Month: May 2008

United Press International
April 30 2008

Outside View: Nuke power future — Part 1

Published: April 30, 2008 at 7:31 PM

By SERGEI GOLUBCHIKOV
UPI Outside View Commentator

MOSCOW, April 30 (UPI) — On April 22 in Yerevan, Russia and the
former Soviet republic of Armenia signed a treaty to set up a joint
venture for the exploration and mining of uranium and other minerals
in Armenia.

The company is being established on parity lines and will be
registered within the next three months.

It was signed by Vadim Zhivov, general director of the
Atomredmetzoloto uranium holding, and Armenia’s Environmental
Protection Minister Aram Arutyunyan.

ARMZ manages all of Russia’s uranium assets and runs some projects in
Kazakhstan.

Today, AMRZ ranks second in the world for uranium reserves. This is
the result of the nuclear industry’s restructuring, and in particular
the pooling of its core plants under one umbrella.

With the focus on nuclear power, Russia is now planning its uranium
future carefully to warrant the successful development of its nuclear
industry.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has left Russia high and dry, with
many well-researched fields outside its boundaries, mainly in Central
Asia in the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia.

For now, Russia has only one uranium-containing deposit, in the Chita
Region, with its Streltsovsky mining and chemical plant. Its total
reserves are estimated at 150,000 metric tons of ore. Other fields in
Eastern Siberia have a further 70,000 metric tons of explored raw
materials. Altogether, the proven reserves amount to 615,000 metric
tons. This figure also includes 344,000 metric tons from Elkon, the
largest recently explored Russian field located in the north of
Yakutia-Sakha.

Russia’s uranium-bearing provinces present a challenge for
developers. The largest of them — the Aldanskoye deposit — can be
developed only by sinking. The ore occurs at a depth of 300 meters —
nearly 1,000 feet — and mining is unprofitable.

During authoritarian times that problem did not exist: northern
uranium was obtained by the free labor of prisoners, including
political ones. In Chukotka, for example, they supplied the material
for the first atomic bombs. As prison camps closed down, uranium
mining in the northern latitudes stopped.

Now a search is on for an economically feasible way of opening up the
mothballed mines. This has become economically feasible as global
energy prices have soared since the 2003 Gulf War.

Uranium prices are increasing throughout the world; over the past
three years they have doubled, and not surprisingly. One cubic
centimeter of uranium is equivalent to 60,000 liters of gasoline, 110
to 160 metric tons of coal, or 60,000 cubic meters of natural gas.

—

Next: The future uses and demand for uranium

(Sergei Golubchikov is an associate professor at Russian State Social
University. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA
Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and
do not necessarily reflect the views of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International’s "Outside View" commentaries are written
by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important
issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United
Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum,
original submissions are invited.)

The Fresno Bee (California)
May 1, 2008 Thursday

The story behind the untold story

by Guy Keeler, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

May 1–William Saroyan’s dream of becoming a writer sprouted in Fresno
and blossomed in San Francisco. Like the first flower of spring, he
seemed to burst on the literary scene overnight.

But from the time he signed up for a typing class at Fresno Technical
School around 1920 until Story magazine published "The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze" in 1934, he wrote many things that never
saw print.

Beginning today, The Bee will present one of Saroyan’s early,
unpublished works. "Follow," a virtually unknown novella of about
26,000 words, will appear in 13 installments through June 1.

Publication of the novella was arranged through the Stanford
University Libraries, which keeps the work in its collection of
Saroyan papers.

"William Saroyan was a truly prolific writer, and there is a vast body
of unpublished work in his archives," said Annette Keogh, William
Saroyan Curator for American and British Literature at Stanford. "Many
know him through the Saroyan classics, but there is so much in the
archives that is very good. Anything that draws new readers to
unpublished Saroyan material is an exciting thing."

"Follow" was brought to The Bee’s attention by Bill Secrest Jr., who
learned about the novella last year from Aram Saroyan, the son of
William Saroyan. Secrest, history librarian for the Fresno County
Public Library and a member of the William Saroyan Society and the
William Saroyan Centennial Committee, was looking for ways to create a
tangible Saroyan tribute.

"When Bill told me the centennial was coming up, I thought of
‘Follow,’ " Aram Saroyan said. "I had read it about 10 years ago while
going through some of my dad’s archive material. It’s a beautiful
piece of work. I haven’t read anything among his unpublished works
that I like better."

