Category: News

Jurgen Klopp holds no doubts that Dortmund midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is one of the biggest talents in the world, the Daily Mail reports.

The Liverpool manager, who arrived at Anfield early on Thursday with his squad ahead of the Europa League clash with Bordeaux, plucked the Armenian from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013 and remains a confirmed admirer.

Liverpool have been linked with a move for the 26-year-old, given his links with Klopp, and Juventus have monitored his situation.

Mkhitaryan came in for severe criticism last season – Dortmund struggled for much of it and were in danger of suffering relegation – but, talking in a new ebook Reading The Game centred on the 2014-15 campaign, Klopp leapt to his defence.

Mkhitaryan’s agent claimed he wanted to leave the club in February and – while new boss Thomas Tuchel wants to extend his contract beyond 2017 – there remains questions as to whether he will remain in Germany.

When it comes down to it, 99 per cent of people would be happy to have Mkhitaryan’s problems,’ he said. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the most talented players in the world.’

‘He possesses an incredible combination of speed and technique. There’s very, very few you can say that about.’

‘There’s a reason why the world’s best chess players come from Armenia like Mkhitaryan. Yes, other countries product chess players, but Armenia produces far more than could reasonably expect,’ Klopp said.

Jurgen Klopp’s new ebook ‘Reading The Game: A Year in Black and Yellow’ is now on sale and can be bought from Amazon.

A male suicide bomber hit a procession of Shi’ite Muslims in Nigeria’s Kano state as they walked to the city of Zaria to pay homage to their founder in the country, security sources and a Shi’ite leader said, Reuters reports.

Muhammad Turi said that 21 people had been killed and more wounded. Police said there were casualties but they could not confirm a figure.

The blast went off at around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) near the village of Dakozoye outside the town of Garum Mallam, south of Nigeria’s second city Kano.

“It was in a bush area, on a farmland along the highway, our concern is to make everywhere safe. The bomb was made of high calibre explosive,” police commissioner Muhammad Musa Katsina said.

The commissioner said he did not know who was behind the bombing.

Suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which frequently uses suicide bombers to hit soft targets like places of worship, markets and bus stations. Since losing most of the territory it controlled this year, it has returned to guerilla tactics and pledged allegiance to Islamic State based in Syria and Iraq.

Last week, two female suicide bombers hit a mobile phone market in Kano, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 100 others.

The armed group neutralized as a result of measures taken by divisions of the National Security Service (NSS) had special financing, goals and objectives, NSS Deputy Chief Mikael Hambartsumyan told reporters today.

He said the level of armament, the number of members and the cruelty of the group were unprecedented for the Republic of Armenia.

Hambartsumyan added that the group received funding amounting to thousands of dollars, probe is underway to reveal the source of financing.

“The group had special goals and a well-developed plan. The planned crimes were targeted against  civilians, different branches of power and state bodies,” Mikael Hambartsumyan said.

Head of the Defense Policy Department of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Levon Ayvazyan visited Lebanon November 25-28. He had meetings with Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Lebanon Calid Salmen, Deputy Chief of Staff, Brigade General Manuel Kirejyan, other officials.

Issues related to the development and deepening of cooperation between Armenia and Lebanon were discussed. Reference was made to the situation in the region and other issues of reciprocal interest.

The military cooperation plan between the Armed Forces of the two countries was signed within the framework of the visit.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov made has said in Tbilisi that Sergey Lavrov presented a proposal on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement during his recent visit to Armenia. According to Mammadyarov, this implies that “one should focus on the withdrawal of the Armenian military forces, return of internally displaced persons and establishment of contacts between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno Karabakh.”

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian responded to the claims at the Eastern Partnership Informal Ministerial Dialogue in Tbilisi, Spokesman for Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tigran Balayan said in comments to Radio Liberty. Minister Nalbandian said, in part:

“All of us, gathered here, can only express bewilderment, as we did at the Riga Summit, when Azerbaijan rejected the wording proposed by everyone, including the EU member-states and EaP states in the Summit’s Final Declaration on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, which was based on the well-known statements by the Heads of Co-Chair states. It is known that they reflect the principles and elements of the settlement as an integrated whole. The joint approach of the Co-Chair states – Russia, United States and France, is well-known, that selective approach to those principles and elements will make the settlement of the conflict impossible.

Azerbaijan’s approaches should not be presented as a position of the Co-Chairs, especially given the fact that those principles and elements are published in the five well-known statements.
Regarding to what Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister presents and how he attempts to ascribe it to Sergey Lavrov, such an approach has not been proposed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia to the Armenian side, and I do not think that he would have proposed such an approach to the Azerbaijani side.
One should not turn the reality upside-down.”

Photo: Sputnik/ Natalia Seliverstova

All military contacts with Turkey have been cut following the downing of Russia’s Su-24 military jet, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday, Sputnik News reports.

“There are huge perspectives for the development of friendly relations between Armenia and Georgia,” Georgian Foreign Minister Georgi Kvirikashvili told

“The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Georgia Edward Nalbandian and Georgi Kvirikashvili participated in the six informal meeting of the Eastern Partnership FMs held in Tbilisi.

Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova have signed Association Agreements with the European Union, while Armenia and Belarus are members of the Eurasian Economic Union. However, the different integration frameworks are no obstacle to the development of our relations,” Kvirikashvili said.

According to the Georgian Foreign Minister, there are huge perspectives for the development of traditional and friendly relations between the two countries.

“We discussed with the Armenian Foreign Minister a number of important issues and referred to border-related issues. I accepted Mr. Nalbandian’s invitation to visit Armenia, which will provide another opportunity to discuss issues of reciprocal interests once again,” Kvirikashvili said.

David Cameron says air strikes against Islamic State militants Syria would be in the UK’s “national interest,” the BBC reports.

The prime minister denied claims it would make the UK a bigger target for terror attacks, as he made the case for military action in the Commons.

He told MPs the UK was already a target for IS – and the only way to deal with that was to “take action” now.

The UK could not “outsource our security to allies” and it had to stand by France, he added.

A Commons vote is expected within weeks on whether to authorise air strikes.

The prime minister is urging MPs to back military action as he sets out a “comprehensive strategy” to tackle IS.

Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS

French President Francois Hollande told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday world powers must create a “grand coalition” to combat Islamic State militants who control swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, Reuters reports.

Hollande is on a diplomatic offensive to build a common front against the militant Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 that killed 130 people.

Islamic State has also said it downed a Russian plane on Oct. 31 over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.

“Our enemy is Islamic State, it has territory, an army and resources, so we must create this large coalition to hit these terrorists,” Hollande said in televised remarks at the start of bilateral talks with the Russian leader in the Kremlin.

“I’m in Moscow with you to see how we can act together and coordinate so that we can strike this terrorist group, but also reach a solution for peace,” Hollande said.

Putin said Moscow was ready to unite with Paris against a “mutual enemy” following the downing of the Russian airliner and the attacks in Paris.

“You’re paying big attention and putting a lot of efforts into the emergence of a broad antiterrorist coalition,” he said at the start of his emergency summit with Hollande in the Kremlin, according to TASS.

“What’s more, we think this coalition is absolutely necessary and that’s where our positions are the same,” Putin said.