Category: News

Platform souls
New plans for King’s Cross in London show the massive scale of the venture.
And the smart money – including that of New York art tycoon Larry Gagosian –
is already moving in. By Jonathan Glancey
Monday June 7, 2004
The Guardian
,11710,1232857,00.html
The hype surrounding the opening of the Gagosian Gallery in King’s Cross,
London, has been so great and the plaudits have been so glittering that I
expected to find something very special indeed. Not, perhaps, a riposte to
the Bilbao Guggenheim by Frank Gehry but a landmark building; an artistic
adventure.
The Gagosian Gallery proves to be a modest creation, housed in a former
garage in Britannia Street, a rats’ alley smelling of diesel and urine,
scuttling across the Metropolitan and Circle underground lines as they
rattle between Farringdon and King’s Cross-St Pancras. Behind the gaunt
facade, Larry Gagosian’s architects, Caruso St John, best known for their
New Art Gallery, in Walsall, which opened in 2000, have opened up bright,
cavernous, concrete-floored, top-lit white spaces. These are particularly
refined white spaces; they have something of a religious air about them, not
least because on a weekday afternoon this private gallery is as quiet as an
abandoned city church. A security guard sits like a piece of isolated
artwork by the locked door, while bright young things potter about at a vast
reception desk faced with important catalogues. A solitary, studious looking
fellow surveys the brown and white Cy Twombly abstracts, which hang from the
spotless white walls with a degree of respect owed to icons and statues
elsewhere.
None of this is a criticism of this new London art space, which is one of
the best of its kind since Charles Saatchi’s original gallery in St John’s
Wood, designed by the late Max Gordon. Caruso St John are among our most
thoughtful architects, as careful with the process of building as they are
with design. And, yet, for all its graceful substance, the gallery has
something of a temporary air about it. Should the top end of the art market
take a tumble between now and the completion of the Eurostar terminal at St
Pancras in 2007, it would make a particularly fine restaurant, office or
nightclub.
The area will certainly want these as its redevelopment gathers pace over
the next five years. Seedy for decades, King’s Cross is fast-becoming a
blue-chip investment for property developers. Quite how the promethean
building works promised here will pan out is anyone’s guess. For every
impressive new civil engineering achievement, there will be routine chain
stores; for every art gallery, a fast-food joint. Expect, in time-honoured
English tradition, a mix of the sublime and the banal: the Gormenghast glory
of St Pancras raised to fresh, pinnacled heights as Eurostar trains snake in
and out on their three-mile-a-minute race to and from Paris with its cafes,
restaurants, shops and art galleries. Penny-plain King’s Cross station
stripped of 1970s tat. Both stations are attended by millions of square feet
of gleaming new offices, some 1,800 flats, dozens of shops, washed and
brushed public spaces, three new footbridges over the Regent’s Canal,
restored historic buildings and, so the developers say, more art galleries.
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This leviathan plan, announced last week, for the 67-acre area north of the
Gagosian Gallery, has been prepared by a property consortium comprising
Argent St George, Exel, London and Continental Railways. Allies and
Morrison, immaculate Moderns, and Demetri Porphyrios, the most convincing of
the Prince of Wales’s school of classicists, have been appointed architects
in charge of a development that, in scale at least, matches the heroic urban
projects that shaped Victorian London. The £2bn project will take at least
15 years to complete. It may yet be rejected by the mayor of London, who
will surely find its tallest 19-storey towers too modest and its plan not
sufficiently dedicated to the concerns of big business. It may yet be called
in for public inquiry by the government, and either held up, heavily edited
or abandoned while lawyers rack up prodigious fees.
Whatever the process – the rise and fall of commercial and professional
reputations, the jaw-dropping fees, the performance bonuses, pension
top-ups, the gongs awarded and brown envelopes exchanged – King’s Cross will
surely be redeveloped on a titanic scale within the next 10 and 20 years.
The dodgy young men, working-class street-walkers and middle-class
kerb-crawlers will move on, along with the purveyors of kebabs, tattoos and
grubby mags. Spick and span corporate offices, big-brand shops, chain cafes
and relentless street furniture interspersed with well-meant public art will
take their place.
Architects of the calibre of Allies and Morrison and Demetri Porphyrios will
do their best to raise the standards of St Pancras but they cannot hope to
control the quality of the tenants who will flock here in coming years.
There will be something like 30,000 new jobs here, while millions of
passengers travelling to and from London and the Continent, and looking for
diversion, will mill around King’s Cross. A committed few might waft down
New Britannia Street to pick up a canvas by Cy Twombly or a pickled lamb by
Damien Hirst.
Gagosian, however, ought to know what most people will want. This sharp,
silver-haired Armenian-American, nicknamed “Go-Go”, began making money in
Santa Monica in the 1970s. “I would buy prints for $2-$3, put them in
aluminium frames and sell them for $15,” says the Donald Trump of the art
world. If Gagosian likes art, he likes nothing better than closing deals. He
opened a small gallery behind Regent Street a few years ago, also a
conversion by Caruso St John, before homing in on King’s Cross, which offers
an optimum deal: a place to show big, headline-stealing artworks – tens of
tons of Serra – in a handsome setting in the sort of grubby street that
makes the art world trill with excitement, while making a quiet future
killing on the property market.
Gagosian likes art, and knows that this, with all its high society
connections, brings kudos, glamour and outlandishly big bucks. Should you
happen to be a wheeler-dealer who builds a fashionable gallery showing
fashionable artists in one of the most fashionable up-and-coming parts of
London, how can you possibly go wrong?
Gagosian’s gung-ho, yet outwardly, highly refined, venture into the London
art world and King’s Cross is, perhaps, to be preferred to the
run-of-the-mill development that could take place here if we fail to keep a
sharp eye on the area and the hugely ambitious “masterplans” dreamed up by
one developer after the other over the past 15 years. No one should doubt
that the real artwork here is the arrival of the high-speed Eurostar line.
This, like the Midland Railway’s grand Gothic entry into St Pancras some 140
years ago, will change the face of the surrounding area, including Britannia
Street, for ever.

