Author: Toganian Liana

RACIST ATTACK IN KRASNODAR

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
Aug. 24, 2006

A group of young men savagely beat an Armenian at a Krasnodar market,
according to an August 23, 2006 report by the Regnum news agency. The
attack took place on August 21. Around 15 youths destroyed a trading
stall owned by a woman. The Armenian man stood up to the mob, which
reacted by beating him to the ground and kicking him multiple times
while screaming "Russia for Russians!" and "Let’s cleanse Krasnodar
of the darkies!" The victim was knocked unconscious. No arrests have
so far been reported in connection with this incident.

FLYWEIGHT TITLIST DARCHINYAN TO FIGHT DONAIRE ON OCT. 7
By Dan Rafael

ESPN
Aug. 21, 2006

Flyweight titlist Vic Darchinyan, the power puncher extraordinaire,
will make his fifth defense against Glenn Donaire on Oct. 7, promoter
Gary Shaw told ESPN.com Monday night.

Darchinyan

The fight will be the co-featured bout on the Showtime-televised card
headlined by the previously announced rubber match between lightweight
world champion Diego "Chico" Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) and Joel Casamayor
(33-3-1, 20 KOs).

A formal news conference announcing the card is scheduled for Wednesday
at host site Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Darchinyan (26-0, 21 KOs), a 30-year-old Armenian based in Australia,
had expected to face Argentina’s Omar Narvaez in a title unification
match.

After agreeing to the fight, Narvaez backed out, angering Shaw,
who recently went to Argentina to make the deal. The title fight
was contingent upon Narvaez defeating mandatory challenger Rexon
Flores on Aug. 5. However, after Narvaez won a lopsided decision,
Shaw said he received an e-mail from a Narvaez representative saying
that there had been a change of plans and that Narvaez would instead
stay in Argentina for a different fight in the fall.

The 26-year-old Donaire (16-2-1, 9 KOs) is 3-0-1 since suffering a
surprising first-round TKO loss to Z Gorres on the Erik Morales-Manny
Pacquiao I undercard on March 19, 2005, in Las Vegas.

"Glenn took the Gorres fight on short notice, and I don’t think that
it is indicative of who Glenn is," Shaw said. "He is a very skilled
fighter, but I recognize that Vic Darchinyan throws bricks and there
is not anyone he can’t take out with one punch. Glenn will have
to fight smart and box, and shoot his shots down the middle to be
competitive. If he does that, Vic will be in for a very tough fight."

Shaw said that while Darchinyan is disappointed about not being able
to lure another champion into the ring, he is excited about facing
Donaire, a native of the Philippines living in California.

"When I called him [in Australia] to talk to him about the fight,
all he asked me was, ‘Will this guy give me competition, because all
I want are competitive fights,’" Shaw said. "Vic wants to fight the
other champions, but we can’t make them fight Vic. We will still
try to fight Narvaez and the other champions, [Lorenzo] Parra and
the champion from Thailand [Pongsaklek Wonjongkam]. In the meantime,
Donaire and Vic will make a good fight."

Darchinyan and Donaire fought on the same card March 3 in Chumash,
Calif. Darchinyan stopped Diosdado Gabi in the eighth round to retain
his title. Donaire was held to a majority draw in a six-round fight
against Jose Albuquerque.

Donaire watched Darchinyan fight in the main event and told his
manager, Cameron Dunkin, that he wanted to fight Darchinyan.

"He had asked for this fight," Dunkin said. "Darchinyan is a tough,
hard-punching guy. We have a lot of respect for him. But my guy
can really fight and he has been waiting for this opportunity for a
long time, and he’s not going to blow it. He’s really excited about
the fight."

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

PASS MARKS FOR ALMOST ALL SPECIALITIES ARE KEPT SAME OR MADE LOWER

Noyan Tapan
Aug 23 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Pass marks for almost all professions,
except "International Relations" and "Law," for studying at the free
education system of institutions of higher education were kept the
same or made lower this year, compared with the previous year. Levon
Mkrtchian, the RA Minister of Education and Science stated about it at
the August 22 press conference. He mentioned that entrants prefer today
the humanities. Whereas, in the Minister’s words, "natural sciences
are the future of Armenia." According to L.Mkrtchian’s observation,
the power engineering specialist’s profession is the most perspective
one in the republic, but, it is not much in demand at present. In his
words, "entrants’ parents, with high payments, send their children to
study "Economy," "Law," "International Relations," condemning them to
unemployment." "Our small country is not able to annually provide with
job more than 100 diplomates," the Minister mentioned. L.Mkrtchian
also mentioned that there are vacant places for some professions
in the paid system. According to the Minister’s words, they will be
allocated among professions having high competition to make the tension
calmer. The Minister also touched upon the entrants’ knowledge on the
"Mathematics" subject. In L.Mkrtchian’s words, tutors give entrants
"no knowledge on this or that subject but train them." He mentioned
that logical tasks from school text-books (even for the 2nd grade)
were also involved in the examination cards on the "Mathematics"
subject this year.

