Author: Khondkarian Raffi

THE YOUTH MUST BE MORE ACTIVE
By Aghavni Harutyunian, Translated by L.H.

AZG Armenian Daily
20/09/2007

The youth branch of All-Armenian Congress is one year old

The Association of Youth Organizations of the All-Armenian Congress
was founded on September 17, 2006, announced at a press conference
in Urbat club the Chairman of the Association Atom Mkhitarian and
deputy chairmen Armen Shahbazian and Mariam Martirosian.

According to Atom Mkhitarian, All-Armenian Congress attaches great
importance to the role and importance of the youth. Consequently,
9 youth organizations decided to become members of the Congress and
then united in the Association of the Youth Organizations.

After foundation, the Association made several arrangements, the
biggest was the All-Armenian International Youth Conference held on
July, where 250 representatives of Armenian youth institutions of
25 countries participated. There are lots of resonances after the
conference, and several youth organizations expressed a wish to be
admitted into the Association.

What about the future plans, the Association of the Youth Organizations
will first of all participate in "Days of the All-Armenian Congress
and the Union of Russia’s Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh – 2007"
program. Besides, it’s planned to hold an Armenian-Georgian dialogue
conference till the end of this year to discuss issues and urgent
problems of the youth.

Deputy Chairwoman of the Association Mariam Martirosian presented the
results of the recent visit to Stavropol. The visit, at the invitation
of the Armenian Youth Organization of Stavropol, gave an opportunity
to participate at the 10th Anniversary of our diocese in South Russia,
then to meet the Armenian youth of Stavropol, Krasnodar and Rostov,
and to discuss the issue of foundation of an All-Russian youth
institution under the patronage of the Union of the Russia’s Armenians.

Armen Shahbazian presented the situation connected with the youth of
Diaspora. Mainly, according to him, though the young people come to
Armenia to gain higher education, but if before they wanted to stay,
at present they return to their countries. It’s also an issue of the
Association’s agenda, like another issue connected with the discussion
of possible ways to cooperate with the Georgian youth.

To the question of "Azg" daily if the issue is not pretentious taking
into account the peculiarity of the Armenian-Georgian relations and
issues, Atom Mkhitarian clarified that there would not be difficulties
for the youth as in the frameworks of different international events
it became evident that the Georgian youth was also interested in the
realization of Armenian-Georgian dialogue.

To the question of the journalists why young people in Armenia are
not aware of the youth organizations or they don’t resort to the
help of those institutions, Mr. Mkhitarian presented the results of
a statistics carried out one and a half year ago. According to it,
the young people in Armenia are more than 800 thousand and the number
of the registered youth NGOs is not comparable with that number. At
the other hand, according to various sources, the active part of the
Armenian youth is only 1-1,5 % of it, while this index in Eastern
European countries is about 20 to 25 %, and, for example, in Denmark
– 80%.

Nevertheless, the Association of Youth Organizations of the
All-Armenian Congress plans to touch upon the issues of the youth,
to carry out different new programs, to have branches in several
provinces of Armenia and widen its membership.

IS ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN READY TO "DIVORCE?"

A1+
[06:42 pm] 19 September, 2007

more images If the Republicans decide to repeal the agreement
on collaboration with the coalition, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is
ready. "We accept all the three options, to recall our minister, to
send ministers on holiday at the pre-election period and finally,
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is ready to work in the same way," ARF
Dashnaktsutyun Supreme Body member Armen Rustamyan said in response to
the Republican’s astonishment at the fact that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
will have its presidential nominee.

Rustamyan condemned the general belief that everything is
predetermined, "This is a means to distort the political sphere,
to stir up passiveness and lead to stagnation."

Armen Rustamyan also explained the party’s decision to name two
candidates. By nominating Armen Rustamyan and Vahan Hovanisyan to
the presidential election Dashnaktsutyun practiced the experience
of developed political systems. "If we are considering a party’s
commitment to democracy, the party should first display democracy
inside it. It is one of the simplest and most important expressions
of democracy," Armen Rustamyan says.

