Category: News

The Armenian Church of St. Virgin Mary was consecrated in the Swedish city of Södertälje on October 24.

The funds for the reconstruction of the church that started in 2014 were granted by representatives of the local Armenian community and benefactors.

The solemn blessing ceremony was attended by Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Sweden Artak Apitonyan, Vice-President of the Swedish Rikstag Esabelle Dingizian, representatives of sister churches, high-ranking officials, members of the community and pilgrims.

A whale-watching boat has sunk off the coast of British Columbia in western Canada, leaving at least five people dead, the BBC reports.

The boat carrying 27 people sank near Tofino on Vancouver Island, the coastguard said. Sea conditions at the time were reported to be calm.

Emergency officials said 21 people had been rescued and one other person was still missing.

The nationalities of the victims are not yet known.

The boat, Leviathan II, made a mayday call late on Sunday afternoon, the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said.

The last 25 Armenian families have left the city of Deir ez-Zor, Syria, over the past months, reports, quoting its sources.

According to the report, most Armenians have settled in Aleppo, Qamishli and Latakia.

The source says all shops and houses belonging to Armenians have been robbed, while the St. Martyrs Church dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims stands in ruins.

Deir ez-Zor has been under the control of the Islamic State for 1.5 years now.

Argentina will face a run-off election next month after neither presidential candidate gained enough votes to win the poll outright, the BBC reports.

Centre-left candidate Daniel Scioli led exit polls, and just edged centre-right Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri with most votes counted.

Many had expected Mr Scioli to lead by a greater margin.

The run-off on 22 November will be the first time an Argentine election will be decided by a second round.

With 86% of the votes counted, Mr Scioli was marginally ahead with 35.9% of the vote, while Mr Macri had 35.2%.

To win outright in the first round, a candidate needed 45% of the vote or a minimum of 40% as well as a 10-point lead over the nearest rival.

“What happened today will change politics in this country,” Mr Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, told supporters.

A powerful earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan, with tremors felt in Pakistan and northern India, the BBC reports.

At least 40 people are said to have been killed in Pakistan, with about 20 deaths reported in Afghanistan.

The magnitude 7.5 quake was centred in the mountainous Hindu Kush region, 75km (46 miles) south of Faizabad, the US Geological Survey reported.

Buildings were evacuated in the capitals of all three countries and communications disrupted in many areas.

In the Afghan province of Takhar, a stampede at a girls’ school triggered by the quake is reported to have left 12 students dead. Another 25 students were injured.

Five people died in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, hospital sources said.

Most of the casualties in Pakistan are reported to have happened in the northern tribal areas.

Officials said the quake happened at a depth of 212km. The magnitude was initially put at 7.7 but later downgraded.

The representatives of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan agreed on multilateral cooperation, an interstate system for space monitoring of emergency situations, as well as an interregional satellite communication system, according to Roscosmos, Sputnik News reports.

A protocol on CIS countries cooperation that includes an agreement to establish a Joint Institute for Space Research, was signed on Friday, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.

“One of the key decisions is the agreement of the partners to start preparing a project on the establishment of an international intergovernmental research organization [called the] Joint Institute for Space Research,” the statement reads.

The space agency noted that the final protocol was signed in Minsk, Belarus, following a two-day meeting of representatives from the CIS countries’ executive authorities devoted to the cooperation in space.

According to Roskosmos, the representatives of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan agreed to create a new contract-legal basis for multilateral cooperation, an interstate system for space monitoring of emergency situations, as well as an interregional satellite communication system.

On Thursday, the sixth conference devoted to cooperation in space for CIS countries opened in Minsk. The main objective of the event is to discuss acute issues of multilateral interaction in the sphere of research and how space can be used in the interest of CIS member states.

A Saudi prince and four others were detained on Monday in the largest drug bust in the history of the Beirut airport, a security source said.

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained by security at Rafik Hariri International Airport while allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine,” a security source told AFP.

“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Captagon is the brand name for the amphetamine phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant. The banned drug is consumed mainly in the Middle East and has reportedly been widely used by fighters in Syria.

The security source said the drugs had been packed into cases that were waiting to be loaded onto a private plane that was headed to Saudi Arabia.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu.

The parties continued the discussions on furthering the process of peaceful settlement of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.

The Armenian Foreign Minister called the attention of the mediators to the fact that Azerbaijan continues to violate the ceasefire at the line of contact with Artsakh and the shared border with Armenia even after the two statements the Co-Chairs issued last month.

“The border provocations by Azerbaijan are accompanied by belligerent statements and threats in Baku on the highest level, the propaganda of enmity and hatred,” Minister Nalabndian said.

“Azerbaijan’s rejection of the Co-Chairs’ proposal to create a mechanism of investigation of border incidents testifies to the fact that Baku wishes to foil the efforts of Armenia and the co-chairing countries aimed at peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict,” the Armenian Foreign Minister stated.

A Service of Commemoration of the Armenian Martyrs of 1915 will be held at Westminster Abbey at 7.00pm on Wednesday 28^th October.

The service will be attended by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Excellency Dr Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian ambassador to the Court of St James, and members of the Armenian Government.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale discussed the preparations for the event at a .

 

 

 

 

The violence and tensions on the line of contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will be high on the agenda of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’s meetings in Yerevan and Baku.

“We are concerned about these tensions, in particular, the use of heavy weapons, including mortars. We are concerned that this leads to increasing violence, heightened tensions and civilian deaths,” US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador James Warlick told reporters in Yerevan.

“Our message in both Yerevan and Baku is to respect the ceasefire and reduce tensions.”

Warklick said the mediators will discuss with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan the principles behind a comprehensive settlement and will talk about the possibility of organizing a summit meeting before the end of the year.

“Both Presidents have committed themselves to an intensified dialogue. They signal that they do want to meet with each other, and we’d like to use this visit as an opportunity to identify the possible dates and begin to make arrangements for the summit,” Warlick said.

The third reason the mediators are in the region is to talk about building trust and respect for security. “It comes to confidence-building measures and people-to people programs,” Amb. Warlick noted.

The US Co-Chair said that negotiations have been going on in one form or another for 20 years now, and added that “time has come for more structured negotiations.”

As for the Royce-Engel letter, Mr. Warlick said: “We fundamentally agree with the recommendations Congressmen Royce and Engel are making. Honestly, they are not new. Those are the ideas and issues the Co-Chairs have been working with for quite some time.”

The Ambassador stressed the importance of resuming discussions on an OSCE investigative mechanism, which would be helpful along the line of contact and the international border.

“We need an investigative mechanism so that we don’t see one side accusing the other and have no bases to know who committed particular acts of violence,” he added.

Warlick reiterated his earlier statement that recognition of Nagorno Karabakh by Armenia would be seen in Baku as a provocation. “Neither side should take steps that will incite violence or provoke the other side.”