But, entrants solved difficult tasks "in the automatic way,
mechanically," but found it difficult to answer simple logical
questions.

PRESIDENT VOWS TO PROVIDE ALL AZERI REFUGEES WITH HOUSING

AssA-Irada, Azerbaijan
August 17, 2006 Thursday

President Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Ant?nio Guterres on Thursday. Aliyev
said the fact that a million people became refugees and internally
displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the occupation of Azerbaijani
territories by Armenia is the main problem faced by his country. The
head of state noted that the Azerbaijani government is taking the
needed steps to improve the living conditions of refugees, pledging
that all settlers from make-shift tent camps would be relocated soon.

The president expressed hope that the Commissioners visit would
contribute to the expansion of relations between Azerbaijan and
UNHCR. Guterres said the organization passed a decision last year to
heed attention to the problems of Azeri refugees and IDPs. He praised
the governments efforts to improve the living standards of refugees.

Guterres expressed confidence that cooperation between Azerbaijan
and UNHCR would continue to develop.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SHOULD BE MADE ANSWERABLE AT THE LAKHEY COURT, TURKISH SCIENTIST STATES
Author: A.Mammadova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Aug. 17, 2006

The Chairman Sefa Yuruel concluded the meeting of the Turkish Society
‘Researches into Genocide of Turks’ by stating that the Armenian
President Robert Kocharian should be made answerable for the crimes
committed in Khojaly.

Trend special correspondent in Turkey reported that the Scientist
went on to say that the Khojaly genocide was a crime against mankind
and Kocharian, who is to be answerable for it, should be convicted
in the European Court on Human Rights in Lakhey.

ARMENIANS AID POOCHIGIAN’S CAMPAIGN
Hank Shaw
Capitol Bureau Chief

Stockton Record, CA
Aug. 14, 2006

Ethnic pride may have helped spur donations in run for attorney general

SACRAMENTO – Most candidates raise the bulk of their cash from
unions or builders or insurance companies. Not state attorney general
candidate Chuck Poochigian: The fount of his campaign cash comes from
fellow Armenians.

Poochigian, a state senator from Fresno, whose district includes part
of San Joaquin County, will face former Gov. Jerry Brown, now mayor
of Oakland, in autumn’s election for California’s top cop.

A Record analysis of Poochigian’s fund-raising shows he has at least
900 Armenian contributors who have combined to pump more than $780,000
into his campaign.

Compare this to Brown, who state records show has just nine Armenian
contributors.

It is a tremendous show of ethnic pride: According to a calculation
based on population estimates from the Armenian National Committee,
only about 500,000 voting-age people of Armenian ancestry live in
California.

The reason for this outpouring of support is simple, according to
interviews with dozens of Poochigian contributors: Armenians take
care of their own.

"We Armenians stick together – we’re a close-knit group of people,"
said Ted Katzakian of Lodi. "It’s just Armenian pride more than
anything."

Even tennis star Andre Agassi, who has some Armenian heritage,
contributed $10,000 to Poochigian.

"It is a very large extended family," Poochigian said.

Indeed, nearly every one of the dozen Central Valley Poochigian
contributors interviewed for this story had a direct connection to the
candidate; one had a sister who dated one of Poochigian’s relatives,
another had a cousin who went to California State University, Fresno,
with him, a third has met him at any number of Armenian community
functions.

Poochigian deflects the uniqueness of his situation, noting that the
Portuguese have always helped their own in the San Joaquin Valley and
the Vietnamese were instrumental in getting Orange County Assemblyman
Van Tran elected two years ago.

"I’m certain that there’s a lot of groups that seek to be supportive
of people of their own background," he said.

Turlock melon farmer Berj Moosekian says ethnic pride helped a little
when he decided to write Poochigian a check, but he said it’s not
that related to being Armenian. "It’s because he supports Valley
issues. He’s sensible and doesn’t go to extremes."

Moosekian and the others see Poochigian as something akin to the
Second Coming of George Deukmejian. "The Duke" was California’s first
elected Armenian in the 1960s, and later became attorney general and
then governor from 1983-1991.

"He reminds me so much of Deukmejian," said Ralph Saroyan of
Stockton. "In my mind, he is the antithesis of a typical politician."

