Henrikh Mkhitaryan believes Manchester United can win the Champions League
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan is targeting Champions League glory after claiming the crowning goal during Manchester United’s Europa League final win over Ajax last month.
The Armenian was an integral component of Man United’s journey to Stockholm, claiming six goals – four of which coming in the knockout phases – as Mourinho’s men cemented their place in the Champions League by claiming a 2-0 win over Ajax.
And the 28-year-old, who scored the decisive second goal in the final, is now eyeing up similar feats in next season’s Champions League.
“Lifting the UEFA Europa League trophy in Stockholm [was my favourite moment of the season],” he said.
“We worked so hard to win this competition and it was truly special to be able to do it. Now we are really looking forward to be back in the UEFA Champions League.”
“The Champions League is where Manchester United belongs and we are all happy to be playing this great competition again.
“For the new season we definitely want to fight for the title. For the Super Cup it should be a fantastic game against Real Madrid.”
To put it bluntly, United would have gotten nowhere near Stockholm without Mkhitaryan. The attacking midfielder has, on balance, had a relatively muted season – punctuated most notably by an almost three long absence from the first team.
And yet, looking back, it would be hard to say he disappointed: the Armenian has displayed an aptitude for producing moments and spells of mesmerising brilliance that can alter the entire complexion of a game. It may be something as simple as a clever turn and pass, but even that invokes a sense of slickness and urgency into United’s play that, mixed with their muscle in midfield, proved too much for continental opponents last term.
How far they will go amongst the European elite, however, remains an unknown quantity.
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
June 8, 2017 Thursday
400 million drams worth pharmaceutical project to be realized with
government's assistance in Armenia
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government granted customs
privileges to Arpimed LLC for importing technical devices, raw
materials and components.
Suren Karayan, minister of economic development and investments said
the company will use the imported materials in pharmaceuticals.
“400 million drams will be invested and 12 new jobs will be created
during the program – with an average monthly salary of 200,000 drams.
The planned production volumes will amount 800 million drams, 500
million drams worth of production of which will be sold in Armenia,
200 million in other EEU states, and 100 million in third countries”,
Karayan said.
Tech entrepreneur and best-selling author is set to become a father for the first time later this year
By Tom Michael and Warren Chrismas
SERENA Williams and fiancé Alexis Ohanian have announced that they’re expecting their first child together later this year.
The tennis legend shared the happy news on Snapchat, but what people are asking is who exactly is Ohanian, and how long have they been dating Williams? Here’s all you need to know…
AP:Associated Press
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Alexis Ohanian is having a child with tennis star Serena Williams
Alexis Ohanian, 33, is a tech entrepreneur and best-selling author from the US.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1983 to an Armenian-American father – whose family fled the genocide – and a German mother.
Alexis went to school in Ellicot City, Maryland, before graduating from the University of Virginia in 2005 with degrees in commerce and history.
It was this very year when Alexis did what he is most famous for – co-founding social news website Reddit.
Along with partner and fellow Virginia graduate Steve Huffman, the 6ft5 innovator set up the now-global name at the age of just 22.
Getty Images
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Alexis set up Reddit the year he graduated from uni when he was just 22 years old
The website went from strength to strength and was eventually snapped up by publishing giant Conde Nast – owners of Wired, GQ and Vogue magazines – the following year.
It was recently valued at £407million and is considered to be the seventh biggest site in the US.
Still a member of the site’s board of directors, Alexis was keen not to rest on his laurels.
He went on to launch social enterprise Breadpig in 2007 and helped set up travel search website Hipmunk in 2010, before co-founding the early stage venture capital firm Initialized Capital this year.
Alexis also wrote bestselling book Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed, which was published in 2013.
And he is a political activist – specifically in matters relating to the worldwide web.
He was dubbed “Mayor of the Internet” after his battles with US lawmakers over proposed bills aimed at cracking down on online copyright breaches.
Reddit
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Serena Williams shows off her huge engagement ring
Alexis and Serena got engaged in December last year. They had been dating – secretly – for 15 months after meeting in Rome.
The couple announced the news of their engagement on their social media accounts.
The lovers also posted a picture of them grinning from ear-to-ear and Serena showing off a spectacular rock in her diamond engagement ring.
In a poem posted on – where else? – Reddit, Serena wrote: “I came home / A little late / Someone had a bag packed for me.
“And a carriage awaited / Destination: Rome.
“To escort me to my very own “charming” / Back to where our stars first collided.
“And now it was full circle / At the same table we first met by chance.
