Category: News

NKR LEADERSHIP EXPRESSES PERPLEXITY ON OCCASION OF STATEMENT OF CE
SECRETARY GENERAL
STEPANAKERT, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). “The NKR leadership thinks that
the election of the government bodies of all the levels on the basis
of the principles of democracy is an important step on the way to the
construction of the free democratic society.” It is mentioned in
comments of the press service of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in connection with the statement of Secretary General of the Council
of Euorpe Walter Schwimmer on the inadmissibility of the holding of
the NKR local elections. Reminding that W. Schwimmer comes up not for
the first time with such statements, in which the holding of the
elections in Nagorno Karabakh is condemned, the comments express
perplexity in connection with the fact that it is not clear how the
elections may negatively influence the process of the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict, because it is obvious that only the legitimate
power may bear the responsibility for the entrusted territories and
has necessary authorities for carrying on peaceful negotiations on the
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. “The NKR for over 10
years has lived as a sovereign state, which bears no relation to
Azerbaijan and independently organizes its life in the territory that
historically belongs to the Armenians of Karabakh. An impression has
grown up in us that all the international structures that come up with
such statements render political support to the regime, which
unleashed the large-scale war against Nagorno Karabakh and doesn’t
refuse from the attempts to aply force against the NKR. Meanwhile,
according to many independent experts, Nagorno Karabakh takes the lead
over Azerbajan on the level of its democracy,” reads the comments of
the press service of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

COMMERCIAL BANKS ATTRACT MORE THAN YEAR DEPOSITS WITH HIGHEST INTEREST
IN EARLY AUGUST
YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). In the period from July 29 to August
5, the commercial banks of Armenia attracted more than a year deposits
with the highest interest rate (9%) and 180-day deposits with the
lowest interest rate (4%).
According to the data of the Central Bank of Armenia, during the same
period the commercial banks extended 90-day loans with the highest
interest rate (22%) and 60-day loans with the lowest interest rate
(5%). The dynamics of the deposits attracted by commercial banks is as
follows: 29.07.04 05.08.04 30 days 5% 7% 60 days 5% 5% 90 days 5% 6%
180 days 7% 4% 360 days 7% 8% More than a year 9% 9% The dynamics of
the interest rates of the loans issued by commercial banks: 29.07.04
05.08.04 30 days 13% 20% 60 days 20% 5% 90 days 20% 22% 180 days 21%
11% 360 days 21% 21% More than a year 21% 18%

VOLUMES OF RA BANK CURRENCY DEPOSITS CONTINUE INCREASING
YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). According to the indices of 19
Armenian banks, the money mass in the republic increased by 4 bln, 299
mln drams reaching 242 bln, 389 mln drams (around $466.1 mln) from
July 23 to 31. During the same period cash amount increased by 643 mln
drams in comparison with the previous week standing at 85 bln, 955 mln
drams. According to the data issued by the RA Central Bank, on-call
deposits increased by 1 bln, 161 mln drams reaching 29 bln, 40 mln
drams, and deposit accounts increased by 72 mln drams reaching 9 bln,
503 mln drams. Currency deposits increased by 2 bln, 424 mln drams and
made the sum equivalent to 117 bln, 892 mln drams. The money base
increased by 2 bln, 19 mln drams amounting to 113 bln, 288 mln drams
in the republic on August 5. During this period net foreign assets
(without means of privatization) increased by 969 mln drams, and net
home assets increased by 1 bln, 50 mln drams.

ARMENIAN DRAM INCREASES BY 0.10% AGAINST U.S. DOLLAR IN EARLY AUGUST
YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). The Armenian dram increased by 0.10%
against the U.S. dollar trading at 518.57 drams instead of 519.07
drams from July 30 to August 5. Exchange deals amounting to 52 mln,
229 thousand dollars with an average weighted exchange rate at 517.50
drams were carried out on the currency market of the republic during
the same period. According to the data published by the RA Central
Bank, during the indicated period the Central Bank released 51-week
state bonds of 500 mln drams with an annual yield at 5.2584% and paid
off 51-week state bonds of 600 mln drams with an annual yield at
10.7351% and 48-week state bonds of 500 mln drams with an annual yield
at 10.5961%. During the indicated period the Central Bank also
carried out 1 mln, 450 thousand-dram currency swap (with the duration
of 48 days and with an annual yield at 3.51%).

