Author: Ani Basmajian

With his martial arts skills Steven Seagal once saved the world from nuclear attack and ruthless oil corporations – in Hollywood blockbusters, reports.

But now the Under Siege star has been asked to transfer the skills he showed on the silver screen into real life and train up Serbian special police forces in Aikido, the Japanese martial art.

“When you have such a famous star coming to Serbia, who loves our country and our people, our desire is to have him back again,” said the mayor of Belgrade, Sinisa Mali.

During a three day visit to Serbia’s capital Belgrade, the 63-year-old who starred in the reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman which saw him perform duties as a reserve deputy sheriff in Louisiana and Arizona, met with the country’s Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, and the pro-Russian president, Tomislav Nikolic.

While in the city, Seagal received an award from the Belgrade-based Brothers Karic Foundation for his humanitarian work and said he was proud to get the same honor that Russian President Vladimir Putin once did.

The head of the Karic family, Bogoljub Karic, was given asylum in Russia after he fled Serbia when its previous government charged him with corruption and the embezzlement of millions of dollars in state funds.

It is unclear whether he will have time to train the forces however as he has a number of movies set to be released next year.

The annual Pan-European Phoneathon of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, headed by the Fund’s French affiliate and held during November 18-22, raised over 1.3 million euros in donations and pledges.

The large-scale fundraising campaign mobilized the Armenian communities of France   (1,205,569 euros), Germany (76,050 euros) and Switzerland (24,554 euros). Proceeds form the Phoneathon will be used for the construction of community centers in Artsakh, expansion of agricultural projects in Armenia’s Tavush Region and assistance to the Armenian communities of Syria and Iraq.

The Greek community traditionally joined the Phoneathon with their fundraising held in Greece on November 22. The phoneathon raised around 29,000 euros, which will be used for the construction of a kindergarten in Karin Tak, a village in Nagorno Karabakh’s Shushi region.

Contributions are still being made.

Photo by REUTERS/PAWEL KOPCZYNSKI

 

Islamic State militants are trying to develop the capability to launch deadly cyber attacks against Britain’s infrastructure, finance minister George Osborne will say on Tuesday as he announces a doubling of spending on cyber security, reports.

Osborne, Prime Minister David Cameron’s close ally, said Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed at least 129 people and were claimed by Islamic State (ISIL), underscored the need to improve Britain’s protections against electronic attack.

“ISIL are already using the Internet for hideous propaganda purposes; for radicalisation, for operational planning too,” he said in excerpts of a speech he was due to give at Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency.

“They have not been able to use it to kill people yet by attacking our infrastructure through cyber attack,” he said. “But we know they want it and are doing their best to build it.”

Getty Images

 

Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas’ achievements in football have been honoured with the awarding of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sports Merit, Daily Mail reports.

The Spain international, accompanied by long-term partner Sara Carbonero, received the award during a ceremony at the Palace of Moncloa in Madrid.

Casillas, who left Real Madrid to join the Portuguese runners-up in the summer after more than 15 years involved with the first team, was presented with the award by the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy.

The 34-year-old is in line to make his 165th cap for the Spanish national team this week when they face England in Alicante on Friday night.

Sir Elton John says he is currently arranging to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss gay rights, the BBC reports.

The pop star has said he wants to talk to Mr Putin about his “ridiculous” attitude to the issue – but previously fell victim to prank callers pretending to be the Russian leader.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the star said he had now received a genuine call from the president.

“He was very affable, he was very apologetic, he was very sincere.

“As soon as I can get a date in my diary that coincides with him, then I will be going… to Moscow and I will meet him,” he told the Today Programme.

“Whether or not I make any progress, I don’t know. I’m not going to go straight in there and go, ‘come on, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that.’ This is the starting of a dialogue and you don’t get anywhere without a dialogue.”

President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with British rock star Elton John, Krmelin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday commenting on the singer’s plans to meet with the Russian leader next year, TASS reports.

“This is not an issue for negotiations,” Peskov said. “The president said he was ready to meet with Elton John. We hope they’ll meet when their schedules cross.”

 

A Saudi prince and four others were detained on Monday in the largest drug bust in the history of the Beirut airport, a security source said.

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained by security at Rafik Hariri International Airport while allegedly “attempting to smuggle about two tons of Captagon pills and some cocaine,” a security source told AFP.

“The smuggling operation is the largest one that has been foiled through the Beirut International Airport,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Captagon is the brand name for the amphetamine phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant. The banned drug is consumed mainly in the Middle East and has reportedly been widely used by fighters in Syria.

The security source said the drugs had been packed into cases that were waiting to be loaded onto a private plane that was headed to Saudi Arabia.

Five resolutions were adopted during the 31st Ministerial Conference of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) in Yerevan, one of them related to the “prevention on genocide” initiated by Armenia. The resolution refers to the OIF Secretary General Michaëlle Jean’s statement on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, in which she paid tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims and expressed her support to the Armenian people.

The resolution notes that the Organization strongly condemns all genocides and crimes against humanity that have claimed a huge number of human lives, pays tribute to the memory of the victims of those crimes and pledges to take measures to reinforce the mechanisms of prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity.

Under the resolution, the Organization undertakes to reinforce the cooperation between states and governments to put an end to the impunity of those responsible for the crimes.

Also, the Ministerial Conference adopted resolutions on “Francophonie as an area of peace, tolerance, plurality, dialogue and mutual understanding,” “Challenges to the 21^st Conference of the member states of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UNFCCC),” “Refugees and Migrants,” “Youth Participation in Francophone Structures.” The first two were initiated by Armenia.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics has been won by Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, for discovering how neutrinos switch between different “flavours,” the BBC reports.

Neutrinos are ubiquitous subatomic particles with almost no mass and which rarely interact with anything else, making them very difficult to study.

Kajita and McDonald made important measurements of their properties using huge instruments in Japan and Canada.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which decides on the award, declared: “This year’s prize is about changes of identity among some of the most abundant inhabitants of the universe.”

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.

The parties hailed the high-level bilateral relations and emphasized the importance of the agreement on visa facilitation that came into force in 2015.

Reference was made to the perspectives of development of Armenian-American economic cooperation. The interlocutors exchanged views on the forthcoming founding meeting of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Council.

Minister Nalbandian briefed Victoria Nuland on the process of constitutional reforms in Armenia.

Cooperation within international organizations was also on the agenda. The Assistant Secretary of State expressed gratitude to Armenia for the active participation in peacekeeping operations.

The Armenian Foreign Minister and the US Assistant Secretary of State exchanged views on the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Minister Nalbandian presented the situation established as a result of harsh violations of the ceasefire regime by Azerbaijan.

Victoria Nuland expressed her deep concern over the escalation of tension and stressed the importance of observing the ceasefire.

The interlocutors referred to issues of fighting terrorism, the developments in the Middle East, the protection of minority rights.

Emmy-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Peter Musurlian traveled to what is now eastern Turkey in 2013 along with 25 other Armenian-Americans. His documentary “Historic Armenia” shows remnants of an ancient civilization systemically destroyed over the past 100 years,  reports.

The film will be shown at the Worcester Public Library Sept. 22 during a commemoration sponsored by the Knights of Vartan Arshavir Lodge No. 2 and Daughters Of Vartan Santoukht Otyag No. 5 in honor of the 24th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia’s independence. The program also includes a proclamation on behalf of the City of Worcester from Mayor Joseph M. Petty; a presentation of books and videos to the library’s Knights Of Vartan Collection; and a reception with refreshments.