The novella bears the address of a second-story apartment on Carl
Street in San Francisco, a block south of Golden Gate Park and seven
blocks from the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets. Saroyan shared
the place with his mother, Takoohi, brother Henry and sister
Cosette. At the time he wrote "Follow," he had returned from an
unsuccessful quest to become a writer in New York and was continuing
to pursue his dream in the security — and obscurity — of his
mother’s San Francisco flat.

Saroyan typically put a date on everything he wrote, said Dickran
Kouymjian, a Saroyan friend and retired chairman of the Armenian
Studies program at California State University, Fresno. But he also
sent manuscripts to typing services, which produced undated copies for
him. No date appears on any of the copies of "Follow" at Stanford.

When writing from personal experience, which he often did, Saroyan
liked to get things down on paper while the memories were fresh,
Kouymjian said. Since Saroyan returned from New York in 1929, he might
have written the novella that year or in 1930.

"Follow," which begins in the summer of 1924, tells the story of
16-year-old Aram Diranian, who breaks away from his Fresno roots to
seek adventure and a new life in New York.

Secrest said those who knew Saroyan or have read about his life will
be intrigued by the autobiographical tidbits in "Follow." He describes
his boyhood home on San Benito Avenue, with its walnut tree, crickets,
spiders and mice. He tells about eating oatmeal and bread for
breakfast and lamb stew or cabbage soup at night. He also mentions
writers who captured his attention — H. L. Mencken, Walt Whitman,
Sherwood Anderson, Mark Twain and Jack London, to name a few — and
yearns to get away from his hometown.

"The thrust is similar to James Joyce’s ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man,’ " Secrest said. "It’s about a young fellow trying to feel
his way around in the world. It’s a classical coming-of-age piece."

Aram Saroyan said readers familiar with his father’s published work
will find, in "Follow," some rehearsals of scenes that show up in
later Saroyan books and plays. The novella also showcases Saroyan’s
early writing skill.

"On the first page, you see the work of a writer who is barely 21
years old," Aram Saroyan said. "The prose is so beautiful and
lyrically done that it already has the stamp of the writer that my
father would become."

Aram Saroyan calls "Follow" the best of his father’s apprentice works,
a collection of several unpublished book-length manuscripts in the
Saroyan archives at Stanford. He is not surprised the manuscript is
still around after eight decades, adding, "My father kept
everything. He was a pack rat."

Aram Saroyan said he has found no evidence that his father ever
submitted "Follow" for publication. Although William Saroyan was to
gain fame as a master of the short story, he might have produced
"Follow" in an effort to write longer pieces. An editor’s letter in
the archives, urging his father to write a novel, might have motivated
the work, Aram Saroyan said.

Secrest said the autobiographical aspects of "Follow" might offer
another clue to why it was written.

"One thing about Saroyan, he was at the typewriter every day," Secrest
said. "Writing was something he ate, lived and dreamed about. It was
catharsis and therapy. I think in ‘Follow’ there may have been
something in Saroyan that needed to come out."

Betsy Lumbye, executive editor and senior vice president of The Bee,
and Managing Editor Jack Robinson had been looking for unpublished
Saroyan material to share with readers when they first read "Follow."

"It’s a rare honor and a privilege to be able to unveil an unpublished
work by an author of William Saroyan’s stature," Lumbye said. "It
means a lot to me, personally, because I first read "The Human Comedy"
when I was growing up in Virginia in the 1960s and was captivated by
the place and people he depicted."

"Follow" also will appear on The Bee’s Web site, which could generate
an even wider worldwide audience.

"We were immediately taken with the piece," Robinson said. "It works
as a story, and it also says a lot about Saroyan the man. He was so
young at the time that he had to rely heavily on his own experience
for material. His passionate character just shines off the page."

PanARMENIAN.Net

Bako Sahakian: Armenians should unite to resists modern challenges
02.05.2008 16:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 2, NKR President Bako Sahakian met in
Stepanakert with participants of Echmiadzin-Shushi all-Armenian
pilgrimage, the NKR leader’s press office reported.

