Category: News

Italy’s Olympic Committee has officially withdrawn its bid to stage the 2024 Games in Rome after the city council voted to oppose the candidacy, the BBC reports.

Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi, from the populist Five Star party, had said the city had to prioritise matters such as rubbish collection and corruption.

It means only Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest are left in the running after Boston and Hamburg also abandoned bids.

The International Olympic Committee is due to make a decision next September.

Committee chief Giovanni Malago said the decision meant Italy had been “made to look like fools” and would miss out on investment.

US reality TV star Kim Kardashian West is suing a celebrity gossip website for claiming that she faked being the victim of a robbery in Paris last week, the BBC reports.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for defamation and names both the site, MediaTakeout, and its founder, Fred Mwangaguhunga.

The star was tied up by gun-wielding robbers who broke into a Paris flat earlier this month, police say.

They made off with jewellery worth about $10m.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York said that after being “the victim of a horrific and traumatic armed robbery in France, Kim Kardashian returned to the US only to again be victimised, but this time by an online gossip tabloid that published a series of articles in early October 2016 referring to her a as liar and thief”.

The articles, it said, “claimed, without any factual support whatsoever, that Kardashian faked the robbery, lied about the violent assault, and then filed a fraudulent claim with her insurance company to bilk her carrier out of millions of dollars”.

Mr Mwangaguhunga refused to publish a retraction and an apology “for calling her a liar and a criminal”, the lawsuit added.

MediaTakeout has so far not commented.

A last-minute header by Robert Lewandowski  sent Pland to a 2-1 win over ten-men Armenia in a 2018 World Cup qualifier held at Warsaw’s National Stadium.

Armenia’s Gael Andonian was dismissed after earning a second yellow card on the 30th minute.

An own goal by Hrayr Mkoyan sent Poland to 1-o on the 48th minute.

Marcos Pizzelli scored the equalizer on the 50th minute with a left-footed shot to the centre of the goal.

Robert Lewandowski headed from very close range to the top left corner after an assist by Jakub Blaszczykowski in the injury time.

An exceptional exhibition on The Art of the Armenian Book through the Ages opened at the National Library of the Czech Republic today under a cooperation program between the Ministries of Culture of the two countries.

The event is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence and the 350th anniversary of publishing of the first Armenian Bible in Amsterdam.

The 75 items on display include unique examples of ancient Armenian books, Armenian translations of works of modern Czech literature,  Czech translations of works by Armenian authors.

The exhibition will continue through October 25.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland during the PACE autumn session on October 10 stressed the need for the Council of Europe to have access to Nagorno Karabakh.

“We share the view of Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland that the organization should fulfill its mandate also in Nagorno-Karabakh, and politicization of the issue of access to Nagorno Karabakh is inacceptable,” Ani Sargsyan, Spokesperson for the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in comments to News.am.

“The goal of the Council of Europe is to promote the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout the European continent, and the unresolved Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict should not serve as an excuse for ignoring the rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” she added.

“By impeding the visit of representatives of the Council of Europe to Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijan demonstrates, first of all, its disregard for the goals and principles, which lie at the core of this organization,” the Spokesperson stressed.

“Armenia stands out with the level of liberalization of business environment,” Vache Gabrielyan, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of International Economic Integration and Reforms said, addressing the Armenia: Investment Forum in New York. He reminded that Armenia is ranked 35^th among 189 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report.

The Deputy Prime Minister referred to Armenia’s geographical location and its peculiarities, the system of governance, the entry visas and accessibility of transport, communication and energy infrastructures.

Vache Gabrielyan stressed the benefits and perspectives opened up by Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, the GSP+ and GSP trade regimes with the European Union and the United States, also as due to cooperation with Georgia and Iran.

Vache Gabrielyan noted that Armenia is amending its tax and customs systems to ensure further improvement of the business environment.

He noted that the Tax Code recently adopted by the National Assembly envisages privileges for investors and entrepreneurs.

Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), member of the Armenain delegation Naira Karapetyan raised the issue of Mihran Harutyunyan’s deprivation of a gold medal at the Olympic Games. The full text of the speech is provided below:

“The report relates to an issue, which at first sight seems not so far important, but it is, and it unites societies, nations, and people. Indeed, Sport is universally seen as the most popular activity in the world. And it supposed to be free and far from politics, from injustice, from inequality, from any form of unbalancing. Sport supposed to be clear and strict. For every sportsman the greatest and most desirable is the winning of the highest competition – The World Olympic Games.

This year was the year that we have had Rio Games, and many of our member states got honour of having Olympic Champions. My country has gold medal as well, so ones more I want to congratulate from here the Olympic Champion of Greco-Roman Wrestling Armenian Arthur Alexanyan.

But unfortunately, even in sports we see a number of injustice cases; we see referees that sometimes judge not by conscience and rules but quite opposite, trying to serve some good turn to some powerful persons. During this Rio Games another Armenian Sportsman, Greco-Roman Wrestler Mihran Harutyunyan was deprived of gold and got silver medal only because of injustice and misjudging. It’s not mandatory to be an expert to see that it is true; all the people who were present were surprised; they were just whistling to the so-called winner and applauding only to the Armenian guy, to Mihran. And this vivid example is not the single one. In boxing we met the same – Narek Abgaryan and Hovhannes Bachkov are also victims of misjudgments.

Dear Colleagues, I call on the Parliamentary Assembly not to turn a blind eye and take proper steps and call on the various international sports federations, the Greco-Roman Federation and the United World Wrestling to pursue this kind of issues. Every single injustice in sports overshadows not only Olympics, but the aim and nature of sports, the faith and willingness to go ahead.

After all, as the father of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, once said: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” Let me add to this quotation, that if there is a loss of hope, examples of injustice, unfair judgment, one cannot have enough strength of will to take part and go ahead with deep faith in sports.

So, Dear Colleagues, let’s return the faith and strengthen it together.”

ArmHiTec-2016 first international exhibition of Arms and Defense Technologies will take place in Armenia from October 13 to 15.

The exhibition aims to present the advanced weapons and military technologies, the latest military-technical innovations of Armenia and other countries.

The exposition will feature advanced weapons and military technical equipment, security systems, special police equipment. Its main sections: armored vehicles, missile armament and equipment, military aircraft, small arms and ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles and systems, communications, automated command and control systems and robotic systems, means of protection and personal protective equipment, laser, information and telecommunication technologies, information protection systems, outfit, equipage medical support plus some more.

A number of events, conferences, sittings and round-table discussions are planned to be held within the framework of the exhibition.

On October 14 the Armenian Foreign Ministry will host a joint sitting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, Council of Defense Ministers and Council of National Security Secretaries, Press Service of the Armenian ministry of Foreign Affairs informs.

The meeting will take place ahead of the sitting of the CSTO Collective Security Council.

A number of documents are expected to be signed at the conclusion of the sitting.

Photo: Getty Images

 

China and the West were in contact more than 1,500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, new finds suggest, the reports.

Archaeologists say inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors, found at the Tomb of the First Emperor near today’s Xian, may have come from Ancient Greece.

They also say ancient Greek artisans could have been training locals there in the Third Century BC.

Polo’s 13th Century travel to China had been thought the first by a European.

“We now have evidence that close contact existed between the First Emperor’s China and the West before the formal opening of the Silk Road. This is far earlier than we formerly thought,” said Senior Archaeologist Li Xiuzhen, from the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum.

A separate study shows European-specific mitochondrial DNA has been found at sites in China’s westernmost Xinjiang Province, suggesting that Westerners may have settled, lived and died there before and during the time of the First Emperor.