Category: News

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday against French comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, deciding that freedom of speech did not protect “racist and anti-Semitic performances,” reports.

Dieudonne, as he is commonly known, was protesting a fine he received from a French court in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust-denier on stage.

He was fined 10,000 euros ($11,000) for what that court referred to as “racist insults”.

Dieudonne argued the fine amounted to an infringement of his freedom of speech.

During a show in December 2008, Dieudonne appeared on stage with Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson at the Zenith theatre in Paris and presented him with an award. He later defended himself in court, saying: “It was very funny.”

On November 7, under the auspices of H.E. Armen Yeganian, the Ambassador of Armenia to Canada, the concert of world-renowned Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian took place at the Arts Center of Toronto. The concert was dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide and was conducted by the distinguished Nurhan Arman with the participation of famous violinist Nune Melikyan.

Ambassador Armen Yeganian, spiritual leaders, social and political figures, journalists, representatives of the Armenian community and many Canadians attended the concert.

In his remarks Ambassador Yeganian thanked Hasmik Papyan and other participants of the event. He emphasized the importance of this concert, noting that it plays a special role amongst the events organized in Canada on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, because it raises the public awareness of events dedicated to the Centennial.

During the concert, the “Sinfonia” orchestra performed works of AramKhachaturyan, Alexander Harutyunyan, Edvard Mirzoyan, Vache Sharafyan and Tigran Mansuryan.

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Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas’ achievements in football have been honoured with the awarding of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, Daily Mail reports.

The Spain international, accompanied by long-term partner Sara Carbonero, received the award during a ceremony at the Palace of Moncloa in Madrid.

Casillas, who left Real Madrid to join the Portuguese runners-up in the summer after more than 15 years involved with the first team, was presented with the award by the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy.

The 34-year-old is in line to make his 165th cap for the Spanish national team this week when they face England in Alicante on Friday night.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs will hold consultations in Germany today, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick has tweeted.

The meeting comes ahead of the forthcoming German presidency of the OSCE.

“We look forward today to consultations with Germany, the incoming chairman-in-office of OSCE. Let’s work together for Nagorno Karabakh peace,” Warlick said.

The Media Center, in cooperation with the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, held a panel discussion on how the geopolitics of the South Caucasus will be affected by the emergence of new Iranian-Russian ties in the energy sector.

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has been talking to Tehran about potential investments in Iran’s natural gas sector in the event the sanctions on Iran are lifted. Possible deals include a swap where Russia would supply gas to northern Iran via pipelines running through Armenia or Azerbaijan and  take a share in liquefied natural gas exported from Iran’s Gulf terminals in return.

Expert on Iran Sevak Sarukhanyan is not optimistic about the perspectives of this cooperation. He says that “when speaking about joint Russian-Iranian energy projects, one should keep in mind there are more difficulties than opportunities.”

“The difficulties first of all come from the economic situation in Russia. The second problem is Iran’s legislature, which seriously restricts foreign investments in the oil and gas sector,” he said.

The expert added there is another important factor that should be taken into account. “Iran uses its oil and gas factors in its negotiations with the EU and is more interested in seeing European companies investing in the country, as it will reinforce Iran’s positions in Europe, accelerate the process of elimination of sanctions and bring high technologies to the country. However, this will not prevent some kind of cooperation beyween Russia and Iran.” Sevak Sarukhanyan added, however, that it’s hard to predict how this will relate to the South Caucasus.”

A new energy axis between Russia and Iran envisages serious changes for the countries of the South Caucasus, at the same time affecting the political relations in the region. Sergey Minasyan, head of the Political Studies Department at the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan considers that with absolutely matching problems and interests in the Middle East, Russia and Iran are actually in a “situational military-political alliance.”

“It’s obvious that the problems and interests of Moscow and Tehran are more than similar. Moreover, a “situational military-political alliance” has been formed in the face of Iran, Iraq, Assad’s administration and Moscow,” he said.

