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Geraint Thomas wins Tour De France as Alexander Kristoff takes final stage

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Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff won the prestigious final stage of the 2018 Tour de France but the day belonged to Britain’s Geraint Thomas, who was crowned the overall winner in Paris.

Welsh rider Geraint Thomas of Britain’s Team Sky was crowned the winner of the 2018 Tour de France with Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Emirates) winning the 21st stage sprint on the Champs Elysees in Paris. For Team Sky, it’s the sixth Tour victory in seven years.

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin finished second for Team Sunweb while Giro d’Italia winner Chris Froome (Britain/Team Sky) finished third.

Thomas had already been designated as the winner of this year’s Tour, becoming the third Briton to do so after Bradley Wiggins and Froome. Thomas, 32, was able to enjoy the procession into Paris with tradition dictating that the Yellow Jersey not be attacked on the final stage.

“It’s insane. It’s the stuff of dreams,” he said ahead of the stage start. “As a kid I dreamt of being in this race. Through the years the results have slowly built. To be in this position now is just incredible. I think it’ll take a while to sink in. It’s just bonkers. I’m going to try to enjoy today, and certainly tonight!”

For the rest of the field, there was still the issue of a prestigious final stage to win – and the contest was more open than ever with the winners of the last nine Champs-Elysees sprints (Mark Cavendish (four), Marcel Kittel and André Greipel (two each), and Dylan Groenewegen) all having dropped out.

David Gaudu, Silvan Dillier, Taylor Phinney, Nils Politt, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Michael Schar formed a breakaway group with 46 kilometers (28.6 miles) left and remained 15-40 seconds ahead of the peloton until the final two laps of the Champs-Elysees when a counterattack led by Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step Floors began to reel them in.

As the bell rang for the final circuit, Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) positioned himself towards the front of the peloton which successfully caught up with the breakaway group to set up a group sprint finish, with Yves Lampaert sprinting ahead alone. But the Belgian had gone to early and was caught before the line by Kristoff.

mf/pfd (AFP/dpa)

Vladimir Putin wins presidential elections by big margin

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Russia’s incumbent president Vladimir Putin has garnered 76.65% of the vote in the March 18 election with 99% of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said, according to TASS agency.

Director of the Lenin State Farm Pavel Grudinin, nominated by the Communist Party of Russia, is second with 11.82% of the vote, while leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky is third with 5.68%.

More than 55.4 mln people voted for Putin, while over 8.54 mln supported Grudinin and around 4.1 mln voted in Zhirinovsky’s favor.

TV personality and socialite Ksenia Sobchak, nominated by the Civil Initiative party, is fourth with 1.66% (over 1.19 mln votes).

Next are head of the Yabloko Party’s federal political committee Grigory Yavlinsky (1.04%), chairman of the Party of Growth and Russian Presidential Envoy for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov (0.75%), Maxim Suraikin, nominated by the Communists of Russia party (0.68%) and head of the Russian People’s Union party Sergei Baburin (0.65%).

Speaking at his campaign headquarters, Putin announced that all changes in Russian government will happen after the inauguration ceremony.

“All changes to the government must be performed by a president, who entered his new term, so now I will think about what needs to be done and how it should be done. All changes will happen after the inauguration,” Putin said, as quoted by Sputnik news agency.

 

Source Panorama.am

Cyprus president Anastasiades wins run-off to land second term, Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message

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Anastasiades wins run-off

Anastasiades wins run-off

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades won a second five-year term on Sunday as voters gave a thumbs-up to his record in containing an economic meltdown in 2013 and his attempts to reconcile with estranged Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically-split island.

With all votes counted, the conservative had 56 percent of the vote against 44 percent for the leftist-backed Stavros Malas.

“A new day dawns tomorrow which requires unity, because that is required to move forward,” Anastasiades told cheering crowds in downtown Nicosia. “I will continue to be a president for all Cypriots. Tonight, there are no winners or losers, there is (only) a Cyprus for all of us.”

Anastasiades, 71, steered the Cypriot economy to recovery after it was plunged into crisis in 2013, days after he was first elected, by its exposure to debt-racked Greece and by fiscal slippage under a previous left-wing administration.

Cyprus emerged from a bailout programme from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in 2016. Unlike other austerity programmes, the Cyprus model put most of the painful measures up front, including recapitalising banks by seizing uninsured deposits, a so-called ‘bail-in’ – used in the euro zone for the first time.

Malas, a geneticist who served as health minister in the former leftist administration, had also come second to Anastasiades in 2013.

