Month: November 2006

‘WE ARE AFRAID:’ MOST OF BEIRUT SPENDS INDEPENDENCE DAY IN STATE OF SHOCK
By Iman Azzi
Daily Star – Lebanon
Nov 23 2006
BEIRUT: A day filled with quiet mourning and shock replaced planned
festivities to commemorate Independence Day on Wednesday after the
assassination of industry Minister Pierre Gemayel a day earlier. Blue
lines painted on Beirut’s streets in anticipation of a parade were
the only markings that remained of the expected celebrations as
stores stayed closed and people stayed home. The climate more closely
resembled that of a Sunday morning than a weekday afternoon.
“The future is black. Darker than black,” said Pierre Suleiman,
owner of a small chicken restaurant in Hadath.
Few people dared to point fingers after the sixth prominent anti-Syrian
figure was assassinated since February 2005, but all expressed concern
over the future of the country.
Suleiman lived in Paris for five years and doesn’t want to move abroad
again. He doesn’t think it will come to that, but when asked if Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora’s government should resign, he was unsure.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But how come those who used to collaborate
with Syria are still in the government? Syria left and they stayed?
Am I crazy?”
Roger, a Christian shopkeeper in Ain al-Roummaneh, thought the
government should resign but that assassinations were no path to peace.
“Probably [they should resign], because they can’t do anything,”
he said, adding that he didn’t think Gemayel’s assassination would
provoke the country into civil war.
“The assassinations need to stop, though,” he added. “Whoever did it
doesn’t want the country to be fixed.”
Hizbullah, Amal and Free Patriotic Movement flags flew together in
front of stores throughout the Dahiyeh. Hizbullah-funded patrols helped
direct traffic as men sold olives, bread and fruits on the sidewalks.
Rida Assaghir, an employee at a cell-phone store in Dahiyeh, said
everything in the southern suburbs was “normal.”
He admitted that there were fewer cars on the streets but said that
he didn’t see an increase in tension.
“There was tension on the ‘Green Line’ last night but Hizbullah
controlled it,” he added, referring to the former dividing line between
Muslims and Christians in Beirut during the 1975-1990 Civil War.
“Last night, there was a bit of tension. We saw tires burning … on
the television,” Fatima, a mother of five, said while walking with
three of her children in Jammous. “I’m not into politics that much
and I can’t tell you who did it but the current situation is not very
comforting. We are afraid.”
Some drivers in Achrafieh expressed their commitment to Gemayel’s
Phalange on Wednesday, waving the green cedar tree flag of the party
from the car windows.
“Achrafieh, Achrafieh,” a convoy sang as it drove around the
predominantly Christian districts in East Beirut.
“We lost a good man. A great man,” said Asaad as he sipped coffee
outside of a small convenience store in Gemmayzeh.
Most restaurants and bars along Gemmayzeh’s main artery remained
closed Wednesday after closing early on Tuesday.
“We don’t know who killed him but whoever it is, is trying to create
a divide between the government and Hizbullah. Maybe it’s Syria,
or Israel. Who knows?” he added.
A marching band played through the streets of Achrafieh, ending in
front of Phalange headquarters on Wednesday night. The peaceful vigil
gathered nearly 100 people and was organized by the two Armenian
youth parties.

FACTBOX-KEY FACTS ABOUT INVESTOR KIRK KERKORIAN
Reuters, UK
Nov 22 2006
Nov 22 – Investor Kirk Kerkorian said on Wednesday he had reduced
his stake in General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
to 7.4 percent from 9.9 percent, selling $462 million in stock.
On the same day, Kerkorian announced an $825 million tender offer
that could raise his stake in MGM Mirage Inc (MGM.N: Quote, Profile,
Research) to about 62 percent of the hotel and casino operator.
Here are some key facts about Kerkorian:
* Estimated by Forbes magazine to have a fortune of $8.7 billion,
he was born in 1917 in California to Armenian immigrant parents. The
youngest of four children, he dropped out of school and boxed before
joining the Royal Air Force to fly supply planes from Canada to
Britain during World War Two.
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* After the war, Kerkorian bought surplus war planes to fly gamblers
from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. He pocketed his first fortune when
the business, called Trans International Airlines, went public in 1965.
Then he sold it in 1968 to Transamerica Corp. for more than $100
million in cash and stock.
* Kerkorian has a record of trading properties in Las Vegas and
Hollywood, most famously movie studio MGM, which he has owned three
times. He sold MGM to Ted Turner in 1986 and bought it back months
later. He sold MGM in 1990 and bought it for a third time in 1996
before selling it again for $3 billion to a group of investors led
by Sony Corp.
* Kerkorian was the largest investor in automaker Chrysler before its
link-up with Germany’s Daimler-Benz in 1998. In 1996, he had launched
an unsuccessful

