Author: Karapet Navasardian

More than a thousand Wales supporters are due to be in the Armenian capital of Yerevan

An explosion has rocked a university building in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, killing one person and injuring three others, authorities said.

The interior ministry said the blast occurred in the basement of the chemistry department building at Yerevan State University.

One person died and three others were take to hospital with burns and other injuries, health officials said, adding that one is in a "grave condition".

Authorities are investigating the cause of the explosion.

Rob Page's Wales side are currently in the country and are preparing for their Euro 2024 qualifier which is scheduled to take place tomorrow afternoon (2pm UK time).

More than 1,000 Wales fans are set to attend the match tomorrow, with more travelling to the capital as non-ticketholders.

Page confirmed the FAW had had contact with UK government officials ahead of their trip regarding security concerns. He said: "There has been nothing that has been brought to our attention that we have to be concerned about.

"It's all good and we're raring to go."

Citibank illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans for years by singling them out on credit card applications based on their surnames, a federal regulator alleged on Wednesday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that from at least 2015 through 2021, Citi “targeted” retail services credit card applicants whom employees associated with Armenian national origin.

“Citi treated Armenian Americans as criminals who were likely to commit fraud,” the CFPB alleged.

Citi applied more stringent criteria to suspected Armenian Americans’ applications, including “denying them outright,” placing blocks on the accounts and requiring additional information, according to the regulator.

The CFPB said Citi targeted applicants with last names ending in “-ian” and “-yan” as well as applicants in and around Glendale, California, which is home to a large Armenian American population.

Regulators painted the picture of an orchestrated effort by Citi to conceal the alleged discrimination, including by allegedly falsifying documents.

Citi is a major issuer of store credit cards, including retail cards for Home Depot, Best Buy and other chains.

To punish Citi for the alleged discrimination, the CFPB ordered the bank to pay $25.9 million in fines and consumer redress. Those penalties include a $24.5 million fine to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

“Regrettably, in trying to thwart a well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California, a few employees took impermissible actions,” Citi spokesperson Karen Kearns said in a statement to CNN. “While we prioritize protecting our bank and our customers from fraud, it is unacceptable to base credit decisions on national origin.”

The Citi spokesperson added that after an internal investigation, the bank took “appropriate actions” against those involved and imposed steps to prevent this from happening again.”We sincerely apologize to any applicant who was evaluated unfairly by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection protocols,” the Citi spokesperson said.

According to the CFPB, Citi supervisors “conspired to hide the discrimination” by telling employees not to discuss these practices in writing or on recorded phone lines.

The bank then “hid” the discrimination by lying to consumers, giving them “false reasons” for credit denials, the CFPB said.

“Citi stereotyped Armenians as prone to crime and fraud,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “Citi illegally fabricated documents to cover up its discrimination.”

Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, it is illegal to intentionally deny credit to groups of people based on national origin.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a frequent critic of big banks, condemned Citibank on Wednesday.

“Citibank’s intentional discrimination against Armenian Americans is illegal, outrageous and just plain wrong,” Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, told CNN in a statement. “The CFPB is right to hold the bank accountable.”

Dennis Kelleher, CEO of financial reform advocacy group Better Markets, called the allegations against Citi “stunning” and questioned whether the punishment fits the crime.

“That fine amount is meaningless to Citi,” Kelleher told CNN, noting it amounts to slightly more than 0.1% of the bank’s $20 billion in third-quarter revenue. “Individual bankers, including executives and supervisors, must be personally punished with meaningful fines and barred from working in the industry.”

During a call with reporters on Wednesday, Chopra said the people hurt thought they would be treated fairly by banks.

The CFPB noted that Citi has a history of recently violating consumer financial protection laws. It paid $335 million in 2018 to 1.75 million consumer credit card holders for allegedly violating the Truth in Lending Act. In 2015, Citi paid almost $750 million for “deceptive and unfair practices” linked to overcharging credit card customers.

“Many Armenians have arrived in the US both because of opportunity but also because of physical dangers back home,” Chopra said, noting Armenia was a satellite of the Soviet Union before its collapse. “Those who immigrated to the United States should not be subjected to illegal discrimination on the basis of their national origin.”

“I am concerned about Citi’s longstanding problems when it comes to managing its sprawling lines of businesses. The public has provided Citi with very large bailouts because of its past management failures,” Chopra said. “It is unfair for consumers to continue paying the price.”

Citi CEO Jane Fraser is scheduled to testify before Congress on December 6 as part of the Senate Banking Committee’s big bank oversight hearing.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/economy/citibank-armenian-americans-discrimination-accusation/index.html

Apple has sent alerts to people in Armenia in recent weeks that their phones are being targeted by state-sponsored hackers, with several cybersecurity experts warning that it is likely tied to Pegasus spyware.

CyberHUB, an Armenian digital rights organization that is investigating the incidents, said the number of spyware infections in the country has been steadily increasing over the last two years. Many infections are linked to the government of Azerbaijan, which has had a history of conflict with Armenia especially concerning the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“In the case of Armenia, these warnings mean that the phone was infected with Pegasus spyware,” said CyberHUB co-founder Samvel Martirosyan, referring to the surveillance tool developed by Israeli firm NSO Group and sold to governments around the world.

Although Apple’s notifications did not specify the spyware used or identify who was responsible for the hack, there is some evidence that the latest wave of infections used Pegasus, according to Natalia Krapiva, tech and legal counsel at digital rights nonprofit Access Now. However, she said it is hard to know for certain while the investigation is still being carried out.

NSO Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Martirosyan said the spyware was likely installed on the orders of the Azerbaijani government — during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, Pegasus spyware was used to target Armenian journalists, activists, government officials, and civilians. While the identity of the hackers behind the attacks remained unclear, researchers suggested that Azerbaijan was one of the potential suspects.

The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab identified at least two suspected Pegasus operators in Azerbaijan who have targeted individuals within the country as well as abroad.

Krapiva agreed that “the likely suspect is Azerbaijan,” because of its history with Pegasus and its close ties to Israel.

Tensions have been high between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and reached a tipping point in September when Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, violating a 2020 ceasefire agreement.

CyberHUB, which has been investigating Pegasus infections for two years, said that the number of hacks is growing in Armenia. However, the true extent of these hacks is hard to determine, as many victims prefer not to make their cases public, according to Krapiva. Android users do not receive such notifications at all, she added.

Most of the infections occur during escalations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, researchers said. Targets in Armenia have included high-ranking politicians, civil society representatives, activists, journalists, and editors.

Pegasus has recently been used to target activists, politicians, and journalists in Poland, Spain, Greece, and Russia.

In September, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called the

https://therecord.media/apple-warns-armenians-state-sponsored-hacking-attempts-azerbaijan

Yerevan hopes that the arrangements on the reopening of borders between Armenia and Turkey will be implemented soon. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated about this during the debates on the draft 2024 state budget at the joint meeting of parliamentary standing committees in the National Assembly of Armenia Monday.

"I hope that in the near future we will see the implementation of the arrangements that were made as a result of the meetings of the special envoys of Armenia and Turkey," said Pashinyan.

According to the Armenian PM, the Armenia-Turkey border shall be reopened at this phase for citizens of third countries and holders of diplomatic passports.

Also, Pashinyan noted that in addition to political arrangements, considerable infrastructural work was also done in this regard.