Author: Nahapetian Samvel

Hindu, India
Sunday, Oct 19, 2008

India has a fair chance

Manuel Aaron

CHENNAI: A 62-player Indian chess contingent will arrive in Vietnam on
Sunday to participate in the World Youth Chess Championships in the
under-8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 categories, in open and girls only
draws.

India has the second largest contingent after host Vietnam with
96. The next highest is Russia with 48. The total strength of the
Indian contingent is 110 including the coaches and others.

The first of the eleven Swiss rounds begins on Sunday and the
tournament ends on October 30.

Fair chances

Indians have a fair shot at medals in the five Open and three girls
categories.

In the under-8, Jeet Jain, Abhimanyu Puranik and Bhaskar Gupta are
seeded one, two and four. Diptayan Ghosh and Sidhant Mohapatra are
seeded two and five among 91 players in the under-10 category. In the
under-12, Shiven Khosla and Girish Koushik are seeded second and
fifth.

In the under-14, N. Srinath is seeded second and will have to battle
it out with top seed Polandâs Swiercz and 2007 World Under-12
champion Daniel Naroditzky of USA.

India has three International Masters in the under-16 ‘
S.P. Sethuraman, B. Adhiban and M. Shyam Sundar. But the top seed in
this category is Ter Sahakyan, an Armenian with a near grandmaster
rating of 2495.

The under-18 has one British and two Vietnamese grandmasters as top
seeds.

Clear favourite

In the under-8 girls’, Riya Savant of Goa is the top seed as she is
the only FIDE-rated player among 55. In the under-10 girls’ section,

Sweety Patel is seeded second and Ivana Furtado fourth. In the
under-14 girls’, the Orissa talent Padmini Rout is top seed with last
year’s bronze medal winner in the under-12 girls, Shalmali Gagare
seeded sixth.

At the same championship last year at Antalya, Turkey, India had one
gold (Ivana Furtado, under-8 girls), two bronze (Prince Bajaj, u-10
and Shalmali Gagare, girls u-14). A disastrous last round had cost the
country quite a few medals.

ARMENIA-EU BUSINESS FORUM IN LUXEMBOURG NEXT SPRING

ARKA
Oct 14, 2008

YEERVAN, October 14. /ARKA/. Armenia-European Union (EU) business
forum will take place in Luxembourg next spring, Garegin Melkonyan,
the RA trade representative in the EU, told ARKA News Agency.

According to Melkonyan the forum is aimed at boosting business ties
and contacts between Armenian and EU institutions.

Melkonyan stressed on-site works and visits of business delegations are
very important as Armenia is geographically far from the EU countries.

"Two or three business visits of different delegations are organized
annually, aimed at encouraging business ties, as well as contacts
between Chambers of Commerce and Industry," said Melkonyan.

He noted that Armenia’s main trade partners in the EU include Belgium,
Germany, Holland, Italy and France.

Armenian-EU trade turnover reached $1,219.3mln this January-August,
an annual increase of 20.5%, and made 36.8% of Armenia’s total foreign
trade turnover.

Armenia’s exports to the EU amounted to $392mln (9.6% increase),
with imports amounting to $827.3mln (26.4% increase).

"In general, the diversification with the EU is well developed, but
at the same time works aimed at widening contacts are being carried
out," said Melkonyan.

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN CONGRATULATES JIVAN GASPARYAN ON 80TH BIRTHDAY

armradio.am
13.10.2008 11:05

On October 12 President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had a phone talk
with People’s Artist of the Republic of Armenia, renowned duduk player
and composer Jivan Gasparyan.

The President congratulated the live legend of Armenian music on
the occasion on his 80th birthday. Serzh Sargsyan highly assessed
Jivan Gasparyan’s contribution to the development and propagation of
Armenian musical art, wishing him health, new creative achievements
and all the best.

COMMISSION FORMED TO RECONSIDER THE DEFENSE STRATEGY O ARMENIA

armradio.am
13.10.2008 14:03

The first sitting of the interagency commission to reconsider the
Defense Strategy of the Republic of Armenia was held at the President’s
Office today, chaired by Secretary of the National Security Council
Arthur Baghdasaryan. Presenting the mission of the commission,
Mr. Baghdasaryan noted that the necessity to reconsider the strategy
of defense reforms derives from the National Security Strategy. It
envisages the preparation of a whole package of reforms and is under
the direct control of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

"Deriving from the importance of working out the document on
assessment of the security environment and threats, we should be able
to elaborate a document and a program of actions and arrangements that
will correspond to the contemporary global and regional challenges,"
Arthur Baghdasaryan noted.

Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan later presented the main
directions of reformation of the Defense Strategy of the Republic of
Armenia and the methodology of the work. Participants of the sitting
took decisions connected with the organization of the work and fixed
the exact terms of action.

