Author: Khoyetsian Rose

The Los Angeles Times
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Kerkorian asks court to drop Bing matter
Billionaire abandons attempt to unite his daughter with her biological father
By Robert W. Welkos
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 5, 2007

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who years ago made headlines when
he agreed to accept joint legal custody of a little girl who is not
his daughter, is abandoning legal attempts for her to meet and bond
with her biological father, Hollywood producer Steve Bing.

A hearing on the matter had been scheduled for Oct. 16 in Los Angeles
County Superior Court, but Kerkorian’s attorney, Peter C. Sheridan,
citing Bing’s "failure to respond in any way," filed documents
Thursday requesting the case be taken off the calendar.

The documents state that "it is clear to [Kerkorian] that Mr. Bing has
no interest in facilitating a relationship with his daughter."

Kerkorian, 90, has made attempts over the years to get Bing involved
in the life of the little girl, Kira, who is now 9. Kerkorian’s
ex-wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, had previously sued him for $320,000 a
month in child support for her daughter. It was later determined that
Bing was the girl’s biological father.

Bing’s attorney, Robert Kaufman, did not respond to a call seeking
comment Thursday.

ws/business/la-et-kerkorian5oct05,1,1068563.story? coll=la-headlines-business-enter)

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2007

Long-term program of tourism development to be elaborated in Armenia
by the end of year

YEREVAN, October 5. /ARKA/. A long-term program of tourism
development will be elaborated and submitted for the government’s
approval by the end of this year, Armenian Minister of Trade and
Economic Development Nerses Yeritsian said at his meeting with the
students of the Armenian State Economic University.

According to him, the staff of the ministry currently works over the
development of the program in certain target directions together with
the representatives of private sector and public organizations.

The program is to be implemented during 30 years, which is sufficient
time for the development of the required infrastructures and real
estate fund, Yeritsian said.

He pointed out that a cluster approach is applied in elaboration of
the document, and the efficiency of the measures will be assessed
based on two main indicators – number of tourists and duration of
their stay in the country. These two indicators will demonstrate both
the effectiveness of the measures and the level of tourism
development in Armenia, the Minister said.

According to Armenia’s National Statistical Service, the number of
tourists visited Armenia in January-June 2007 increased 36.3% as
compared with the same period of 2006 and reached 181,200 people
against 132,900 people in January-June 2006. N.V. -0 –

COE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ARRIVING IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 7

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.10.2007 18:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s
Commissioner for Human Rights, starts on Sunday 7 October a 5-day
high-level official visit to Armenia to assess the human rights
situation in the country, said the press office of the CoE Yerevan
office.

At the center of Mr Hammarberg’s agenda there will be a broad range
of human rights issues, including the functioning of the judiciary,
conditions of detention, prohibition of torture and ill-treatment,
freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, minorities’ rights,
conscientious objectors, rights of refugees, social and economic
rights. The visit will also focus on trafficking in human beings and
vulnerable groups.

Commissioner Hammarberg will visit various police stations, detention
centers, shelters and psychiatric institutions in Yerevan and Gyumri.

During the visit, the Commissioner will hold meetings with the
highest authorities of the State, including the President, Robert
Kocharian, the Prime Minister, Serge Sargsyan and the Chairman of
the Parliament, Tigran Torosian. He will also meet parliamentarians,
the Presidents of the Constitutional Court and the Cassation Court,
the Ombudsman, local authorities, the Head of the Armenian Church,
as well as representatives of the civil society.

AZERBAIJAN SAYS UN SHOULD SOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL

EurasiaNet, NY
Oct 4 2007

Azerbaijan says the United Nations Security Council is the only place
to find a solution to the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
with Armenia.

Speaking to the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
said international law and four relevant Security Council resolutions
should form the legal basis of a resolution of the conflict.

Mammadyarov rejected the statement from his Armenian counterpart,
Vartan Oskanian, who told the General Assembly that a Karabakh solution
should be negotiated only through the OSCE, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave inside Azerbaijan with a mostly ethnic
Armenian population. Armenian forces seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh
from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated
30,000 lives.

A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the two countries have failed
to negotiate a settlement on the region’s status.

488,000 SUBSCRIBERS OF NATURAL GAS IN ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2007

YEREVAN, October 3. /ARKA/. As of October 1, 2007 the subscribers of
the network of Armenia’s natural gas totaled 488,047, press service
of the "ArmRosgasprom" told ARKA.

According to the press release during the last nine months the number
of gas subscribers totaled 49,192.

"This September the number of real gas consumers increased by 7044,
which is the highest index during the last nine months," the Company
said.

The "ArmRosgasprom" is a monopolist in importing and distributing
Russian natural gas to Armenia.

