Author: Nalbandian Eduard

NANCY PELOSI DEMANDS INVESTIGATING OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.01.2009 14:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to differ
from Barack Obama on at least two issues — tax increases and
investigating the Bush administration.

The speaker said Sunday she wants Congress to consider repealing
President George W. Bush’s tax cuts on those who make more than
$250,000 well before they expire at the end of 2010.

Obama had promised to repeal the tax cuts as well during the
presidential campaign, but he has since backed off that pledge,
signaling he would be willing to simply let them expire.

"We had campaigned in saying what the Republican Congressional Budget
Office told us: Nothing contributed more to the budget deficit than
the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America," Pelosi said in
an interview broadcast Sunday.

The California Democrat is pushing the president-elect to make good
on a campaign promise that attracted some of the harshest criticism
during the election — that Obama is a typical tax-and-spend Democrat
who would raise taxes once in office.

Obama has fought that label, emphasizing that any tax increase would
be directed at those making more than $250,000. However, since the
election, Obama has been reluctant even to raise taxes on people
making that much.

Lawrence Summers, Obama’s choice for director of the National Economic
Council, signaled again Sunday that repealing the Bush tax cuts would
not be a priority.

"Our overall focus is going to be on increasing spending," Summers
said in a broadcast interview. "Beyond that, there’s going to be a
substantial tax cut for the American people."

Obama’s aides worked with House Democrats to craft their version
of an economic stimulus package. The package, unveiled last week,
includes $550 billion in government spending and $275 billion in tax
cuts. It would leave the Bush tax cuts in place.

Pelosi said she won’t use the stimulus bill to address tax cuts. But
she also said: "I don’t want them to wait two years to expire. Because
they have to prove their worth to me as to how they grow the economy,
how they create jobs."

Republicans disputed the House speaker’s assertion about tax cuts
and the deficit.

"There is no CBO report that says tax cuts for the wealthiest are
the biggest contributor to the deficit," said Don Stewart, spokesman
for Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "Though we agree
that Congress must carefully pursue ways to strengthen our economy,
raising taxes won’t grow jobs."

A spokeswoman for House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said
Pelosi’s assertion was "flat wrong."

"Congressional Democrats need to understand that the best way to
get our deficits under control is to confront spending," spokeswoman
Antonia Ferrier said.

Also Sunday, Pelosi said she wants an investigation into whether the
Bush administration broke the law when it fired a group of federal
prosecutors.

"I think that we have to learn from the past, and we cannot let the
politicizing of, for example, the Justice Department, go unreviewed,"
she said. "Past is prologue."

House Democrats last week recommended a criminal investigation to
determine whether administration officials broke the law in the name
of national security. Along with the fired prosecutors, the report
cited interrogation of foreign detainees, warrantless wiretaps,
retribution against critics and manipulation of intelligence.

The president-elect has been more cautious, saying he wants to look
to the future, not to the past.

"I don’t believe that anybody is above the law," Obama said in a recent
television interview. "On the other hand, I also have a belief that
we need to look forward, as opposed to looking backwards."

Pelosi and Obama appear to be on the same page when it comes to
entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. Obama announced last
week that he would convene a "fiscal responsibility summit" in February
to focus on long-term problems with the economy and the skyrocketing
costs of benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

"I support what he wants to do, to have a summit of that kind,"
Pelosi said Sunday. "We will have our own initiatives in the Congress
to work with him on that."

Pelosi said everything should be on the table, including benefit cuts.

"The only thing we didn’t want to put on the table is eliminating
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," she said, the Associated
Press reports.

BusinessWorld Online, Philippines
Jan 19 2009

Quo vadis Mark?

World Top 10 Players as of January 2009
1. GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2796

2. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2791

3. GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2779

4. GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2776

5. GM Alexander Morozevich RUS 2771

6. GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2761

7. GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2760

8. GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2759

9. GM Peter Leko HUN 2751

10. GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2751

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has released its January rating
list. The attentive BW reader will note that the Bulgarian GM Veselin
Topalov has topped the list for the second time in a row. Also, the
youth movement of the past year has catapulted Magnus Carlsen, Teimour
Radjabov and Dmitry Jakovenko into the list, while familiar names like
Peter Svidler, Michael Adams and Alexei Shirov have had to drop
out. Even the shooting star of 2006, Levon Aronian, slipped to 11th
place.

The name I’d like to direct the attention of our readers to is that of
the current no. 10, GM Sergei Movsesian. Sergei is a nice, friendly,
all-smiles sort of guy who was born Nov. 3, 1978 in Tbilisi, Georgia,
of Armenian parents. He emigrated to Slovakia in his teens. He still
considers himself an Armenian, though.

