Azerbaijan weightlifters leave Armenia after flag burned

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Azerbaijan has withdrawn from the European Weightlifting Championships in the capital of Armenia a day after a man ran onto the stage at the competition’s opening ceremony, seized an Azerbaijan flag and set it on fire. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Youth and Sports says the incident Friday night in Yerevan showed that “security is not ensured” for Azerbaijani athletes. The ministry says the athletes and those accompanying them have left Armenia. Armenian officials say the man was a public television employee who was invited to the opening ceremony. He has not been charged. Animosity between Armenia and Azerbaijan has risen with the blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to the ethnically Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan.