Category: News

Pope Francis will hold a historic first meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russian Orthodox Church, in Cuba next week, the BBC reports.

The Russian Orthodox Church said the “persecution of Christians” would be the central theme of the meeting.

Pope Francis will stop over in Cuba on his way to Mexico.

It is the first meeting of its kind since a schism between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity emerged in the 11th Century.

The meeting is due to take place at Havana airport, where the two leaders will sign a joint declaration.

Patriarch Kirill is due in Cuba for an official visit at the same time as Pope Francis’ stopover in Havana.

In a joint statement, the two churches said the meeting would “mark an important stage in relations between the two churches”.

They invited ” all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits.”

Since becoming Pope in 2013, Pope Francis has called for better relations between the different branches of Christianity.

The has named Germany-based Armenian World Champions Arthur Abraham and Susi Kentikian as “Boxers of the Year.”

WBO Middleweight Champion Abraham was voted the best by readers of the magazine and the jury. WBA Flyweight Champion Kentikian received the most votes among the boxers.

Abraham’s coach Ulli Wegner has been named “Coach of the Year” for the 13^th time.

On 4 February Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received executive director of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund and deputy director Ararat Khlghatyan, NKR President’s Press Office reported.

Issues related to the course of programs being carried out in Artsakh by the fund were discussed during the meeting.

The President noted the significance of appropriate implementation of the planned activities with the maintenance of the set schedule.

World leaders will gather for a donor conference in London on Thursday in an attempt to raise $9bn for those affected by the war in Syria, the BBC reports.

Some 70 leaders are expected to attend the conference, the fourth of its kind, including UK PM David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

They are aiming to raise funds for education and jobs for Syrian refugees.

Hours before the conference was due to begin, peace talks between the Syrian regime and opposition broke down.

The United Nations-brokered talks, which opened just two days ago, are expected to resume on 25 February.

Turkey returned its ambassador to the Vatican on Thursday, nearly 10 months after withdrawing him in protest against Pope Francis’ description of the century-old massacres of Christian Armenians as genocide, Reuters reports. 

The pope sparked a row with Turkey when he said the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in World War One was “the first genocide of the 20th century”, just days before commemorations to mark the centennial of the massacres in April.

Muslim Turkey promptly recalled its envoy. In diplomatic terms, a 10-month absence for an ambassador is a very long time.

Tanju Bilgic, the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said the decision came after the Vatican on Wednesday praised Turkey’s willingness to open its archives to historians and create a joint commission of scholars to explore past events.

The Vatican comment was within a statement about the pope having received a book by an Italian author about a naval battle between Turkey and the Venetian Republic in 1657.

Francis is given many books at his general audiences on Wednesdays but the Vatican rarely issues statements about them, so praise for Turkey in the context of the book was a sign that the Holy See way trying to find a solution to the impasse, a diplomatic source said.

Turkey routinely withdraws its representatives in countries that decide to recognise the killing of Armenians as genocide.

An overwhelming majority of Turks reject the accusation of genocide. The issue continues to thwart efforts to re-open diplomatic ties with neighbouring Armenia, and their 300-km (190-mile) border has been closed for two decades.

Asbarez – Among the Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) foreign aid priorities being advanced by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is an appropriation of at least $5 million in aid to Nagorno Karabakh for humanitarian and developmental programs, including the urgently needed expansion and modernization of the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center, a regional clinic serving children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.

In addition to supporting the vital, life-saving work of the Center, the ANCA is encouraging House and Senate appropriators to support a broad range of other foreign aid priorities of special concern to Armenian Americans and other friends of Armenia, including:

— Zeroing-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until its leaders agree with the Royce-Engel peace proposals to withdraw snipers and heavy arms, add OSCE observers, and deploy gunfire locator systems.

— Allocating at least $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia, targeted to growing the U.S.-Armenia trade and investment relationship.

— Appropriating at least $10 million in emergency aid to help Armenia settle the nearly 20,000 thousand people who have fled to Armenia from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center

Today, among the most urgent humanitarian priorities in Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding region is the need to help rehabilitate children and adults with disabilities.

The Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center, first established in 1998 through a partnership of local health officials and then-Speaker of United Kingdom’s House of Lords, Baroness Caroline Cox, is respected internationally for its leadership in rehabilitation. The Center provides high-quality, specialized medical care each year to approximately 1,000 local and regional patients.  Among those receiving treatment include patients – from Karabakh, Armenia, Russia, and Georgia – with spinal cord injuries, elderly stroke victims, and infants and children born with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and spinal bifida. In the face of rapidly growing local and regional demands for rehabilitation services, the Center lacks the sufficient infrastructure and modern facilities to meet its pressing humanitarian mission.

Additional information regarding the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh Republic is available at:

Video (6-minutes) about the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center:

Website of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (which partially sponsors the Center):

The U.S. aid program to Nagorno Karabakh, first enacted in FY98, has dramatically improved maternity care for at-risk mothers and infants, provided clean drinking water for thousands of families, and, in partnership with the Halo Trust, cleared farmland and rural villages of deadly landmines and unexploded ordnance.  (Nagorno Karabakh has experienced one of the highest per capita rates of landmine accidents in the world, higher than even Afghanistan).

After drawing a blank in his last four appearances for Arsenal, Mesut Ozil has now been dethroned as Europe’s assist king, Goal.com reports.

Instead, it is now Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan who leads the way with the most assists of any player in Europe’s top five leagues, having collected 17 in all competitions this season.

Admittedly, the Armenian only has nine league assists compared to Ozil’s 16, but he has been prolific in Dortmund’s cup competitions while the German has yet to create a goal outside the Premier League this season.

Mkhitaryan has assisted six times in the Europa League (including qualifiers) and twice more in the DFB-Pokal, with his most recent assist coming in the 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.

After helping Barcelona run riot against Gary Neville’s Valencia, Neymar is now tied with Ozil on 16 assists, making him the most creative member of the fabled MSN attack.

Any further competition for the European assist crown is likely to come from Angel Di Maria, currently tied in  fourth place with 12 assists, with Kevin De Bruyne’s contribution likely to stall following his injury setback.

Meanwhile, Tottenham fans may be surprised to see a familiar name sneak into the top 10, with Roberto Soldado tied with Cristiano Ronaldo and Douglas Costa with 10 assists this season.

Photo: Ilya Pitalev/TASS

Moscow will not forgive Turkey’s aiding and abetting terrorists but will stay friendly towards the Turkish people, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Italy’s Limes magazine, TASS reports.

“We will not forgive this aiding and abetting terrorists,” he said. “But we have never put an equal mark between some of the current ruling establishment that bear direct responsibility for the death of our servicemens in Syria, and our old and reliable friends among the Turkish people.”

The Russian top diplomat stressed that anti-terrorism efforts, as well as Syrian settlement are of principal importance for Russia. “That is why the attack of the Turkish air force on the Russian bomber cannot change our approaches,” he said.

“If Turkey’s provocation was meant to achieve this goal, its inventors have obviously failed.” According to the Russian diplomat, after Turkey’s attack on the Russian Su-24 bomber in November a moment of truth arrived in the fight against terrorism.

“Ankara’s move was an unprecedented challenge for the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said. “It is evident that such actions could not but impact the Russian-Turkish relations, and the confidence for Turkey as a partner has been seriously shattered,” Lavrov said.

As a result, the cooperation between Russia and Turkey has been suspended in many areas despite great efforts to develop ties in the recent years, Lavrov said, stressing: “This was not our choice.”

“So far we have heard neither apologies of the Turkish leadership nor showing readiness to somehow compensate the consequences of the act, nor an intention to punish those guilty in the right way,” he said.

“On the contrary, Ankara claims that the Turkish side was right and protected the sovereignty that had been allegedly violated,” Lavrov said, adding that the statements of Turkish politicians on “regrets” are incompatible with the seriousness of what has happened. Russia has repeatedly voiced concerns over the growing terrorist threats in Turkey and Ankara’s unpreparedness to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, Lavrov reminded.

A UN panel has ruled in favour of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after he complained he was “arbitrarily detained”, the  reports.

Mr Assange claimed asylum in London’s Ecuadorean embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex assault claims, which he denies.

The Met Police says Mr Assange would be arrested if he does leave the embassy.

He earlier said his passport should be returned and his arrest warrant dropped if the UN panel ruled in his favour.

In 2014, Mr Assange complained to the UN that he was being “arbitrarily detained” as he could not leave the embassy without being arrested.

The application claimed Mr Assange had been “deprived of his liberty in an arbitrary manner for an unacceptable length of time”.

The UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is due to announce the findings of its investigation on Friday.