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS UNION OF ARMENIAN CHURCH PARTICIPATES IN CONGRESS
OF WORLD CHRISTIAN STUDENTS UNION
ANTELIAS, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). The congress of the World Christian
Students’ Union entitled “Christians and Islamists and Problems of
Present-Day Life” was held at Dar Al Inaya temple in Sayd on July
22-28. It was initiated by the government of Middle East. Carla
Khijoyan and Vigen Jambulian participated in the congress from the
University Students’ Union of the Armenian Church of the Catholicosate
of the Great Cilician House. According to the press service of the
Great Cilician House, youth arrived from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Sudan
and Palestine participated in the congress. The purpose of the
congress is to unite the Christian and Moslem youth and discuss
problems agitating them, as well as to provide the dialogue and
development of the socio-political life.

Albawaba Middle East News, Middle East
Aug 8 2004
Elham Shaheen loves taking on good challenges

Prominent Egyptian actress Elham Shaheen was chosen to head the
committee to judge movies in the Rabat Film festival held in the
Moroccan city of Rabat. Movies from all over the world participated
in the festival like France, Russia, Armenia, Algeria, Morocco,
Senegal, South Africa and many others. Elham added that participating
in such events enables her to see other cultures and watch different
ways of making movies, which gives her more experience in the
industry.
According to the Egyptian based daily, Al Ahram, Elham expressed her
happiness to be chosen for such an important event and commented that
the films competing were overall very good. The movie that won the
prize for this year was Armenian.
Elham revealed that it was very hard to decide the wining film
because all the movies were done professionally and every judge had
his point of view and tendency but after a long discussion they gave
the grand prize to Armenia.
About the Egyptian movies, Elham said that she noticed the bad
quality of movies that dominated the market lately but she also said
that this phenomenon is going to fade and many good movies are now
being made like `Sahar El Layali, Ahla Alawqat, Hub Albanat’.
Elham said that the Egyptian movie AHla Alawqat was very good and the
panel had a problem deciding to whom to give the prize to then they
agreed to give Tunisian actress Hind Sabri an award for best actress.
The movie `Khali Min Elkolistrol’ (Cholesterol Free) was Elham’s last
film experience. The actress revealed that she is very bold in
choosing her roles and loves challenges in her career which lead her
to taking risks and accepting different parts.
Elham is currently working on her role in the television drama series
`Bint Afandina’ where she performs the role of a poor girl who goes
from rags to riches during the period from the thirties till the
sixties. About her future projects she is doing a movie entitled
`Reesh Na3am’ directed by Khaled Yousef. -Albawaba.com

Tacy Ltd., Israel
Aug 8 2004
DIAMOND SMUGGLING RING BROKEN UP IN BASHKIRIA
August 08, 2004
Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) has broken up a criminal ring
engaged in illegal gemstones trade in federal republic of Bashkiria,
according to the Novosti Russian news and information agency.
According to the FSB directorate for Bashkiria, several local
residents arranged transfer of diamonds and emeralds from fields in
Siberia and the Ural region to be smuggled out to Armenia for cutting
over a period of three years.
From: Baghdasarian

