Category: News

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Jan 29 2005
Nixon Center Expert Baran: The U.S. Intends To Change The Status Quo
In Turkey’s Region
Anadolu Agency: 1/29/2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AA) – The International Security & Energy Program
Director of the Nixon Center Zeyno Baran has stated that the United
States intends to change the status quo in Turkey’s region. ”Hence,
Turkey would have to pursue a more active policy,” affirmed Baran.
Participating in a panel discussion, sponsored by the
American-Turkish Council (ATC) and Atlantic Council in Washington,
D.C., Baran referred to U.S. President’s inaugural address, where he
mentioned the importance of the spread of democracy globally, and
remarked that in such a scenario Turkey must make clear where it
stands. ”Turkey’s stance will have an impact on the strategic
partnership between Turkey and the U.S..” she said.
Baran pointed out that understanding the reasons behind the Iraq
War is crucial. ”The United States believes that the status quo in
the region created a fertile ground for the September 11 attack. The
US’s intention is clear and they want to change the structure of the
region (Middle East),” remarked Baran. -TURKEY & RUSSIA DON’T WANT
ANY CHANGE-
Baran added that the recent close relations between Turkey and
Russia indicate that the cooperation between the two countries stand
to preserve the status quo in the region. ”Both Turkey and Russia
are worried about changes in the region. They want to preserve the
status quo,” expressed Baran.
According to Baran, being a NATO member, Turkey’s relations with
Russia are a matter of concern for security experts. Baran said that
the Turkish deputies’ qualification of events in Iraq as ”genocide”
will result in a ”tough” resolution on the so-called Armenian
genocide in the U.S. congress.
Meanwhile, the American-Turkish Council (ATC) Defense & Security
Relations Committee Chairman Preston Hughes indicated that the U.S.
strongly supports Turkey’s bid to join the EU. ”It is important for
Turkey to understand that it will come under pressure by the EU. We
must not abandon our beliefs that relations between Turkey and the
USA are in the interest of both countries,” told Hughes.
Hughes elaborated that time to time disappointments may occur on
both sides. ”For example, the Turks have been disappointed with the
lack of U.S. assistance to wipe away the terrorist organization PKK
in northern Iraq. Similarly, the U.S. was disappointed with Turkey’s
decision not to help Americans open a northern front in Iraq. Despite
such disappointments, the two countries must not forget that they
share common values on democracy. We must not burn the bridges that
so closely bring us together,” stressed Hughes.

Portsmouth Herald Maine News, NH
Jan 29 2005
A first for kids, gallery alike
By Elizabeth Kenny
[email protected]

KITTERY, Maine – Inside the Haley Farm Gallery, between the room’s
exposed beams, a different form of artwork hangs on display.
It’s the first exhibit at the new gallery, and for many of the
artists, it is the first time their paintings have ever been made
available to the public – aside from their parent’s refrigerators.
Paintings from Frisbee Elementary School students were the first
pieces of art ever hung at the new gallery located at 178 Haley Road.
Beginning Saturday, Feb. 5, Mitchell Primary School students’ artwork
will be on display for public viewing.
The exhibit is called “A Child’s View.”
Gallery co-owner Jackie Abramian has two children in the schools;
their talent in art became the inspiration for the gallery’s first
exhibit to be focused around children, she said.
“We wanted to bring something to the community where kids’ artwork
can be displayed,” she said. “It’s a delight for kids to walk in the
door and see their work hanging up.”
The work ranges from students’ own rendition of Pablo Picasso’s work
to paper tissue snowflakes.
The future goal, Abramian said, is to allow the students to sell
their work to help fund the Parent Teacher Association in town.
By selling their work, even if they are only in first grade, it will
give them a better understanding of what it is like to be a real
artist, Abramian said.
According to Mitchell School Principal David Foster, students are not
disappointed that their work isn’t for sale yet; they are just
excited to see it on display.
“The kids are thrilled to pieces,” he said. “Art should be more than
just once a week, and it’s great to have kids’ self-esteem pumped.”
“It helps highlight our art program,” said Frisbee Principal Greg
Knight. “It shows how valuable art is in the learning process. I felt
honored we were asked to be the very first art show in this gallery.”
Abramian and her husband, Harout DerSimonian, who is co-owner of the
gallery, said they recently moved to Kittery with the intent to open
the gallery and worldly gift shop.
The couple decided to open the gallery daily in the afternoons, to
allow parents and their children to stop by after school, DerSimonian
said.