According to the political scientist, “this geopolitical rapprochement between Tehran and Moscow has contributed to two developments: Russia’s decisive role in solving the puzzle around Iran’s nuke program and Russia’s actions in Syria.” However, Sergey Minasyan agrees that speaking of Russian-Iranian economic cooperation, especially in the energy sector, is still untimely.

Photo by Mikhail Fomichev/Sputnik

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave instructions to sign an agreement with Armenia on creating a united regional air defense system in the Caucasian collective security region, according to a document posted on the government’s legal information web portal on Wednesday, TASS reports.

‘I decree to accept a proposal by the Russian government on signing an agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia on creating a united regional air defense system in the Caucasian collective security region,” the president’s instruction said.

“I hereby instruct the Defense Ministry of Russia to hold negotiations with the Armenian side with the involvement of Russia’s Foreign Ministry and sign the said Agreement on Russia’s behalf upon reaching consent and permit making minor amendments to its draft approved by the government,” the document said.

Photo by Andrea Bruce/The New York Times

Christianity “could disappear completely” within a decade in parts of the Middle East, a report has warned as Isis and other groups continue their violent persecution of the faith, reports.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a UK-based Catholic campaign group, has chronicled a dramatic decline in the faith over the last two years largely due to what it called the “religiously motivated ethnic cleansing” in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and other countries hit by Islamist insurgencies.

But researchers found that totalitarian regimes such as in North Korea, and extremism in faiths outside Islam were also playing a part in the 22 nations reviewed.

John Pontifex, the editor of Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2013-15, said: “A cultural genocide of Christians is erasing the presence of faithful from large swathes of the Middle East, the very heartland of the Church.

“Far from laying the entire blame for persecution against Christians at the door of extremist Islam [the report] demonstrates that many of the problems stem from non-Muslim extremist – nationalist – faith groups and historically communist totalitarian regimes.”

Researchers wrote that with the faith disappearing from entire regions, including parts of Africa, it was “changing from being a global faith to a regional one”.

Iraq was among the 10 countries where persecution is ranked as “extreme”, with the charity saying Christianity’s future in the country is “in doubt” amid an exodus of refugees pushed out by Isis’ violent advance last year.

The ACN warns that Christians could virtually disappear from Iraq within five years “unless emergency help is provided at an international level on a massively increased scale”.

Numbers of Christians in the country are believed to be as low as 275,000, while the figure in neighbouring Syria has dropped from 1.25 million in 2011 to as few as 500,000 today.

Isis and other jihadist groups have targeted religious minorities in both countries, driving them from their homes, kidnapping priests and murdering those who refuse to renounce their faith.

Researchers said that Christians were not only a target because of their faith itself, but because of their “perceived links with the West and a view associating the faithful with colonialism”.

The report held Islamism to be the greatest threat but also highlighted attacks sparked by militant forms of Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism.

The countries where Christians were deemed most at risk were: China, Eritrea, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Vietnam.

The Pope sent a message from the Vatican addressing ACN’s findings, saying the world must be made aware of the “plight and suffering” of Christians.

“[Pope Francis] prays that those in positions of authority will diligently strive not only to eradicate religious discrimination and persecution in their own nations, but also to seek ever more effective ways to promote international cooperation in order to overcome these offenses against human dignity and religious freedom,” a statement said.

Marking the report’s launch in the House of Lords, David Cameron said Christians were being “systematically discriminated against, exploited and driven from their homes because of their faith”.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, also sent a message of support to ACN, saying that the “extent and scale of the problem” must be identified in order for persecution to be properly addressed.

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E-commerce giant Alibaba has broken its own record for sales on China’s Singles Day, the world’s biggest online shopping event, the BBC reports.

The firm said sales surpassed the record amount of $9.3bn (£6.1bn) made last year in just over half the time.

Singles Day, also known as Double Eleven because it is held on 11 November, has become a major annual event for Chinese retailers.

Alibaba said more than $1bn was spent within eight minutes of midnight.

Within the first hour, it had made $3.9bn (£2.bn) in sales, almost double the amount spent in the same time period of the event last year.

In comparison, sales on Cyber Monday, which is the biggest online shopping day in the US, hit $1.35bn, according to data analytics firm ComScore.