San Jose Mercury News , CA
Tri-Valley Herald, CA
Aug 8 2004
Mexico catches more migrants on way to U.S.
By Ginger Thompson
New York Times
MEXICO CITY – It’s 6 p.m., the busiest time of night during the
busiest time of the year at Benito Juárez International Airport:
Jumbo Hour.
The migration supervisor, Alberto Pliego, has at least six 747s
pulling in from Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Paris; Amsterdam,
the Netherlands; and Vancouver, British Columbia, and just five
agents to check out all the passengers pouring out. Their challenge
is to distinguish true visitors to Mexico from migrants who aim
simply to get past Pliego so they can make it to the United States.
“A migrant who makes it past the airport today,” Pliego said,
“will be in Tijuana tomorrow, and probably in Chicago the day after
that.”
Pliego’s suit and tie made him look a little too buttoned-down to
guard against some of this country’s most unscrupulous criminal
operations. But by the end of the night, he had stopped more than a
dozen Brazilians who tried to enter Mexico as tourists, but lacked
suitcases, hotel reservations or credit cards. He supervised the
deportation of two undocumented Armenians. Three Guatemalans were
caught trying to enter the country with false visas. And one of
Pliego’s agents caught four undocumented Chinese travelers lingering
over soft drinks and sandwiches in an airport restaurant.
The agent spoke no Chinese. The Chinese spoke no Spanish. But in
limited English, each side seemed to completely understand the other.
The agent speculated that the Chinese men were waiting for a guide to
help them get past migration checkpoints.
The Chinese said they were hungry.
The agent asked the Chinese for their travel visas.
The Chinese said they planned to stay in Mexico for only one night.
The agent escorted the Chinese men back to the same airplane on which
they had arrived, ordering them back to Amsterdam.
The Chinese boarded without putting up a fight.
The Mexican authorities report that a surging number of migrants from
all around the world are traveling through Mexico to get to the
United States. So far this year, Mexico has detained nearly 112,000
illegal migrants, compared with 150,000 in all of 2001. Authorities
said they expected total detentions for this year to reach 200,000.
The Mexicans are under tough pressure from the United States, which
since Sept. 11, 2001, has feared that global terrorists could easily
slip into Mexico and then cross into the United States.
The overwhelming majority of those detained are migrants from Central
and South America, authorities report. But there are also increasing
numbers from as far away as Pakistan, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Poland, Ethiopia and China.
The migrants often arrive at Mexico’s main airports and then travel
by land to the border. But illegal migration routes and methods are
as diverse as the people who use them. Wednesday, the Mexican
authorities detained four Chinese migrants on a private jet that made
an emergency landing for fuel in the southern state of Chiapas. The
pilots reported that they had picked up their undocumented passengers
in Caracas, Venezuela, and that they planned to deliver them to
smuggling contacts at a small airport north of Mexico City.
At a migration detention center to the east of Mexico City holding
500 people of every background — farmer, bricklayer, auto mechanic
and accountant — all had an epic story to tell. The director of the
center, Hugo Miguel Ayala, said they had come from more than a dozen
countries.
Among them was a 35-year-old Ethiopian woman named Alemayehu, who
said she had traveled from her homeland to Egypt, Moscow, Havana and
Nicaragua before boarding a bus bound for Mexico City, hoping to be
on her way to New York.
And there was Yu Youqiang, who had left his wife and small daughter
in Fujian, China, to seek work in New York. He said he traveled to
Frankfurt, then to Mexico, taking nothing but a backpack and travel
instructions from a smuggler scribbled on a scrap of paper.
A 32-year-old vegetable vendor, Yu said he had made it all the way to
the border before he was caught by the Mexican authorities in a town
whose name he could not recall. He said he had paid smugglers $5,000
for help reaching the United States. Relatives, he said, had agreed
to pay $25,000 more once he arrived in New York.
“We come through Mexico because it’s cheaper,” he said. He said
some Chinese migrants flew directly to the United States from Hong
Kong. But false visas cost a lot. And entering the United States
through an airport is much harder than entering through the border.
“They say that it’s easy to get across,” Yu said. “You just have
to walk.”

