President of France Emmanuel Macron welcomed his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.

The ceremony was followed by a tête-à-tête and a working dinner, Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reports from Paris. The presidents also held a news conference.

The parliament will elect the fourth President of Armenia on March 2, and the Prime Minister—on April 17.

The nomination of the presidential candidates will take place during the last ten days of February, and the PM candidates will be nominated from April 9 to 16, National Assembly Vice Chairperson Arpine Hovhannisyan said.

The parliamentary factions will present their candidates for PM, and the latter will be elected on April 17, at a special parliament session, and by a majority of votes.

Armenian national football team midfielder and captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan officially became a player of Arsenal. As part of this deal, Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez transferred from Arsenal to Manchester United.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said his challenge is to get Mkhitaryan to express his talent completely.

Manchester United thanked the Armenian player saying they wish Henrikh the best of luck for the future.

“He is a player that we will not forget, especially for his contribution to our Europa League victory,” MU manager Jose Mourinho said.

Mkhitaryan has been given Alexis Sanchez's No.7 shirt.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has appointed a new rapporteur on Armenia, head of the Armenian delegation Arpine Hovhannisyan said.

Ukraine’s Julia Liovochkina will serve as new rapporteur on Armenia.

Previous rapporteur Alain Meale’s mandate was suspended, as he was not elected to the British parliament. The mandate of the second rapporteur Giuseppe Galati will continue. 

The 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting kicks off in Davos, Switzerland.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan of Armenia on Tuesday met with the heads of some major international companies on the margins of Davos summit.

In particular, Karapetyan met a with chairman Hans-Paul Bürkner of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As well as with CEO Jean-Yves Charlier and chief external affairs officer Mark MacGann of VEON telecommunication services company.

Parliamentary hearings on the reasons for the price increases in several products and the avenues for lessening inflation in Armenia were held Tuesday at the National Assembly.

President Serzh Sargsyan recently held a consultation devoted to the price hike of certain products in the country and to reducing its consequences.

Turkey has issued a statement on the first victim during the operation in Syria’s Afrin.  Senior sergeant Mousa Özalkan was killed in a clash with Kurdish forces, Turkish army said. The news about the second victim came several hours later. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called for Turkey to show “restraint” in its operation in Syria, adding that “the violence in Afrin disrupts what was a relatively stable area in Syria and distracts from the international effort to defeat ISIS”.

Earlier UN announced plans to prepare a large-scale humanitarian operation to help the residents in Afrin.

The U.S. will move its embassy to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday.

 “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital – and, as such, President Trump has directed the State Department to immediately begin preparations to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence said.