Author: Kalashian Nyrie

GOVERNMENT WILL SUBSIDIZE MORTGAGE FOR 5 YEARS ONLY

KarabakhOpen
15-05-2008 11:12:28

The government is likely to subsidize 6 percent of the 12 percent
interest on mortgage for 5 years instead of 20. It is clearly set
down in the mortgage regulations. However, a few months ago Prime
Minister Ara Harutiunyan assured that the government will subsidize
half of the interest rate through the repayment period.

Answering the same question in his news conference two days ago the
head of the government said: "We have no right to make a commitment
for 20 years. Interest rates may change, and we may have to change
our stance.

Since we have no prognosis of the rate of development of banks for
the upcoming twenty years, we allowed banks to revise interest rates
in five years."

He also said recently interest rates on mortgage tend to go down in
the world. Besides, the head of the government said soon salaries
may rise and there may be no need for the government subsidy any more.

PALESTINIANS MARK ‘CATASTROPHE’

BBC NEWS
iddle_east/7401892.stm
2008/05/15 10:06:54 GMT

Palestinians are marking the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba, or "the
catastrophe" – the founding of Israel – with a series of marches
and protests.

More than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled
in 1948, during the war that followed Israel’s declaration of
independence.

The events come on the second day of US President George W Bush’s
visit.

He is currently in Israel, joining the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary
commemorations and pushing peace talks.

Palestinians are marking the date with a march to Israeli military
checkpoints in the West Bank and a demonstration at Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ compound in Ramallah.

In Ramallah, there were two minutes of silence for the Palestinians
who fled or were expelled.

Mr Abbas said: "There are two peoples living on this beloved land –
one celebrates independence and the other feels pain of the memory
of its Nakba."

In Gaza City, the Islamic Jihad militant group has organised a rally
of 500 schoolchildren dressed in military uniforms.

‘US steadfast’

Six decades after the founding of Israel, the Palestinians are still
seeking an independent state.

We share a powerful belief and a weapon against terrorists – the
cause of hope, freedom and liberty President George W Bush

The fate of 1948 refugees and their descendents, living scattered in
camps and settlements around the region, remains one of the thorniest
issues in peace talks.

Mr Bush has repeated his belief that Israel and the Palestinians could
strike a deal to bring about a Palestinian state by the end of the
year, which the two sides pledged to do at a US-sponsored conference
last November.

But correspondents say few in the region are optimistic that tangible
progress is being made in the talks, despite repeated visits by US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

While Mr Bush has praised Israel, many Palestinians accuse the country
of hurting the innocent and of collective punishment in its attempts to
quash Palestinian militants, says the BBC’s Katya Adler in Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, 14 people, including a mother and daughter, were injured
when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the southern Israeli city
of Ashkelon.

Earlier in the day, four people were killed in Israeli military
operations in Gaza.

On Thursday, Mr Bush addressed militant groups like al-Qaeda, Hezbollah
and Hamas and said Muslims should "recognise the emptiness of the
terrorists’ vision and the injustice of their cause".

In remarks prepared for delivery to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset,
he says the US "rejects utterly" calls for it to break ties with
Israel.

"Israel’s population may be just over seven million. But when you
confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America
stands with you."

He will also again urge action to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear
weapons.

"Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the
world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future
generations," he will say.

Before his speech Mr Bush toured the Roman-era desert fortress
of Masada.

In an act of defiance during Roman rule, almost 1,000 Jews were
chronicled to have committed suicide there rather than surrender to
the Romans.

Mr Bush’s Middle East visit will include Saudi Arabia and Egypt in an
attempt to inject some momentum into the current peace talks between
the Israelis and Palestinians.

But there will be no trilateral summit between the American, Israeli
and Palestinian leaders, however, and Mr Bush will not be visiting
the Palestinian territories.

Instead, he is to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
in Egypt.

CONFERENCE AT THE NKR PRESIDENT

Azat Artsakh Daily
Published on May 13, 2008
NKR Republic

On May 10th a working conference took place at the NKR President,
devoted to the situation in urban planning sphere, today’s problems
and the ways of their solution. The presents reported the head of
the country about the process of making assignments given by the
President during the previous conference and the results of the
realized works. The President once again attached importance to
necessity of speeding up of temps of construction works, a well as
increase of quality. Touching upon construction of dwelling houses for
families of many children, Bako Sahakyan assigned to take necessary
measures in the direction of decreasing the cost prices of these
houses.The Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan, members of the government,
leaders of board of administrations, and other officials participated
in the conference.

IT AND INNOVATION CONFERENCE IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
18:01 14/05/2008

"The transformation period in Armenia should be implemented as
soon as possible, afterwords we’ll manage to cut the gaps in the IT
field," said Nerses Yeritsyan, the minister of Economy, in the IT
and innovation conference started today.

According to him IT is not an ordinary field in Armenia, this is
a field linking other braches of industry together. Signifying the
creation of close relations with the private sector, he mentioned
that the establishment of technopark in Gyumri should be conducted
as soon as possible.

Besdies, it was announced that Microsoft proposed to draft
business-projects for all schools in Armenia.

Hence, the minister said that the representatives of the current
field should be active to start the negotiations with the company.

Note that the conference is organized by the initiative of the
RA Ministry of Economy, Microsoft Yerevan office, CAPS USAID, and
"Enterprises Incubator" foundation.

WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL TO DISCUSS GENOCIDE
By Marlene Toscano

Press-Enterprise
ews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_R_rworld14.42b890 e.html
May 14 2008
CA

RIVERSIDE: The event will feature an author and her photographs from
Rwanda and Darfur.

It was the image of the Madonna in a church in Rwanda surrounded by
piles of skulls and bones, high heel shoes and purses, and the skeleton
of an unborn child within its mother’s frame that inspired author
and photographer Lane H. Montgomery to write a book about genocide.

Montgomery, author of "Never Again, Again, Again…Genocide: Armenia,
The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darfur,"
will participate in a panel discussion on the genocide in Rwanda and
Darfur at 6:30 p.m. today at the Mission Inn in Riverside.

That image in Rwanda "spoke of such loss that I have never forgotten
it," Montgomery said in an interview on her Web site.

The event is sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Inland Southern
California, a forum in the Inland area for discussion of national
and international subjects.

After a talk and slide show, Montgomery will join Dr. Richard H. Hart,
president of Loma Linda University and Medical Center; Dr. Emmanuel
Rudatasikira, an associate professor at Loma Linda University from
Rwanda; and Mustafa Kuko, director of the Islamic Center of Riverside,
from Sudan, for the panel discussion. Hart has worked in Tanzania
and Ethiopia. An author and photographer, Montgomery has traveled
to Rwanda, Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia and Congo along with humanitarian
groups such as Americares, the International Rescue Committee and SIM,
a Christian advocacy sponsor for children with AIDS.

Interspersed in Montgomery’s narrative are first-hand accounts of
survival, reprints of interviews with war criminals and editorials by
ambassadors, academicians, human rights activists and journalists. In
the introduction to her book, Montgomery wrote about attending a
conference in 1993 in Germany called "We Must Never Let it Happen
Again."

She wrote about the passion and intelligence of those in attendance,
of all the races, nationalities and generations, and about how they
all felt reassured that "our world would never let it happen again."

Reach Marlene Toscano at 951-368-9660 or [email protected]

World Affairs Council

When: Today

Time: 5:30 p.m. reception and buffet, $35 to $45; 6:30 p.m. program
and discussion, $10 to $20; students free

Where: The Mission Inn Music Room, 3649 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside

Information: 951-222-8160

IRANIAN-ARMENIAN TRADE IN FIVE YEARS MAKES $700 MILLION

ARMENPRESS
May 13, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 13, ARMENPRESS: A business forum was held today in Yerevan
at the initiative of Cavendish University of Iran and the Armenian
Development Agency (ADA). The goal was to look into opportunities for
establishment of a very favorable business and investment environment.

The focus in today’s discussions was on stepping up cooperation
between small and medium-sized companies of both countries, which
were said could cooperate successively in such areas as cattle
growing, production of building materials and veterinary medications,
introduction of automated systems and so on.

Another array of issues related to production of soap, ice-cream,
export and import of equipment for prospecting and production of oil
and natural gas was also discussed.

Valery Shabanov, an ADA director for foreign investments, described
Iranian-Armenian economic ties as ‘quite strong,’ saying also that
Iran is a good partner for Armenia. He said expectations are big that
Iranian businessmen will increase the volume of their investments
in Armenia. He said active dialogue between the two governments is
a serious support for it.

According to Valery Shabanov, Iranian-Armenian trade in the last
five years amounted to about $700 million, of which $111 million were
Armenian exports to Iran. Direct investments in the last three years
were $550,000.

"Both sides believe that there is the appropriate potential to
seriously increase the volume of bilateral economic cooperation," he
said, adding that Armenia is the world leader in terms of vehicles
with converted engines working on liquified gas. He said in this
sense the ADA suggests Armenia and Iran join to build a plant for
production of gas cylinders.

