Category: News

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Twenty two people have been confirmed dead after a group of residential buildings collapsed in eastern China, the BBC reports.

The incident on Monday saw four buildings in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province reduced to rubble, reported the Xinhua news agency.

The buildings were reportedly built by villagers in the 1970s and were in a poor condition.

Most victims were migrant workers who had been renting cheap rooms.

“They lost their lives to take advantage of cheap rent. It is horrible,” Guo Lin, a witness told news outlet China News Service.

Six people have been pulled out of the rubble alive.

Tumi, a village in Artsakh’s Hadrut Region, is the site of the latest multifunctional community center to be built by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. The project is sponsored by the fund’s French affiliate, with additional support from the government of Artsakh.

Within the last three years, along with other infrastructures, a dozen of similar community centers have been built in Artsakh with the financial assistance of French-Armenians. Ara Vardanyan, the executive director of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, said that ongoing French-Armenian support for the construction of such centers is a testament to the immense improvements they have brought to the daily lives of communities across Artsakh.

The future two-storey community center of Tumi will house key civic and cultural facilities including the mayor’s office, a medical clinic, a library, a game room, a computer room, and a 150-seat hall designed for a broad range of arts events and gatherings.

Commenting on the benefits that the community center will bring, Tumi mayor Edik Mosiyan said, “Given our community’s considerable distance from Hadrut City, the closest metropolitan area, our existing medical clinic must often provide the services of a maternity ward as well, which is why it’s doubly important to have a truly modern clinic. As for community events, we sorely lack a proper space, because our former club is now so run-down that it’s no longer usable.”

Previous Hayastan All-Armenian Fund development projects implemented in Tumi, which has a population of 768, include the reconstruction of the community’s water network, and the furnishing of its school and kindergarten.

Tumi is located 31 kilometers from Hadrut City, the regional center. The community is home to a number of historic and cultural monuments, and the remains of various other antiquities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Armenia on October 14 to participate in the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Kremlin confirms.

The participants are expected to discuss the situation in the CSTO area and the further improvement of the collective security system in the organization.

In line with the decisions adopted at the CSTO summit in Moscow in December 2015, special attention will be paid to the measures of fighting international terrorism.

During the CSTO session Armenia will convey the presidency of the organization to Belarus.

By Shanifa Nasser

Less than one year ago, Mher Minassian was in charge of an Armenian cemetery in Syria.

“I saw very bad things… I buried very young people, I buried innocent people.”

It’s a far cry from where he was on Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto.

Minassian was one of nearly 200 Syrian refugees who gathered for their first-ever Thanksgiving in a Toronto-area Armenian church on Sunday. While he had never celebrated the holiday before, for him and many others, starting a new life in Canada was at the top of the list of things to be grateful for.

The Thanksgiving lunch, held at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Scarborough, was hosted by Armenian Family Support Services, a non-profit organization that has sponsored nearly 300 Armenian-Syrian refugees since November 2015.

“We are thankful first that we are alive because we escaped from the war and second, thanks to the Canadian government. They brought us here,” Minassian told CBC News on Sunday.

It’s a sentiment many there repeated as they celebrated.

‘No war, no bombs’

Zovij Bartiajian has been in Canada for one year and two months.

“I’m so happy to come here because I live in peace. No war, no bombs… A lot of water, a lot of electricity,” Bartiajian said, celebrating her second Thanksgiving.

But while she says she has plenty to be thankful for, her family members back at home in Syria remain at the top of mind.

“Only my body is here. My heart and my brain are back home because our family is still there… They want to come here but it’s so difficult.”

Rita Odjaghian, chair of Armenian Family Support Services, said while the group holds a sponsorship privilege, its work goes far beyond that.

“We got into bringing the refugees but it doesn’t end there. What we do, we try to help them integrate in the society,” adding that the group helps refugees find employment, English classes and even teaches them to identify mental health challenges.

Many of the refugees at the Thanksgiving event have family members back home, Odjaghian said, making events like Sunday’s that much more important to hem.

“There is such a huge isolation in them so they feel being embraced by a larger family.”

The value of that isn’t lost on Bartiajian.

“Thanks for everything,” she said. “Thanks for the peace.”