“The work is fantastic,” Abramian said Friday, standing alongside the
vibrant colors painted by the children. “The gallery really came to
life.”
Although the first two exhibits display the artwork of children, by
March, the gallery will expand to showcase “adult” artwork as well,
Abramian said.
In March, the work of Berj Kailian and Samuel Bak, two Boston-based
artists, will be displayed. The exhibit will be called “Survival
Through Creativity.”
Both artists, Abramian said, have used their art skills to tell their
own stories of survival. One of the painters survived the Jewish
Holocaust; the other is a survivor of the Armenian genocide, Abramian
said.
The opening reception for Mitchell Primary School artwork is on
Saturday, Feb. 5, from 3 to 5 p.m.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 29 2005
AMBASSADORS OF GERMANY AND GREECE PRESENT COPY OF THEIR CREDENTIALS
TO FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN
[January 29, 2005, 17:53:36]
Minister of foreign affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic Elmar
Mammadyarov on January 28 has met the newly appointed ambassadors of
the Federative Republic of Germany and Greece to the country Detlet
Lingeman and Themistokles Dimidis, who presented copy of their
credentials.
Congratulating the new ambassadors, the Minister expressed hope that
they would make every effort to develop the relations between
Azerbaijan and their countries.
Expressing pleasure of his appointment as ambassador to Azerbaijan,
ambassador Detlet Lingeman said he would do hi best to develop the
German-Azerbaijani relations.
Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan updated the German diplomat on
socio-political situation in the country, also informed on occupation
of 20 percent of lands of the country by the Armenian armed forces,
on illegal settlement of population in the occupied territories,
which contradicts requirement of the international Geneva Convention.
Speaking of Azerbaijan’s integration to the Euro-Atlantic structures,
Mr. Mammadyarov said occupation of the territories is a great
obstacle on this way.
Ambassador Themistokles Dimidis said to do most effective to serve
the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Greece.
Speaking of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Greece, in particular,
in the energy sphere, Minister Mammadyarov said this cooperation is
of great importance from the point of view of strategic-geographic
position of both countries.
In the meeting, also were exchanged views on a number of issues of
mutual interest.

Washington Times
Jan 30 2005
Commentary: The mysteries of mercy
By Martin Sieff
UPI Senior News Analyst
Washington, DC, Jan. 28 (UPI) — It’s easy to despair looking at the
world this week of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the
Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Red Army. From Cambodia to
Sudan, and from Rwanda to Bosnia, the chronicle of man’s inhumanity
to man has remained a stunning spectacle with genocide remaining
frightfully in fashion through the second half of the 20th century
and into the 21st.
With millions continuing to die every year of starvation, disease,
civil war and merciless pillaging across the continent of Africa in
particular, it is obvious that this is still not “the best of all
possible worlds” — an attitude the great French 18th century
philosopher Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire ridiculed in his classic
satirical novel “Candide.”
Given the enduring realities of human greed, hatred, cowardice and
envy, the recurrence of monstrous crimes against entire races and
religious groups of people — be they Christians, Muslims,
Cambodians, Bosnians, Chinese, Tibetans or Tutsis — over the second
half of the 20th century is arguably as predictable as the genocide
of Jews, Gypsies, Ukrainians, Armenians and Chinese in the half
century that went before.
It’s easy to overlook, therefore, other common trends in modern human
history that have been far more positive, yet may be so obvious that
they are almost always unseen. One of the most important is the wise,
commonsense observation of the great Mahatma Gandhi, architect of the
huge non-violence movement that broke the back of the British will to
remain in India: “There have always been tyrants and murderers, and
for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always
fall. Think of it. Always.”
It’s also easy to overlook during this week of the anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz that it and the other Nazi death camps were
indeed liberated. And less than a decade later when Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin died, his eventual successor, Nikita Khrushchev threw
open the gates of the infamous Soviet Gulag Archipelago, freeing
millions of survivors who had been convinced they would never see
their homes again.
It’s easy to forget that, as the movie “Saving Private Ryan”
dramatically reminded an entire generation of Americans, millions of
American, Soviet and British soldiers, and their Canadian,
Australian, French and many other allies, fought and died to destroy
the terrible regimes that had ravaged the human race in the 1930s and
’40s. Those awful actions eventually called forth an even greater and
ultimately decisive reaction.