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun member gave a positive answer to the question
whether it means that Armen Rustamyan and Vahan Hovanisyan will be
competing to win over the ranks of the party. "It is going to be
an open and transparent competition. We will have meetings with our
ranks in the regions, invite supporters, present our approaches and
our points of views. The logic of Dashnaktsutyun is: no matter who
is selected, people will eventually support Dashnaktsutyun," Armen
Rustamyan says.

According to Rustamyan, the difference is that of persons. "I may
put the stresses in my way, and Vahan in his way. We share ideas,
nevertheless there is difference in style."

In reply to the question, why Serge Sargsyan does not support the
ARD Dashnaktsutyun, Rustamyan said, "I think it inadmissible that
the president and the parliament majority should present the same
political force as the mechanism of checks and balances does not work
in that case." Armen Rustamyan says being part of the coalition or
collaborating with the coalition does not mean you have no right to put
up a presidential candidate. "First, we are not against Serge Sargsyan.

We are not guided by the idea of being against someone. We are not
looking for enemies in this country. On the contrary, we want to
bring everyone together for the sake of something. They may tell
us that our visions are not for the sake of something but against
something, there are no such problems, you gave the wrong evaluation
of the problems. They’re welcome, let us have a debate, argue about
the subject, the problems instead of humiliating and defaming one
another," Armen Rustamyan says. He says the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is
ready for a political, ideological debate.

What will the ARF Dashnaktsutyun do in case Serge Sargsyan decides
to retrieve the Dro or Vahan Hovanisyan +30 case to make the party
more obedient?

"They can recall. We also have a lot to recall. Let them recall. We
have openly presented our biography, our past to people, and everyone
knows everything," Armen Rustamyan said coldly. "People can see and
understand everything."

Ideological struggle only with Levon Ter-Petrosyan Armen Rustamyan
has a normal attitude toward Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s nomination to
the presidential election. "In addition, it will be better if he is
nominated," Armen Rustamyan says.

According to him, the nomination of the former president will be
helpful to the presidential election in terms of politics and
ideology. "I know that when we were opposition, there were two
ideologies in the Armenian reality: one was nationalistic, the other
was cosmopolitan, internationalist," Armen Rustamyan says, stressing
that if Levon Ter-Petrosyan runs in the race, the race will have much
more ideology.

RIGHTS: HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHTS GROWING TRADE IN HUMANS
By Thalif Deen

Inter Press Service
Sep 19, 2007
Italy

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 (IPS) – Kevin Kline, an Academy Award winning
movie star, is outraged at the impunity with which human traffickers
ply their trade in one of the world’s growing multi-billion dollar
businesses: the global sex industry.

"We are trying to put a human face to the problem," says Kline,
who plays the role of a police officer in the movie "Trade", which
premiered in the U.N. Trusteeship Council chamber Tuesday.

He said the movie, which is to be commercially released shortly,
will probe the inner workings of the global human trafficking network.

The primary objective, Kline told reporters, is to raise the awareness
of a problem "which is in plain sight — whether in the state of New
Jersey or in Mexico."

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said human trafficking is a 32 billion
dollar-a-year business, "whose profits are second only to drugs
and arms."

"Most of its victims (about 80 percent) are women and girls, many of
whom are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually,"
he told reporters Tuesday.

After seeing an advance screening of "Trade", another Academy
Award-winning Hollywood star, Meryl Streep, was quoted as saying
that the movie provides "an unflinching peek at the secret world of
sex trafficking."

"Anyone who fails to have their insides roiled by this film has
commenced rigor mortis," she added.

Kline said the movie also focuses on the plight of a young Polish
girl who is abducted and smuggled into the United States, through
neighbouring Mexico, and who is drugged, raped and made to work under
conditions bordering slavery.