The Armenian-Russian ArmRosgasprom CJSC was founded in 1997. The
company’s authorized capital makes $398.8mln. The company’s
shareholders are "GasProm" OJSC (57.59%), the RA Ministry of Energy
and GasProm (34.7%) and the Itera oil company (7.71%).

SHAREHOLDER OF ROYAL ARMENIA UNDER ARREST

A1+
[12:56 pm] 03 October, 2007

Gagik Hakobian, the leading shareholder in the Royal Armenia coffee
company, was detained at Zvartnots airport the moment he returned
from Spain.

Gagik Hakobian had left Armenia to undergo medical treatment in Spain
shortly after his release.

Prosecutors challenged the sensational acquittal at the higher Court
of Appeals which opened hearings on the case in late August. Hakobian
failed to attend any of the Appellate Court hearings. The Court
of Appeals ordered law-enforcement authorities to locate and again
arrest the businessman, dismissing his assurances that he will return
to the country after completing the treatment.

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutyunyan, had petitioned
the Court of Appeals last week to review the preventive punishment
for the Royal Armenia owner.

Obviously, the court had rejected the Ombudsman’s petition.

At 11:00, September 11, the RA Appellate Court will continue hearings
on Royal Armenia.

Gagik Hakobian, and Royal Armenia’s deputy director Aram Ghazarian,
were detained in October, 2005, after having publicly accused the RA
Customs office of corruption.

They were released after having spent 1.9 year in the National
Security Service.

ARMENIAN FOOTBALLER LOSS CONSCIOUSNESS IN MATCH AGAINST AZERBAIJAN

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 3 2007

An uncommon incident happened in the match between the national
U-19 women’s teams of Armenia and Azerbaijan within the European
championship qualifying round. Armenian team footballer lost
consciousness during the match held in Lvov, Ukraine. Azeri footballer
Anna Alakbarov’s strong strike made Armenian footballer to lost
consciousness and the latter was admitted to the nearest hospital. No
other incident followed in the match.

Azerbaijan-Armenia match ended in a draw. Anna Alakbarova and Mahira
Aghazada scored goals for Azerbaijan team.

THERE IS NO "AZERI COMMUNITY" IN EASTERN EUROPE

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.10.2007 13:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "According to the Hungarian Constitution, Armenians
represent a national minority, which exercises constitutional rights
provided by the law," the RA Ambassador to Hungary, Austria, Czechia
and Slovakia, Ashot Hovakimian told a news conference in Yerevan.

"In Hungary, this status is granted to traditional communities living
in the country over 300-400 years.

Armenians have lived in Hungary for over 500 years.

They have elective self-government councils.

Meanwhile, there is no Azeri community in Hungary, Austria, Czechia
or Slovakia. The Azerbaijani Embassy is attempting to create a such,
however, in vain," Ambassador Hovakimian said.

For his part, Armenian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Sergei Manasarian said
there is not such a notion as "Azeri community" in Bulgaria. "There
is a Turkish community, which numbers 600-800 thousand people. The
number of Armenians reaches 30 thousand only. I should stress that
we are not at odds. The problem is that unlike the Turkish community,
the Armenian one is not solidary enough.

UN ADOPTED ARMENIAN INITIATIVE

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 1 2007

In its sixth session on September 28 the UN Human Rights Council
adopted the Resolution on the Protection of cultural heritage as an
important component of the promotion and protection of cultural rights,
coauthored and proposed by Armenia, the foreign ministry reported.

This interregional resolution was coauthored by the members and
observers of the Human rights Council Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia,
Russia, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Angola, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Belarus
and other countries. It urges to honor and preserve cultural heritage
as a component of the cultural identity of peoples and individuals,
tolerance, respect, dialogue and collaboration between peoples and
civilizations.

The resolution defines the destruction of cultural heritage as a
violation of cultural rights, and underlines the responsibility of
nations for intentional destruction and failure to prevent, stop and
prosecute. During the same session Armenia presented materials on
the destruction of the Armenian medieval cemetery of Djolfa and the
Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhidjevan in general.

Panorama.am

20:53 28/09/2007

`A shameful verdict for the Armenian people’

`Once again political persecution has taken certain stage,’ read the
announcement by the Heritage party concerning the September 25 guilty
verdict for Jhirayr Sefilian, Vartan Malkhasian, and Vahan Aroyan.

`This is proof that one who expresses his opinions can be denied his
freedom. This verdict is not only shameful for the Armenian people,
but does great damage to Armenia’s reputation throughout the world.

The verdict in fact judges the Armenian legal system. This illegal
decision affects the entire population. With this, the abyss between
the people and their government grows, and puts the country’s security
at risk,’ concludes the text.

We note that the high court sustained the earlier decision by the
first instance court of Nork-Marash. Not only that, the high court
increased Aroyan’s sentence by six months.

Source: Panorama.am