Kansas City Star (subscription), MO
Aug 8 2004
McCool, Humphrey grew up golden
Two kids with `one-in-a-million’ talent. Two coaches who know how to
make champions. Eleven years spent working toward a dream.
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
The signs are everywhere. Over the entry door of the Great American
Gymnastic Express in Blue Springs. On the glass of the door panels.
On every inside wall.
In full view of the high bar from which Terin Humphrey is still
launching a spinning dismount as Courtney McCool grasps the low bar
to launch her own routine.
`You worked so-o-o hard,’ is the message of one of those signs. `You
deserve it.’
A different sign maker has added an extraneous `o.’
`I am so-o-o-o proud of you guys!’
Six American women – four of whom are actually teenagers – are headed
to Athens, Greece, hoping to win an Olympic team gold medal in
gymnastics. And then it hits you. Two of them – Terin Humphrey and
Courtney McCool – have trained daily from four to eight hours a day,
in this gym, amid all these little girls who see the dream up close
and personal.
Al Fong, the gym’s founder and coach of Humphrey and McCool – along
with his wife, former Armenian gymnast Armine Barutyan Fong – calls
the afternoon workout to an end in playful fashion.
`Toga, toga, toga,’ Fong chants.
What he means by that, you can see on the front of the special
Olympic Games section you now hold in your hands.
`Greek Goddesses,’ McCool and Humphrey were called when they were
confirmed as Olympians. And in moments, they are transformed by a
last-minute bit of dress-up whimsy.
They stand, Humphrey giggling as the photographer adjusts their
poses, McCool rolling her eyes at the indignity of standing there,
before golden Greek columns, the golden drape, in these
one-size-fits-all Greek tunics, the train of the garments puddling at
the feet of these small but so powerful athletes.
`I thought it was cool that we got to dress up like Greeks,’ Humphrey
later said. `I wanted to wear the hat-thing, though.’
Uh, that would be a ring of laurels, Terin.
McCool rolled her eyes again and offered no comment.
Off to the side, their coaches stood, remembering. Dredging
recollections of 11 years ago, when Terin Humphrey first stepped into
the Great American Gymnastic Express, the day six years ago when
Courtney McCool joined her.
***
Armine Barutyan had been in Kansas City exactly one week, having
finally fled the Soviet gymnastics system that denied her an Olympic
team spot because she would not renounce her Armenian heritage.
She was working with a few girls who showed promise of becoming elite
gymnasts. Al Fong approached her and said he had a girl he wanted her
to check out.
`I said OK,’ Armine said. `We started working. I said, `Well, you’re
not the most flexible person.’ But I liked her work ethic, right
away. I thought, maybe, there’s a chance.’
One day, 11 years ago. But the memory of what happened the next week
still shines in the eyes of Armine Barutyan Fong.
Humphrey came back and obviously had been working hard at everything
Armine had told her.
`I give the kid something,’ Armine said. `She goes home and comes
back with it. It is unusual.
`I remember my own coach telling me, `I had you. I didn’t have
anybody before you. I didn’t have anybody after you. I don’t think
I’m ever going to see another.’
`They just come one in a million sometimes.’
Terin Humphrey was the one in a million for Armine Barutyan Fong.
`The work ethic drives the talent,’ Armine said. `She was like me.
There was a connection.’
It is still there. All these years later. Gymnast and coach
understand each other.
`Sometimes you have to push your thumb,’ Armine said. `Sometimes you
have to be the loving and caring person. I call her my baby sometimes
because we started from zero.’
Sometimes, Armine wants no one else near Terin Humphrey. Even Al.
`Don’t even touch her,’ Armine contends she has told her husband.
`It’s my job.’
Terin Humphrey sees herself transforming, day by day, from a
sometimes shy, sometimes `I need a hug’ little girl, into a
confidently open embrace of the biggest gymnastics meet of her life.
`Right now it’s a lot more fun that it used to be,’ Humphrey said.
`Before, `Oh great, I’ve got to go to the gym.’ It was just for
