Category: News

Less than six months after knee surgery Canberra walker Matt Griggs (ACT) claimed the Australian 50km Road Walk Championship at Fawkner Park on Sunday.

As most of the elite walkers were on a break following their Olympic campaigns Griggs was the only man in the field, making his solo time of 4:36:14 even more impressive.

The 38-year-old has been based in Armenia and upon his most recent trip back home in June he made a bold plan to get fit enough to line up for the longest race in track and field.

In early July he clocked a time of 12min 43sec for a 2km road walk but pushed on from there to eventually lose 15kg, which saw him line up on the weekend tipping the scales at just 80 kilograms.

“Six months ago I’d actually just had knee surgery living in Armenia, weighed about 95 kilos and I came back to Australia after my wife got a visa and started training in June,” Griggs told AthsVicTV after the race.

“I wanted to walk 50 kilometres, and I set myself that goal and just wanted to come here and race – obviously I had no idea I’d be doing it by myself.

“Lucky for me, good timing all the Olympic guys were having a rest, and I’m here.

“You know 50K, respect to the distance it’s a bloody long way, anyone that’s done it props to you – after 30K I didn’t look at the time, I just tried to keep going.”

Griggs was a top junior walker in the late ‘90s, taking bronze in the 1996 Australian U18 8km walk and silver in the 1997 Australian U20 20km, before leaving the sport and later living for a period overseas in Armenia.

Kanye West visited Donald Trump on Tuesday to, according to Trump, talk about “life,” Channel 24 reports.

West stood silently next to the president-elect for photos in the lobby of Trump Tower after their meeting.

When asked why he wasn’t speaking, West simply said, “I just want to take a picture right now.”

Trump said he and West were “just friends” and called the musician a “good man.” He said they discussed “life.”

The two did not answer questions about whether West would perform at the Inauguration.

West was not accompanied by wife Kim Kardashian West.

Last month during a concert in San Jose, California, West said he didn’t vote, but if he had, he would have cast a ballot for Trump. He also praised the president-elect’s “method of communication” as “very futuristic” and spoke about his plans to run for that office in 2020, saying that he will become “a different kind of president.”

Trump also was shown in a video for West’s single Famous, released last year. It also featured Rihanna, former President George W. Bush, Anna Wintour and Bill Cosby.

RAPSI – The Moscow City Court has refused to lift seizure of property belonging to prominent Armenian businessman Levon Hayrapetyan, who was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement of $700,000, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday.

The court has dismissed an appeal filed by Hayrapetyan’s lawyer. Hayrapetyan’s apartment and bank accounts, estimating $300,000-400,000 are to stay under arrest.

In April, Hayrapetyan was found guilty of stealing $700,000 from the mother of former Bashkortostan senator Igor Izmestyev sentenced to life for terrorism. In addition to the prison sentence Hayrapetyan was ordered to pay the victim 20.8 million rubles (about $320,000).

According to investigators, the businessman has misled the woman by promising a reduced sentence for her son. In practice, he could not influence the judgment.

The businessman has pleaded not guilty. According to his lawyer, the case has been framed up.

Hayrapetyan also stands charged with involvement in an embezzlement case under which Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov, sold Bashneft, a midsized oil company he headed for three years, to the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema in 2009 at a huge “discount” of $500 million.

In early October 2014, Hayrapetyan was placed under house arrest. His defense attorney asked the court to release him, citing health problems.

The Russian State Duma has ratified an agreement between Armenia and Russia on the creation of a Regional Air Defense System in the Caucasian region. The document was submitted for consideration by Russian President Vladimir Putin, TASS reports.

Russia and Armenia signed the agreement in Moscow on December 23, 2015. The document stipulates “the establishment of a regional Unified Air Defense System as part of the of CIS Unified Anti-Air Defense System.”

The main task of the system is to “set up and maintain air defense combat duty in the Caucasus region, keep the battle management system, the weaponry and the military hardware of the Unified Air Defense System on alert, cooperate with the forces of other regional air defense systems,” an explanatory note says.