Ten soldiers and eight civilians were killed on Oct. 9 in an Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) suicide bomb attack targeting a military road checkpoint in the Şemdinli district of the eastern province of Hakkari, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has announced, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Speaking ahead of a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) consultation meeting in Istanbul, Yildirim said 10 soldiers and eight civilians were killed in the suicide attack when a PKK bomber blew himself up inside a bomb-laden pickup that drove into the Durak gendarmerie road checkpoint in the district.

Yildirim said five tons of explosives were used in the attack, which created a six-meter deep hole at the scene and damaged buildings nearby.

Two of the killed soldiers were identified as Pvt. Eyüp Hacıoğlu and Gendarmerie Specialized Sgt. Hasan Aydoğdu.

In addition, the Hakkari Governor’s Office also stated that 27 people, including 11 soldiers, were wounded in the attack and were transferred to hospitals with a military helicopter.

The Armenian national team has left for Poland, the Football Federation of Armenia informs.

The team will face Poland in a World Cup Qualifier. Twenty-two players have been called up for the match that will take place at Warsaw’s National Stadium at 22:45 Yerevan time.

Goalkeepers

Arsen Beglaryan FC Alashkert

Anatoly Ayvazov FC Shirak

Gor Manukyan FC Pyunik

Defenders

Gael Andonian Olimpique Marseille, (France)

Varazdat Haroyan Padideh FC (Iran)

Taron Voskanyan Karmiotissa FC (Cyprus)

Levon Airapetian Paykan F.C. (Iran)

Hrayr Mkoyan FC Esteghlal (Iran)

Gevorg Hovhannisyan FC Shirak

Andranik Voskanyan FC Alashkert

Artur Kartashyan FC Pyunik

Midfielders

Marcos Pizzelli Al-Fujeirah  (UAE)

Aras Ozbiliz, Besiktas J.K. (Turkey)

David Manoyan Karmiotissa FC (Cyprus)

Artak Grigoryan FC Alashkert

Karen Muradyan FC Alashkert

David Hakobyan FC Shirak

Zaven Badoyan FC Banants

Kamo Hovhannisyan FC Pyunik

Forwards

Ruslan Koryan FC SKA-Khabarovsk

Gegham Kadimyan Karpaty (Ukraine)

Vardan Poghosyan FC Pyunik

President Serzh Sargsyan has left for the United States for a working visit. On October 10 in New York he will participate at the Armenia Investment Forum, President’s Press Office reports.

The Forum will be attended by  representatives of dozens of leading companies from different areas, representatives of financial institutions and over one hundred international investors.

In the framework of the visit, the President of Armenia will also hold a number of bilateral meetings.

Photo: Sputnik/ David Khizanishvil

Three parties — the ruling Georgian Dream Party, the United National Movement and the Alliance of Patriots  — have made it into the Georgian parliament, the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Sunday, after counting 99.92 percent of ballots, Sputnik News reports.

On Saturday, parliamentary elections were held in Georgia. “According to data from 3699 (99.92 percent) of polling stations, the Georgian Dream secures 48.6 percent, or 856,858 votes. The United National Movement scores 27.14 percent, or 478,416 votes. Alliance of Patriots gets 5 percent, or 88,032 votes,” the CEC said in a statement.

In the morning of October 10, President Serzh Sargsyan met in New York with the members of the Board of Directors of the Armenian Assembly of America.

The parties discussed agenda items of pan-Armenian importance, priorities of the activities of the Armenian Assembly of America, dynamically developing Armenian-American relations and possibilities for their further strengthening and deepening. Views were also exchanged on the pressing international problems, challenges existing in the South Caucasus region, the current stage of the NK peace process and existing issues, as well as the refugee problems which emerged as a result of the ongoing military activities in Syria. In this context, the President of Armenia and members of the AAA Board of Directors discussed issues pertinent to the assistance provided through the joint efforts by the Republic of Armenia and various Armenian structures to our compatriots in Syria as well as to the friendly people of Syria, who are suffering as a result of military actions.

Serzh Sargsyan also responded to the questions raised by the participants of the meeting, presented the process and prospects of Armenia’s economic development, and expectations from the new government of Armenia.

In the framework of his working visit to the United States, in the evening President Sargsyan will participate at the Armenia Investment Forum.

About 50 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

The rival fired more than 430 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army remained committed to the ceasefire regime and resorted to response actions in case of extreme necessity.