"We are trying to spotlight the problem without sensationalising it,"
he added.

The movie is based on a 2004 New York Times Magazine article by Peter
Landesman titled "The Girls Next Door".

Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of the New York-based women’s
advocacy group Equality Now, said that art "is a powerful advocacy
tool to raise awareness."

"We hope this dramatic and true-to-life film will move people to take
action against the scourge of sex trafficking," she said.

She said that New York city Mayor Mike Bloomberg had declared September
2007 an "anti-trafficking month" in order to raise "critical awareness
of the cruel and disturbing practice of human trafficking."

In a statement released Tuesday, Equality Now said that every year,
millions of women and girls around the world suffer unimaginable human
rights violations at the hands of those who profit from the trade in
human lives.

"Some are abducted; some are deceived by offers of legitimate work in
another country; some are sold by their own poverty-stricken parents
or are themselves driven by poverty into the lure of traffickers who
prey on their desperation."

Trafficking, it said, is a scourge that affects every country in
the world. "It is one of the fastest growing criminal industries,
the third largest, after the drugs and arms trade."

In June, the United States released its seventh annual "Trafficking
in Persons Report" which focuses on the trade in humans.

At a press conference in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told reporters that human traffickers prey on the most
vulnerable members of society, most often innocent women and children,
exploiting and abusing them and profiting from their suffering.

"In my travels," she said, "I have noticed a greater desire by our
partners to fight this crime and protect its victims. We are helping
to lead a global movement, not just to confront this crime, but to
abolish it."

More and more countries are coming to see human trafficking for what
it is — a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and
communities around the world, Rice added.

Still, Rice said there is disturbing evidence that prosecutions have
leveled off everywhere.

In some cases, there are countries with major human trafficking
problems, but only a couple of traffickers have been brought to
justice.

This year’s report covered more countries than ever before — 164
in total.

"This cannot and must not be tolerated. Despite these serious concerns,
much in this year’s report should give us hope," she added.

For example, she said, Georgia, Hungary Slovenia and Israel have all
made major improvements, as have Taiwan and countries like Indonesia,
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Jamaica.

Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat
Human Trafficking in Persons, said the structure of this year’s
report and the purpose are focused largely on "drawing the world’s
attention on the existence of modern-day slavery and the desperate
need to eliminate it in the same way that the world ended the African
slave trade more than a century ago."

"Human trafficking plagues every country in one way or another,
including the United States," he added.

The U.S. list also includes political allies such as Saudi Arabia,
India, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Algeria, while others in the
list include Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Armenia,
China, and South Africa.

Asked about the Middle East, Lagon said: "What we found as a general
pattern in this report is an endemic problem of the way foreign
workers are treated in the Persian Gulf, in Middle Eastern states."

He pointed out that there is a recruitment pattern of people,
unsuspecting people who are offered jobs as secretaries, as maids;
but they end up being sex slaves or put into domestic servitude in
an involuntary way.

"That’s seen throughout the region and it seems to be an increasingly
acute problem," he added.

DEMIRCHYAN DID NOT DISCUSS SUPPORT

Lragir.am
19-09-2007 16:47:12

The leader of the People’s Party of Armenia Stepan Demirchyan is
one of the political figures who have recently met with the first
president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Ter-Petrosyan had also met
with the leader of the National Solidarity Party Artashes Geghamyan.

Geghamyan’s team said after this meeting that since Levon Ter-Petrosyan
is an experienced politician, he may support Artashes Geghamyan in
the presidential election.

In this connection, it is interesting to know what Stepan Demirchyan’s
team said after the meeting with Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Do they think
that Ter-Petrosyan may support the leader of the People’s Party
of Armenia? "During the meeting they did not discuss support, both
expressed their approaches toward the situation in Armenia," said
the secretary of the People’s Party of Armenia Grigor Harutiunyan
who was hosted at the Pastark Club on September 19.