The bravery and decency of hundreds of millions of human beings was
called forth as never before during World War II to protect their
nations and the wider human race from the actions of scores of
millions more who had been deceived or enticed into supporting
monstrous regimes. Eventually, the Soviet communist colossus, too,
crumbled into dust, just as Gandhi had predicted.
In 1993, the already classic movie “Schindler’s List” directed by
Steven Spielberg and starring Liam Neeson celebrated the heroism of
an ordinary, indeed, more than slightly seedy German businessman who
saved more than a thousand Jewish lives from the Holocaust. The awful
crimes he saw around him called forth from him a decency he himself
had never before realized was there.
And now, movie theaters around the world are showing a similar tale,
“Hotel Rwanda,” the story of Paul Rusesabagina, played in the movie
by the great American actor Don Cheadle. He was another ordinary man
who was not looking to be a hero but whose sense of decency saved
more than 1,200 lives from the extraordinary slaughter of 800,000
Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists in Rwanda in 1994.
It’s easy to demonize every German, or Russian, or Chinese, or
Israeli, or Arab, or Hutu that ever lived and blame the horrific
crimes perpetrated by crazed mobs or brainwashed multitudes in
specific times and places on everyone who fits the appropriate label.
It is much more difficult by far to remember the eternal words of the
great Gulag chronicler Alexander Solzhenitsyn when he warned, “the
line between good and evil runs through every human heart.”
Even Nazis could know mercy. One Nazi Party member, John Rabe, saved
a quarter of a million lives during the massacre of hundreds of
thousands of Chinese during the rape of the city of Nanking by
conquering Japanese forces in 1937.
The day after world leaders solemnly met at Auschwitz, the terrible
“capital of death” where at least 1.5 million human lives, most of
them Jewish, were deliberately and systematically snuffed out, Louis
Michel, the 25-nation European Union’s Commissioner for Development
and Humanitarian Aid, addressed a European Institute conference in
Washington. Michel straightforwardly noted, “The bald figures speak
for themselves. More than a billion people in the world live on less
than one dollar a day; 11 million children — most under the age of 5
— die each year; over 6 million of these deaths are due to
preventable diseases.” But Michel continued, “This is no time to
despair; this is the time for us to act.”
In the Book of Deuteronomy, the Bible records God stating, “I have
set before you life and death: Choose therefore life.” On the
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it is well to remember
that the camp was indeed liberated, even though it was too late for
so many — and that the way of life, as well as the way of death,
still remains open before us.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LasVegas Sun, NV
Jan 30 2005
Sisters who faced deportation to Armenia return home to Las Vegas
By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Two teenage sisters who spent more than two weeks
awaiting deportation to a country they haven’t seen since they were
toddlers returned home Friday after being released from immigration
custody.
“It feels great. I’m so happy to see my family,” said Emma Sarkisian,
18, who was surrounded by family and friends at her father’s pizza
shop in Henderson.
Sarkisian and her sister Mariam, 17, had been held at a Los Angeles
immigration center since Jan. 14.
Although the sisters were born in what is now known as Armenia, they
were raised in the United States after their father emigrated from
the former Soviet Union in 1991.
The sisters’ residency status was not discovered until a trip to the
Department of Motor Vehicles. After meeting with immigration
officials in Las Vegas, they learned they faced an outstanding
deportation order. Until then, the family thought the sisters were
properly documented.
They were taken into custody after they complied with a summons to
report to the local immigration office. There they learned they were
being sent to Armenia, a place where they have no family and hadn’t
seen since they were 3- and 4-year-olds.
“It was terrible,” Emma Sarkisian said, recalling her despair about
being sent to Armenia. “How am I going to go back? I don’t read. I
don’t write. I don’t speak.”
Immigration officials agreed late Thursday to release the sisters
into their father’s custody after Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to give the case “personal
attention.”
“We’ve thoroughly reviewed the case and have decided based on
humanitarian reasons to release them,” said Virginia Kice,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. “This doesn’t convey
any legal immigration status on them.”
“ICE will continue to review the case,” she said.
The girls’ father, Rouben Sarkisian, is a legal resident, who can
file for citizenship and then seek residency status for his
daughters.
Mariam Sarkisian expressed gratitude for being reunited with her
family and away from the detention center in Los Angeles.
“It was horrible,” Sarkisian said. “You just think about your family,
the stuff you really don’t appreciate until it’s taken away from
you.”

Glendale NewsPress
LATimes.com
Jan 29 2005
Glendale man will serve 16 months
Ara Gabrielyan sentenced in stalking case after following
ex-girlfriend with tracking device he attached to her car.