“This time he made it not by chance / But by choice.
“Down on one knee / He said 4 words /And I said yes.”
And Alexis shared the happy news on his Facebook page writing: “She said yes”.
Splash News
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Serena Williams is expecting her child with fiance Alexis Ohanian
Alexis was also spotted cheering on his wife-to-be as she competed at the Australian Open.
The Reddit founder clapped and looked proud as punch as his wife-to-be won in straight sets to beat rival Belinda Bencic.
Serena went on to triumph in the final, dispatching her sister Venus to surpass Steffi Graf’s Grand Slam win tally and cement her status as the greatest of all time.
And she was around eight weeks pregnant at the time.
On April 20 Serena revealed she was 20 weeks pregnant with a Snapchat video showing off her baby bump.
The photo was quickly deleted but her representative later confirmed the pregnancy.
And US Open Tennis responded: “Serena Williams will have a new pride and joy to hug and call her own soon! Congratulations on the exciting baby announcement!”
She later shared a moving tribute to her unborn child on her Instagram page, saying how she “couldn’t wait to meet them”.
Serena, who has still been playing during her pregnancy, then gave a big clue that she will resume tennis once she’s had the child as she wrote: “I can’t wait for you to join the players box next year.”
Instagram
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The happy duo will welcome their first child in September
It continued: “But most importantly, I am so happy to share being number one in the world with you… once again today.
“On @alexisohanian bday from the world’s oldest number one to the world’s youngest number one. Your Mommy.”
The tennis legend broke the internet when she revealed she was 22 weeks pregnant in mid-April.
This would make Serena around half-way through pregnancy, which usually lasts for around 40 weeks.
Another 20 weeks would make the baby due around the end of August or beginning of September, the latter of which is the month the star turns 36.
Although Serena previously said that the sex of the baby will be a “surprise”, it seems sister Venus may have outed the gender during an interview with Eurosport – where she referred to the tot as a “she”.
Oksana Altunyan, who has joined the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform, called on all who wish peace between the two nations to join the Peace Platform, APA reported.
Oksana Altunyan decided to share her opinion with the public through a video interview with co-coordinator of Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform Orkhan Nabiyev.
During the interview, Oksana Altunyan noted the absence of ethnic, religious conflicts and persecutions during her stay in Baku. On the contrary, Oksana Altunyan noted the existence of friendship and mutual respect between the two nations at that time.
Oksana Altunyan also expressed her support for the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform, and called upon all who want peace between the two nations, to join the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform.
For the purpose of contributing to a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace was established on December 6, 2016. The Platform is an initiative of the citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia who wish to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The initiative on the creation of the Platform has generated the interest of the international community as well as attracted the high level of public attention in both conflicting states. A large number of well-known experts highly appreciated this initiative and stressed the very special role of the above-mentioned peacekeeping initiative in the process of the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.
A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.
The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.
Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.
Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.
Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Importantly, this seminal milestone builds on a series of important set of policy reforms to strengthen the country’s disaster resilience. In the two decades since the Spitak earthquake, the government has also passed influential legislation to enhance risk reduction and emergency management systems, such as the 2008 Law on Prevention of Emergency Situations. In 2010, the government established a National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which aims to coordinate and consolidate DRM efforts. In 2012, it developed a National Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction, along with an action plan.
In 2016, Armenia’s Deputy Minister and Head of Crisis Management Center under the Ministry of Emergency Situations attended Japan’s 36th Comprehensive Disaster Prevention Drill of Nine Prefectural and City Governments in Saitama City, and learned about Japan’s experience in disaster preparedness and response systems at national and local levels. Finally, thanks to technical assistance extended by UN OCHA, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNDP and Rescue Service of Poland, the Government of the Republic of Armenia was also the first country in the South Caucasus to be accredited by the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in 2015, which enables the Ministry of Emergency Situations to be deployed in international urban search and rescue efforts as part of post-earthquake response operations.
Twinning project helps Armenian government to attract investment
The FINANCIAL — The EU-funded twinning project “Strengthening the Investment Promotion and Investment Policy Institutional Framework of Armenia’’ has reported on its achievements.
The project has developed sectorial investment strategies, promotional materials about Armenia and a database of potential investors, while the Development Foundation of Armenia (DFA) has established connections with 136 companies and created 11 investment projects, according to EU Neighbours East Info.
During the project, Armenian specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, as well as from DFA, were introduced to best European practices and effective business tools for attracting investment, establishing country branches of foreign companies, creating jobs and devising economic development methods.