Movsesian’s name came into world attention during the FIDE KO World
Championship in Las Vegas 1999, when out of a field of the 128 best
players of the world he fought his way to the final eight, where he
lost to Vladimir Akopian, who in turn went on to narrowly lose to
Alexander Khalifman in the finals. His mental toughness in surviving
four mini-matches showed that he is a player of high class.

He tried again several times to duplicate this feat, usually reaching
the third round in the FIDE KO Championships. It was in 2005
Khanty-Mansyisk that he got derailed in the first round by guess who?
Mark Paragua.

This was a two-game mini-match. Mark equalized easily with Black in
the first game and won convincingly in the second. We annotated this
three years ago but let us take another look at it.

Paragua, Mark (2596) ‘ Movsesian, Sergei (2635) [D15]

FIDE WCup Khanty Mansyisk (1.2), 27.11.2005

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5/b>

This line is Movsesian’s specialty.

7.Bd2 Nhf6 8.Bf4

Black’s goal of course is to play …e7-e5. Theory’s current stand is
that the best way to discourage this is 8.Rc1 followed by a kingside
fianchetto. Topalov used the plan with great effect in Sofia 2006 and
until now a complete antidote has not yet been found.

8…Nh5 9.e3

White was not obliged to exchange off his dark-squared bishop. The
alternative 9.Bd2 is quite an accepted move.

9…g6 10.h4!?

Fashionable. Previously everybody was playing 10.Bd3. Now White is
intending to play Bh2, preserving the bishop, so Movsesian chops it
off right away.

10…Nxf4 11.exf4 Bg7 12.h5

Movsesian lost a similar game in this variation two years earlier:
12.Qd2 b6 13.cxb6 Qxb6 14.Rc1 0-0 15.Na4 Qa7 16.h5! a5 17.hxg6 fxg6
18.g3 Nf6 19.Nc5 Bf5 (Or 19…Ne4 20.Nxe4 dxe4 21.Bc4+ Kh8 22.Ne5
Black is obviously in dire straits) 20.Bd3 e6 21.Ne5 Rac8 22.0-0 Ng4
23.Bxf5 exf5 24.Rc3 Black is lost. White is going to win a pawn by
Ra3, and Black has no defence against it. Rustemov,
A. (2585)-Movsesian, S. (2639)/ Moscow 2004 1-0 (46).

12…b6 13.cxb6 Qxb6 14.Qd2 Rb8 15.b3 Nf6 16.hxg6 fxg6?!

The text leaves the square e5 open for white to create an outpost for
his knight. However, capturing the other way does not equalize
either. There could follow 16…hxg6 17.Rxh8+ Bxh8 18.Rc1 Ne4 19.Nxe4
dxe4 20.Ne5 Bb7 21.Rc5 was agreed drawn in the game between Farago,
I. (2507)-Seres, L. (2497) from Budapest 2004. Probably there were
other considerations affecting the players’ decision, because White
had a plus in the final position and could well be justified in
playing for a win.

17.Ne5 Ng4 18.Na4 Qc7

[18…Qb4!? to exchange off the major pieces loses a pawn to 19.Nxc6
Qxd2+ 20.Kxd2 Nxf2 21.Nxb8 Nxh1 22.Bxa6 Bxa6 23.Rxh1 Bb5 24.Nc3]

19.Rc1

So now in addition to the white knight on e5 Black is also saddled
with a weak pawn on c6. Movsesian realizes that he is in deep trouble
and tries to complicate the position, but it looks like he is already
lost at this point.

19…Nxe5 20.fxe5 0-0 21.Bd3 Qd7 22.Rh4 e6

This is a mistake, leaving a hole for White’s knight on f6, but what
else can he do? Black probably reasoned that the white knight cannot
get to f6 anyway. That is where he is mistaken. Mark’s play in this
second phase is extremely impressive.

23.Ke2 Qf7 24.f3 Bd7 25.Rch1 h5 26.R1h3 Be8 27.Qg5 c5

To exchange off White’s powerful d3-bishop.

28.Nxc5 Bb5 29.Rg3 Bxd3+ 30.Kxd3 Kh7 <D>

Position after 30…Kh7

31.Nd7!

Heading for f6. The knight is immune to capture because of 31…Qxd7
32.Qxg6+ Kg8 33.Qxh5.

31…Rg8 32.Rgh3

Threatening to take the h5 pawn.

32…Rgd8

Movsesian wanted very much to play 32…Qf5+ but after 33.Qxf5 exf5
34.Nxb8 Rxb8 35.g4 his game is likewise hopeless.