yourself. Now it’s for the whole United States. The whole United
States is counting on us. I feel it. But I’m ready.’
Humphrey has a real sense of being a member of this team. She is no
longer standing alone, fighting – even McCool – for a spot at the
Olympics.
She is going, and Holly Vise and Chellsie Memmel, two pure-bred
Olympic hopefuls who were not selected for the team, aren’t.
`They were both world champions last year,’ Humphrey said, not
mentioning that she too was a member of the 2003 U.S. world
championship team. `It’s a shock they didn’t make it.
`But we have so many talented girls on this team now. It’s
unbelievable.’
***
Al Fong still kids Armine about the day Courtney McCool’s parents
brought her into the gym in Blue Springs.
`She wouldn’t take the time to even look at her,’ Al said, the
recollection as fresh as the moment it took place six years ago.
`I’m working with my girls on beam now,’ Armine told him. `I don’t
have time now.’
Al tried to persist. Armine gave him one of those don’t-bother-me
looks.
`Everybody knows,’ Armine explained, `if I’m on beam, don’t
interrupt. Unless it’s my mom on the phone, calling in an emergency.’
Al Fong couldn’t blame Armine. McCool didn’t look like the gymnast
that friends had said was better than one of his most seasoned elites
– not Humphrey, Fong said, although he wouldn’t put a name to the
comparison.
`Her mom and dad came in with this little kid,’ Al Fong remembered.
`Her hair was really long. She had oversized sweats on. Oversized
baggy pants.
`She walked into this place looking like a walking, talking bowling
ball.
`I’m looking at her and going, `This is a joke, right? This has to be
a joke.’ They’re comparing her with one of my better ones?’
But a promise of an evaluation was a promise.
`Honey,’ he said to McCool, `can you go over here and do some warming
up?’
Immediately, Al said, he saw a difference. This little girl’s posture
was perfect. Her flexibility was perfect.
`When she pointed her toe,’ he said, `it was perfect.
Still, she was a bit stocky.
`She had no neck,’ Al said, a point of genetics that has become
something of a running joke around the national gymnastics scene.
`Her neck is getting longer,’ national team camp director Bela
Karolyi said recently.
Then Al Fong had McCool do some jumps, simple ones, as a
compulsory-level gymnast might before. Some leaps.
`Oh my goodness!’ Fong said. `All of a sudden, this little, stocky
thing turned into this beauty.’
Fong nearly ran over to Armine. Was rebuffed. Ran back to McCool and
sat her down for a talk. And Al Fong liked what he heard.
`She still didn’t look like she was a gymnast that you would say,
`OK, she’s going to go to the Olympics someday,’ ’ Al said.
But …
`I could tell that she had serious goals. She had never lost a meet.
Ever. She was used to being No. 1. That thing in her eyes, you could
see that she intended to be the best in the world.’
***
A year ago at this time, Courtney McCool was competing at the junior
national level. She wasn’t on the national radar screen.
That changed at the 2004 Visa American Cup, where she earned a trip
to the Athens Test Event. Winning the gold medal there changed
everything.
`She is not the same person,’ Bela Karolyi said. `Just a little
thing. People look at her and say that is not a world-class gymnast.
And then she starts to move. That passion. She is completely
together. She is so strong. It is amazing.’
McCool breaks into a smile almost as wide as she is tall at the
repetition of such comments. But she hasn’t changed, she contends.
`I’ve always thought of myself as equal to everyone else,’ McCool
said.
She proved it by rallying from a fall and finishing fourth at the
2004 U.S. Nationals. She proved it again at the U.S. Olympic trials,
where she finished second and was chosen to the Olympic team along
with Courtney Kupets.
`My dad always tells me to go out there and kick butt,’ McCool said.
`That would be his words, `kick butt.’
`My mom tells me, `Do your best. You can do it. I know you
can.’ ’
Linda McCool – seemingly as taut and trim as her daughter from strict
diet, running, lifting weights and the like – and Courtney share a
special determination upon which Courtney says she feeds.