“It’s very important to promote what Armenia has. This project aimed to promote investment in Armenia – it’s important to ensure that foreign investors come to Armenia, first of all for their financial capacity and, secondly, because foreign direct investment promotes business culture exchange,” said Hoa-Binh Adjemian, Head of the Cooperation division of the EU Delegation to Armenia.
“We worked in three strategic directions: investment promotion and policy advocacy; foreign direct investment strategy development and an improvement in the investment climate; and aftercare services development,” explained Garegin Melkonyan, Armenian Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments.
Twinning is an EU instrument for institutional cooperation between the public administrations of EU Member States and selected beneficiary countries in the European Neighbourhood.
Garo Paylan: Genocide is committed every day in Turkey
18:58, 25.05.2017
Non-democratic Turkey will never recognize the Armenian Genocide and apologize, Garo Paylan, Istanbul-Armenian MP of the opposition pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, said in an interview with Horizon weekly.
In his words, if crimes are still being committed now, the old ones cannot be recognized. “In Turkey Genocide is committed every day. Every day our co-chairmen and deputies are killed and imprisoned, just as it happened in 1915. We should first and foremost put an end to these crimes, and then return to democracy and peace. Only then can Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide,” Paylan said.
“That crime was committed in Turkey and we should face it in Turkey,” he added.
In the deputy’s words, two years ago Turkey was close to recognizing the Armenian Genocide but Erdoğan’s nationalist alliance undermined that process and will never recognize the Genocide.
EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth helmer Shekhar Kapur has attached to direct Three Apples Fell From Heaven, a film based on the Micheline Aharonian Marcom novel adapted by Motorcycle Diaries writer José Rivera. The film is set in 1915-1917 as Turks slaughtered Armenians, and revolves around a young female refugee taken in by Turkish neighbors after the death of her parents. Her childhood shattered, she now views the remains of her world through a Muslim veil, as several tragic characters circle around her. While the Armenian genocide is a century old, there is an eerie parallel to the refugee crisis, beyond Kapur’s memory of his own family forced to flee Delhi as refugees during the partition of India. The filmmakers made available a clip of the young women Kapur has auditioned to play the lead role; they are refugees from Aleppo whose descendants fled there to escape the Armenian genocide and who’ve come back to escape the violence that has devastated Syria. The clip is a sad reminder of how little the world has really reformed for refugees. This becomes the first film from a new social justice storytelling production company, Disruptive Narrative, which will launch at Cannes as part of Sunday’s Refugee Voices In Film day, presented by IEFTA, the UNHCR and Marché du Film. The company is founded by leading human rights lawyer, Jen Robinson, of Doughty St Chambers , and Syrian-Armenian actress/writer/producer, Sona Tatoyan.
Three Apples Fell From Heaven, which Kapur will develop as he makes his next film the Bruce Lee biopic Little Dragon, will be produced by VISTAMAR Film’s Frank Henschke, who’s coming off the Oscar-nominated Mustang. As for Disruptive Narrative, the aim is to tell stories that speak to global injustice, the capacity for human resilience and hope. The above clip is relevant to another goal: creating opportunities for talented people in communities impacted by injustice. Robinson and Tatoyan have also founded ‘Hakawati’ (Arabic for ‘storyteller’), a non-profit in partnership with The Sundance Institute for a series of storytelling labs in Berlin with Syrian refugees.
“We have collaborated to conceive a new program to support MENA (Middle East and North African) artists, in this case by working with emerging filmmakers in the growing Syrian/MENA diaspora now residing in Berlin,” said Paul Federbush, the Sundance Institute’s International Feature Film Program Director. “Modeled on the Institute’s renowned Screenwriters and Directors Labs, the program will mentor young artists from the community of over 80,000 from Syria and other conflict zones now residing in the German capital. Through this intensive collaboration with established filmmakers and Sundance staff, young Syrians will be given a platform to tell their stories – whatever they may be, and to therefore be given a voice, an opportunity to be witnessed, to connect with each other and their host country, to heal, to create community.” The Girl On The Train scribe Erin Cressida Wilson will be mentoring the first lab within the year. Disruptive Narrative will be inviting financial support and mentorship for the Hakawati labs, starting at the UNHCR Cannes gathering on Sunday 21 May.
On 16 May Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited the Talish village of the Martakert region, Artsakh President’s Press Office reports.
The President got acquainted with the activities being carried out in the village and gave corresponding instructions to the heads of appropriate structures for proper implementation of the activities.