DUTCH CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS ON COURSE TO KEEP POWER
By Emma Thomasson
Swissinfo, Switzerland
Nov 22 2006
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch Christian Democrats were on course to
retain power in an election on Wednesday but faced a struggle to form
a government as voters rewarded parties on the far-left and far-right,
preliminary results showed.
Forecasts based on almost a quarter of the votes counted projected
that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrats (CDA)
would win the most seats in the 150-seat parliament, comfortably
ahead of the opposition Labour party.
But the far-left Socialists (SP) soared to third place ahead of the
liberal VVD, Balkenende’s coalition partner, making his job of forming
a strong government much more difficult.
Who joins the next coalition will determine how closely Balkenende
sticks to his business-friendly policies and tough line on immigration,
long a major concern of Dutch voters.
The other big winner was the new party of anti-immigration maverick
Geert Wilders, who says the Netherlands risks being flooded by Muslims
and wants an immediate halt to new migrants.
“The CDA has promised to do nothing, the SP wants to go back to the
70’s and Wilders wants to put a fence around the Netherlands,” said
economics lecturer Bas Jacobs.
“All the parties in the Netherlands that want change lost, and those
parties that don’t want change, gained.”
Dutch politics has become much more unstable since the murder of
anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn in 2002, with three elections
in four years and last year’s rejection of the European constitution,
opposed by both Wilders and the SP.
Neither Balkenende’s current alliance with the VVD liberals nor a
Labour-led coalition with the far-left Socialists and environmentalist
Green Left was on track for a parliamentary majority, making long
coalition talks likely.
“GRAND COALITION”
The CDA and Labour could try to form an uneasy right-left partnership
like the one governing Germany despite likely produce discord over
tax, pensions and immigration policy. But even that combination lacked
the 76 seats needed for a majority.
“Frankly it’s chaos. The real winner is the only party that actually
did not participate, which is the party of the anarchists,” said
Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm from the VVD.
Balkenende, 50, took credit for a strong economic recovery in the
last year that he said was supported by unpopular welfare reforms
which he and Zalm pushed through early in his term.
Labour leader Wouter Bos, 43, who had a bad start to the day when
he turned up to vote without the right papers, accuses Balkenende
of pandering to big business and the wealthy while failing to fight
inequality.
He has pledged to slow corporate tax cuts and lift spending on
childcare and job-creation programmes. Labour has also promised an
amnesty for some who have waited years for asylum.
Balkenende has implemented some of the toughest immigration and
integration laws in Europe since the meteoric rise of Fortuyn in
2002 and the killing of Islam critic and filmmaker Theo van Gogh by
an Islamist militant in 2004.
His government has also said it will ban Muslim women wearing face
veils in public, a demand made by Wilders.
The election, originally scheduled for May 2007, was called after the
centre-right coalition collapsed in June in a row over the government’s
handling of the disputed citizenship of Somali-born Dutch politician
and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Back then, Labour had a strong lead in the opinion polls, but that
evaporated as the economy rebounded and as Balkenende went on the
offensive, portraying Bos as superficial.
Labour had hoped for strong backing from the almost 10 percent of
the electorate of immigrant origin, although Turkish voters were
angered after it dropped an election candidate for not accepting
Ottoman Turkey’s killing of Armenians as genocide.

CNN TO BROADCAST ADVERTISEMENT SKETCHES ABOUT ARMENIA TWO MORE YEARS
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 14:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ CNN will broadcast advertisement sketches about
Armenia during two more years, said RA Deputy Minister of Trade and
Economic Development Ara Petrosian. “According to the analysis of the
Armenian Ministry of Trade, the broadcasting of ad sketches should be
continued for at least two years to maintain the tourism development
rate in Armenia. It’s essential for consolidating influence on the
potential markets,” he said. In his words, two kinds of sketches are
being broadcast. One represents the republic and the other is targeted
at attraction of tourists.
“These sketches will attract a flow of tourists in the republic but
it’s not all we are going to do,” said the RA Deputy Minister of
Trade and Economic Development.

