ARMENIAN NEWS: BREAKING NEWS 3.05.2018

Two people were killed and one was wounded in an armed robbery attempt of an HSBC Bank branch in Yerevan on Thursday.

A man who was armed with a knife, a grenade, and a rifle had broken into the bank branch, injured three people. One of the bank security employees died at the scene. Another bank employee and a police officer were hospitalized. Police officer died in the hospital several hours later.

This person had stolen money from the bank, fled the scene, but he could not run off too far.

Being surrounded by the police, he showed resistance and injured a police officer. The man was detained and was later identified as police Colonel Daniel Danielyan.

Yelk faction head Nikol Pashinyan has been formally nominated candidate for Prime Minister at the National Assembly.

According to the respective NA statement, Pashinyan’s candidacy was nominated by more than one-third of the total number of MPs in the 105-seat parliament.

Instead of the 35 needed signatures, a total of 41 lawmakers have signed under the document to nominate him PM candidate.

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) will not nominate a PM candidate for the May election, head of RPA faction Vahram Baghdasaryan said following the meeting on Wednesday.

RPA said they will support any candidate who will be nominated by at least one third of the deputies in the Armenian parliament.

Secretary of ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction Aghvan Vardanyan has handed over resignation, the statement issued by the speaker of the Armenian parliament Ara Babloyan said.

During the special session of the parliament on Monday, Vardanyan said he will not take part in the election of a Prime Minister and can quit as MP if necessary.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, head of ARF faction Armen Rustamyan did not rule out that Vardanyan can be expelled from the party.

Armenia's acting minister of culture Armen Amiryan has resigned.

Mr. Amiryan announced his decision when talking to the demonstrators holding protest actions near the building of the Armenian Ministry of Culture on Wednesday.

Russian military jet crashed in Syria on Thursday killing both of its pilots.

Major Albert Davidyan, Armenian by origin, was one of the pilots of the military jet that crashed off the coast of Syria, near the city of Jableh in Latakia province.

Russian Defense Ministry said two crew members had tried in vain to save the plane until the last moment.

Armenian Greco-Roman wrestlers Maksim Manukyan and Artur Aleksanyan won gold of the European Wrestling Championships in the categories of 82 and 97 kilograms.

Karen Aslanyan (67 kg) defeated Poland’s Davit Karetsinksi and won a bronze medal.