Political analyst Hubert Faustmann said Anastasiades had entered the race as favourite in a field of relatively uninspiring candidates, adding: “He handled the economic crisis very well, he got a lot of credit for that.”

As leader of the island’s Greek Cypriot community, Anastasiades oversaw peace talks with the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot controlled north.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup, and has one of the world’s longest-serving peacekeeping forces.

Peace talks collapsed last year over the role that Turkey could play in a post-settlement Cyprus.

Anastasiades faced criticism from Greek Cypriot political rivals for either offering too many concessions to Turkish Cypriots, or for missing one of the best chances in a generation to solve the logjam – a view that Malas supported.

Despite ideological differences, however, both candidates were viewed as being more pro-settlement than adversaries eliminated in the first round of voting on Sept. 28.

“There are two narratives in the Greek Cypriot community: one that he bears responsibility for the failure of talks and the other – that Turkish intransigence is responsible. It’s apparently the second which prevailed,” Faustmann said.

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to Nicos Anastasiades on his re-election as President of the Republic of Cyprus, wishing him robust health and every success in the high mission of president, the press department of the office of Armenian President reported.

“Armenia is keen to continue strengthening the Armenian-Cypriot interstate relations in both bilateral and multilateral formats, based on common values and warm ties between our peoples. Of course, our relationship can be promoted through reciprocated high-level contacts and active political dialogue which have become a good tradition between our countries.

I am confident that we will continue to work in the same spirit and advance the mutually beneficial cooperation for the sake of our countries and peoples,” reads the message.

“Czech” Andrej Babis Wins Landslide Victory

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  • The election outcome, the result of popular discontent with established parties, is the latest in a recent wave of successes for European populists, including in Austria and Germany. The populist ascendancy highlights a shifting political landscape in Europe where runaway multiculturalism and political correctness, combined with a massive influx of unassimilable migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, have given rise to a surge in support for anti-establishment protest parties.
  • “It is unthinkable that the indigenous European population should adapt themselves to the refugees. We must do away with such nonsensical political correctness. The refugees should behave like guests, that is, they should be polite, and they certainly do not have the right to choose what they want to eat…. There is a deep chasm between what people think and what the media tell them.” — Andrej Babis, in the Czech daily Pravo, January 16, 2016.
  • As prime minister, Babis would share government with Czech President Milos Zeman, who has described political correctness as “a euphemism for political cowardice.”

Mkhitaryan wins MU goal of the month fifth time in the last six months

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan has won May’s prize for his clever hooked finish for the Reds’ second goal in the Europa League final against Ajax, helping United to sign off the campaign in style with European glory in Stockholm and making history as the only man ever to score in five different European games on the road for the club in a single campaign.

In a poll conducted on ManUtd.com, his instinctive effort in the showpiece in Sweden earned a whopping 68% of the final vote.

As the club official website reports, remarkably, it’s the fifth time in the last six months that Mkhitaryan has landed the award after topping the vote with his scorpion kick against Sunderland in December and a breakaway effort against Wigan in the Emirates FA Cup in January before brilliant solo goals against Leicester City and Sunderland came out on top in February and April respectively.

Armenian dance group wins competition in Germany

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On 8 April, the Anoush Armenian Dance Group of the Armenian compatriotic union in Munich participated in a competition for Germany’s qualified dance groups and won the first prize after scoring 90.3 points.

During the folk dances part of the competition, one of the dancers, 15-year-old Meline Hubakh performed a solo dance to Sayat-Nova’s song “Nazani”.

As the dance group’s founding dance instructor and artistic director Anoush Chakhalyan told Hayern Aysor, the dance group won after a tough competition, since all of the dance groups were professional and stood out with their high level of readiness.

“This victory is a great achievement for us, and we are very happy. Of course, we thought we might win, but we weren’t expecting it,” Anoush Chakhalyan stated, adding that foreigners approached her and expressed their admiration of the Armenian dances after the competition.

 

Source Panorama.am

Armenian Weightlifter Davit Hovhannisyan wins gold at European Championships

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davit-hovhannisyanAn excellent performance by young Armenian weightlifter Davit Hovhannisyan earned him a gold medal at the European Under-20 Junior Championships.

Hovhannisyan defeated Latvian athlete Ritvars Suharevs with a final lift in the men’s 77kg weight class of the Israel-hosted event.

The Armenian lifted a total of 326kg above his head, outperforming the Latvian by just 1kg.

