Category: News

The 2nd plane cartrying humanitarian aid for  people in war-torn Syria took off from Armenia today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

Vardan Makarian, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and Ivan Volynkin, Russian Ambassador to Armenia,  were at the airport to see off the plane.

The Russian Defense Ministry helps deliver the humanitarian aid to Syria. The first military transport aircraft Il-76 of the Russian Defense Ministry delivered to the Hmeymim airbase about 40 tons of canned foods, vegetables, baked goods, flour, sugar.

Armenia’s Civil Court of Appeal has rejected a motion by the country’s prosecutors against the release of Russian national Sergei Mironov, sought by US authorities on suspicion of money laundering and illegal technology transfer, Sputnik News reports, quoting a source in the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office.

Mironov, 30, was detained in Yerevan airport on August 26, but was released on August 29 on a ruling by a Yerevan district court and returned to Russia on August 31.

The Armenian prosecutors appealed the court’s decision in the country’s top appellate court. Mironov’s defense  earlier insisted that Mironov, employed at the Moscow office of the Synesis intelligent video surveillance developer, had no access to military technology and had visited the United States only once in 2013.

More than 40 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 4,000 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions. More intensive firing was reported in the northern direction of the lien of contact, where more than 500 shots were fired from The DShK large-caliber machine gun.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army resorted to response actions to pressure the activeness of the rival, retaining full control over the situation at the frontline.

Photo: Reuters

 

Portugal’s former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is poised to become the next UN secretary general, UN diplomats say, the BBC reports.

Mr Guterres, 66, was the “clear favourite”, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin announced on Wednesday.

A formal vote will take place in the UN Security Council on Thursday to confirm the choice of nominee.

Mr Guterres, who led the UN refugee agency for 10 years, will take over from Ban Ki-moon early next year.

The 15-member Security Council cast secret ballots for each of the 10 candidates on Wednesday and none were found to oppose Mr Guterres.

They were asked to select from a choice of encourage, discourage or no opinion for each candidate, with the former Portuguese prime minister receiving 13 encourage votes and two no opinion votes.

On 5 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory address in connection with the Day of Teachers.

The address runs as follows:

“Dear teachers,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and personally myself I extend my cordial congratulations on your professional holiday, a day that our people traditionally celebrate with a deep feeling of respect and gratitude.

Gratitude for the significant and difficult work that you fulfill educating and bringing up our children, insinuating in them love and respect towards knowledge, helping them make the first steps in life and become honest individuals and citizens, thereby carrying out a patriotic mission of carving the future of our state and people.

Each of us has a favorite teacher and keeps the memories related to him and school years bright during the whole life. These memories warm our souls and leave their unique trace on our further activity.

Highlighting the special role of teachers in our people’s life the state always rates their work high and keeps issues existing in the sphere of education and science in the spotlight, does everything possible to raise a patriotic, educated and progressive generation.

Dear friends,

I once again congratulate all of you on the Day of Teachers and wish peace, robust health, happiness and all the best”.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia Ivan Volinkin.

Noting that the Armenian-Russian friendly relations of allied partnership have a solid foundation, the Prime Minister stressed that interaction is developing steadily in all directions. Emphasizing that Russia is Armenia’s main economic partner, Karen Karapetyan stressed the importance of further development and expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

The Premier assured of his government’s readiness to take all necessary steps in this direction, adding that there is great potential to implement new investment projects and increase trade turnover.

Ivan Volinkin congratulated Karen Karapetyan on his appointment as Prime Minister and wished him new achievements. Convinced in the success of the new government, the Ambassador assured of his willingness to support the implementation of joint initiatives.

During the meeting, Karen Karapetyan and Ivan Volinkin discussed a wide range of issues related to bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

The Russian embassy in Damascus has been shelled from the areas controlled by al-Nusra Front and Faylaq al-Rahman militants, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, Sputnik News reports.

“The Russian diplomatic mission came under mortar shelling on October 3. One of the mines exploded on the embassy area near its residential department. Fortunately, no one was wounded. The diplomatic mission sustained material damage. Another two mines went off next to the embassy.”

Photo: Reuters

 

Amnesty International has accused the world’s wealthiest nations of shirking responsibility towards refugees, saying they host the fewest and do the least, the BBC reports.

Ten countries which account for just 2.5% of the global GDP are sheltering more than half the world’s 21 million refugees, says a report by the charity.

Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general, called for wealthier nations to take in many more people.

Mr Shetty called the UK a “sad example” of the failure to take responsibility.

The UK has accepted about 8,000 Syrian refugees since 2011, according to the UN. The US has taken just 12,000.

And according to recent UN refugee agency data, no Syrian refugees have been resettled by China, Russia or any Gulf states.

By comparison, Jordan, which has a GDP just 1.2% the size of the UK’s, hosts nearly 655,000 Syrian refugees.

With more than 2.7 million refugees in total, Jordan is sheltering more than any other nation. Turkey has taken in more than 2.5 million people; Pakistan 1.6 million; Lebanon more than 1.5 million.

The other nations with the largest refugee populations are:

• Iran (979,400)
• Ethiopia (736,100)
• Kenya (553,900)
• Uganda (477,200)
• Democratic Republic of Congo (383,100)
• Chad (369,500)

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for discoveries about strange forms of matter, the BBC reports.

Three Britons, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, will share the 8m kronor prize.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden, and join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.

The Nobel Committee said this year’s laureates had “opened the door on an unknown world”.

In this mysterious realm, matter can exist in strange states.

Their discoveries had helped scientists designing new materials.

Prof Haldane commented: “I was very surprised and very gratified.”

He said the work had been carried out a long time ago, but that its applications were only now starting to be seen.