Reflection
Panorama.am photographer Lilian Galtsyan has now free access to the building of the National Assembly of Armenia with restored accreditation to...
Short news
South Korean boy band BTS plans to hold live concerts in Los Angeles in November for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, forcing it to cancel global tours and resort to online performances, the band's management said on Tuesday. The concerts, titled "Permission to Dance on Stage", will take place in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Nov. 27-28 and Dec. 1-2, Bit Hit Music said.
Source: reuters.com
Asteroid 2021 SG would have been detected by NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope, the agency insists. The space rock flew past Earth at a distance of 153,000 miles on September 16 and was not detected until September 17. Its diameter is between 138 and 308 feet, larger than a football field and roughly the size of the State of Liberty. The NEO Surveyor spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2026.}
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Italian football legend Fabio Cannavaro is stepping down as manager of Chinese giants Guangzhou FC, the club announced Tuesday, as it faces an uncertain future with its owner Evergrande Group on the brink of collapse.
Source: france24.com
Japan will lift a coronavirus state of emergency in all regions on Thursday as the number of new cases falls and the strain on the medical system eases, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. The plan takes Japan as a whole out of an emergency state for the first time in nearly six months.
Source: reuters.com
North Korea has fired a short-range missile towards the sea off its east coast early on Tuesday, said South Korea's military. The test happened as North Korea's ambassador said at the UN that no-one could deny Pyongyang's right to self-defence and to test weapons.
Source: bbc.com
A jury has found the R&B superstar R Kelly guilty of being the ringleader of a decades-long racketeering and sex trafficking scheme that preyed upon Black women and children.
Source: theguardian.com
A cassette tape recording of an interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, including a never released song, made while they visited Denmark in 1970 will be auctioned in Copenhagen on Tuesday. The tape, featuring the song "Radio Peace", was recorded on Jan. 5, 1970 by four Danish boys who had succeeded in getting a interview with the couple for a local school magazine. The tape, which the four are selling along with photographs from the meeting, will go on sale with an estimated price of between $31,500 and $47,000, auction house Bruun Rasmussen said.
Source: reuters.com
Sixty-seven Yemeni rebels and pro-government troops have been killed in fighting for the key city of Marib, military sources said Monday, as the insurgents inch closer to the loyalists' last northern bastion. A volley of air strikes from the Saudi-led coalition targeted the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have stepped up their assault to seize the capital of the oil-rich Marib province in recent weeks.
Source: france24.com
Israel’s new prime minister appealed to the international community Monday to stand together against Iran, accusing Tehran of marching toward the development of a nuclear weapon and threatening to act alone if the world does not take action. In his maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Naftali Bennett made no mention of Israel’s decadeslong conflict with the Palestinians and instead sought to portray Iran as a menace to global security.
Source: apnews.com
South Korea's President Moon Jae-in has raised the possibility of banning the consumption of dog meat in the country. Most Koreans have never eaten dog meat, and demand for it has dwindled in recent years. But it is estimated that up to one million dogs are still slaughtered for food each year in South Korea. Speaking during a meeting with the prime minister, Mr Moon questioned whether it was time to "prudently consider" a ban. It is the first time that the president, a known dog lover, has raised the prospect of a total ban.
Source: bbc.com
NATO forces in Kosovo announced Monday that peacekeepers had stepped up patrols as Serbia deployed armoured vehicles on the border with the breakaway territory amid the worst regional tensions in a decade. The international community, led by the European Union, is calling for talks to ease tensions between Serbia and its former ethnic-Albanian majority province, whose declaration of independence in 2008 Belgrade has never recognised.
Source: france24.com
China strongly condemned Britain on Monday for sailing awarship through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, saying it was behaviour that "harboured evil intentions" and that the Chinese military followed the vessel and warned it away.
Source: reuters.com
Richard Gere has agreed to testify against Italy’s far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini, who is standing trial for refusing to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019. Actor helped deliver food to people onboard NGO vessel that was refused entry to Italian port by then minister.
Source: theguardian.com
At least one person has been killed and nine injured after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Greek island of Crete, local officials say. The man died when the dome of a church that was being renovated in the town of Arkalochori caved in. People were sent rushing out on to the streets when the earthquake struck at 09:17 (06:17 GMT). Several aftershocks followed.
Source: bbc.com
San Marino residents on Sunday voted overwhelmingly to legalize abortion, rejecting a 150-year-old law that had criminalized it and making the tiny republic the latest majority Catholic state to approve the procedure under certain circumstances. Some 77% of voters approved making abortion legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It will also be legal beyond that point if the woman’s life is in danger or if her physical or psychological health is at risk because of fetal anomalies or malformations, according to official returns broadcast on San Marino RTV.
