Author: Diana Dabaghian

Nine people have been killed and seven injured in a shooting at a college in the US state of Oregon, say police, the BBC reports.

The gunman, 26, opened fire at Umpqua Community College on Thursday morning and was killed in a police shootout.

There were conflicting reports on casualties but Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said 10 dead, including the gunman, was “the best” figure.

Police have not identified the attacker but un-named officers have told US media his name is Chris Harper Mercer.

Mr Hanlin said he would not confirm the name, adding: “I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”

The killer’s motive is not known, although police said they were investigating reports that he had warned of his intentions on social media.

Hours after the attack, in which seven were also injured, a visibly frustrated President Barack Obama demanded tighter gun laws, saying prayers are “no longer enough”

The Azerbaijani side continued to intensively violate the ceasefire regime on September 1-2, the NKR Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

The rival violated the ceasefire about 250 times in the reporting period, firing more than 5,000 shots from weapons of different caliber, including 60 and 82 mm mortars, RPG-7 and HAN-17 grenade launchers, as well as Turkey-made TP-107 reactive rocket launchers.

The activeness of the rival was pressured as a result of retaliatory measures taken by the front divisions of the NKR Defense Army.

The Defense Ministry says the rival often uses the large-caliber rocket and artillery weapons, something Azerbaijan’s propaganda machine is trying to conceal. As a proof, the Ministry presents photos of the weapons.

Atom Egoyan’s new film Remember will premiere Sept 10 at the Venice Film Festival. The film stars Christopher Plummer as a Holocaust survivor who sets out on a path of revenge after discovering that the Nazi guard who murdered his family 70 years before is still alive and living in America.

“This film raises many issues; this is very much the last story that can be told in the present day with the characters still living,” Egoyan said in an interview with .

“The character that Plummer is playing [focuses on] that idea of people near the end of their lives still trying to find justice, and realizing that the regular channels won’t serve that, which is why he takes it on himself,” he said.

“It is a revenge film. It posits the idea that after all this time, those wounds have not healed. It is going to provoke a lot of discussion. You see how visceral the feelings are even after all this time has passed,” the director added.

Egoyan last worked with Christopher Plummer on Ararat, which deals with the impact the Armenian Genocide of 1915 had on later generations.

“It is interesting that on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I am making a film called Remember which deals with this issue of acknowledging the past and notions of repressed or elective memory and how we understand trauma,” Egoyan said.

Turkey will keep contributing to the training and equipment of Syrian opposition fighters, in accordance with its agreement with the U.S., the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Within the scope of the agreement with U.S., the train-and-equip program is being carried out as outlined,” Spokesman Tanju Bilgic said at a press conference Thursday.

He said that after the first group which has already entered Syria, a second group of 100 people were currently receiving training.

“Moving forward, train-and-equip activities will continue uninterruptedly,” Bilgic said.

A total of 54 Syrian opposition fighters went into the country early in August after completing a training regimen at the beginning of July.

The Baywatch series star actress Pamela Anderson has written an open letter to the Russian President, urging him to use his authority over Russian territorial waters to block the passage of a cargo ship carrying 1,700 tonnes of fin whale meat to Japan, Russia Today reports.

In a “personal request” letter to Vladimir Putin, Anderson writes that out of their “mutual love for animals and a deep respect for nature,” Putin should step in and block the “illegal” cargo of St. Kitt’s-registered vessel Winter Bay from sailing from Iceland through the Northeast Passage to Japan.

Russian waters are allegedly the only way to get the meat to Japan as according to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Winter Bay will not risk passing through the Suez or Panama canals because of international laws and logistic restrictions concerning whale meat.

The actress considers the Russian president as the last beacon of hope to stop the vessel, currently docked in Norway and awaiting the clearance of the Arctic route.

“President Putin, you can stop this illegal transit by forbidding this vessel from carrying a cargo of endangered Fin whale meat through Russian waters to Japan,” Anderson wrote as she urged Putin to consider the matter.

“Your decision could put an end to the needless slaughter of endangered whales by Iceland,” the actress wrote.

 

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has banned Lyubov Kazarnovskaya, a Russian opera singer after she recently took a trip to Nagorno Karabakh.

“Lyubov Kazarnovskaya’s name will be included in the list of ‘unwanted’ persons,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told RIA Novosti.

The Opera singer visited Stepanakert last week, where she held a master class at the musical college.

Kazarnovskaya has said she’s proud to be in the same list with Montserrat Caballe. “Nagorno Karabakh is a splendid place, and I took young interns there. There will never be pace on the planet as long as there is aggression. There, in Karabakh people do not want war. They want peace, they want to give birth to children and hear the sounds of music,” she told the Russian News Service.

The US Embassy has called on the sides of of the Yerevan protests to display peaceful, restrained behavior.

“We are concerned by tense situation downtown,” the US Embassy in Armenia said in a Twitter post.

“Urge all sides to display peaceful, restrained behavior befitting democratic values,” the Embassy added.

On the occasion of Andranik Margaryan’s birthday, President Serzh Sargsyan, accompanied by RA top officials, visited today Komitas Pantheon and paid tribute to the memory of Andranik Margaryan, a statesman and political figure.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received James Warlick, the US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Press Service of the Ministry of foreign Affairs reports.

The interlocutors held a detailed discussion on issues related to the negotiation process on the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.