Armenia’s ruling party is set to nominate ex-president Serzh Sarksyan to be prime minister, the government’s press service said on Monday.

Armenia is in the process of shifting power to the prime minister after parliament chose a new president in March.

“We have decided to propose to our party colleagues to keep an existing governing configuration and to submit the candidacy of Serzh Sarksyan as prime minister,” the press service quoted Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan as saying.

The ruling party is expected to nominate Sarksyan at its party gathering on Thursday. Parliament, dominated by the ruling party, will make a final choice on April 17.

Sarksyan’s ally – Armen Sarkissian, a former prime minister and ambassador to Britain – was inaugurated as president on Monday after being elected by parliament on March 2 in a vote that was meant to herald the start of a power shift to the prime minister and parliament.

Under the terms of an amended constitution approved in 2015 by a referendum, the presidency is meant to become largely ceremonial.

Opposition leaders have accused Sarksyan of changing the system to ensure he stays in power, and have been holding protest rallies in recent weeks. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the center of Yerevan again on Monday.

Armenia, a country of around 3 million people in the southern Caucasus, seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991, but remains dependent on Russia for aid and investment. Many Armenians accuse the government of corruption and mishandling the economy.

This story was written by Reuters.
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Pope Francis is calling for ordinary Catholics to live holy lives in whatever they do, stressing that the “saints next door” are more pleasing to God than religious elites who insist on perfect adherence to rules and doctrine.

In a new document released Monday, Francis said defending the poor and migrants is “equally sacred” to defending the unborn — a not-so-veiled critique of the conservative right in the U.S. for whom opposition to abortion trumps the Gospel mandate to love and welcome the stranger.

And he warned that the vitriol that is sometimes spewed online — including by Catholic media — needs to stop since it violates God’s commandment not to bear false witness, lie or “ruthlessly vilify others.”

The document, “Rejoice and Be Glad,” is the third apostolic exhortation of Francis’ papacy, after the first two riled conservatives by condemning capitalism and suggesting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.

It was signed by Francis on March 19, the fifth anniversary of his pontificate, and perhaps fittingly reaffirmed the centrality to his papacy of the “Beatitudes,” the eight biblical blessings extolling the meek, the poor and the merciful.

In the text, Francis said he had no intention of defining holiness or setting out the various ways to be made a saint. Rather, he said he wanted to re-propose the church’s universal call to holiness that can be found next door, “the middle class of holiness” of a husband who loves his wife, a mother who patiently teaches her child, an employee who works with integrity.

“A saintliness that is not for just a few heroes, for exceptional people, but that represents the ordinary way to life, an ordinary existence,” said Paola Bignardi, an Italian laywoman and member of the Catholic Action network who presented the document at a Vatican press conference.

Stressing that perfection isn’t required, Francis listed as “enemies of holiness” those who claim a superior knowledge of laws and doctrine and force others to submit to their “myopic,” absolutist interpretations. He said they reduce Jesus’ teachings to a “cold and harsh logic” and a “self-centered and elitist complacency, bereft of true love.”

He didn’t name names, but the admonition appeared aimed at conservatives in his own church — including some Vatican-based cardinals — who have balked at his mercy-over-morals style and loose interpretations of church teaching, particularly on marriage and liturgy.

Francis said their “sinister ideology” finds expression in “an obsession with the law, an absorption with social and political advantages, a punctilious concern for the church’s liturgy, doctrine and prestige.”

Much of the conservative criticism of Francis has focused on his last apostolic exhortation, the 2016 “The Joy of Love,” in which Francis opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.

Conservatives say the document has split the church, caused confusion and undermined church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

Just last week, two conservative cardinals headlined a symposium in Rome that issued a declaration rejecting Francis’ opening to divorcees and begging the pope to “confirm us in the faith.”

Francis hasn’t responded directly to four conservative cardinals who have demanded that he clarify his 2016 opening, but in the new document he noted that within the church “there legitimately coexist different ways of interpreting many aspects of doctrine and Christian life” — even if it leads to confusion.

Francis also criticized those who prioritize certain ideologies over basic Gospel teaching, listing, for example, those who focus on abortion over all other issues.

Defending the unborn, “needs to be clear, firm and passionate,” he said.

“Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery and every form of rejection.”

In a jab that seemed aimed in particular at anti-immigrant faithful in the U.S, Europe and beyond, he said some Catholics relegate care for migrants to a lesser issue compared to bioethical concerns.

“That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children,” he wrote.

After Francis made headlines recently by seemingly denying the existence of hell, the new document strongly affirms the real and present danger of the devil who “poisons us with the venom of hatred, desolation, envy and vice.”

This story was written by the Associated Press.
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Syria and Russia say two Israeli war planes operating in Lebanese air space carried out an attack early Monday on an air base in central Syria.

Israel’s military did not comment on the strikes against the T4 base in Homs province. 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people were killed, including Iranian forces.

In February, Israel accused Iranian forces of using the same site to send a drone to Israeli territory. It responded by attacking Syrian air defense and Iranian military targets within Syria, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “continue to harm anyone who tries to harm us.”

Initial Syrian state media reports Monday blamed the United States, which along with France denied responsibility.

“However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood said in a statement.

Syria has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons throughout the conflict that began in 2011, including the most recent suspected chemical attack Saturday in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus that killed at least 40 people.

Late Sunday, the White House said President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned chemical attacks in Syria and agreed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government “must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses.”

“They agreed to exchange information on the nature of the attacks and coordinate a strong, joint response,” the White House said about a phone call between the two leaders.

Macron’s office added that the two sides “exchanged information and analysis confirming the use of chemical weapons.”

Trump used Twitter earlier Sunday to say there would be a “big price to pay” for what he called the “mindless chemical attack” Saturday.

In a rare direct condemnation of Russia’s leader, Trump declared, “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible” for their support of “Animal Assad.”

He further called for Syria to open the area of the alleged chemical attack to allow in verification and medical teams.

The Russian foreign ministry rejected claims of a chemical attack, saying, “The spread of bogus stories about the use of chlorine and other poisonous substances by (Syrian) government forces continues.

“We have warned several times recently against such dangerous provocations,” the Moscow statement said. “The aim of such deceitful speculation, lacking any kind of grounding, is to shield terrorists and to attempt to justify possible external uses of force.”

Iran said U.S. claims about the attack were aimed at justifying new American military action. A year ago, after an earlier chemical weapons attack by Syria, Trump launched 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria, targeting the military base that was home to the warplanes that carried out the attack. 

Trump did not say how the U.S. might respond to Saturday’s suspected chemical attack. But Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser Thomas Bossert told ABC News, “I wouldn’t take anything off the table.”

The United Nations Security Council will meet Monday about the alleged attack, after nine countries demanded an urgent session. The European Union said “evidence points toward yet another chemical attack” by the Syrian regime.

Trump also said that if his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, “had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand,” to hold Assad accountable for previous chemical attacks, “the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!”

Trump’s rebuke of Putin was unusual. 

The U.S. leader has been reluctant during his nearly 15-month presidency to accept the conclusion of the U.S. intelligence community that Putin directed a 2016 campaign to meddle in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump win. U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has been conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation of the Trump campaign’s links to Russia, but Trump has repeatedly rejected the notion there was any collusion with Russia.

The alleged chemical attack occurred late Saturday amid new attacks on the last rebel enclave in eastern Ghouta.

First responders said they discovered families suffocated in their homes and shelters with foam on their mouths. Relief workers said more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth and their eyes burning.

The Civil Defense and Syrian American Medical Society said patients gave off a chlorine-like smell, and some had blue skin, an indication of oxygen deprivation.

“Dropping poison gas in a way that attacks women and children down in the shelters is a way to try to panic the civilians into leaving and cut the ground underneath the rebels,” University of Pennsylvania political science professor Ian Lustick told VOA.