`Blessed in Echmiadzin, the pilgrims headed for Ghazanchetsots Church,
Shushi. This bears a deep sense and predetermines the way of future
victories. It’s a pleasure that the pilgrims are Armenians from
various countries. It proves that solidarity is our nation
feature. Only this way we can resist numerous challenges we face,’ Mr
Sahakian said.

A1+

MAYOR OF NOR HACHN RELEASED
[07:07 pm] 02 May, 2008

The former mayor of Nor Hachn, Armen Keshishian (nicknamed Uzbo), was
released a few days ago. Arsen Babayan, press secretary of the
Criminal-Investigative Department of the RoA Justice Ministry
confirmed the information. Armen Keshishian was released as the term
of sentence had expired.

On September 24, 2005, Armen Keshishian killed Ashot Mkhitarian, head
of the Arzni-based company of the Electric Nets’ Ltd. Keshishian was
sentenced to a 3.6-year imprisonment.

According to the police release, on April 29 Keshishian handed over a
9-millimeter `Viking’ gun, 99 cartridges and à magazine belonging to
the weapon confiscated by the police on September 24, 2005.

On September 24, 2005, Keshishian shot at Ashot Mkhitarian from the
pistol `Viking MR 466.’

The weapon had been presented by RoA prematurely deceased Premier
Andranik Margarian.

Boston Globe, MA
May 2 2008

Student pays tribute to slain mother at Northeastern commencement

May 2, 2008 02:56 PM
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

A graduating Northeastern University student paid tribute to her slain
mother today in an emotional speech at the school’s commencement,
saying her mother’s work as a therapist had inspired her to finish
school after the tragedy.

As a public disclosure of her private loss, the speech was a way for
Arminé Nalbandian to turn the page after Diruhi Mattian, a 54-year-old
psychotherapist, was slain in February while making a house call in
North Andover to a troubled patient she had known for a decade.

In the chaos of those first couple of weeks after her mother’s murder,
she said in the speech today, she wondered how she would proceed with
her life.

"And then something happened; I realized that there was nothing to do
but to go on,” she said in the annual student speech before a crowd
of more than 16,000 at Northeastern’s commencement at the TD Banknorth
Garden.

"There was nothing to do but to face this challenge just as I had
faced every other challenge before. So I picked up the pieces, relied
on the support around me and made my way back to the real world," she
said.

Four years after she sat beside her mother as they watched her sister
receive her Northeastern diploma on the same stage, the address helds
deep personal meaning. An original draft of her speech did not mention
her mother, so she reworked it.

"The first version didn’t sit right," she said in an interview on
campus earlier this week. "It wasn’t true to myself. It wouldn’t be
fair to me or to who my Mom was, to glaze over what happened."

Nalbandian, 22, hopes that sharing her story, how she has forgiven the
man charged with murder in her mother’s death and completed her final
semester despite missing six weeks of classes, will inspire others to
rise above adversity and to appreciate life as it happens.

On a personal level, she hopes it brings a measure of catharsis and
maybe closure.

"I’ve always been a private person, and I don’t like to share things,"
she said. "This is sharing everything, so it’s a real test for me. She
took the toughest patients, patients other people didn’t want to
take. So this is a way I can honor her."

A summa cum laude student with a double major in political science and
communication studies, Nalbandian has won a Fulbright scholarship.

A native Armenian whose family fled Soviet rule in the 1980s and
settled in Massachusetts when she was 4, she hopes to return to her
homeland this fall to conduct a yearlong research project on
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

Jim Stellar, dean of Northeastern’s College of Arts and Sciences and a
mentor to Nalbandian, said her determination to fight through her
grief and fight back feelings of revenge is inspirational.

"She’s hurt, but the anger isn’t there," he said earlier this
week. "She draws strength from her remarkable capacity to be
forgiving. She is teaching us all."

Council of Europe and OSCE are responsible for March 1 tragic events in
Yerevan

2008-05-02 18:55:00

ArmInfo. Having said that the February 19 presidential election was
mostly complied with Armenia’s accession commitments to the Council of
Europe, the international observers assumed the responsibility for the
post-election developments in Armenia and the March 1 tragic events,
Levon Ter- Petrossyan, the first president of Armenia, the leader of
the opposition, said during the Second Congress of his supporters at
the session hall of the Armenian government, Friday. According to him,
since the previous presidential election, the CoE and the OSCE haven’t
evidently coped with implementation of their commitments before Armenia
as a CoE member. "The Armenian authorities ignored PACE’s demand to
give air to the closed TV channels "A1+" and "Noyan Tapan". Armenia’s
ruling regime demonstrated how weak these European organizations are",
Ter-Petrossyan said. Ter-Petrossyan pointed out that the CoE might
restore its authority in the eyes of the Armenian people only if PACE
insisted on the fulfillment of all the requirements of resolution 1609.
At the same time, Ter-Petrossyan noted that the Armenian opposition did
not pin big hopes on the European community and was going to change the
present regime using its own resources. These words received standing
ovation.