By Jackson Bell, News-Press and Leader
GLENDALE – A Glendale man was sentenced Friday to 16 months in prison
for following his ex-girlfriend using a Global Positioning
System-enabled cell phone attached to her car, one of the first
stalking cases of its kind in L.A. County, officials said.
Ara Gabrielyan, 33, pleaded no contest to one count of stalking and
two counts of making criminal threats, officials said. Gabrielyan
faces deportation to Armenia, his home country, upon completing his
prison term, prosecutors said.

Gabrielyan was arrested Aug. 29 after his former girlfriend, Gayanne
Indezhan, reported to Glendale Police that she allegedly spotted him
trying to change the cell phone’s battery under her car, authorities
said. He was accused of following Indezhan, a 35-year-old Glendale
woman, for six months leading up to the arrest.
Andrew Flier, Gabrielyan’s defense attorney, believes that he will
only serve up to four months of his sentence since he has nearly
eight months in credit for time already served in jail. Flier also
said Gabrielyan’s family wants him to return to his home country.
“We are happy about this because he is a nice man, and the more we
would have fought the case, I think the worse it would have been for
him,” he said.
Gabrielyan was reportedly using the phone as a tracking device, and
would unexpectedly turn up while she was at a bookstore or traveling
to Los Angeles International Airport, police said.
During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Indezhan testified
that Gabrielyan could not accept that their relationship of two years
was over and would call her continually throughout the day.
Gabrielyan never physically attacked her, but she feared for the
safety of herself and her children the month leading up to his
arrest, Indezhan testified. She said he threatened to kidnap and
impregnate her as well as kill both of them so they could be together
“in eternity.”
“He told me that he was going to crash my car, then did it,” she
said. “He told me he was going to break into my house, and did it.
Then he said he was going to kill me. Did I have that guarantee? No,
but I was afraid he would do what he was going to say.”

Trinidad & Tobago Express, Trinidad and Tobago –
Jan 28, 2005
Remembering Auschwitz
Our Opinion
While we know that some citizens will remember events and understand
the significance of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz, observed, we point out, and not celebrated, this past
week, we are also certain that many of today’s generation may be
unaware of Auschwitz and what it means.
Some will not even be aware of the enormity of the horror of the
Holocaust. It was the industrialised murder of a people employing
many technicians of death at the instigation of a psychopath and his
circle-it was genocide, the product of totalitarianism, of some very
demented people, and widespread European anti-Semitism.
Auschwitz was a death camp in Poland, a place to which human beings
from different parts of Europe were transported in cattle cars and
systematically murdered in mass gassings of men, women, children,
infants and babies, simply for being Jewish.
The 20th century saw two major conflicts. The second, World War II,
killed about 50 million people, the majority being innocent
civilians. Warfare is as old as the first civilisations millennia ago
but genocide, as far as we can see, is a relatively recent
phenomenon. The dividing line between legitimate warfare in defence
of a people’s or a nation’s boundaries or space and the systematic
elimination of a people is vague. Peoples have always collectively
suffered at the hands of others, whether by conquest, enslavement,
occupation or in conventional or legitimate warfare, their suffering,
injury and deaths now euphemistically called collateral damage.
Genocide, however, is different. It is an attempt to destroy another
people. In the past century there were the noted examples of the
expulsion of the Herrero people into the deserts of Namibia and
similar treatment of the Armenians by the Turks. Citizens may recall
the massacres of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the slaughter in
Rwanda in Africa, as well as the victims of Shabra and Shatila,
Palestinian refugee camps, and Srebenica, a Bosnian UN declared safe
city, and the current conflict in Darfur, described by Colin Powell
as genocide. These killings were all directed at recognisable ethnic
groups.
The Holocaust however was different in more than one way. The sheer
numbers are probably beyond the comprehension of most readers. It
consumed six million souls. Its methodology singled it out. It
consisted of the systematic serial collection of Jewish nationals of
several European countries, their transportation to purpose-built
facilities designed to kill human beings en mass, after either
enslaving them in factories or simply stripping them of their pitiful
material possessions and even their hair, and removal of gold teeth
after gassing them.
At Auschwitz over 1.5 million, mainly Jews, were so murdered, with
the daily tally often rising to two or more thousands. What also
singles it out is that the mass murder was not civil or internecine
warfare within a state but rather the actions of a state beyond its
boundaries, a state born of elections. No one can deny that mass
murder on this scale had not been carried out by large numbers of
compliant individuals.