He also said both countries can seriously increase cooperation volumes
in such areas as chemical and food production and tourism. In this
sense he stressed the significance of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and
construction of a hydro power plant on the river of Arax.

Hussein Tajbash, director of Cavendish University of Iran and head of
the Iranian delegation, thanked the ADA for providing consultations
to Iranian businessmen wishing to cooperate with Armenian counterparts.

He told the 20-member Iranian delegation that they can turn to the ADA
any time and the result will be successful cooperation with Armenian
businessmen. He also expressed hope that such gatherings of Armenian
and Iranian businessmen will be more coordinated.

AZERI, ARMENIA LEADERS COULD MEET IN JUNE – BAKU

Interfax News Agency
May 12 2008
Russia

Another round of talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement between
Azeri President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is
likely to take place in June, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov
told journalists.

This will be the first meeting between Aliyev and Sargsyan.

Speaking about a recent meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian in Strasbourg, Mamedyarov said that this was a meeting at
which the ministers got acquainted with each other, because Nalbandian
has been appointed to the office recently.

This was a meeting at which we got acquainted with each other. We
decide that one needs to continue the talks. We also agreed that a
meeting at the level of presidents should take place, Mamedyarov said.

This agreement was immediately reported to Aliyev, he said. It is
likely that the meeting at the level of presidents will take place in
June. There is a new president in Armenia, and it will become known
at a meeting with new authorities whether they are ready for peace,
Mamedyarov said.

The Azeri minister noted that he once again confirmed Baku’s position
that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be resolved solely within
the framework of Azeri territorial integrity at a meeting with his
Armenian counterpart.

LEVON ARONIAN DEFEATED BY VESELIN TOPALOV IN INTERNATIONAL CHESS
TOURNAMENT IN SOFIA

SOFIA, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. An international chess super tournament
with the participation of six grand masters started in Sofia on May 8.

In the first round Levon Aronian lost to Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria),
Teymur Rajabov (Azerbaijan) – to Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), while Ivan
Cheparinov (Bulgaria) beat Bu Xiangzhi (China).

L. Aronian plays against I. Cheparinov in the second round.

CHIEF COACH OF "ULIS" SUREN BARSEGHIAN RESIGNS

YEREVAN, MAY 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The chief coach of "Ulis" team Suren
Barseghian sent in his resignation after "Ulis" lost to "Banants" (0:1)
at the 4th stage of "Star" National Football Championship of Armenia.
The club management accepted his resignation and put the obligations of
chief coach on senior coach Sevada Arzumanian.

Leading article: A human tragedy, but good may come of it
Tuesday, 6 May 2008

The official death toll from the cyclone that smashed through western
Burma at the weekend was last night put at more than 10,000. Road and
rail links, not good at the best of times, have been disrupted or
destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of
shelter and clean water. Last night – two full days after the disaster
– the Burmese foreign minister went on television to say that the
government was prepared to accept international help.
That it was the foreign minister, with the prime minister beside him,
who eventually announced that foreign aid would be accepted may
suggest a tussle between the forces in Burma that look outwards, to
however limited a degree, and those who look stubbornly inward. In the
administrative paralysis that followed the protests by Buddhist monks
late last year, it was the inward-looking generals who won. The
demonstrations were broken up by force; monks were deported en masse
from their monasteries to the countryside. The junta brutally
reasserted its control.
If Burma’s rulers have accepted that this disaster is too big for the
country to handle on its own, and that relieving the suffering of
their stricken people should take precedence over their hermit
instincts, this is progress of a kind. The decision to open the
country a crack is still progress, even if the response is born of
fear for the regime’s survival. An inadequate response to a natural
disaster can spell danger to those in charge.
There have been times, though, when some real good has come of such
aid efforts, when dire need has forced open not just the doors of
government ministries, but minds of closed societies as well. Chilly
relations between Greece and Turkey warmed almost overnight when
Greece became the first country to offer assistance to Turkey after
the catastrophic earthquakes of August 1999.
They warmed further when Turkey reciprocated after the Athens
earthquake the following month.
And in December of 1988, the Armenian earthquake prompted the then
Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, to break with 70 years
of Soviet practice and throw the stricken region open to foreign aid
agencies. The outpouring of international goodwill that followed
benefited not only the victims, but the image of the Soviet
government.
The Burmese junta might reflect that opening up also holds
dangers. The response to the Armenian earthquake helped usher in the
greater openness that contributed three years later to the Soviet
Union’s collapse. A more productive conclusion would be that a closed
dictatorship is an anomaly in the modern world and that today’s
reluctant opening should be a prelude to change.

©independent.co.uk