But first Harutiunyan repeated the stance of the party on Levon
Ter-Petrosyan’s participation in the presidential election of
2008, saying that it may have a positive effect. "However, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan has not stated anything definite. He is expected to
run in the election, and when he is nominated, we will express our
stance," Grigor Harutiunyan says, adding that the government’s stance
on Ter-Petrosyan’s nomination shows there is reason to expect that
he will be nominated.

WINNING THE NEXT COLD WAR
By Martin Hutchinson,

Asia Times Online
Sep 19, 2007
Hong Kong

THE BEAR’S LAIR

It is now becoming clear that whether or not he relinquishes the
presidency nominally, Vladimir Putin will remain in effective control
of Russia for many years after 2008. In that event, his "spook"
economic and political priorities, honed during his decades with the
KGB, will doubtless rule Russian policy.

Since Putin appears most comfortable in a cold-war world, that is
what we are likely to return to. It is not an attractive prospect.

To have a cold war, you need adversaries of approximately comparable
strength. The West cannot have a cold war with al-Qaeda, which
has neither the military nor economic strength to challenge it by
conventional means. At the opposite extreme, the Soviet bloc was a
worthy cold-war opponent, not so much because of its economy, which
was always fairly feeble, but because of its dedication to military
might, which allowed it to punch far above its demographic or economic
weight in world councils.

Putin is now trying to re-create the Soviet position.

He has one major disadvantage: a population of only 141 million,
which is tending to decline. He has, on the other hand, an enormous
advantage over the Soviet Union. That is intelligent exploitation of
Russia’s immense energy resources in a period of high oil prices, not
so much to confront the West directly, but to attract allies into a
bloc that will be large enough and powerful enough to do so. A second
minor advantage is that he is not ideologically compelled to defend
an indefensible economic and political system.

Allies who stand alongside Putin are not forced to adopt communism, but
can retain whatever bizarre political, economic and religious beliefs
they already have, uniting only in hatred of the common adversary.

Had the West in general and the United States in particular not
made several serious mistakes since 2000, Putin would not be in a
position even to dream of realizing his disreputable ambitions. The
September 11, 2001, attacks differed only modestly in scale and
not at all in kind from myriad previous terrorist attacks that had
afflicted the Western world over the previous 30 years, while by
chance largely sparing the United States. The Irish Republican Army
(which had considerable unofficial US backing) the Basque ETA, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestine Liberation
Organization, Black September, the Japanese Red Army, Libya, the FALN
(Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional of Puerto Rico), the Armenian
Secret Army, the Soviet Union, the Medellin cartel and Kosovo, to make
a partial list, all undertook terrorist incidents in Western countries,
killing more than 10 people in each over the 30 years after 1970.

Terrorism is an unfortunate and ineradicable danger of modern life. It
is becoming clear that nothing in the September 11 attacks justified
selecting one particular group of terrorists and reorienting US
foreign policy around it. By doing so, the United States tied its
military forces down in Iraq and Afghanistan, allowed the various
Islamic terrorist groups to consolidate, and alienated potentially
neutral countries such as Iran and leftist political groups throughout
the West. Moreover, by focusing foreign policy so completely on
"Islamofascist" terrorism, other challenges, notably those presented
by Putin’s Russia and Hugo Chavez’ resource-controlling Venezuela,
were neglected.

In 2001, a challenge by Putin’s Russia to the US would have been
met by a united West and laughed off the international stage. Had
President George W Bush pursued the "modest" foreign policy on
which he was elected in 2000 that would very likely still be the
case. Instead, there is today a disgruntled element in the European
Union and elsewhere that regards Putin as less of a menace than Bush,
while anti-US feeling in the United Nations and the EU has prevented
effective blocking action in the ex-Soviet "near abroad" of Georgia,
Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Beyond those countries, Putin has quite rich and potentially powerful
allies in Iran and Venezuela.