BACKYARDS TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION
A1 Plus | 14:40:06 | 07-06-2004 | Politics |
Apartment blocks’ backyards in Yerevan are likely to be sold by
auction, Samvel Danelyan, the head of urban planning and architecture
department of the Armenian capital’s municipality said Monday.
Danelyan supposes underground garages will be constructed at the sold
areas and zones of rest will be created on the ground.
The municipality intends to tighten control over all construction
works in the capital, which will be carried out only in accordance
with its plans.

HEAD OF OSCE OFFICE WELCOMES RELEASE OF SOME ARMENIAN OPPOSITION MEMBERS
Noyan Tapan
7 June
YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan). The Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan,
Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, welcomed the release from custody of two
members of the opposition Republic party, Aramazd Zakaryan and Jora
Sapeyan, and the withdrawal of charges against them. He also welcomed
the news that a board member of the Republic party, Suren Surenyants,
has been released from custody, although he must not leave the country
pending investigation.
“We believe this step will facilitate political dialogue between the
opposition and the ruling coalition and will contribute to stability
in the country,” Ambassador Pryakhin said in an interview with Radio
Liberty. “At the same time, we note with concern that not all cases
of those detained in connection with the recent demonstrations were
reviewed.”
With regard to a recent decision of the Yerevan Mayor’s Office
to prohibit rallies by opposition parties on 4 June, Ambassador
Pryakhin said: “We regret that the right of people to free assembly
and expression of their political views was restricted. We urge the
authorities to apply the new law on Conduct of Public Gatherings,
Rallies, Demonstrations and Marches in a proportionate and justified
manner and make efforts to further improve this essential piece
of legislation.”
He stressed that the OSCE Office will continue to closely monitor
the political developments in Armenia and to support the country in
the process of democratization. He emphasized in particular the need
for electoral and constitutional reform.

PROTESTERS DETERMINED TO KEEP STRUGGLING UNTIL LAST POLITICAL PRISONER FREED
A1 Plus | 15:59:28 | 07-06-2004 | Politics |
So far 6,700 signatures of Armenian citizens are collected by the
protest action participants outside the Prosecutor General Office
in Yerevan. The series of protests is staged by the republic’s
organizations. The protesters are demanding to release political
prisoners from jail.
The number of signatures could be greater but many refrain from signing
the paper with the demand as they fear of reprisals against them. Now
the protesters demand to release Vagharshak Harutyunyan and Lavretni
Kirakosyan from detention and to dismiss Suren Surenyants case.
It is known that other political prisoners were freed recently. The
picket participants are convinced their action played a crucial role
in that.

BAYKAL CONDEMNS STATEMENT OF FRENCH SOCIALIST PARTY
Sabah, Turkey
June 7 2004
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal has harshly
condemned statement of the French Socialist Party about the so-called
Armenian genocide. He said, ”it is quite unfortunate and baseless
to defend that Turkey’s accession to the European Union (EU) should
depend on its recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide. Such a
genocide had never taken place in history of Turkish people.”

Armenian Central Bank cuts interest rates
Interfax
June 7 2004
Yerevan. (Interfax) – The Central Bank of Armenia cut its interest
rates from 17% to 16% on June 4, the bank’s press service told
Interfax.
The bank last changed its interest rate on May 6, 2004, when it
reduced it from 18% to 17% per year.
The REPO rate currently amounts to 6%, the rate on Central Bank
deposits – 1%, and the rate for Lombard credits – 20%.