33.Nf6+ Bxf6 34.exf6 Rb7 35.g4 Qe8 36.gxh5

Black should now resign. Instead he goes on a spree of spite checks.

36…Rxb3+ 37.axb3 Qb5+ 38.Ke3 Qxb3+ 39.Kf2 Qc2+ 40.Kg3 Qg2+ 41.Kxg2
1-0

With all the recent excitement about the giant strides being taken by
Wesley So, many people have forgotten the achievements of Mark Paragua
who after all is only 25 years of age. He was the first Filipino to
cross 2600 rating points, peaking at 2617 in April 2006.

The difference between Mark and Wesley is former congressman Prospero
Pichay, the President of the National Chess Federation of the
Philippines (NCFP). Mr. Pichay gave Wesley substantial financial and
moral support which enabled him to concentrate on his chess and
campaign overseas. Wesley So would still be a "promising player"
rather than a 2600+ rated superGM if it were not for the former
Surigao del Sur congressman.

On the other hand Mark Paragua’s quantum leap in chess strength was
several years earlier and he had to fend for himself in soliciting
sponsors to support his chess training and practice. In the early days
as a child prodigy it was Macdonald’s Hamburger which helped him and
later it was Hector Tagaysay (formerly of Collier’s Encyclopedia fame
but now running Time/Life Publications in the Philippines).

So where are you going now, Mark? I know that you have recently
married and are trying to start a family, but what say we buckle down
to some real work and make another go at it. I am sure everyone will
agree with me that with the proper training and incentives Wesley So
and Mark Paragua can be a very potent 1-2 punch for Philippine chess.

The New York Times
January 18, 2009 Sunday
Late Edition – Final

Passion in the Desert

Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER de BELLAIGUE.

Christopher de Bellaigue’s new book, ”Rebel Land: Among Turkey’s
Forgotten Peoples,” will be published next fall.

LAND OF MARVELS
By Barry Unsworth
287 pp. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. $26

Like the ancient mound its British protagonist excavates in
Ottoman-run Mesopotamia on the eve of World War I, Barry Unsworth’s
new novel is made up of layers. First, there are the remains of
long-lost empires, lying compacted under the archaeologist John
Somerville’s feet. Over that Unsworth places contemporary terrors, for
Somerville the student of the past is beset by the realities of the
present — not only the possibility of conflict between a new
generation of imperialists, but also by oil prospectors and railway
planners who see the land he is digging up as a source of wealth, not
knowledge. Unsworth’s 21st-century readers inhabit a third stratum. We
read ”Land of Marvels” exquisitely aware that the great American
empire entered its own crisis as a result of its occupation of the
vast territory where Somerville is digging, to which Unsworth affixes
its modern name only when tapping out the book’s last, portentous
word: Iraq.

The suggestion here of history as an irresistible cycle, raising
nations only to consign them to oblivion, is essential to Unsworth’s
knowing, detached brand of historical fiction. Occasionally in ”Land
of Marvels” a character muses rather too obviously about the
transience of imperial might, or a history lesson is inserted into a
section of dialogue to the disadvantage of both. Generally, however,
Unsworth assembles his layers with the subtlety you would expect from
a renowned, if restrained, historical novelist and Booker Prize
winner. When a young woman named Patricia, who has joined Somerville’s
expedition fresh out of Cambridge, rues the ”contrary spirit of
dismemberment” that threatens the archaeologists, who are trying to
”put things together, make sense of things, add to the sense of human
community,” her sentiment soars above the narrative. We see these
interlopers and the other Westerners who surround them as frozen
between the past and the future and between two instincts: to preserve
what one has discovered under the sands or to unleash a destructive
energy that may, even in its terrible crucible, have regenerative
power.

Unsworth puts the second argument in the mouth of Alex Elliott, a
young American geologist: tall, tanned, easy on the eye. Attaching
himself to Somerville, who naively expects support from Elliott’s
backer, the financier Lord Rampling, the American passes himself off
to the Ottomans as an archaeologist, while in fact he is prospecting
for oil. Disenchanted by her husband’s obsessive quest for the
archaeological find that will make his career and riled by the
precocious Fabianism of young Patricia and her new fiance, a cuneiform
expert named Palmer, Somerville’s wife, Edith, is enthralled by
Elliott’s apparently guileless passion for oil. It’s like a ”genie,”
he tells her, trapped inside the earth, whose release ”will bring
prosperity and ease of life to millions of people. . . . He will light
their lamps, warm their houses, drive their engines. This genie will
be the harbinger of a golden age.”

