Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 06.08.2020:

• At least 157 people were killed and 5,000 wounded in a huge blast that shook Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanon's health minister noted.

Hundreds have been reported missing.  Over 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes. 

Beirut is declared a "disaster city" and a two-week state of emergency has been imposed.

It is still unclear what exactly caused the blast. According to Lebanon's PM, an investigation would focus on an estimated 2,750 metric tons of the explosive ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse.

• Eleven members of the Armenian community have died in Beirut blast, while 250 were injured, Arevelk reported.

There are also missing Armenians.

Beirut blast has also destroyed workshop of world-famous designer Krikor Jabotian.

He has shared the consequences of a powerful explosion in Beirut.

According to him, the scale of the damage is appallingly devastating as Lebanese people are going through an unprecedented financial crisis caused by COVID-19.

• Armenia will render an assistance to Beirut.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinayn noted: "We will assist the Lebanese government and the local Armenian community as much as possible." 

PM also said that Armenia’s commissioner for diaspora affairs will soon leave for Beirut to get acquainted with the needs of the local Armenian community on the spot and to inform about it to the Armenian government.

• As of 11 am on Thursday, 233 COVID-19 new cases were reported in Armenia, and two more people have died of this disease.

A total of 39,819 cases of novel coronavirus have been confirmed as of Thursday morning, 7,263 people are receiving treatment, 171,600 tests have been conducted, and 31,556 patients have recovered.

A total of 772 deaths from the coronavirus have been reported so far.

• The former mayor of Yerevan and ex-chair of the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia Robert Nazaryan has been detained within a criminal case under investigation by the Special Investigation Service (SIS); this information was confirmed by the SIS.

According to press reports, as per sources in the law enforcement system, before being detained, Nazaryan was asked to testify against the third president, Serzh Sargsyan, along the lines of a criminal case, promising to stop the criminal prosecution against him.

According to the same source, Robert Nazaryan, however, rejected, claiming that the testimony did not correspond to reality and he could not sign it.

• The Corruption Prevention Commission of Armenia has initiated proceedings against the Minister of Health, Arsen Torosyan, based on an apparent conflict of interest.

A post of data.hetq.am was the basis for these proceedings.

The Ministry of Health had signed service contracts with a company whose director is Vardanush Tevanyan, the wife of Minister Torosyan. Under these contracts, the company was obligated to provide hospital services, e-health spending reimbursement, and computed tomography.

In its decision to launch proceedings, the commission cited two points from the Law on Public Service. Aside from the Ministry of Health, the said company had signed deal also with the Yerevan City Hall for providing medical services, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. The Ministry of Health and the Yerevan Municipality had signed contracts with this company for a total of 176 million drams.

• The Ministry of Health had not announced a tender for any of the purchases made from the company of the minister's wife.

The Chamber of Deputies of Italy Wednesday voted (414-0) to ratify the Armenian-EU deal.

It will soon be submitted to the President.