Aznavour et le Choeur de France Anjou
La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest
05 juin 2004
Les 170 choristes du Choeur de France Anjou sont sur la scène du
centre des congrès ce week-end. Ce soir (à guichets fermés) et demain
dimanche, 15 h (il reste des places, 21 EUR, tél. 02.41.34.47.98).
Cette grande et belle chorale qui a déjà fait ses preuves en quinze
ans d’existence, toujours en assurant la promotion de la chanson
française, fête cette fois Charles Aznavour et ses quatre-vingts ans.
Hommage au poète arménien, à « La Bohême » et à bien d’autres de
ses titres déjà passés à la postérité. Le Choeur de France chantera
aussi Florent Pagny, Claude Nougaro (un autre hommage, au disparu),
ou encore « Manhattan Kaboul » de Renaud et Axelle Red. Le tout
accompagné par cinq musiciens.

The Wall Street Journal Online
Buying Las Vegas
In Bid for Mandalay Resort,
MGM Mirage Could Become
Biggest Casino Powerhouse
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 7, 2004; Page B1
If billionaire Kirk Kerkorian gets his way, what happens in Vegas
will stay in his pocket.
In a grab to capture the resurgent popularity — and profitability —
of Las Vegas, Mr. Kerkorian’s MGM Mirage on Friday bid to buy rival
Mandalay Resort Group, a deal that would turn his casino company
into an unprecedented powerhouse. MGM Mirage’s offer of $68 a share,
or $4.85 billion, plus the assumption of $2.8 billion in debt, would
make it the biggest acquisition in the history of the casino industry.
If the marriage of MGM Mirage and Mandalay passes the scrutiny of
antitrust regulators, Mr. Kerkorian — who turned 87 yesterday — would
dominate the Las Vegas Strip just as it experiences a revival. He would
control more than half the 72,000 hotel rooms on the famous boulevard
and most of the acreage along the west side of the Strip from its
southernmost casino, Mandalay Bay, and northward for roughly two miles.
The company would own some of the hottest properties in Las Vegas —
including the high-end Mandalay Bay and Bellagio — and it would own
more casinos in places like Atlantic City, Detroit and Australia. The
deal also would make Terry Lanni, the stern 60-year-old chairman
and chief executive of MGM Mirage, the unlikely king of Vegas casino
operators.
The offer followed several days of informal discussions in which no
price was discussed, according to a number of people familiar with
the talks. MGM Mirage made the initial approach about a week ago with
some theoretical discussions between the two company’s presidents and
chief financial officers, Jim Murren of MGM Mirage and Mandalay’s Glenn
Schaeffer. The talks got serious Tuesday afternoon when Mr. Kerkorian
and Michael Ensign, Mandalay’s chairman and chief executive, met in
Las Vegas.
Executives of MGM Mirage hoped to keep the talks quiet and
announce a done deal as early as today, say people familiar with the
situation. But they were forced to name a price and take their offer
public on Friday, when Mandalay’s stock surged 10%, or $5.65 to $60.27
in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Mandalay’s stock initially
climbed Thursday evening on the release of second-quarter earnings
nearly double those of the year-ago quarter.
But by Friday afternoon, rumors were swirling in Las Vegas that a deal
was in the making, says Joe Greff, an analyst with Fulcrumb Global
Partners LLC, who was in Las Vegas then. MGM Mirage’s Mr. Lanni sent
Mandalay a so-called bear hug letter — an unsolicited offer proposing
terms for a sale — and the companies put out terse press releases. MGM
Mirage noted the price and emphasized its 12.8% premium over the
Friday closing price of Mandalay shares. Mandalay’s note promised to
evaluate the proposal and to “respond to MGM Mirage in due course.”
People familiar with the talks said they expect a deal to be struck
this week. These people said raising funds for the purchase won’t be a
problem, as MGM Mirage has a $1.5 billion credit line and the company
is likely to get further credit if necessary. With top executives at
Mandalay willing to sell, the only real issue is price, the people
said, unless a third party enters the bidding. Joe Greff, an analyst
with Fulcrumb Global Partners LLC, says the deal makes “financial and
strategic sense” for MGM Mirage and calculates that there’s room for
it to go higher with the price. He says he believes the deal would
add to MGM Mirage’s earnings up to an offer of about $81 a share.
The timing comes just as Las Vegas is entering a new phase in its
storied history. Its return to its sinful roots as a home to topless
shows, hot night clubs and naughty behavior has been synthesized into
its latest widely known advertising slogan, “What happens in Vegas,
stays in Vegas.”
That, combined with the resurging economy and a sharp increase in
discount airlines’ service from the East Coast, have all helped
make Las Vegas a heavily visited and newly cool place to hang
out. Mandalay’s Mandalay Bay resort has been at the heart of all that,
with its after-hours clubs, array of trendy restaurants and hotels,
and a vast convention center that draws visitors during the week.
The Mandalay Bay was the first to bring a well-known five-star hotel
brand to the Strip, with its Four Seasons hotel. Recently, it opened
“THE hotel”, a hip design-style suite hotel that appeals to 20-
and 30-something visitors who are discovering Las Vegas for the
first time. The television show “Las Vegas” starring James Caan is
sometimes filmed there.
For MGM Mirage, the addition of Mandalay Bay, the pyramid-shaped Luxor,
the Excalibur castle and RV-oriented Circus Circus would provide a
broad expanse of casinos from high end to lowbrow. Mandalay Bay, with
a ballroom big enough to accommodate tractor-trailer trucks, would
allow MGM Mirage to compete head-to-head for convention business with
Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian casino and Sands Expo convention center.
The power of crossmarketing among the casinos — especially the ability
to offer loyalty goodies through a companywide frequent-customer
program — would give the new giant a huge advantage over smaller
competitors like Caesars Entertainment Inc. and the Venetian.
Still, it isn’t clear that the Federal Trade Commission would allow
the merged giant to keep all the properties of both companies. In
fact, it’s a sure thing that it would have to sell off a property
in Detroit, where state law restricts a company to holding only one
license. The FTC could seek the sale of directly competing properties
as a condition of approval.
People familiar with MGM Mirage insist the company is confident it can
assuage antitrust concerns. Company insiders also say it would be no
big deal if the merged company were required to sell off a property
or two.
Mr. Kerkorian also is involved in another set of negotiations —
talks to sell to Sony Corp. his controlling stake in his other main
investment vehicle, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. film studio in
Los Angeles. There’s no connection between the two potential deals,
says a person close to Mr. Kerkorian, who owns 74% of the studios.
People familiar with the situation say Sony is struggling to pull
together its consortium of private equity backers and MGM hasn’t
extended a period of exclusivity for the negotiations, opening the way
for other bidders. Time Warner Inc. and General Electric’s NBC have
previously expressed an interest. Time Warner’s board also recently
gave Warner Bros. preliminary authorization to pursue a bid, say people
familiar with the situation. However, Time Warner has balked at Mr.
Kerkorian’s asking price in the past. MGM is believed to be seeking
$5 billion, including the assumption of $2 billion of debt.
–Merissa Marr and John R. Wilke contributed to this article.
Write to Christina Binkley at [email protected]