Source: apnews.com
Lewis Hamilton won his 100th Formula 1 race as a frantic last few laps in the Russian Grand Prix caused by heavy rain dashed Lando Norris' hopes of a maiden victory. And the rain helped Hamilton's title rival Max Verstappen vault from seventh to second in his Red Bull after timing his change to wet tyres perfectly. Hamilton already held the record for most F1 wins with Michael Schumacher next in the all-time list with 91 victories.
Source: bbc.com
Five Palestinian gunmen were killed in shootouts with Israeli security forces during a sweeping West Bank arrest operation cracking down on the Islamic militant group Hamas on Sunday. It was the deadliest violence between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks and came amid heightened tensions following this year’s 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Source: france24.com
Palestinian political and civil society leader Khalida Jarrar, 58, has been released after close to two years in Israeli prisons. Israeli authorities released Jarrar, a left-wing figure and member of the now-defunct Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), at the Salem checkpoint west of Jenin city on Sunday afternoon. The Israeli army arrested Jarrar from her home in Ramallah on October 31, 2019, eight months after she was released following 20 months in administrative detention without trial or change.
Source: aljazeera.com
An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 has struck south of the Philippines capital, Manila. The deep quake struck off Batangas province on Luzon island at 1:12am (17:12 GMT), with residents in the nearby capital of Manila woken by their buildings shaking.
Source: aljazeera.com
No coastal watches or warnings were in effect for Sam, which was about 1,595 kilometers east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday night. It was moving west-northwest at 13 kph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sam had maximum sustained winds of 230 kph. Forecasters said Sam could get even stronger Sunday morning with winds of 240 kph.
Source: apnews.com
Iceland has made history by becoming the first European country to elect a female majority to parliament. Some 33 of the 63 seats in the Althingi parliament, or 52%, have been won by women. This marks an increase of nine seats from the last election in 2017.
Source: bbc.com
An Amtrak train traveling from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest derailed in a remote part of Montana on Saturday afternoon, killing three people and hospitalizing five others, authorities said.
Source: cnn.com
Status Quo founding member and bassist Alan Lancaster has died aged 72, the band's manager has confirmed. Lancaster had several international hits with the group during the 60s and 70s including Rockin' All Over The World and Whatever You Want.
Source: bbc.com
A suicide car bomb killed at least eight people in the Somali capital on Saturday at a street junction near the president's palace, police said, and al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said it was behind the attack which targeted a convoy going into the palace. Police spokesperson Abdifatah Aden Hassan told reporters at the scene of the blast the casualties could be higher, since some of the dead and wounded had been taken away by their relatives.
Source: reuters.com
An image of a popular internet meme, featuring a two-year-old girl, has been sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) for about $74,000. The picture, dubbed Side Eyeing Chloe, shows young Chloe Clem giving a disapproving look after her mother reveals a surprise trip to Disneyland. NFTs are digital tokens which demonstrate ownership of electronic art. The Clem family auctioned their NFT for 25 Ethereum - a form of cryptocurrency.
Source: bbc.com
Data scientists at Ben-Gurion University developed an AI software that tells you where to apply makeup to throw off facial recognition. Unlike other approaches, the AI was limited to natural hues to allow the person to blend in. Participants wearing the 'adversarial makeup' recommended by the program tricked the system 98.8 percent of the time. Wearing the makeup lowered the FR success rate from 42.6 percent to 0.9 percent for women, compared to from 52.5 percent for 1.5 percent in men.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Two Canadians detained in China on spying charges were released from prison and flown out of the country on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday, hours after a top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies resolved criminal charges against her in a deal with the US Justice Department.
Source: france24.com
Japan's Princess Mako is set to forego a one-off million-dollar payment for giving up her royal status to wed a college classmate, media said on Saturday, clearing the way for a marriage delayed for years by controversy over her fiance. The 29-year-old grand-daughter of then-Emperor Akihito and her former college classmate, Kei Komuro, announced their engagement in 2017. But the marriage was put off after reports of a financial dispute between Komuro's mother and her former fiance.
Source: reuters.com
Nicaragua's presidential election campaign officially kicks off on Saturday with incumbent Daniel Ortega's main rivals all under arrest. The 75-year-old, in power since 2007, will be seeking a fourth consecutive term in the November 7 vote despite international condemnation of his government's detention of 37 opposition figures since June.
Source: france24.com
Mexico’s scientific community has reacted with outrage after the country’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for 31 scientists, researchers and academics on accusations of organised crime, money laundering and embezzlement – charges that could land them alongside drug cartel kingpins in one of the country’s most notorious lockups.
Source: theguardian.com
US actor Michael K Williams died after overdosing on a combination of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and p-fluorofentanyl, the New York Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed. Williams, 54, was found unconscious and unresponsive by his nephew at his home in New York on 6 September. The Chief Medical Examiner's office confirmed to BBC News that it had determined his death was accidental.