Citizens by now may not be aware of the one side effect of
anti-Semitism on our history. Several Jewish families from Germany
and Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia fled even to places such as
Trinidad with nothing more than their humanity, culture and what they
could carry and made new lives for themselves and families. One such
family name is Stecher, with which most are familiar. The Express
reminds its readers of Auschwitz and the tragedy of European Jewry
and joins with the rest of the world in observing the 60th
anniversary of the horror of genocide. A lesson for all.

San Bernardino Sun, CA
Jan 29 2005
Although considered a classic, Verdi’s ‘Aida’ misses the mark
By David Mermelstein
Correspondent
Verdi’s “AIDA” has been called one of three perfect popular operas.
Yet even placement in such a pantheon cannot protect it from
indifferent productions, something the Los Angeles Opera proved on
Saturday night with its revival of Pier-Luigi Pizzi’s sad-sack
production, first presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in
September 2000.
Compounding the disappointment was a cast that seldom impressed,
headed by American soprano Michele Crider – making a wan company
debut – in the title role. And if that wasn’t enough to make a weary
opera-goer want to drown himself in the Nile, then surely Peggy
Hickey’s bizarre and risible choreography was. Her weirdly homoerotic
“battle” between Egyptians and Ethiopians is among the most
embarrassing things ever to find its way onto the Chandler stage.
Granted, “Aida” is not easy to mount. Spend too much money – as New
York’s Metropolitan Opera has – and the production looks bloated. But
spend too little – as is clearly the case here – and the whole
enterprise seems a big waste.
Pizzi’s set – with its sliding panels and large columns – reminds one
of the kinds of department stores that once lined Wilshire Boulevard.
So the multicolored costumes, seemingly pinched from a road-company
“Tannhauser,” don’t quite fit. Of course, not everyone on stage is
wearing much, anyway. The dancers are barely dressed at all, for
instance.
Perhaps if the singing were better, these elements would matter less.
But Crider’s unremarkable voice, often overwhelmed by the orchestra,
did little to capture attention, except when she jerked toward
shrillness. And she appeared unmoved by Aida’s woeful circumstances –
strange given that a princess who becomes a slave and then loses her
beloved to her mistress actually has reason to complain.
As Radames, the object of Aida’s affection, tenor Franco Farina trod
the stage solidly. If he wasn’t a heroic hero, then at least he
wasn’t a silly one. His singing tried to be forceful but was too
often clotted.
Aida’s rival, Amneris, sung by the Russian mezzo-soprano Irina
Mishura, generated the most heat. She proved a compelling singer, her
voice often surprisingly light and supple. And she smartly played
Amneris less as a witch than as a powerful woman unwilling to be
denied her prerogatives.
Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli – as Aida’s father Amonasro – and
Armenian bass Arutjun Kotchinian – as the high priest Ramfis – also
sang impressively. Too bad director Vera Lucia Calabria didn’t know
what to do with them.
Making his company debut in the pit, Israeli conductor Dan Ettinger
showed promise. And though he could sometimes be fussy, his command
of the ballet music was pleasantly fresh. In a more pleasing staging,
his contributions might have had even more of an impact.
The Los Angeles Opera lays claim to several productions worth
reviving. But this one ought to share the fate of Aida and Radames
and be sealed in a tomb.
AIDA
Our rating:
Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.
When: 7:30 tonight, Wednesday and Feb. 10, 16 and 19; 2 p.m. Sunday
and Feb. 5 and 13.
Tickets: $25 to $190. (213) 972-8001.
In a nutshell: An indifferent revival of a disappointing production
undermines a Verdi masterpiece.

