Category: News

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Kanye West has said he is $53m in debt, and called on Facebook founder  to “invest $1bn into Kanye West ideas … after realizing he is the greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time,” The Independent reports.

He continued with a bizarre series of Tweets through Sunday night and Monday morning: “Mark Zuckerberg I know it’s your bday but can you please call me by 2mrw … You love hip hop, you love my art… I am your favorite artist but you watch me barely breathe and still play my album in your house … World, please tweet, FaceTime, Facebook, instagram, whatever you gotta do to get Mark to support me … I’m this generation’s Disney …  I don’t have enough resources to create what I really can.”

He insisted that “one of the coolest things” Zuckerberg could do would be “to help me in my hour of need.”

Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov/ITAR-TASS

The first case of Zika virus has been registered on the territory of Russia, the consumer watchdog’s press service said on Monday, TASS reports.

“The person with the virus is currently at an infectious diseases hospital, her condition is satisfactory. Medical observation of family members was established, no clinical manifestations of the virus were registered among them, and they tested negative for the Zika virus,” the press service said.

The person infected with the virus previously went on vacation to the Dominican Republic.

The watchdog noted that all necessary measures were taken in regard to the passenger plane on which the infected Russian citizen flew home, and there is no threat to the health of other passengers.

Two hospitals have been hit in new air strikes in northern Syria, medics and witnesses say, causing a number of deaths and injuries, the BBC reports.

In Azaz on the Turkish border, at least 10 people reportedly died, including several in one hospital building.

Medecins Sans Frontieres said eight staff members were missing after another attack in Maarat al-Numan.

The strikes come days after Russia and other world powers agreed to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria.

It was unclear who carried out the latest attacks. MSF did not identify who was responsible for the Maarat al-Numan strikes.

Forward Yura Movsisyan tallied the day’s only goal in Real Salt Lake’s 1-0 win over their South Korean opponents, who finished fifth in the most recent K-League season, according to MLS soccer.

Movsisyan, a recently signed Designated Player, converted a slip pass from Juan Manuel Martinez after a clever dummy from Joao Plata.

RSL, who played in a 4-3-3, are now 2-2-0 in their four preseason matches. Each game has ended 1-0.

Horizon Weekly – Armenian Genocide survivor Knar Bohjelian turned 107 this past weekend.

Knar Bohjelian-Yeminidjian was born in 1909 in Kayseri. When the armenian massacres and the assault on Kayseri began, she and her family sought refuge in a barn for a few months. Her family was then deported, but not too far from their home, the reason being that her father was a soldier in the Turkish military. Growing up, Bohjelian recalls how her mother tied a scarf to her brother’s head so that he would pass for a girl, given that all the men were being rounded up and killed.

Following a governmental decree and with their grandmother’s backing, Bohjelian’s family was forced to Turkify themselves in order to survive. Subsequently, Bohjelian and her entire family bore Turkish names. Once a cease-fire was announced, her parents decided to flee the region. In 1928, they travelled to Ankara, then Constantinople. After staying for 11 months, they made their way to Greece by boat and two days later, arrived in Alexandria, Egypt. She was 19 years old by then.

Bohjelian claims that the only reason they survived the Armenian genocide is because they took up Turkish identities. She remains grateful towards her grandmother who (surely reluctantly) encouraged the Bohjelian family to take on Turkish identities. Bohjelian got married and lived in Egypt for over 40 years before moving to Montreal in 1971 with her family.

She survived the genocide against all odds. Bohjelian has two children, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

Kamishli-born Syrian Armenian Viken Vosgerichian (b. 1983), was among those killed in Aleppo during a missile attack on Feb. 13, the reports, quoting Aleppo-based Kantsasar.

According to the report, the attack came from militant opposition groups. Perio News, another Aleppo-based news outlet, reported that the attack targeted the mostly-Christian populated districts of Suleymanieh, Nor Kyugh, and others.

Several other individuals sustained injuries and were transported to nearby hospitals, while many buildings—including homes and stores—as well as several vehicles suffered extensive damages or were destroyed in the missile attack, according to Perio News.

The attack comes less than two weeks after Aleppo’s Armenian-populated Nor Kyugh district was attacked by missiles on Feb. 3, according to a report by Perio News. One of the missiles in the Feb. 3 attack hit an area between the St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic Church and the Sahagian Armenian School of Aleppo, while another landed near an Armenian nursing home. According to the Perio News report, while some people sustained injuries, there were no casualties in that attack.

Just over two weeks before that attack, on the morning of Jan. 17, the Armenian Evangelical Emmanuel Church in Aleppo’s Munshieh district was severely damaged after militant groups launched a missile attack on several Aleppo neighborhoods, including Munshieh, Azizieh, and Saad Jabri. According to Kantsasar, the church was hit a few hours after Sunday Mass.

Every year the stage design is one of the most anticipated elements of the Eurovision Song Contest alongside the theme artwork and of course the songs. Swedish broadcaster SVT has revealed the stage design for 2016 which is described as powerful and brave. The set has been designed by Frida Arvidsson and Viktor Brattström who also produced the stage for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, according to .

The set designers have used light as a strong component to create depth. “We want to do something that makes people wonder if it’s even possible”, says Viktor Brattström. Plans also include an innovative LED wall which allows the artists to move inside it. “Normally an LED wall is a flat background wall at the very end of the stage. We have broken up the wall and made it possible for people to move inside it” he added.

“We focused on a softer expression with no pixels and projections”, says Frida Arvidsson. “We are trying to play with the room and create optical illusions”, she added.

Producer, Sven Stojanovic, is very impressed with the design plans; “It’s really a great looking stage, giving us something that we haven’t seen before. In a way the stage gives us almost unlimited possibilities but at the same time forcing us to think in a new way. Creatively it’s both challenging and inspiring”.

Photograph provided by Bill and Jadwiga Smith

Hundreds of letters and photographs that tell the story of Pope John Paul II’s close relationship with a married woman, which lasted more than 30 years, have been shown to the .

The letters to Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka had been kept away from public view in the National Library of Poland for years.

The documents reveal a rarely seen side of the pontiff, who died in 2005.

There is no suggestion the Pope broke his vow of celibacy.

The friendship began in 1973 when Ms Tymieniecka contacted the future Pope, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Krakow, about a book on philosophy that he had written.

The then 50-year-old travelled from the US to Poland to discuss the work.

Shortly afterwards, the pair began to correspond. At first the cardinal’s letters were formal, but as their friendship grew, they become more intimate.

The pair decided to work on an expanded version of the cardinal’s book, The Acting Person. They met many times – sometimes with his secretary present, sometimes alone – and corresponded frequently.