Author: Maral Chavushian

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 15-04-20

Maral Chavushian

Save

Share

 17:37,

YEREVAN, 15 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 15 April, USD exchange rate up by 0.60 drams to 486.12 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.22 drams to 531.52 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.57 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.66 drams to 608.62 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 989.70 drams to 27224.36 drams. Silver price up by 5.53 drams to 242.41 drams. Platinum price up by 420.54 drams to 11893.76 drams.

Andranik Kocharyan: In terms of pandemic, some political forces are trying to create a false political agenda in the country

Maral Chavushian
Arminfo, Armenia

ArmInfo. In terms of pandemic, some political forces are trying to create a false political agenda through fakes. Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and  Security, MP from the “My Step” faction Andranik Kocharyan stated in  the parliament. 

He noted that due to the spread of coronavirus infection in the  country, when virtual reality occupies one of the main places in the  life of the public, these political forces are trying to take  advantage of the current situation. 

, Kocharyan  emphasized.  He noted that the will of the people is a priority in  Armenia. , the MP concluded. 

290,000 citizens, 5300 companies granted loan repayment holidays in Armenia amid coronavirus crisis

Maral Chavushian

Save

Share

 15:20, 8 April, 2020

YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Amid the coronavirus crisis, nearly 290,000 Armenian citizens have been granted loan repayment holidays with a total volume of 9,3 billion drams as of April 8, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on social media.

“Loan repayment holidays were also granted to 5300 legal persons with a total volume of 15,4 billion drams,” he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Putin discusses measures to combat COVID-19 pandemic with Armenian PM

Maral Chavushian
TASS, Russia
April 6 2020
Nikol Pashinyan has expressed gratitude to Russia for its aid

MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed the measures taken to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) during a phone call with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

“They have discussed the measures taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus infection,” the Kremlin press service informs. “In this regard, Nikol Pashinyan has expressed gratitude to Russia for its aid.”

The phone call was held at the initiative of Armenia. The sides have discussed the current issues of bilateral cooperation, namely the cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union. They have approved a schedule for further contacts.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus – named COVID-19 by the WHO – have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, approximately 1,300,000 people have been infected worldwide and roughly 70,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 265,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

Anton Bruckner’s ‘Requiem’ to pay tribute to fallen heroes of April War

Maral Chavushian
Panorama, Armenia
April 2 2020

The National Centre of Chamber Music will present the performance of Anton Bruckner’s “Requiem” to pay tribute to the hero soldiers fallen during the 2016 April War.

The video of the performance will be shown on the center’s official Facebook page on April 4, at 8:30pm.

Bruckner’s “Requiem” has been performed in Armenia for the first time at the initiative of the National Centre of Chamber Music, it said in a Facebook post.

The concert has been performed by the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia and Hover State Chamber Choir under the baton of Vahan Martirosyan, the artistic director and chief conductor of the orchestra. 

Armenia parliament majority: Sometimes we are under total oversight because of our behavior

Maral Chavushian
News.am, Armenia

15:22, 30.03.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – If we can solve another goal by taking small information, in reality, we will not be able to prevent the spread of this epidemic in any way; it is better to approach a little more tactful in curtailing human rights freedoms. Babken Tunyan, member of the majority My Step faction at the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, said this in parliament Monday, referring to the issue of making an amendment to the Law on Electronic Communication.

“[Justice Minister] Mr. [Rustam] Badasyan said ‘big data’ in his speech,” Tunyan said, in particular. “Its meaning is that information is gathered from all possible places (…) and information and assumptions about that person’s possible behavior are generated through certain algorithms. (…). Social media work the same way (…). Today, sometimes we are under total oversight without being aware because of our behavior.”

Tunyan noted that another question arises here as to whether the government has the technical capacity to process all this information. “I think in such situations we have to go with the curtailing of certain rights,” he added, in particular. “But we have to do it in a very balanced way.”

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals

Maral Chavushian

Save

Share

 17:56,

YEREVAN, 30 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 March, USD exchange rate up by 2.37 drams to 500.80 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 6.12 drams to 554.34 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 6.30 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 11.31 drams to 620.19 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 157.20 drams to 26040.3 drams. Silver price down by 0.51 drams to 230.49 drams. Platinum price up by 56.54 drams to 11947.01 drams.

Armenia reports 52 coronavirus cases in one day, total cumulative number reaches 424

Maral Chavushian

Save

Share1

 11:10,

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has confirmed 52 new cases of COVID19, bringing the total cumulative number of the novel coronanavirus-caused disease in the country to 424 as of March 29, 11:00 GMT+4, the National Center for Disease Control reported.

With 30 patients having recovered and 3 fatalities, the number of active cases is 391.

 

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan





Asbarez: Prelacy Issues Appeal About Coronavirus

Maral Chavushian

Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America logo

As the entire world is grappling with the Coronavirus pandemic, first and foremost we ask the Lord to protect us all, to lead us to safe and healthy days, and hasten the recovery of those infected.

Following the decision of His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, and with the health and safety of our community as our top priority, Western Primate Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, and Western Prelate Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian hereby announce that, effectively immediately, Divine Liturgy and Great Lent Sunrise and Vigil services will be conducted behind closed doors and without the participation of faithful until April 9, Maundy Thursday.

The services will be live streamed on the website and/or Facebook page of each respective Church, whenever possible.

We are certain that our faithful will continue to offer their individual prayers within their homes. Churches will also maintain regular working hours to offer parishioners the opportunity to light candles and say prayers in compliance with official orders limiting the number of people in one place as well as maintaining a safe distance from one another.

In addition, we ask for baptisms and funerals to take place with the presence of immediate family members only. For other rites and services, further information can be obtained from Church offices.

“Der Voghormya” prayers will continue to be offered during Great Lent services and Divine Liturgy for the swift resolution of this crisis, speedy recovery and good health for all.

Once again, we urge all to monitor the situation closely and heed all national, state, and local guidelines as well as updated directives for Church services.

Prayers are needed more than ever in these challenging and uncertain times. Thus, we urge our faithful to follow the services online and join us in prayer from their homes, beseeching the Lord for strength, peace, and healing, for the abatement of the pandemic and return to normalcy.

“By the sign of Your holy and precious Cross, drive away visible and invisible enemies  from our midst and from our habitations.”

WESTERN PRELACY TIVAN




Facebook wrongly blocking news articles about coronavirus pandemic and not only

Maral Chavushian
Panorama, Armenia

Facebook is blocking users from posting some legitimate news articles about the coronavirus in what appears to be a bug in its spam filters, Business Insider reports. 

On Tuesday, multiple Facebook users reported on Twitter that they found themselves unable to post articles from certain news outlets including Business Insider, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and the Times of Israel. It’s not clear exactly what has gone wrong, and Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

In the face of the mounting COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has sent many of its content moderators home, saying it will rely more on automated software instead. Alex Stamos, an outspoken former Facebook security exec, speculated that this shift might be to blame.

“It looks like an anti-spam rule at FB is going haywire,” he wrote on Twitter. “Facebook sent home content moderators yesterday, who generally can’t [work from home] due to privacy commitments the company has made. We might be seeing the start of the [machine learning going nuts with less human oversight.”

Facebook denied that the bug was related to any changes to its content moderator workforce.

On Tuesday Facebook also blocked two news articles of Panorama.am. One of them referred to Russia’s ban on entry of foreign citizens, including Armenian citizens, into the country, while the other had nothing to do with coronavirus. The article was about a BBC documentary on the behavior of Facebook and other social media users.