POLITICAL PRISONER VAGHARSHAK HARUTYUNYAN’S PRETRIAL DETENTION EXTENDED
FOR TWO MONTHS
A1 Plus | 14:06:25 | 07-06-2004 | Politics |
On Monday, at its closed-door session, Center Nork-Marash
first instance court satisfied the prosecution plea to extend
General-Lieutenant Vagharshak Harutyunyan’s pretrial detention for
two months.
Vagharshak Harutyunyan is charged with attempting a coup, making
seditious calls and insulting the authorities and can face up to 19
years in jail if convicted.
The protest of Harutyunyan’s attorney Robert Grigoryan hasn’t been
heard in a clear breach of the law. The court made its Monday’s
decision without considering the protest, because the accused “can
be dangerous if released.”
No exact wrongdoing is pointed out by the prosecution side so far. Only
the counts that Harutyunyan is charged with are indicated.

Azeri efforts to bar Karabakh’s international telecom access still fruitless
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
4 Jun 04
[Presenter] The work of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications
and Information Technology to bar the international access of the
Karabakh Telecom company has been fruitless. In a news conference
at the headquarters of the New Azerbaijan Party today, Minister of
Communications and Information Technology Ali Abbasov said that the
countries offering roaming services are responsible for the issue.
[Correspondent over video of the news conference] The removal from
the GSM system of the Karabakh Telecom company, which is operating on
the occupied [Azerbaijani] lands, depends on the countries offering
roaming services to the separatists. Minister of Communications and
Information Technology Ali Abbasov said that Baku’s work in this
sphere was still fruitless.
[Abbasov speaking at the news conference] The GSM Association can
deprive them of roaming services. It can appeal to those countries,
asking them not to offer roaming services to the company. However,
it is impossible to force them to do this.
[Correspondent] The minister said that serious steps will be taken
in the near future to maintain the country’s information security.
[Abbasov] A project is being drawn up to create a new telephone
and information system in order to ensure the country’s information
technology. After a certain period, I think, the Azerbaijani National
Security Ministry and the state security department [as heard] will
take complete control of all this.
[Correspondent over video] Mr Abbasov said that the new project will
also ensure the security of Azerbaijani web sites.
[Passage omitted: About privatization plans in the telecom sphere]
Tunzala Rafiqqizi and Dilqam Mirzayev for “Son Xabar”.