NO GEORGIAN SPECIAL FORCES IN AKHALKALAKI AND BOGDANOVKA
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 15:00 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ No Georgian special forces were deployed either in
Akhalkalaki nor in Bogdanovka, Javakhk News agency Armen Grigorian told
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “The rumors must have emerged over the
accumulation of policemen at Zhdanovka customs point for inspection
of participants of the action held at the Armenian-Georgian border
on November 20. As result, 40 cars, several spades and an axe were
provisionally confiscated,” Grigoryan said.

NEW STAMP DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUED IN FRANCE
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 16:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A stamp dedicated to the Armenian Genocide was
issued in France. According to Chian news agency, the stamp printed
by a French philatelist is not sold in post offices. However people
can buy one for 2.5 euros and use it when sending correspondence.
The agency also informs that a conference dedicated to mutual
cooperation of national minorities in Turkey which were subjected
to annihilation and robberies will be held in Versailles November
25. The conference will focus on the past and future of Armenians,
Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds. Outstanding figures of national minorities
and scientists will attend the conference, reports RFE/RL.

ALIYEV WILL AGREE ON MEETING WITH KOCHARIAN IF ‘THERE IS EXACT TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION’
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 16:19 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Novruz Mammadov, the head of the presidential
administration’s foreign policy department told reporters November
22 that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will give his approval
to meet with the Armenian President if there is a tangible focus for
discussions. Mammadov expects that the meeting of the Co-chairs with
the Azerbaijani President will confirm the steps to be taken to achieve
certain progress in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. “I
suppose that the efforts by the co-chairs will enable progress
to be achieved within the negotiations,” he stated, reports Trend
news agency.

FRANCE INTERESTED IN CONCESSION MANAGEMENT OF ARMENIAN RAILWAYS
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 16:42 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ France can participate in the tender on concession
management of the Armenian Railways, French Minister of Transport
Dominique Perben said during an Armenian-French business forum held
in the Parisian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, reported the press
office of the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development. The
business forum was initiated by the Parisian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and the Armenian Embassy in Paris with a purpose to represent
the Armenian economic line and attraction of French capital. The
Armenian delegation was lead by RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development Karen Chshmarityan.

12 ETHNIC TURKS RUN FOR DUTCH PARLIAMENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 16:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Twelve candidates of Turkish origin from
seven different parties will run in the upcoming elections in the
Netherlands, where three Turkish candidates were expelled from their
parties due to their refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Approximately 12 million Dutch will vote for 150 members of the chamber
of deputies on Wednesday. None of the 26 parties is expected to win
the majority of the votes. The struggle is anticipated to be between
the rightist Christian Democrats (CDA) and the main opposition Labor
Party (PvdA). Only three of the 12 Turks can directly be elected and
the possibility of election for the other candidates is up to the
number of the votes. The previous expulsion of Turkish candidates
leads to presumptions that most of the Turkish origin people living
in the EU member country will cast their votes for Fatma Koser who is
running from D’66. She might even become a minister if the predicted
happens. More than 250,000 of the Turkish citizens in the country
have double citizenship and approximately two thirds can vote. There
are still several Turkish MPs in the Dutch parliament, reports Cihan
News Agency.

REPORT ON COMMONWEALTH REFORMATION SENT TO CIS LEADERS
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2006 17:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The report on the Commonwealth reformation organized
by the High Level Group (HLG) was sent to the leaders of the CIS member
states, first deputy of the chairman of the CIS Executive Committee
Vladimir Garkun told a news conference November 22. In his words, the
HLG dedicated 6 meetings in Minsk and 1 in Moscow to the elaboration
of the document. The information is closed for journalists although
it’s not marked as secret. The report will be discussed during the
CIS summit in Minsk after a preliminary consideration by the Council
of Foreign Ministers. Garkun also informed that some 1000 officials
will arrive in Minsk November 24-28 and voiced assurance that the
CIS leaders are wise enough to maintain and develop the Commonwealth,
reported IA Regnum.