In peacetime, the member states’ defense ministries are supposed to draw up plans for the combined use of the troops, their joint air defense combat duties, as well as operational and combat training.

Armenia’s Parliament ratified the agreement at the end of June.

The Azerbaijani side kept violating the ceasefire in the southern /Hadrut/, eastern /Martuni-Akna/ and northeastern /Martakert/ directions of the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used firearms of different calibers, also as a 60 mm mine thrower in the Martakert direction.

Committed to the strategy chosen, the front divisions of the NKR Defense Army mostly refrained from responding to Azerbaijan’s provocative steps and resorted to retaliatory measures only in case of extreme necessity.

The Artsakh forces keep performing their military duty all along the line of contact, the Ministry said.

The fifth round of the negotiations on the EU- Armenia new framework agreement on trade and investment launched in Brussels on December 13, the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investments informs.

The Armenian delegation is headed by Garegin Melkonyan, the First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments.

The following directions are on the agenda of the fifth round of negotiations: “Trade”, Dispute settlement”, “Transparency”, “Technical barriers to trade,” “Sanitary and phytosanitary measures”, “Custom matters (including a protocol on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters)”, “Protection of intellectual property rights” , “Trade in services” and “Investments.”

Photo: Getty Images

 

A expert committee has established a new world record wave height of 19 meters (62.3 feet) measured by a buoy in the North Atlantic.

The wave was recorded by an automated buoy at 0600 UTC on 4 February 2013 in the North Atlantic ocean between Iceland and the United Kingdom. It followed the passage of a very strong cold front, which produced winds of up to 43.8 knots (50.4 miles per hour) over the area.

The previous record of 18.275 meters  was measured on 8 December 2007, also in the North Atlantic.

The WMO Commission for Climatology’s Extremes Evaluation Committee classified it as “the highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy”. The Committee consisted of scientists from Great Britain, Canada, the United States of America and Spain.

“This is the first time we have ever measured a wave of 19 meters. It is a remarkable record,” said WMO Assistant Secretary-General Wenjian Zhang. “It highlights the importance of meteorological and ocean observations and forecasts to ensure the safety of the global maritime industry and to protect the lives of crew and passengers on busy shipping lanes,” he said.

Photo: AFP

 

Military action has ended in eastern Aleppo, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, has said, the BBC reports.

He said Syrian government troops had re-established control over the last areas of the city held by rebels.

He said an arrangement had been made for rebel fighters to leave.

“According to the latest information that we received in the last hour, military actions in eastern Aleppo are over,” Mr Churkin told an emergency session of the UN Security Council.

Earlier he had spoken of the deal allowing the rebels to leave, saying it would take place within hours.

“The civilians, they can stay, they can go to safe places, they can take advantage of the humanitarian arrangements that are on the ground. Nobody is going to harm the civilians,” Mr Churkin said.

Rebel groups suggested that civilians would be included in the exodus.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Stéphane Visconti.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.

Edward Nalbandian noted that the “the unequivocal implementation of the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits is imperative for furthering the negotiation process.”

The parties attached importance to the statement of the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries issued in Hamburg.

Photo: AP Photo/ Petros Giannakouris

Greek Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General for International Economic Relations Giorgos Tsipras held a meeting in Moscow with the delegation of the Eurasian Economic Commission and discussed the prospects of further cooperation between Athens and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Greek Foreign Ministry said, Sputnik reports.

According to the ministry, the sides discussed the development of trade and economic relations between Greece and all EAEU member states and the upcoming visit of Tigran Sargsyan, the chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission to Athens.

“The sides put an emphasis on the conference scheduled to take place in Thessaloniki on December 15 and organized by the Hellenic-Russian Chamber of Commerce, during which the Eurasian Economic Commission members will present tasks and goals of the EEU, as well as business opportunities and prospects for Greece and the EEU members,” the ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the statement, Tsipras also held a meeting with Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexander Tsybulskiy. The sides discussed some issues of the bilateral economic relations.