Author: Lara Chatinian

The Syrian Army and the country’s popular forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, have continued their advance, inflicting heavy losses on the terrorist groups in the country’s key provinces, Iranian media wrote on Wednesday, Sputnik News reports.

Over the past 24 hours the Syrian Air Force has attacked and destroyed the terrorists’ positions in Lattakia, Homs, Damascus, Deir Ezzur, Aleppo, Dara’a and Hama provinces, Fars news agency .

On Tuesday the government forces stormed a terrorist concentration center in Dara’a al-Balad leaving many militants dead and causing serious damage to their weapons and military equipment.

In Hama province, Syrian Army troops stormed a number of enemy strongholds, the agency reported, citing military sources in the area.

“Concentration centers of Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group near Atshan village in the northern part of Hama were massively attacked by the Syrian forces, leaving at least eight terrorists dead and wounding ten others,” the sources said.

n Aleppo province, Syrian fighter jets pounded a number of terrorist gathering centers in the town of Manbaj in the eastern part of the region.

In the meantime, the Syrian Army’s artillery hit the military positions of the terrorists in the village of Mansoura in the eastern part of the city of Aleppo, the agency reported.

Syrian government forces have recently been making rapid advances against the terrorists in several parts of the country.

Photo: Kadir Konuksever/Al Jazeera Turk

A car bomb blast has hit a police headquarters in south-eastern Turkey, killing five people and injuring at least 39, officials say, the BBC reports.

A woman and a baby are among the dead. Rescuers are continuing to search through rubble at the scene in Cinar district, Diyarbakir province.

Officials blamed the blast on Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) militants, who are active in the mainly Kurdish province.

No group has so far said it carried out the attack.

Photo: AP

 

Four chemical elements have been formally added to the periodic table, completing the scheme’s seventh row, the BBC reports.

They are the first to be included in the table since 2011, when elements 114 and 116 were added.

The first true iteration of the table was produced in 1869 by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.

The new additions were formally verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on 30 December 2015.

The body announced that a team of Russian and American researchers had provided sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117 and 118.

IUPAC awarded credit for the discovery of element 113 to a Japanese team at the Riken Institute.

The teams responsible for the discoveries have been invited to come up with permanent names and chemical symbols for the now-confirmed elements.

“The chemistry community is eager to see its most cherished table finally being completed down to the seventh row. IUPAC has now initiated the process of formalising names and symbols for these elements,” said Prof Jan Reedijk, president of the inorganic chemistry division of IUPAC.

New elements can be named after a mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.

After the responsible IUPAC division accepts the new names and two-letter symbols, they will be presented for public review for five months.

The chemistry organisation’s council will then make a final decision.

Former IBF, WBC, WBA champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan (42-8-1, 31 KOs) forced Cris “The King” Paulino (14-2, 4 KOs) to retire at the conclusion of round two of a scheduled ten round bout to capture a WBC regional super bantamweight title at the Alexandria Basketball Stadium, Sydney, NSW, Australia on Saturday, reports.

Paulino connected with accurate combinations in round one against the aggressive Darchinyan, who had problems finding the range against the mobile sharpshooting Filipino. The 39-year-old former IBF, WBC, WBA world champion Darchinyan stepped up a gear in round two and dropped his opponent with a power body shot. Paulino took the eight count and then finished the contest on unsteady legs and his cornerman pulled Paulino out of the contest to save him from further punishment.

About 80 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan over the weekend.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 1,300 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep the situation at the line of contact under control and take necessary measures to organize the protection of the military positions.

Tonight, at the Presidential Palace there took place the ceremony of bestowing the 2015 RA Presidential Award for the global contribution in the area of information technology. After the ceremony, a reception was held to honor the winner of the award, the world famous expert of cyber security, Director General of Kaspersky Lab – one of the leading private companies in that area, Eugene Kaspersky and his spouse Khu Shirong.

The Chairman of the Executive Council of the Award Committee of the World Information Technologies (WIT) Hovik Musaelian in his speech presented the achievements and dynamics of the IT area in Armenia – one of the most vigorously developing branches which has also been creating the highest added value. He underscored that in recent years, this sector has grown by 20-25 percent and its specific weight is close to 3% of the GDP. Hovik Musaelian spoke also about the cooperation of the Armenian government and the private sector which allows to implement initiatives aimed at the further development of the IT area. He presented in detail the prehistory of the RA Presidential Award for the global contribution in the IT area which was established by the executive order of the President, the guiding principles of the award committee and the international selection commission, mentioned the individuals who have already received this prestigious award and introduced the winner of this year’s award Eugene Kaspersky.

President Serzh Sargsyan handed the award to Eugene Kaspersky. At the reception which was held in honor of the winner of the award the President of Armenia made a statement.

During the event, the recipient of the award Eugene Kaspersky spoke the words of gratitude, “I am doing everything I can. I am motivating my employees and my company so that they do everything they can so that we become the best performers of this job in the world. I believe that we do this job better than anyone else in the world. It is my life, my destiny, my mission. I am very grateful to the President of Armenia, I thank the commission which has decided to bestow me with this award, and I am grateful to the sponsors who assisted in the organization of this event. I promise that I will work even better. We must save this world, not just the cyber world but the entire world since there is no longer a difference between the physical world and cyber space. They are intertwined, and we must create working systems and conditions which will allow to eliminate cyber attacks; they are problems that we simply do not need. I will do everything I can to make it a reality. This award is a very serious impetus for such a work. Thank you very much,” said the Director General of Kaspersky Lab Mr. Eugene Kaspersky.

Remarks of President Serzh Sargsyan at the ceremony of bestowing the RA Presidential Award for the global contribution to the IT area

Dear Mr. Kaspersky,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I salute you and welcome you at the Presidential Palace.

I was very pleased to carry out this enjoyable task – to hand to Mr. Kaspersky the 2015 RA Presidential Award for the global contribution to the IT area.
There is no need to make a special introduction of Mr. Kaspersky and Kaspersky Lab; these names are familiar to millions of computer users all over the world. These names have become part of people’s day lives and help them to protect their private data.

Any system may be flawed or vulnerable. Structural flaws should be rectified, while vulnerable parts should be detected in time and protected from the internal errors and moreover so from the unwanted intervention. In this very area, for over twenty-five years Mr. Kaspersky has been working diligently, helping out millions of users.

In recent years, one of our most impressive achievements has probably been special attention towards the area of information technologies. Combining the efforts of the state and private sectors, we have been able to make IT a truly strategic area. The most pleasing, of course, is the continuous involvement of our young people in this sector.

However, it is important to realize that IT is not just an economic factor in the life of the Republic. Today, these technologies allow Armenia to step into modern life. Moreover, information technologies have become one of the most important means for the modernization of Armenia.

The system is defined not by the errors, but by the ability to address the errors. At this very point, those who fight viruses and other harmful elements come to our rescue. Among them Eugene Kaspersky and experts working in his lab undoubtedly hold a unique and very important place.

Today, we witness how retrograde forces are lifting heads all over the world. They are trying to strangle the modern world and ideology of modernization. I am not sure if Mr. Kaspersky knows the kind of antivirus we need to fight that evil, but I am sure that the contemporary world is flexible and wise enough to eventually find the antivirus to protect us from that menace. It will be a victorious response of progress and modernization to the virus of backwardness and bigotry.

Dear Mr. Kaspersky,

I cordially congratulate you on receiving this award. There can be no doubt that your work in appreciated not only in Armenia but all over the world. You and those like like you open new doors for the humankind and at the same time help unfailingly protect these doors. It is well known that much is expected where much is given.

I wish you and your family all the best, and new achievements in your gratifying work. And be assured that here, in Armenia we will always be proud and pleased with your achievements.

Thank you.

About 60 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber and 60mm mortars as it fired more than 800 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact and resort to retaliatory actions if necessary.

Stephan P. Barnicle’s new choral composition — “A New Armenia!” — that was commissioned by the Master Singers of Worcester premiered at the Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemorative Concert Oct. 25 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, the  reports.

The concert was co-sponsored by the Master Singers of Worcester and the Armenian Church of Our Saviour in Worcester. The program also featured sacred and secular music of Armenia, and the Worcester premiere of American composer Dan Forrest’s “Requiem for the Living.”

The Master Singers were joined by a chamber orchestra, organist William Ness, singers and dancers from the Armenian community, and the children’s choirs of First Congregational Church in Shrewsbury and St. Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury.

Samvel Karapetyan, President of Tashir Group issued a statement today, welcoming the purchase of Electric Networks of Armenia. The statement reads:

“As previously announced, on September 30, 2015, Tashir Group and Inter RAO signed the sale and purchase agreement for power assets in the Republic of Armenia.

The Parties have agreed that CJSC Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) will continue fulfilling its existing obligations in full. Tashir Group has also fully undertaken its obligations in ENA managing. The company management will be transparent and socially clear, based on corporate social responsibility as its key component.

ENA development priorities include introducing a bailout plan; financial optimization; service quality improvement; and financial and economic activity control, i.e. via adaptation of advanced technology.

Our first steps will include modernization of distribution facilities infrastructure through efficient investments. We shall stand strong against any wrongdoings, corrupt employees and malevolent consumers. We shall save on the Company’s costs by concentrating internal resources, i.e. minimizing power losses, which will help to avoid higher electricity tariffs in part of ENA.

We see the interests of the three million Armenians as our top value. To serve those, we must stop corruption practices both in and out of the Company.

To support the people of the Republic of Armenia, a resolution was taken to reimburse the difference between the increased electricity tariffs and the ones previously applied before August 1, 2015 for citizens and small business, at the expense of myself and the Government of Armenia on parity basis.
We are all ready for new approaches, new quality of work, and honest and constructive partnership.

Thank you in advance for your strong cooperation.”