China is at best neutral, and even in Japan opposition groups
have taken to denouncing US policy. Even Putin’s nuclear buildup,
renunciation of arms control, detonation of record-sized bombs,
and re-creation of a Russian Air Force that may well be better in
quality than the US Air Force have been met with little response.

Higher defense spending is a priority for the United States and
still more for the EU, which has allowed its defenses to fall to
pathetically low levels. Both the US and the EU have permitted defense
procurement to become a vast sinkhole of corruption, "industrial
policy" and lobbying, while Putin’s Russia has spent resources in what
is for governments an efficient manner. During the pacific 1990s, the
Russian defense-equipment sector fell far behind those of the West,
but there is no question that under Putin it has been catching up fast.

To take one example, the United States’ F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft
was originally put out to tender in 1986, but the first aircraft was
not delivered until 2003. The current estimate of its production cost
is US$361 million per aircraft. The Eurofighter Typhoon, a similar
aircraft, was also five years late into production and costs $440
million per aircraft. The Russian PAK-FA, a derivative of the Su-47
Berkut, appears to be at least comparable or better in capability and
is expected to come into service in 2010 and to cost $30 million per
aircraft. The US and the EU may have larger economies than Russia,
but at anything like that cost differential, their economic advantage
is negated. Thus it is a matter of urgency to de-fund the lobbying
belt around Washington (let alone that around Brussels), strip down
the military procurement process, and compete on a level playing
field against a lower-cost, more efficient adversary.

One source of Russian efficiency has been competition.

Putin’s people understand far better than the old Soviet bureaucracy
how incentives and competition can be used to spur innovation. While
defense production has remained in the state sector, competition among
different agencies has deliberately been fostered, with substantial
bonus payments to the management and staff of agencies that prove
successful in an endeavor. Thus aircraft development, for example,
occurs in both the Sukhoi and Mikoyan agencies. This produces a system
considerably more efficient than the US defense procurement system,
where the companies are largely private but competition among them
is determined by who hires the best-connected lobbyists.

Outside the defense sector, a new cold war will bring challenges
in energy. With Venezuela and Iran as allies, Russia will control
a high proportion of the world’s oil supplies. Whereas today the
Arab Middle East controls the majority of the world’s oil output,
Venezuela’s Orinoco tar sands make it a much more important oil source
over a 10-year time frame, and Iran too will benefit from Russian
technology and oil-industry know-how. The Soviet Union brought very
little to its clients in terms of technological capability in fields
outside defense. However, Russia used the period of openness to
Western influences well, modernizing its oil sector and bringing its
technology up to cutting-edge levels. It is now unlikely that Russia
will fall back, since competitive forces have been maintained. Russia
will use the energy supplies to which it has preferential access
to influence policy in such oil-thirsty countries as China, and to
browbeat customers in strategically important but politically feeble
places such as the EU.

Globalization will go partly into reverse. Something like the old
CoCom convention, which prevented sales of high-technology equipment
to the Soviet bloc, will need to be reinvented – its feeble successor,
the Wassenaar Arrangement, has Russia as a member.

High-tech investment will be diverted to a large extent toward
devising defense mechanisms against possible cyber-attacks. Barriers
will be erected against takeovers by Russian state-controlled
behemoths. Indeed, such barriers could reasonably be erected against
all takeovers by state-controlled companies, although this would be a
little unfair to the admirable Temasek Holdings of Singapore (which in
any case is more like an exceptionally well-run and benign conglomerate
than a state). Trade will become somewhat less free, although the
protectionist impulses thrown up by cold-war suspicion may be somewhat
balanced by a geostrategic need to play nice with Third World countries
wishing to export to the US and western Europe. Gross world product
growth will be lower than it might otherwise be, and more of it will
be concentrated in unproductive defense and security sectors.

The one positive effect of a new cold war might be in weeding
out public-sector waste in the US and western Europe. Russian
public spending is only 21% of gross domestic product, below the
US level and far below levels in the EU. The country runs a large
budget surplus, and its finances are further buttressed by soaring
receipts from the 13% "flat tax" that Putin introduced when he came to
office in 2001. While Russia has huge corruption and an overstuffed
military, it wastes much less than the West in unproductive social
spending, wasteful subsidies to agriculture, and politically directed
"pork-barrel" projects. To accommodate higher defense spending without
plunging its economies into recession, it is likely that the West
will have to adopt a Russian – and in this respect, more capitalist –
approach to its taxation system and public-spending priorities.

Is there any way to prevent the escalation of this debilitating
competition? Well yes, there is. The whole point of being capitalist
is that one has good access to capital and uses it wisely. Russia,
when given access to capital, tends to waste it, stashing it away
in Swiss bank accounts and spending it on soccer clubs and call
girls. However, since 1995, Western central banks have used their
almost unlimited ability to create money to make capital extremely
cheap, in fact almost worthless as demonstrated by the huge number of
insane dotcoms, vulgar oversized housing developments, and megalomaniac
empire-building takeover artists it has funded.

In recent years, this has also allowed the world economy to grow
at a higher rate than is sustainable, raising the prices of energy,
commodities and shipping ad infinitum. In other words, we have negated
our advantage in capital availability and artificially enhanced
Russia’s advantage in energy and natural resources.

The solution is thus quite simple – a prolonged period of much higher
real interest rates, which will raise the value of capital. That will
enhance our relative economic advantage and depress the price of oil
and other commodities, thus forcing Russia and its satraps Venezuela
and Iran into bankruptcy. A similar period of tight money and low
commodity prices was instrumental in defeating the Soviet Union in
the late 1980s – there is indeed a good case to be made that Paul
Volcker did more to win the Cold War than Ronald Reagan. The process
can be repeated now.

There are other ways of winning wars beyond mere armaments.

ARMENIA’S ECONOMY READY FOR INNOVATIONS: MINISTER

ARKA
September 17 2007

Armenia’s economy is ready for innovations, reported RA Minister of
Trade and Economic Development Nerses Yeritsyan during the regional
conference of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Incubator
Network in Yerevan.

"A high level of trade development has been recorded in Armenia for
the past years. As a result, Armenia has become more competitive and
is not afraid of innovations and is ready for technologic changes,"
the Minister said.

According to Yeritsyan, scientific innovations are part of Armenia’s
new economy. He pointed out that Armenia is a crossroad of cultures
and a trade center.

"Despite existing problems, Armenia remains at the crossroads of
global trade and tries to be a leader," Yeritsyan said.

According to him, by amending the existing legislation, the government
supports the development of innovations in Armenia, which, in its turn,
attracts foreign investments.

The government focuses on establishing contacts between Armenian
entrepreneurs and foreign partners, Yerstyan said.

According to the Minister, the government adhere four basic principles
for the development of innovations. These are the establishment of new
mechanisms of financing, promotion of state and private cooperation,
application of international innovation technologies and cooperation
between universities and private companies.

The ECA’s conference "Stimulation of Innovations in East Europe and
Central Asia 2007" involves 15 countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia. The main objective of the
ECA is to raise public awareness of innovations in the sphere of
small and medium business.

The ECA network was established by the InfoDev in 2002. Incubator
businesses and industrial perks from 70 countries are included in it.

The organizers of the conference are the WB InfoDev Program, Fund of
Incubator Enterprises and Eastern Europe – Central Asia (ECA) Network
for Business Incubations.The conference will close on September 20.

AZERBAIJAN NOT TO ATTEND THE MEETING OF CIS PROSECUTOR-GENERALS IN YEREVAN

armradio.am
14.09.2007 16:46

Azerbaijan will not attend the forthcoming meeting of the CIS
Prosecutor-Generals Coordinating Council to take place in Yerevan,
Armenia on 9 October, Trend reports.

Up to now the Azerbaijan Prosecutor Generalï~^’s Office has not
participated in any meeting held in Armenia and has no intention to
do that in future, according to the Prosecutor Generalï~^’s Office.

–Boundary_(ID_ddDOLV1si+vVr6lHaMsJUg)–

ARMENIA DEFEATED MALTA

A1+
[12:57 pm] 13 September, 2007

The Armenian national football team defeated Malta’s national football
team in 1:0. The triumphal goal was scored by Arthur Voskanyan from
"Ararat" football club. The experienced footballer managed to score the
goal in a very complicated situation. The Armenian national team had
other chances to score other goals but the score remained unchanged.

The following footballers were involved in our team: Felix Hakobyan,
Sargis Hovsepyan, Karen Dokhoyan, Eghishe Melikyan (Aghvan Lazarian,
68 min.), Alexander Tadevosyan, Robert Arzumanyan, Levon Pachajyan
(Vahagn Minasyan, 75 min.), Arthur Voskanyan, Ararat Arakelyan, Ara
Hakobyan (Arthur Minasyan, 82 min.), Samvel Melkonyan (Arsen Avetisyan,
70 min).

After the match the chief coach of Malta’s national team Du~Zan
Fitzel noted that the match had logical conclusion. "We lost some
footballers after the match with Turkey. The main personnel of the
team could not play, besides the players were tired".

MALTA VS. ARMENIA – PREVIEW

Sports betting news, UK
Sep 12, 2007

Armenia is unbeatable in last three matches! A month ago they managed
to beat Kazakhstan away (1-2), then they won over strong Poland at
home with 1-0 and the last one they stayed unbeaten against Portugal
at home (1-1). This is such an improvement!

Malta is also improving lately with win over Hungary at home (2-1) and
draw against Turkey at home (2-2), but there is no consistency at all-
they were trashed against Bosnia at home (2-5) and Norway away (4-0).

On the other hand, all the Armenia’s defeats are with one goal
difference (except the defeat against Serbia with 3-0). Their defence
is the best part of the team conceding only 6 goals in last 7 matches
(excluding the match against Serbia). It will be almost impossible for
Malta to score against this granite defence, but their shaky defence
(17 goals in last 8 matches) will concede at least once!

Armenia is definitely underestimated with those odds- there is a big
value in this bet!

UPSIDE OF DOWN
By Gwen Mergian, Special To The Times Union

Albany Times Union, NY
First published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Health regimen surpasses cholesterol goals and boosts mindfulness

Six months, 20 pounds and 97 points!

"Wow," my doctor said, when she saw my latest lab results. Shocked,
I had even less to say.

In six month’s time, my LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, dropped
97 points, from 193 milligrams per deciliter to a svelte 96.

That’s 34 points lower than the goal I set last March when opting to
try the Ornish plan, a low-fat vegetarian diet combined with moderate
exercise and stress management techniques.

Down from a lofty 303, my total cholesterol reads 177.

And I lost 20 pounds. Stunning numbers, but better still, they’re
not the best part of the story.

At the start of my experiment, though, only the numbers mattered. I
fixated on LDL in particular.

Given my family history of sudden cardiac arrest, the risk of a fatal
heart attack hovered in the not-too-distant future.

Middle-age and sedentary, I had two choices.

"Take the Lipitor, eat the baklava," advised an amiable Armenian
friend, referring to a prominent statin drug.

Well, he certainly articulated a popular approach. The alternative
meant serious lifestyle changes. But could a half-year of healthier
habits undo the damages of a lifetime?

"What the heck," I said, plunging right in.

Small measures

Armed with Ornish guidelines, I patched together a slew of small
measures reported to lower cholesterol, speculating that the net
effect might be enough.

I ate blueberries, walnuts, gingerroot and barley. I drank white tea,
pomegranate juice, apple cider vinegar and cod liver oil.

I cheated just twice during the six months. (Remember Hattie’s pie?)

