Category: News

Photo: AFP

Turkish police have arrested the main suspect in the New Year’s Eve attack on an exclusive nightclub in Istanbul after a huge manhunt, the BBC reports.

Abdulkadir Masharipov is believed to have mounted the assault on the Reina club which left 39 people dead.

The Uzbek national is said to have been caught in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district.

Citizens of Israel, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Belgium, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were among the victims, and dozens of people were injured.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the attack, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.

The gunman arrived at the club by taxi early that Sunday, before rushing through the entrance with a long-barrelled gun he had taken from the boot of the car.

He fired randomly at people celebrating the new year.

MP Gagik Tsarukyan has revealed plans to participate in the 2017 parliamentary elections.

“The 2017 parliamentary elections will be fatal for Armenia,” Tsarukyan said in a statement today.

“Considering the domestic and foreign challenges facing our country, as well as the public demand for my return, I declare I’m reopening the closed page of my political activity and will participate in the 2017 parliamentary elections, forming a broad coalition,” Gagik Tsarukyan said.

“Our doors are open to all political forces and politicians concerned by the future of our country,” he said.

“We can and we have the potential develop and strengthen our country,” he stated.

Armenia has been included in the UN’s 2017 Honour Roll for having paid its regular budget assessment in full.

In January 2017 Armenia paid $151,338 as a regular assessment.

The roll includes the countries that have paid their regular budget assessments in full within the 30 day due period specified in Financial Regulation.

Nine out of 193 UN member states were in the Honour Roll as of January 10, 2017.

The NKR National Assembly voted 20 to 7 with one abstention today to approve the President’s proposal to put the draft Constitution of the Artsakh Republic on a referendum.

“All of us are interested in having a better Constitution,” National Assembly Speaker Ashot Ghulyan said addressing the lawmakers.

“We already have certain traditions in the sphere and this maturity should become visible, when adopting the Constitution in 2017,” he said.

President’s representative Ararat Danielyan presented the main changes to the draft Constitution. All in all, 184 proposals had been submitted by factions and MPs, of which 30 were adopted. Another 13 offers were adopted partially, while the other 154 proposals were turned down due to different reasons.

PHOTO: BLAINE ALAN GIBSON

The search for the Malaysian airliner that disappeared three years ago with 239 on board has been suspended, the BBC reports.

In a statement, Australia, Malaysia and China said the decision was taken with “sadness” after a fruitless search in more than 120,000 sq km (46,300 miles) of the Indian Ocean.

Families of the victims called it an “irresponsible” move that must be reconsidered.

Flight MH370 vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in 2014.

So far only seven of the 20 pieces of recovered debris have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the Boeing 777.

At the invitation of Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev, RA Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan will be off to the Russian Federation on January 24 for a two-day official visit.

During the visit, Karen Karapetian is scheduled to meet with RF Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow. The two heads of government will discuss the agenda of the Armenian-Russian cooperation.

The Prime Ministers of Armenia and Russia will also touch upon the joint efforts aimed at furthering integration in the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, which in turn will contribute to the strengthening and deepening of the multifaceted Armenian-Russian cooperation.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) Board of Directors Dutch team leader Frans Weekers.

Appreciating the ongoing effective cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which numbers several joint projects, the Prime Minister expressed readiness to deepen it on behalf of his government.

Highlighting the need to provide continued support for those projects intended for the private sector, the Prime Minister stated in part, “We are considering several projects during our visits to the regions of Armenia, which imply collaboration with the private sector and, as a tool, we would appreciate if the EBRD could take interest in cooperating in the proposed areas. The Government seeks to stimulate the business environment in different ways, and this process can change the business environment, since the ideas are being developed based on specific business logic.”

Given the vast experience accumulated by the EBRD in working with investors, the Premier suggested considering the possibility of cooperation in the frame of the Government Strategic Initiatives Center and the upcoming Investment Fund. Karen Karapetyan said the Government would appreciate if the Bank could contribute to the development of public-private partnership-related legislation and the establishment of the Office of Business Ombudsman.

Frans Weekers said Armenia and the EBRD boast long experience of successful cooperation that has led to numerous joint projects and initiatives. He welcomed the government’s steps aimed at improving the business environment and promoting private investment, as well as the short-term and long-term action plans.

Frans Weekers described as quite promising the idea of establishing a center for strategic initiatives and an investment fund and went on to note that the EBRD is ready to develop cooperation in the areas mentioned by the Prime Minister.

The parties took the opportunity to discuss issues related to the current strategy of GoA- EBRD partnership. In this context, they referred to the programs implemented in different fields of activity mediating both the public and private formats.

Russia will try to solve the issue connected with the detention of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin over his visit to Nagorno Karabakh, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference today, reports.

The authorities in Belarus detained Lapshin in Minsk on December 15, 2016 at the request of Azerbaijan.

Lavrov said “Russia stands against criminalization of the visits by journalists or other persons to this or that territory in different regions. He added that “Moscow disagrees with the extradition of Russians detained abroad to a third country.”

“We’ll take all measures to settle the situation with full respect for the rights of the citizen of the Russian Federation, who is also a citizen of Israel,” Lavrov said.

US astronaut Gene Cernan – the last man to walk on the Moon – has died aged 82, the BBC reports.

America’s space agency Nasa said it was “saddened by the loss” of the retired spaceman.

Captain Cernan was one of only three people to go to the Moon twice and the last man to leave a footprint on the lunar surface in 1972.

The final words he spoke there were: “We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return with peace and hope for all mankind.”

He was the commander of the Apollo 17 mission at the time.

Twelve people have walked on the Moon, and only six of them are still alive today.