Source: bbc.com
Three people including a gangster were killed Friday in a shootout inside a courtroom in the Indian capital city Delhi, police said. The shootout took place at Rohini court complex in north Delhi. According to the police, two men dressed as lawyers fired upon gangster Jitender Gogi inside a courtroom, killing him on the spot. However, the attackers were immediately shot dead by security personnel on duty. The police said the attack on the Gogi was a result of a gang war.
Source: news.cn
India on Friday upbraided Pakistan both in Washington and at the United Nations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan appealed to the world to work with Afghanistan's triumphant Taliban. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about Pakistan during talks with US President Joe Biden as well as a broader four-way summit with the leaders of Australia and Japan, according to Indian officials, who said the others concurred.
Source: france24.com
A consumer court in India has ordered a salon to pay 20m rupees ($271,000) in damages to a model for giving her the wrong haircut. It said the woman used to get jobs from hair product firms because of her long hair. But the salon chopped her hair short against her instructions, causing her a huge loss, the consumer court noted.The salon, which is part of a prominent hotel chain in Delhi, is allowed to appeal against the verdict. But it is yet to make a statement on the ruling.
Source: bbc.com
Bad Bunny is the champion of the Billboard Latin Music Awards, taking home artist of the year honors and a whopping 10 trophies. Among the awards received Thursday by the urban music superstar were Hot Latin Song of the Year for “Dákiti” and album of the year for “YHLQMDLG.”
Source: apnews.com
Archaeologists in Morocco have identified clothesmaking tools fashioned from bone dating back 120,000 years, the oldest ever found, one of the researchers said. The international team discovered more than 60 tools in Contrebandiers (Smugglers) Cave, less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the North African country's capital.
Source: france24.com
Harry Potter star Tom Felton was carried off a Wisconsin golf course after collapsing during a celebrity match ahead of the Ryder Cup. The actor, who turned 34 on Wednesday, experienced a "medical incident" and was sent to a "local hospital for treatment", the PGA of America said. Pictures showed him conscious while being removed in a cart.
Source: bbc.com
The US House of Representatives has approved $1bn in additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system after days of controversy around the push. Legislators passed the bill in a 420 to nine vote on Thursday, paving the way for a significant increase in US support for the system.
Source: aljazeera.com
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says they are willing to resume talks with the South if it ends its "hostile policies". Kim Yo-jong was responding to a renewed call from the South to officially declare an end to the Korean War.
Source: bbc.com
Humans reached the Americas at least 7,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new findings. The topic of when the continent was first settled from Asia has been controversial for decades. Many researchers are sceptical of evidence for humans in the North American interior much earlier than 16,000 years ago. Now, a team working in New Mexico has found scores of human footprints dated to between 23,000 and 21,000 years old.
Source: bbc.com
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an intent to appeal with the Minnesota state appellate court in his murder conviction for the death of George Floyd. Chauvin was jailed for 22-1/2 years in June.
Source: reuters.com
The Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku feels football should adopt “stronger positions” than just taking the knee, calling for a players’ summit with social media companies, governments and stakeholders to help combat online racism.
Source: theguardian.com
A group of wild boar strutting along a traffic-filled road in Rome has catapulted the issue of the Italian capital’s state of decay to the top of the debate ahead of mayoral elections. Much to the bemusement of onlookers, about 13 boar, distinguished by their coarse hair, sturdy bodies and sharp tusks, walked among the traffic on Via Trionfale, a busy road in the northern suburb of Monte Mario.
Source: theguardian.com
Roger Michell, the much-admired director of films including Notting Hill, Venus and My Cousin Rachel, has died. A statement from Michell’s publicist confirmed the news, saying: “It is with great sadness that the family of Roger Michell, director, writer and father of Harry, Rosie, Maggie and Sparrow, announce his death at the age of 65 on 22 September.” A cause of death was not given.
Source: theguardian.com
The US special envoy for Haiti has resigned in protest over the deportation of Haitian migrants. The decision to return migrants fleeing an earthquake and political instability was "inhumane", senior diplomat Daniel Foote said in a damning letter. Last weekend, the US started deportation flights from a Texas border town, where about 13,000 migrants had gathered under a bridge.
Source: bbc.com
Ukraine's parliament passed a law on Thursday to order "oligarchs" to register and stay out of politics, a day after an attempt to kill a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which officials said could have been a response to the reform. The law provides a definition for an oligarch and gives a body headed by the president, the National Security and Defence Council, the power to determine who meets the criteria.
