/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 2007 European Champion, silver medalist of 2009 European Championship Hripsime Khurshudyan won bronze at the World Weightlifting Championships in Goyang, South Korea. She won two bronze medals for lifting 125 kg in the snatch and 147 kg in the clean and jerk and one bronze medal for snatch, clean and jerk combination.

In all, Armenia won 11 medals.

Kazakhstan's Svetlana Pobedova won the champion title, lifting 132 kg in the snatch and 160 kg in the clean and jerk.

/Tehran Times/ – The Iranian play “Gauntlet” by director Alireza Asadi will go on stage in Armenia on December 4, 5 and 6.

The play was written by Mehdi Nasiri, a Ph.D. student of art in Armenia, and was previously staged in Iran under the title of “The Votes”.

“Gauntlet” was the top selected play at the Isar Playwriting contest and was also honored at the 11th edition of the Resistance Theater Festival, the Persian service of Fars reported on Saturday.

/Azatutyun.am/ Emil Danielyan, Karine Kalantarian - President Serzh Sarkisian called on Saturday for a major transformation of his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) that would democratize its structure and make it more responsive to the views of its political opponents.

Sarkisian said the HHK should take the lead in forming a new “culture of political dialogue” which he believes would spare the country further political upheavals and guarantee its long-term “stability.”

“The biggest responsibility for and possibility of establishing a culture of political dialogue in the country rests with its leading party,” he said in a keynote speech at a congress of the governing party. “Let us shoulder it with honor. Let us lay the groundwork for the exemplary model of a modern ruling party.”

/RFE/RL/ Two leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party (Dashnaktsutyun) have criticized Russian policy toward Turkey and Azerbaijan, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Vahan Hovannisian, a senior Dashnaktsutyun lawyer, said that Russian policy toward the South Caucasus is "dangerous" for Armenia. Hovannisian did not elaborate on his statement.

Another Dashnaktsutyun leader, Hrayr Karapetian, who heads the parliament's defense and security committee, said Russia's deepening military cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan runs counter to its military alliance with Armenia.

Karapetian said a 2010 plan for joint military exercises signed by Azerbaijani and Russian defense ministers is "at the least, strange and unacceptable to us."