Unsworth repeatedly uses fire to suggest both passion and death. When
Elliott seduces Edith, it is by the flickering, hallucinatory light of
flaring gas in the middle of the desert: ”His arms were around her
and she still saw the fire through closed eyes, and the beauty of the
fire was in everything she felt and did.”

While Elliott and Somerville tramp about in search of their respective
treasures, and the Englishman frets over the railway line the Germans
are laying in the direction of his dig, threatening to obliterate
everything in its path, an expanding cast of characters gathers for
luncheon and tea around the Somervilles’ table. Already charged with
the intensity of Edith’s feelings toward her husband and her lover,
these rituals get still edgier when Lord Rampling, cutting deals in
Damascus, discovers that Elliott has been in contact with the rival
Deutsche Bank. Incensed, Rampling deputes a British spy, Major
Manning, to kill Elliott — but only after the American has committed
his findings to paper.

In a fitting plot twist, Manning has a rival, the gnomic Spahl, a
Deutsche Bank agent who is similarly concerned about Elliott’s divided
loyalties. But both are upstaged by a priceless pair of Swedish
missionaries who plan to open a luxury hotel on the very place, quite
near the excavated hill, that the Society for Biblical Research has
determined to be the original site of the Garden of Eden, and whose
idea of dinner table conversation is to predict a rain of fire and
brimstone on modern-day sinners.

Amid the tension, and some deft characterization — Edith’s
exasperation at Patricia and Palmer is especially well done —
Unsworth’s themes of extraction and exploitation are
irresistible. Somerville is fired by the spirit of an actual
historical figure, Sir Austen Henry Layard, the Victorian adventurer
and diplomat who excavated the sites of ancient Nimrud and Nineveh
and, in the process, amassed the British Museum’s priceless Assyrian
collection. But the comparison does not flatter Somerville. Layard
loved the Near East, where he put himself through countless perils and
made fast friendships. Somerville, by contrast, finds no joy in his
environment and longs only for the applause of the Royal Society back
in London. It’s a pity that Unsworth’s only local character of note,
the duplicitous hireling Jehar,lies flat on the page next to the
book’s Western characters.

Lord Rampling is a much fuller beast: rich, virile and indecently
cosmopolitan, living in luxury in Constantinople and London, an
embodiment of the sense of boundless opportunity that fires global
capitalism and a brother in literature to the fabulously wealthy
real-life oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian. Born in Constantinople of
Armenian ancestry, educated in Britain, Gulbenkian helped set up Royal
Dutch/Shell and was a prime mover behind attempts to exploit Ottoman
oil fields.

The early summer of 1914, when the novel’s action takes place, is the
last outing for what Edith Somerville endearingly calls
”splendidness,” a strikingly Victorian combination of ”power and
strength and passionate certainty,” before Europe is plunged into
darkness.

Unsworth’s denouement is dramatic and richly symbolic, if rather
abrupt. And, as is only to be expected, it involves an incendiary
meeting of the railway project, the dig and the as-yet-untapped oil
fields. Unsworth’s description of the conflagration that ensues, a
river of fire ”stinking and shrieking” and consuming everything in
its path, brings to mind the fire and brimstone of the book of
Genesis, the burning oil fields after the 1991 gulf war, the seemingly
ever-present images of the charred remains of Iraqi civilians on the
television news. In ”Land of Marvels” — and particularly in this
final scene — Unsworth succeeds in summoning the demons and the
angels of Iraq’s present and past. Not bad for a volume you could read
in an afternoon.

International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 16 2009

Police disperse protest in Armenia
The Associated PressPublished: January 16, 2009

YEREVAN, Armenia: Police in Armenia have dispersed protesters calling
for the release of defendants accused of inciting violence following
last year’s presidential election.

Several scuffles erupted as police broke up a group of about 500
opposition supporters outside the courthouse in the capital, Yerevan,
on Friday.

It was the first significant conflict since clashes between police and
demonstrators claiming fraud in Armenia’s presidential vote last
February. Ten people died and hundreds were injured.

A former foreign minister and three lawmakers are among seven people
being tried together on charges including attempting to seize power
and inciting the riots.

Court officials said proceedings were postponed for a sixth time
because of constant disruptions from the defendants.

Interfax, Russia
Dec 15 2009

Baku concerned about alleged supply of Russian arms to Armenia

BAKU Jan 15

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry commented on the Russian alleged
transfer of $800 million worth of armaments to Armenia on Thursday.

"Reports make us think that the armaments have really been supplied,"
the ministry said. "The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is profoundly
concerned about this fact."