Poochigian got into politics volunteering on Deukmejian’s 1978 campaign
and later worked for him during the last two years of his gubernatorial
term. He calls Deukmejian his role model.

Both men are viewed by those who know them as hard-working,
intellectual conservatives, polite to a fault and deeply interested –
critics say obsessed – with law-and-order issues.

It was Deukmejian who as a Long Beach state senator sponsored the
legislation that re-instated the death penalty in California. Jerry
Brown vetoed it and then suffered one of California’s rare veto
overrides. The Duke then served as attorney general during Brown’s
second term. They remain ideological foes.

Deukmejian is widely considered responsible for pushing the Armenian
community into politics. Deukmejian said the effort took years,
but it worked: "I have often said I never would have made it without
their support."

He’s transferred that support to Poochigian by writing fund-raising
letters on his behalf.

Whether it will lead Poochigian to victory in November remains to be
seen. Few Californians know who he is, and he trails Brown 54 percent
to 33 percent in last month’s Field Poll. Brown also has $1.7 million
more in his campaign account than Poochigian heading into the fall.

Deukmejian thinks money will matter: He says voters need to get to
know Poochigian as much as they need to know the details of Brown’s
time as governor and mayor of Oakland, and the only way to do that
statewide is through expensive radio and TV ads.

"It’s an uphill effort, but so was mine," Deukmejian said. "If he
(Poochigian) and his campaign can raise enough money to get his
message across, I believe this is doable."

ANNIVERSARY IS A TIME OF REFLECTION FOR THE FAMILIES
By John Leonidou

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Aug. 14, 2006

IT WAS meant to be day of excitement for most of the passengers on
board Helios Airways flight ZU 522 as families boarded for their
summer holidays.

It ended a day of national tragedy, shock and mourning as their plane
crashed into the hills of Grammatikos near Athens, killing all 121
passengers and crew on board.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster – the worst
in Cypriot aviation history – the Head of the Helios Crash Victims
Relatives Committee Nicolas Yiasoumis told the Sunday Mail, "This is
a very sad time for us as the anniversary approaches.

"Memories of that fateful day come back to us, in which we said
goodbye, or rather au revoir, to our relatives who were going on
holiday only to be told some hours later that we were not to see them
again… ever."

Around 190 relatives of the victims will fly to Grammatikos to attend
a memorial service tomorrow, August 14, he said, "and then pray at
the site of the disaster".

Twelve entire Cypriot families, including a family of four Armenian
Cypriots, were wiped out in last August’s horrific crash.

The youngest victim was four years old.

In all, 17 children under the age of 16 died in the crash. Three of
the children, aged 16, 14 and five died along with their parents.

The oldest passengers were a couple aged 63 and 65.

Few people in Cyprus did not know one of the victims, but places like
Paralimni and Dhali lost more than most.

Sixteen resident of Paralimni died, half of them children.

Three entire families from the town were wiped out, including Christos
Pyrillis 40, his wife Antonia, 36 and their three children Eva 12,
Xenios 10 and Marcos six, who had gone on a week-long holiday Another
Cypriot family in Paralimni, who were visiting from Australia, left
their 20-month old baby at home with its grandparents because it had
a fever.

The boy, George Xiourouppa, is now an orphan.

His father Demos, 39, his mother Margarita, 34, and sisters Sophia,
10, and Joanna, nine, died in the crash.

It has been a daunting time for the relatives, who have had to go
on with their lives thinking of what might have been had their loved
ones just not had chosen that day or that plane to fly.

The relatives’ committee was formed in the aftermath of the crash
"to protect the orphans who have been left behind by this horrible
event," said Yiasoumis.

Maintaining those rights has not been without its problems.

The relatives have more than once come into confrontation with
the Communications Ministry, mainly over what they believe is the
Ministry’s loose handling of some of Helios Airways’ activities after
the accident.

But as the eve of the anniversary approaches, Yiasoumis believes that
it is a time of reflection and a time to remind ourselves that those
responsible must not escape unpunished.

"I call on the authorities also to reflect on what happened and get to
find out once and for all what happened aboard Helios Airways flight
ZU 522," said Yiasoumis.

He added: "However, right now we are just waiting for the comments
of Boeing and Helios to be reviewed so Mr Kallis’ investigating team
in Cyprus can get to work and bring those responsible to justice."

Reuters, UK
Aug. 11, 2006

Move over Energizer Bunny, here’s Nabaztag!

Friday, August 11, 2006 Posted: 1910 GMT (0310 HKT)

Nabaztag can alert users when emails are delivered — even when its
owner’s PC is not connected.SPECIAL REPORT

PARIS, France (Reuters) — In the evolution of electronic companions,
first came the speaking doll, then the Tamagotchi virtual pet, then
Sony’s short-lived AIBO dog.