`If my mom’s not there,’ Courtney said recently, `I’m not all there.’
***
Terin Humphrey thought, after a fall forward to her knee on her final
vault of the Olympic Trials in Anaheim, that she might have blown her
chance at the Olympic team.
`I didn’t want to admit it then,’ she said that night. `But it was
there.’
The mistake dropped Humphrey from fourth in the trials standings to
seventh. She had to sweat out a final evaluation camp at the Karolyi
Ranch in mid-July. And not until she heard Martha Karolyi announce
her name, right after that of Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool and
Carly Patterson, could Humphrey do more than hold herself on the
aluminum bleachers deep in the nothing heart of Texas an hour or so
north of Houston.
`I think I started crying,’ Humphrey said.
Finally, she was an Olympian, a dream held for longer than Terin
Humphrey can remember.
Certainly, it came after the earliest days, when she used to climb
the drawers of her dresser to switch on the lights in her bedroom.
`I think I was about 2 or 3 when I did that,’ she said.
Lisa Humphrey, Terin’s mom, remembers knowing something was up when
all got quiet in the back seat of the family car.
`If it got quiet back there,’ Lisa said, `you knew you had to pull
over to put her back in her car seat.’
That same little girl now drives her own car, a street-ready if not
collector’s vintage electric blue 1966 Mustang. And she apparently
drives it a bit fast at times.
Last week, her father, Steve, mentioned a special reason that his
daughter was excited about receiving a ceremonial key to Bates City,
the tiny town (population 245, according to the entrance sign) to
which the Humphreys moved from Albany, Mo., so Terin could realize
her Olympic dream.
`She’s hoping,’ her dad said, `it will mean she can get out of any
speeding tickets.’
***
Courtney McCool will have a strong personal cheering section when the
women’s team gymnastics competition begins on Aug. 15 in Athens.
Mother Linda, father Mike will definitely be there. Maybe, at the
last minute, brother Michael will be able to go.
Terin Humphrey’s mom and dad will be there. So will her brother,
Shannon.
Armine Barutyan Fong and Al Fong will be there for every minute of
training. During competition, hopefully alternating days with Evgeny
Murchenko, personal coach of Patterson, Armine anticipates being one
of two official coaches allowed on the competition floor. And Al will
be nearby, perhaps in the stands, with his cell phone.
Front and center, leaping and tumbling, twirling and vaulting, trying
to balance the Olympic dreams that are now a reality, will be those
two little girls who so long ago walked into the gym at the Great
American Gymnastic Express.
– Event: Gymnastics
– KC-area connection: McCool lives in Lee’s Summit and Humphrey lives
in Bates City, Mo. Both train in Blue Springs at the Great American
Gymnastics Express.
– When are they competing? Beginning Aug. 15, with team finals Aug.
17 and individual all-around finals Aug. 19
– What’s their story? McCool finished second to national co-champion
Courtney Kupets at the U.S. Olympic trials in late June. Humphrey
made up for her disappointing trials by securing her Olympic berth at
a last-chance evaluation camp near Houston in July. Making up
one-third of the six-woman team, the two were tapped as
all-arounders.

Interfax
Aug 9 2004
German, U.S. companies to buy Armenian molybdenum plant
Yerevan. (Interfax) – The German company Chronimet and Comsup
Commodities of the United States will each be acquiring 50% of the
stock in Zangezur Copper/Molybdenum Plant (ZMMK) in Armenia, the
country’s Trade and Economic Development Minister Karen Jshmartian
announced at a Friday press conference.
Chronimet’s investment program is aimed mainly at developing ore
processing, Comsup Commodities’ at developing the Kadzharan copper
and molybdenum mine, where ZMMK operates.
To ensure effective operations, the tender commission that selected
these companies decided to merge their offers and charge them with
preparing a joint project by September. Before 2004 ends, Jshmartian
said, the sale of 100% of the ZMMK stock will have been completed.
The Kadzharan copper and molybdenum mine has the largest reserves of
any in the former Soviet Union.