ReliefWeb
Jan 28 2005
/HMYT-693SJL?OpenDocument
WFP Emergency Report No. 5 of 2005
This report includes:
(A) Headlines
(B) Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe: (1) Armenia
(C) Eastern & Central Africa: (1) Burundi (2) Congo, DR (3) Eritrea
(4) Ethiopia (5) Kenya (6) Rwanda (7) Somalia (8) Sudan (9) Tanzania
(10) Uganda
(D) West Africa: (1) Chad (2) Cote d’Ivoire (3) Guinea (4) Liberia
(5) Mauritania
(E) Southern Africa: (1) Regional (2) Angola (3) Lesotho (4) Malawi
(5) Mozambique (6) Namibia (7) Swaziland (8) Zambia (9) Zimbabwe
(F) Asia: (1) Regional: Asia Tsunami (2) Bangladesh (3) Indonesia (4)
Korea (DPR) (5) Maldives (6) Myanmar (7) Sri Lanka (8) Thailand
(G) Latin America and Caribbean: (1) Guyana flood emergency (2)
Bolivia (3) Colombia (4) Cuba (5) Ecuador (6) Guatemala (7) Haiti (8)
Nicaragua
>From David Kaatrud, Chief of the Analysis, Assessment and
Preparedness Service of the United Nations World Food Programme
(ODA); available on the Internet on the WFP Home Page (),
or by e-mail from [email protected], Chief of the Emergency
Preparedness and Response Branch (ODAP). For information on
resources, donors are requested to contact [email protected]
at WFP Rome, telephone +39 06 6513 2009. Media queries should be
directed to [email protected], telephone +39 06 6513 2602. The
address of WFP is Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68, Parco dei Medici, 00148
Rome, Italy.
(A) Headlines
(a) As a major player in the UN relief effort in the Indian Ocean
region, WFP is appealing to governments for USD 256 million to feed
one-and-a-half million people.
(b) In Indonesia, the humanitarian community has begun planning a
six-month sea, land and air operation to deliver 15,000 tons of
relief aid per month to an estimated 750,000 internally displaced
persons.
(c) In Sri Lanka, one month after the tsunami, the humanitarian
situation has stabilized – immediate humanitarian needs have
generally been met in all sectors.
(d) During the past week, WFP continued to distribute food to over
two million drought-affected people in Kenya.
(e) An outbreak of cholera in Bujumbura, Burundi has killed at least
five people and infected another 105 in the past two weeks.
(f) The Government of Angola has banned the entry of GM grain into
the country unless prior authorization is given by the Minister of
Agriculture.
(g) Despite the good harvest in Ethiopia, some 2.2 million people
will require emergency food assistance in 2005.
(h) The security situation remains tense in the Darfurs after several
violent incidents in West and South Darfur.
(i) In the Democratic Republic of Congo, various armed factions
continued to prey on farmers in eastern DRC, with kidnappings and
rape widespread, and food security adversely affected.
(j) Nearly 300,000 refugees, IDPs, and ex-combatants are expected to
resettle in the interior parts of Liberia.
(k) WFP urgently needs USD 180 million to feed to 4.9 million
families vulnerable to food insecurity and HIV/AIDS in Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2005.
(B) Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe: (1) Armenia
(1) Armenia
(a) On January 26 WFP announced a USD 135,600 donation from Greece
for food assistance to 110,000 impoverished Armenians. Funding
shortfalls had forced WFP to temporarily cut off food aid to 30,000
vulnerable Armenians in the autumn of 2004.
(b) WFP’s current PRRO in Armenia began halfway through 2004, and
includes relief distribution; school feeding and food for training
programs; rehabilitation and reconstruction; and building community
assets such as irrigation and drinking water networks, schools,
kindergartens and hospitals through food for work.
(c) The PRRO targets a total of 110,000 people per year in the
capital Yerevan, as well as four provinces, including Gegharkunik,
Lori, Shirak and Tavush. WFP’s total costs in Armenia for the current
operation are USD 11.5 million, including the 21,660 tons of food.
WFP faces a shortfall of USD 6.7 million through June 2006.
[parts omitted]

KABC, CA
Jan 28 2005
Glendale Man Sentenced in Stalking Case
PASADENA – A Glendale man accused of keeping track of his ex-
girlfriend by attaching a cell phone equipped with a
satellite-enabled tracking system to her car was sentenced today to
16 months in prison.
Ara Gabrielyan, 33, pleaded no contest to stalking and making
criminal threats, said Deputy District Attorney Debra Archuleta, head
of the Stalking and Threat Assessment Team.
Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz immediately sentenced
Gabrielyan to 16 months in state prison.
Gabrielyan, who was arrested last Aug. 29, also faces deportation to
Armenia when he completes his prison term, according to the
prosecutor.
Glendale police said Gabrielyan attached a cell phone with a Global
Positioning System to the bottom of his ex-girlfriend’s vehicle to
keep tabs on her whereabouts.
The woman — who had broken off her relationship with Gabrielyan
nearly two years before — became suspicious when she started running
into him at various locations, police said. The woman contacted
police after spotting him under her car, where he apparently tried to
change the battery that powered the cell phone, according to police.