EDWARD NALBANDYAN RECEIVED RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY GENERAL DIRECTOR

Panorama.am
17:07 11/10/2008

The Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandyan has received the
delegation headed by the General Director of Russian Foreign Ministry
Doku Zavgaev, reported the information and public relations department
of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia.

According to the source, the officials have discussed Armenian-Russian
relations, in particular principle issues between the Foreign
Ministries of Armenia and Russia.

SEVERAL NATIVES OF ARMENIA, TURKEY, UZBEKISTAN AND TAJIKISTAN KILLED IN MOSCOW

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.10.2008 15:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Several natives of Armenia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan were killed in Moscow during the past several days. Many
explain the neo-Nazi activities by the recent murder of a 15-year-old
Russian schoolgirl, presumably by guest workers.

Members of the movement against illegal migration held an authorized
rally on Sunday urging to find the murderers of the girl.

DOES HE HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ABOUT THAT TOPIC?

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
11 Oct 2008
Armenia

It is rather interesting to see who rebels against the exile of the
active participant of March 1-2 developments, citizen of France Sargis
Hatspanyan from Armenia.

`The decision of the administration on Sargis Hatspanyan’s exile is not
only baseless but also immoral and violates a range of RA laws,’
Armenian National Congress announces.

Does the leader of the congress Ter-Petrosyan have the right to even
speak about that topic? The person who in 1992 took the decision to
exile Hrayr Marukhyan from the country and by the way implemented it in
some hours.

DELEGATION OF THE CASSATION COURT OF ARMENIA TO VISIT GERMANY AND FRANCE

armradio.am
10.10.2008 16:19

Within the framework of the "Advocacy for the reinforcement of the
legal system of Armenia" the delegation of the Court of Cassation of
the Republic of Armenia will visit Germany and France from October
13 to 19.

The delegation comprises the President of the Civil and Administrative
Chamber of the Court of Cassation Slava Sargsyan, judge of the same
chamber Varuzhan Abelyan, judges of the Criminal Chamber Hovhannes
Ghukasyan, Samvel Ohanyan. The delegation will be headed by the
President of the Court of Cassation Arman Mkrtumyan.

Members of the Armenian delegation are expected to meet with the
Vice-President of the Federal Supreme Court of Germany, the judges
on criminal and civil cases of the same court, as well as the press
secretary of the court.

In Strasbourg the delegation of the Court of Cassation of Armenia
will have a meeting with the President of the European Court of Human
Rights Jean Paul Costa and a number of judges of the same court.

ARMENIAN ARDSHININVESTBANK OPENS RENOVATED BRANCH IN GORIS, SYUNIK REGION

ARKA
Oct 10, 2008

YEREVAN, October 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Ardshininvestbank opened its
renovated Goris branch in the region of Syunik today. The bank’s
press-service told ARKA News Agency, the new building is equipped with
up-to-date technologies and the bank is ready to serve the customers
in more convenient conditions.

According to Aram Andreasyan, the Chairman of Ardshininvestbank’s
Management Board, the bank continues its policy of improving the
conditions to offer qualitative banking services to all sections of
the state’s population.

It is the second renovated branch in Syunik region in a month. The
bank has five branches in Syunik region.

The Centralb Bank of Armenia (CBA) licensed (N 83) Ardshininvestbank
CJSC for banking activites on February 27, 2003. The bank’s main
shareholders include the Region Investing Financial Corporation
(86.82%) and the International Financial Corporation (10%). The later
became a shareholder late last year.

By September 30, the bank capital reached 22.7bln AMD, assets 119.2bln
AMD, liabilities 94.5bln AMD, credit assets 79.8bln AMD, surplus
earnings 4.1bln AMD. Ardshininvestbank has 55 branches, including
six in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The bank has a representation
in Paris as well.

ASTROPHYSICS: RESEARCH ON ASTROPHYSICS REPORTED BY H.A. HARUTYUNIAN ET AL

Science Letter
September 30, 2008

According to recent research from Armenia, "Some physical
characteristics of cD galaxies are examined in the context of their
formation during Ambartsumyan events."

"In this paper, cD galaxies are considered as generators of the
clusters in which they occur. The segregation of clusters in terms of
their morphological classes and the well known Faber-Jackson relation
are discussed as arguments for this concept," wrote H.A. Harutyunian
and colleagues (see also Astrophysics).

The researchers concluded: "This concept provides a rather natural
explanation for the observed features of cD galaxies and the associated
clusters."

Harutyunian and colleagues published their study in Astrophysics
(On the nature of cD galaxies. Astrophysics, 2008;51(2):141-152).

For additional information, contact H.A. Harutyunian, VA Ambartsumyan
Byurakan Astrophysics Observ, Byurakan, Armenia.

Publisher contact information for the journal Astrophysics is:
Springer, Plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, USA.