"The supplied armaments will considerably enlarge the military
potential of the country, which has occupied some of Azerbaijani
lands, and help continue and intensify this occupation," the ministry
said.

The transfer of Russian armaments to Armenia is a direct violation of
UN Security Council resolutions concerning the Azerbaijani-Armenian
conflict and UN General Assembly on situation on the occupied
Azerbaijani lands of March 14, 2008.

Meanwhile, acting spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Col.

Alexander Drobyshevsky denied reports claiming the arms supplies to
Armenia on Wednesday.

‘There were no supplies of Russian armaments to Armenia," he told
Interfax-AVN.

PanARMENIAN.Net

OSCE MG impending visit will hardly make things moving
16.01.2009 18:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The impending regional visit OSCE Minsk Group
Co-chairs will hardly make things moving, according to an NKR expert.

`First, there will be changes in the administration of the United
States, one of the MG co-chair countries. Second, the positive impulse
was spoiled by the Azerbaijani President’s statements about resolution
of the Karabakh conflict by use of force,’ Masis Mayilyan said.

The document of basic principles of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
resolution will be a stumbling block for the sides, according to him.

Interfax, Russia
Jan 16 2009

AZERBAIJAN GETS MORE SUPPORT ON N.-KARABAKH ISSUE – PRESIDENT

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Friday credited his country with
generating serious international support in 2008 for its position in
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"A resolution by the UN General Assembly that supports the position of
Azerbaijan marks a political and diplomatic success for us," Aliyev
told a government meeting.

Another achievement is a declaration that he and Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan signed in Moscow, Aliyev said.

He said that in 2009 Azerbaijan would spend an equivalent of $2.3
billion on defense.

Yeni Azarbaycan, Azerbaijan
Jan 17 2009

Azerbaijan announces rise in military spending

Azerbaijan will spend 2.3bn dollars on its military in 2009, President
Ilham Aliyev has said, adding that the country always needs to be
prepared for a military solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
with Armenia.

"We need to be ready to liberate our native land at any time and by
any means. We are ready for that but we should strengthen ourselves
even further," Aliyev was quoted as saying by the Yeni Azarbaycan
daily on 17 January. He was speaking at a cabinet meeting the day
before.

Azerbaijan’s military spending amounted to nearly 2bn dollars in 2008.

Last year Azerbaijan’s economy grew by 11 per cent despite the global
economic crisis, President Aliyev said. The overall state budget for
2009 is estimated at 18.4bn dollars, he added.

[translated from Azeri]

AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT TO PRESS RUSSIA FOR WELL-FOUNDED EXPLANATION OF ARMAMENT SUPPLY TO ARMENIA

Trend
Jan 15 2009
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 15 /Trend News, J.Babayeva/ Azerbaijani
Parliament will demand a well-grounded explanation from Russia
regarding its illegal armament supply to Armenia.

"On the first day of the Azerbaijani Parliament’s spring session
(Feb. 1), the MPs will speak on the Russian free armament supplies
worth 800 million dollars to Armenia," MP Aydin Mirzazade, deputy
chairman of the Azerbaijani standing parliamentary commission on
security and defense, told Trend News on Jan. 15.

An address to the State Duma may be adopted as a result of discussions,
he said.

On Jan. 15, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned Russia for
strengthening the military force of Armenia, which has occupied
Azerbaijani territory, by supplying armaments worth 800 million dollars
to the country. Earlier, Azerbaijani media reported about an armament
supply from the Armenia-based 102nd Russian military base in Gumri
to Armenia.

On Jan. 14, Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasiliy Istratov conveyed
to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov the reply from the
Russian Defense Ministry to Azerbaijan’s inquiry about the alleged
armament supply from the Armenia-based 102nd Russian military base
in Gumri to Armenia. The reply did not satisfy the Azerbaijani
side and the Foreign Minister urged for more detailed explanation,
said Polukhov.

Earlier, the Russian Ambassador had been invited to the Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry to explain the media reports about Russian armament
supply to Armenia.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7
districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed
a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia,
France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.

PACE SANCTIONS AGAINST ARMENIA MAY IMPEDE REFORM PROCESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2009 18:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian National Security Council Secretary Artur
Baghdassaryan met Thursday with rapporteurs of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe monitoring committee, John Prescott,
Georges Colombier and committee head Bas Klein.

In discussing Armenia’s fulfillment of PACE 1609 and 1620 resolutions,
Mr. Baghdassaryan said that Armenia fixed considerable progress.

"Armenia has chosen the path of democratic reforms and PACE sanctions
against the republic may impede the process. Yerevan is awaiting
PACE’s balanced approach during its January session," he said.