Now, it could be the dawn of the Wi-Fi rabbit era.

The plastic bunny with ears like TV antennae can read out emails and
mobile phone text messages, tell children to go to bed, alert one to
a stock collapse and give traffic updates by receiving Internet feeds
via a wireless Wi-Fi network.

The bunny, which stands 9 inches tall and has a white cone-like body
that lights up when it speaks, is called Nabaztag, which means rabbit
in Armenian, its creator’s mother tongue. It can also wiggle its ears
and sing songs.

"If I send a text message to my wife and she is busy cooking, she
will hear it without having to check her mobile," said a Paris-based
telecoms analyst at a international brokerage, who did not wish to be
named.

French entrepreneur Rafi Haladjian, who conceived the idea, says the
rabbit sometimes carries more sway over children than their parents
and can help men who have misbehaved win forgiveness from angry
partners.

"It is sad, but true," he said.

Nabaztag costs 115 euros ($148) in France, 80 pounds ($152) in
Britain and $150 in the United States. It is made in Shenzhen, China.

Since its market debut last year, 50,000 Nabaztags have been sold in
France, Britain, Belgium and Switzerland, and Haladjian hopes to sell
150,000 by the end of this year.

The businessman is now looking to conquer the United States, where he
only has a tiny presence, and is gearing up for the December holiday
shopping season.

Last December, Haladjian appeared on CNN for three minutes and
received 350,000 online information requests.

"The only problem was that we had zero bunnies, we had sold them all
already and we had not even started selling them in the United States
yet," he said.

The rabbit is made by French company Violet, 55 percent owned by
Haladjian and 30 percent by Banexi Ventures, a private equity arm of
French bank BNP Paribas.

Great expectations
Paul Jackson, an analyst at research house Forrester, is among
several analysts who predict the Nabaztag will find favor among the
well-heeled and technology-savvy as it benefits from the spread of
Wi-Fi networks around the globe.

Wi-Fi technology is the latest must-have in many mass-market consumer
goods, from mobile phones to personal digital assistants, laptops and
TV set-top boxes.

In Western Europe’s seven largest markets, on average about 6 percent
of households have a Wi-Fi home network while in the United States,
the rate is between 12 percent and 14 percent, according to
Forrester.

Nabaztag, which performs basic tasks, relies on relatively simple
technology — Wi-Fi and online software and filters.

Analysts say one of the reasons Sony’s AIBO dog was discontinued this
year was that its technology was too complex and the robotic animal
too pricey.

But some say simplicity can also be a weakness in a sophisticated
market where some want all the latest bells and whistles.

"The problem with targeting this tech elite is that they are very
fickle," said Jackson.

Tamagotchi fell out of favor with many children after a while because
its functions were repetitive, analysts say.

Haladjian says the key to Nabaztag’s longevity will be constant
innovation and finding new applications as the Internet evolves. But
competition is heating up.

Ambient Devices, a spin-off from the Media Lab at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, is one of several rivals putting
Internet-based communicating devices on the market.

Ambient sells a lamp ball that glows different colors to display
real-time stock market trends, weather and pollen forecasts for $150,
excluding shipping costs.

NEW RED BOOKS TO BE PUBLISHED IN ARMENIA

Armenpress
Aug 09 2006

YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS: The government of Armenia approved the
2007-2009 program on protection and study of the species of animals
and plants included in the Armenian Red Book. For the implementation
of the program the government has released 31 million drams from the
state budget.

As part of the program specialists from the relevant establishments
of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences will study the flora
and fauna of the whole country. On the bases of their study new Red
Books will be published.

Tatyana Danielian, the head of the department at the Armenian
Environment Protection Ministry, told Armenpress that in the books
the conditions necessary for preserving the species which are on the
edge of disappearance and steps which are necessary to undertake for
their preservation will be described.

Besides, the books will include the new species of animals and plants
which have also been endangered during the recent years.

The present Red Books existing in Armenia were published in
1989-1990. Danielian said that it is mainly the human factor which
causes the disappearance of species of animals and plants.

At present 3,500 species of plants, 500 vertebrate and 17,000
invertebrate animals are registered in Armenia. In the Red Books 387
species of plants and 99 species of animals are included.

PREMIER MARGARIAN GOES ON 2 WEEKS’ LEAVE

ArmRadio.am
08.08.2006 11:31

The Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian went on a two weeks’
leave from August 7 to August 21. According to the RA Government
Information and PR Department, Margarian will spend his holiday outside
Armenia. The RA Minister of Territorial Administration Hovik Abrahamian
will temporarily perform the duties of the prime minister, NT reported.