Razmik Oltetsyan (77kg), another lifter from the Armenian team, will compete in men’s Under-23 Championships on Wednesday, December 7.

Ballet dedicated to Armenian Genocide wins Emmy Award Video

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ballet for GenocideA ballet titled “Meran Vor Aprink” (They Died So We May Live), dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, was honored with television’s prestigious Emmy Award at the 45th Annual Emmy Awards 2016 Ceremony. The Emmys were presented to the film’s Executive Producers, Diane and Charles Paskerian, Asbarez reported.

The Emmy Award is presented for outstanding achievement in television by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), San Francisco Northern California Chapter, including Hawaii, Reno, and Sacramento, Oregon. This year there was a record number of 757 English and 179 Spanish entries in 67 categories. “Meron Vor Abrink” was listed under the Arts/Entertainment-Program/Special category.

Davit Karapetyan, Principle Dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, was so inspired when he saw San Francisco’s Armenian Genocide Memorial “Mount Davidson Cross” for the first time, he envisioned choreographing a 100th Genocide Ballet Dance Video as a “Tribute to the Survival of our Ancestors through creative dance and music. We agreed to raise necessary funds for talent and crew….and the “creative process began!”

The ballet took over a year to produce, with original choreography by Davit Karapetyan, fourteen San Francisco Ballet dancers including Karapetyan, Vanessa Zahorian, and a crew of 23. Writing, editing, and development input was done by Diane and Charles Paskerian. Filming took place at Baker’s Beach and the Mount Davidson Cross.

The video project was enthusiastically endorsed by the Bay Area Centennial Committee and the Council of Armenian American Organizations of the Bay Area. The Council is charged with maintaining and supporting the Armenian Genocide Memorial Cross at Mount Davidson, the home of the Annual San Francisco Easter Sunrise Service for almost 100 years, and supporting Armenian Genocide education. The historical cross is the tallest Armenian Genocide Monument in the World.

Boris Johnson wins ‘Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition’

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Erdogan jockWhat rhymes with Ankara? Not very much, but that didn’t stop Conservative Boris Johnson writing an Erdogan limerick. He won The Spectator magazine’s competition showing solidarity with German comedian Jan Böhmermann.

Former London mayor and current Conservative MP Boris Johnson won an irreverent competition in weekly British news magazine “The Spectator” on Thursday, for his limerick criticizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Spectator editor Douglas Murray announced on the weekly’s blog that Johnson, currently a leading light in the “Brexit” campaign, won the competition.

 

“I think it a wonderful thing that a British political leader has shown that Britain will not bow before the putative caliph in Ankara,” Murray wrote.

According to Murray, Johnson agreed to create a limerick for the competition during a joint interview with the Spectator and Swiss weekly “Die Weltwoche,” in which the Tory called the case against German comedian Jan Böhmermann a “scandal.”

“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so in any European country, including Turkey,” Johnson said.

His statement was shortly followed by the poem, which described Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “young fellow from Ankara” who “sowed his wild oats / with the help of a goat / but didn’t even stop to thankera.”

Source: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/the-spectator-podcast-hillarys-america/

Sadiq Khan wins London mayoral election

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muslim mayorElection of first Muslim mayor of major western capital promises to offset big losses in Scotland as SNP maintains grip on Holyrood

Sadiq Khan’s election as London mayor in the early hours of Saturday handed a boost to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the end of a difficult day in which Labour held ground in England but endured a disastrous defeat in its former heartland of Scotland.

Khan’s landslide victory over his rival, Conservative Zac Goldsmith, in which he secured more than 1.3m votes made him the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital, and gave Labour the keys to City Hall after eight years of Conservative control, following a bitterly fought and controversial campaign.

As the votes were being counted, senior Tories and even Goldsmith’s own sister criticised his team’s strategy, which included repeated claims from the candidate himself and David Cameron that Khan had shown bad judgment by sharing platforms with alleged extremists.

The former Conservative party chairman Sayeeda Warsi attacked the Goldsmith campaign on Twitter, claiming: “Our appalling dog whistle campaign for #LondonMayor2016 lost us the election, our reputation & credibility on issues of race and religion.”

Steve Hilton, Cameron’s former director of strategy who was part of an effort to “detoxify” the Tories, told BBC Newsnight that Goldsmith had brought back the “nasty party label to the Conservative party”.

Speaking after finally being declared winner after midnight, Khan said that he grew up on a council estate and “never dreamt that someone like me could be elected as mayor of London”.