syrians decide it’s time to stop fighting and launch talks, “we aren’t going to be more Syrian than the Syrians themselves,” and Moscow will wrap up its military action, the Associated Press reports.

He says that he was unsure whether Russia needs a permanent military base in Syria. He said new Russian weapons, such as sea- and air-launched cruise missiles, give Moscow enough punch to strike an enemy and there may be no need for a permanent base in Syria.

President Vladimir Putin says the Syrian people themselves must determine who rules the country.

Putin, who met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this week, said at a news conference Thursday that Moscow supports a U.S. draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria. He says a new constitution for Syria must be drafted, and a new election prepared in which the Syrians themselves will determine its leadership.

He adds that Russia believes that a political settlement is the only way to end the Syrian crisis.

Putin says Russia and the U.S. agree on the need to ensure work on a new constitution and create mechanisms of control over future elections.

Photo: Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

The actions of the Turkish authorities with regard to the Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber were hostile, not just unfriendly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the annual press conference on Thursday.

The presidet said he was indignant at the fact that Turkish authorities complained to NATO instead of providing explanation about the incident.

According to Putin, Turkish people remain Russia’s partners, but it is impossible to come to agreement with the current Turkish leadership.

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter, embroiled in a string of corruption scandals, should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

“That is someone who should be given the Nobel Peace Prize,” Putin said of the FIFA boss who is facing corruption allegations over his management of the world footballing body.

“His contribution to the global humanitarian sphere is colossal,” the Russian leader said.