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:
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received today Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Republic of Armenia Richard Mills. The Premier described as quite effective the dynamically developing U.S.-Armenia relations and noted that Armenia is keen to build up strong ties of partnership with the United States, including in the fields of trade and investment.
Thankful for the reform-targeted multifaceted assistance provided by the Government of the United States ever since Armenia’s independence, the Prime Minister expressed his sincere appreciation of the assistance received under USAID-supported programs. Noting that relations between the two countries cover a variety of areas, Karen Karapetyan assured of his government’s readiness to take steps in a bid to tap the existing potential and expand cooperation.
On behalf of the U.S. Government, Richard Mills congratulated Karen Karapetyan on assuming the office of Prime Minister and wished him fruitful work. The Ambassador voiced confidence that the cooperation with Karen Karapetyan’s government may contribute to the reinforcement and deepening of bilateral ties. The parties took the opportunity to exchange views on the pace and prospects of bilateral cooperation.
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.
Maria Sharapova’s two-year doping ban has been reduced to 15 months following her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), the BBC reports.
The five-time Grand Slam winner, 29, was initially banned by the International Tennis Federation for two years after testing positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.
The Russian will be able to return to the tennis court on 26 April, 2017.
“I am counting the days until I can return,” she said on Tuesday.
The first plane carrying humanitarian aid from Armenia to Syria has landed at Hmeinim airbase, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted in the transportation.
Armenia’s Consul General was at the site to receive the humanitarian aid.
According to a decree signed by President Serzh Sargsyan, Yuri Khachaturov has been relieved of the duties of the Chief of Staff of RA Armed Forces.
According to another presidential decree, Yuri Khachaturov has been appointed Secretary of the National Security Council.
According to a decree signed by President Serzh Sargsyan Armen Gevorgyan has been relieved of the duties of the Secretary of the National Security Council.
According to another presidential decree, Armen Gevorgyan has been appointed the Head of Staff of the President’s Office.
According to a decree signed by President Serzh Sargsyan Edward Nalbandian has been reappointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.
Photo: AFP
Six German lawmakers will visit a key airbase in Turkey Wednesday, a Turkish official told AFP, as the NATO allies seek to move on from a bitter diplomatic row, AFP reports.
The German parliament in June joined more than 20 countries in recognizing the Ottoman Empire’s World War I-era massacre of Armenians as a genocide, prompting fury from Ankara.
Turkey promptly banned German lawmakers from visiting the Incirlik base in southern Turkey, where Germany has around 240 troops as part of the international coalition fighting ISIS across the border in Syria.
A furious President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also accused German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted in favor of the resolution of having “tainted blood”.
Ankara gave the green light last month for the visit to go ahead only after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government clarified publicly that the Armenia resolution was “not legally binding”.
“Six German MPs will visit Incirlik air base Wednesday,” the official said Monday on condition of anonymity.