Trump’s rebuff of Putin and Iran, which has forces in Syria, came as Syrian state television said Sunday an agreement has been reached for rebels to leave Douma, their last stronghold near Damascus.

The accord calls for the Jaish al-Islam fighters to release all prisoners they were holding in exchange for passage within 48 hours to the opposition-held town of Jarablus in northern Syria near the Turkish border. Russia said last week that Jaish al-Islam accepted a deal to leave Ghouta, which houses tens of thousands of people. However, the evacuations stalled over reports that the rebel group remained divided over the withdrawal. 

The pact was reached just hours after the suspected chemical attack.
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German authorities said six people have been detained Sunday allegedly in connection with a plan to carry out an extremist attack on Berlin’s half-marathon.

In a joint statement, prosecutors and police said, “There were isolated indications that those arrested, aged between 18 and 21 years, were participating in the preparation of a crime in connection with this event.”

Berlin police tweeted that six people were arrested after a joint operation with the Berlin’s prosecutor’s office.

The German daily Die Welt first reported that police was able to stop a plan to attack race spectators and participants with knives.

The paper also reported the main suspect apparently knew Anis Amri, a Tunisian asylum seeker who killed 12 people when he hijacked a truck and drove it into a crowded Berlin Christmas market in December 2016.

The arrests came after Germany special force police raided the homes of suspected members of a far-right group in Berlin, Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said.

Authorities did not say if the two cases were connected.

At least eight people are allegedly involved. The chief federal prosecutor’s office said apartments in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg and Thuringia were searched on Sunday for weapons.

Though no one has been detained, officials believe the suspects are members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) group — an organization that does not recognize modern-day Germany as a legitimate state and does not accept current rules.

The group believes the former “Deutsche Reich” is still alive, despite Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. They identify with a state system from 1871-1918, the German Kaiserreich area.  

Authorities said the accused formed the group in 2017. Besides efforts to acquire weapons, German police is also investigating the killings of some people. Officials said the group is ready to kill targeted people, if necessary.

Investigators said in a statement that they were assisted in their searches by the anti-terrorism GSG 9 police unit.

According to the domestic intelligence service, it is estimated the Reichsbuerger has several thousand members.

In October 2016, a member was shot and killed by a police officer in Bavaria when a special force team was about to enter his home to apprehend hunting and sports guns.

Sunday’s raids, however, were not linked to the incident in Muenster on Saturday, where a man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a restaurant, killing two people. The man then shot himself to death, the prosecutor’s office said.
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A hardliner on immigration in Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is expected to win his third consecutive term in an election Sunday.

Opinion polls showed Orban’s right-wing nationalist Fidesz party leading before the vote.

Reports say there is a slight chance the opposition could deny Fidesz a parliament majority if voters discontent with Orban’s policies choose tactical voting in the 106 constituencies.

There are 199 seats in parliament available this election and opposition parties do not want Orban’s coalition to be the majority, which could lead the autocratic leader to push through constitutional changes.

Ahead of the parliamentary elections, the outspoken Orban ramped up his anti-migrant rhetoric.

Speaking at a recent campaign rally, Orban accused the European Union of “trying to take away our country.”

“Brussels wants to dilute the population of Europe and to replace it, to cast aside our culture, our way of life,” he told supporters last month in Budapest.

Hungary’s location at the crossroads of two popular migration routes brought it more than 440,000 mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees and migrants in 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Most were passing through to reach other European Union countries, but the massive influx was seen as disruptive and unwelcome by the Hungarian government.

Hungary has since constructed fences along its southern border and enacted legislation that has significantly reduced irregular migration across its territory.

The European Union and the United Nations have voiced alarm at the tone of the campaign, and fears over alleged attacks on the media and judiciary.

Though Orban has campaigned heavily on anti-migration policies, voters are more concerned with government corruption, poverty, and the country’s health care system.

About 8.3 million Hungarians are eligible to vote this election, and preliminary results are expected Sunday night.

Early in the day, voter turnout was the highest since 1998. Hungary’s National Election Office reports 13.17 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots by 9 a.m. (0700GMT).
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