I walked home after work, biked around my neighborhood and gardened
a bit. (Did you know sunlight lowers cholesterol?)

With some misgivings, I also took red yeast rice, a dietary
supplement similar to a statin. Just how similar, well, that remains
controversial, although close enough to require periodic blood tests.

Oh — and I gave up eating meat, chicken and cheese, limiting fish
to twice-a-week servings of salmon.

Despite these profound changes, I haven’t felt deprived.

The small luxuries I allowed myself — nuts, egg whites, nonfat
dairy and a tiny amount of olive and canola oils — kept the plan
from feeling unduly restrictive.

Brave new lifestyle

On the other hand, and this is where the unexpected curve in the road
appears, I began to enjoy my brave new lifestyle.

Remember, liking it wasn’t part of the plan.

For the record, I considered myself an ordinary eater; roughly 40
percent of my pre-experiment calories came from fats.

Now my plate overflows with fruit and vegetables. I eat eight or more
servings per day — every day.

And I feel better.

So why go back to the way it was before? (Fortunately, my husband
agrees.)

I will, however, make some exceptions when visiting family and
friends. They shouldn’t have to worry about what to feed me.

The exercise part

Once I got the hang of eating beans every day, I set my sights on
exercise, the bane of my existence. I floundered for weeks, unable
to find an activity that fit my routine and sensibilities.

Feeling desperate one day, I walked home after work which, for some
inexplicit reason, amused me. The steady 2 1/2 mile incline was just
vigorous enough to justify being called aerobic.

Now I trek home regularly.

Encouraged, I bought a refurbished older bicycle.

After working up to a mile, I surprised myself by accepting a friend’s
invitation to bike an 11-mile route through the hilly terrain of
southern Albany County.

I trained all summer on flat city streets, building endurance. I fell
off my bicycle. I picked myself up.

I refused to think about hills. Until the big day, when I huffed and
puffed, trying to keep up with my cycling friends who, more than once,
politely waited at the crest of a hill. In fact, I dismounted four
times to walk while catching my breath. But the fields and valleys
were so lovely, I didn’t mind.

In a way, the lengthy ride symbolized my six-month journey. Both
forced me out of my comfort zone, demanding new skills and steadfast
determination. I weathered unexpected setbacks, too. But in the end,
my friends were there to see me through.

Breathing

Let me admit, I am not a yoga kind of gal. But chronic stress can
hurt hearts. Besides, there’s no downside to breathing.

Thus I tiptoed into the realm of meditation, doing deep breathing
exercises while I ironed after dinner.

I liked Zen ironing so well, I added "mindfulness" exercise to my walks
home after work. Mindfulness meditation means paying close attention.

Maybe I am more mindful now. I notice, for instance, the four pizza
parlors at the corner of Ontario Street and Madison Avenue. (Not
that I eat any, mind you.) I also notice worried eyes at the doctor’s
office, smiles on the playground, and madcap splashing in our backyard
birdbath.

Mindfulness awakens us to the power of the moment.

>From there, it’s reportedly not far to feeling less judgmental, more
forgiving, and, in the end, less alone. Not bad, given the fact this
was supposed to be about the numbers.

What’s next

My experiment may be over, but I’m far from done.

Looking ahead, I start a tai chi class next week. I’ve enrolled at
a gym to begin twice-weekly weight training.

And, gearing up for winter, I found an awesome stationary bike at a
nearby yard sale.

In his latest book, The Art of Aging, Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland says
getting older has its surprising blessings. "Even as age licks our
joints and lessens our acuities, it brings with it the promise that
there can in fact be something more, something good, if we are but
willing to reach out and take hold of it," Nuland writes.

In conquering cholesterol, I inadvertently crossed a threshold,
entering territory I didn’t see coming but am more than happy to
inhabit.

Last spring, my doctor said, "Even if you end up on a statin, you’ll
be a much healthier person."

As usual, she was right.