Source: reuters.com
Somalia has hosted its first movie screening in 30 years under heavy security as the conflict-ravaged country hopes for a cultural renewal. The event was held at the National Theatre of Somalia, which has a history that reflects the tumultuous journey of the Horn of Africa nation. It has been targeted by suicide bombers and used as a base by warlords – and until Wednesday it had never screened a Somali film.
Source: theguardian.com
A high-profile shaman who tried to end Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 outbreak with “blessed” water has died of the virus, according to his family. Eliyantha White, 48, who treated sports stars and top politicians, including the country’s prime minister, claimed in November he could end the pandemic in Sri Lanka and neighbouring India by pouring pots of his “blessed” water into rivers.
Source: aljazeera.com
There will be no banquet in Stockholm this year and laureates will receive their Nobel Prize medals and diplomas in their home countries, the Nobel Foundation said on Thursday. The traditional festivities were replaced last year as well with a mainly digital celebration as the pandemic raged Europe and the rest of the world. The Foundation said the ceremony will be broadcast on television and live streamed via its Nobel Prize digital platforms.
Source: reuters.com
An ancient clay tablet displaying part of the story of a superhuman god will be returned to Iraq by the US on Thursday. Known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, the 3,600-year-old religious text shows a section of a Sumerian poem from the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is one of the world's oldest works of literature and was looted from an Iraqi museum during the Gulf War in 1991.
Source: bbc.com
Taking center stage in a prestigious Spanish film festival to receive a top career award, actor Johnny Depp presented himself as a victim of the “cancel culture” that, he said, has spread across the cinema industry. Depp was addressing questions on Wednesday by reporters at the San Sebastian International Film Festival about the loss of Hollywood’s favor for new roles ever since his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, went public with allegations of domestic violence against him.
Source: apnews.com
Britney Spears said in a court filing Wednesday that she agrees with her father that the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money since 2008 should be terminated. The filing in Los Angeles Superior Court from Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart says she “fully consents” to “expeditiously” ending the conservatorship, which her father James Spears, who has controlled it for most of its 13 years, asked for in a Sept. 7 petition.
Source: apnews.com
A woman rescued from a Croatian island with no memory of how she got there, where she came from or who she was, has been identified as a Slovakian former designer who had lived in the US and made jewellery for celebrities including Diana Ross. Croatian police on Wednesday named the woman as Daniela or Dana Adamcova, 57, adding that her identity had been established after friends and acquaintances from Croatia and Slovakia recognised her from a photograph released on Monday.
Source: theguardian.com
Consumers should throw away their Chinese phones and avoid buying new ones, Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has warned. A report by its National Cyber Security Centre tested 5G mobiles from Chinese manufacturers. It claimed that one Xiaomi phone had built-in censorship tools while another Huawei model had security flaws. Huawei said no user data is sent externally and Xiaomi said it does not censor communications.
Source: bbc.com
A Frida Kahlo self-portrait featuring her husband Diego Rivera is tipped to sell for more than $30 million at auction in New York, Sotheby's said Wednesday. "Diego y yo" (Diego and I), painted in 1949, "is poised to shatter" Kahlo's current auction record of $8 million set in 2016, the auction house said in a statement. The artwork, which will be the star lot of Sotheby's big November sale, is also expected to smash the record for a painting by a Latin American artist.
Source: france24.com
Actor Robert Fyfe, best known for playing Howard in sitcom Last of the Summer Wine for 25 years, has died at the age of 90. Fyfe joined the long-running BBC show in 1985 and remained until its final episode in 2010.
Source: bbc.com
Ethnic Serbs dug in Wednesday for a long protest over the Kosovo government's decision to ban vehicles with Serbian plates as they formed a tent camp on the border with Serbia. They started blocking border traffic after the ethnic Albanian-led government decided on Monday to oblige drivers with Serbian registration plates to put on temporary ones when entering Kosovo. A few hundred ethnic Serbs were camping in tents by trucks parked in the middle of the roads leading to the border.
Source: france24.com
Algeria has closed its airspace to all Moroccan planes, the presidency said on Wednesday, in the latest dispute between the two countries at odds mainly over Western Sahara.
Source: france24.com
More than 30 people have died because a health workers' strike in Guinea-Bissau has paralysed the healthcare system, a spokesperson for the nurses' union said on Wednesday. The boycott over working conditions, pay and other issues was launched on Monday in the small West African nation where chronically under-equipped hospitals and clinics have long angered workers and endangered patients.
Source: reuters.com
Battery power may be the frontrunner to become the car technology of the future, but don't rule out the underdog hydrogen. That's the view of some major automakers, including BMW and Audi, which are developing hydrogen fuel-cell passenger vehicle prototypes alongside their fleets of battery cars as part of preparations to abandon fossil fuels.
Source: reuters.com
Follow us and get updates!
Videos
Minister vows to carry out revolution in sports