Levon Ter-Petrossyan: Azerbaijan should understand that if it attacks
Karabakh, it will be offered rebuff regardless of the domestic
political situation in Armenia

2008-05-02 17:25:00

Levon Ter-Petrossyan: Azerbaijan should understand that if it attacks
Karabakh, it will be offered rebuff regardless of the domestic
political situation in Armenia

ArmInfo. "In case of Azerbaijan’s military threat against
Nagorno-Karabakh I’ll call on my supporters to suspend their political
activity and defend Karabakh", Levon Ter-Petrossyan, the first
president of Armenia, the leader of the opposition, said during the
Second Congress of his supporters at the session hall of the RA
government, Friday.

According to Ter-Petrossyan, the opposition intends to continue its
resolute fight "to relieve people of the criminal anti-democratic
regime", however, at the same time, it will also try to avoid new
shocks, particularly, if one takes into account the constant militarist
statements of Baku. "Azerbaijan should understand at last that if it
attacks Karabakh, it will be offered rebuff regardless of the domestic
political situation in Armenia", the ex-president said. He assured that
in case of resumption of military actions, his team-mates, most of
which are being persecuted for political reasons by the present
Armenian authorities and are currently detained, will found themselves
in the first rows of soldiers again.

Levon Ter-Petrossyan also demanded that the Armenian authorities should
finally display real concern over the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and take specific steps to move the peace process forward.

First president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossyan suggests transforming
Nationwide Movement he leads into Armenian National Congress

2008-05-02 17:23:00

ArmInfo. During the Second Congress of his supporters at the session
hall of the Armenian government, Friday, Levon Ter-Petrossyan, the
first president of Armenia, the leader of the opposition, suggested
transforming the Nationwide Movement he leads into Armenian National
Congress.

According to him, having been formed before the presidential election
for quite specific purposes, now the Nationwide Movement should acquire
new content. The synthesis of public intolerance against the present
regime will become the cornerstone of this movement, he said. "Today we
hold our second congress, and we like this word. Moreover, taking into
account the international experience of national-democratic liberation
movements, I suggest transforming our Nationwide Movement into Armenian
National Congress. At the same time, I want to stress that this is just
a suggestion which needs further discussion during the next meetings",
Ter-Petrossyan said.

Ter-Petrossyan noted that for the time being they were planning to
preserve the structure of the national movement formed in Dec 2007. At
the initial stage, the future Armenian National Congress will not merge
the parties constituting the national movement. They will continue to
be independent political forces. But later the congress may transform
into a centralized structure and even a shadow government. "I am sure
that, based on the people’s support, our movement will play the key
role in the political life of the country," Ter-Petrossyan said.

VAHAGN STEPANIAN AND HARUTYUN MERDINIAN TO COMPETE IN EUROPEAN
ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIP

YEREVAN, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Individual Championship of
Artistic Gymnastics will be held in Lausanne (Switzerland) on May 4-12.
Armenia will be represented by Vahagn Stepanian and Harutyun Merdinian.

ELINA DANIELIAN AND LILIT MKRTCHIAN WITH 7 POINTS EACH AMONG LEADERS AT
EUROPEAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

PLOVDIV, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The next to last – 10th round of European
Chess Championship was held in Plovdiv on May 1.

In women’s tournament, GM Lilit Mkrtchian and GM Elina Danielian from
Armenia beat their rivals, earned 7 points each out of possible 10, and
are in the group of leaders. In case of winning in the last – 11th
round, they may become prize winners.

In men’s tournament, 9 chess players, including Sergei Movsisian
representing Slovakia, earned 7.5 points each out of 10 and share 1-8th
positions. Vladimir Hakobian has 7 points and shares 9-25th positions.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress