WOMAN SUFFOCATED
A1+
[03:40 pm] 06 November, 2006
On November 4 the representatives of the Masis department of the
police found a dead body of a 40-year-old woman in the basement of
the Culture house behind the artificial pond near the Central Square.
The police revealed the identity of the woman – Venera Barseghyan
born in 1965. Forensic examination revealed that the woman has been
suffocated. A criminal case has been initiated.

A REASON FOR JOY
A1+
[05:31 pm] 06 November, 2006
Former Prime Minister of Armenia, rector of the Armenian-Russian
University Armen Darbinyan expressed his joy today, “I’m very glad
that a Russian company has become the owner of the telecommunication
operator in Armenia”. Last week Russian “Vympelcom” announced about
the purchase of 90% of the shares of “ArmenTel”.
Armen Darbinyan said he is sorry that in 1998 when the company was
being sold there were no Russian companies among the potential buyers.

NEW ANTIHAIL SYSTEMS TO BE INSTALLED IN SHIRAK PROVINCE
Armenpress
Nov 06 2006
GYUMRI, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS: Armenian agricultural ministry said
it will test next year a new antihail system, developed by Armenian
engineers, in Armenia’s northwestern province of Shirak. The new
system, operating on solar energy, was already tested 20 years ago in
the region of Talin. The ministry promised also to release finances
for installment of new system.
Four or five antihail stations are to be installed in the province,
each of which costs $22,000.
Scientists say one antihail system is able to protect about 80 hectares
of land under crop from hails. The system transforms hail into rain
saving crops from being damaged.
Rural communities in Shirak chosen to have stations in their territory
will have to make their input into its assembly and installation. Some
30 rural communities are located in areas targeted usually by
hails. Agricultural experts estimate that this year the province has
sustained 1.2 billion drams damages from hails.

ARMENIA DOESN’T EVEN GET A SATISFACTORY MARK
A1+
[05:41 pm] 06 November, 2006
“Corruption traps millions in poverty,” said Transparency International
Chair Huguette Labelle during the launching of the 2006 Corruption
Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI). It
points to a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with
a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.
The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite index that draws
on multiple expert opinion surveys that poll perceptions of public
sector corruption in 163 countries around the world, the greatest
scope of any CPI to date. It scores countries on a scale from zero
to ten, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and
ten indicating low levels of perceived corruption.
“Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and
regulations, today’s results indicate that much remains to be done
before we see meaningful improvements in the lives of the world’s
poorest citizens”, Mr. Labelle said.
A strong correlation between corruption and poverty is evident in
the results of the CPI 2006. Countries with a significant worsening
in perceived levels of corruption include: Brazil, Cuba, Israel,
Jordan, Laos, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and the
United States. Countries with a significant improvement in perceived
levels of corruption include: Algeria, Czech Republic, India, Japan,
Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Paraguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Turkmenistan
and Uruguay.
The weak performance of many countries indicates that the facilitators
of corruption continue to assist political elites to launder, store and
otherwise profit from unjustly acquired wealth, which often includes
looted state assets.
According to the report, the CPI of Armenia is 2.9 which has remained
unchanged in comparison with that of last year. If the CPI is less than
“3”, is means that corruption is wide-spread in the country.

OFFICIAL SAYS THEY ARE PREPARED FOR WINTER
Panorama.am
14:26 06/11/06
Vano Vardanyan, deputy mayor, told a briefing today that most community
streets are completely built.
Asked about Dro streets where reconstruction works were going on
right yesterday, Vardanyan said, “You are talking about the section
I did not mean.”
Vardanyan turned to be unaware whether the municipality is in charge of
reconstruction works within funds released by Lins Foundation. However
he promised to be quite prepared for winter. He said 750 tones
of technical salt and 3600 sq. meter sand is provided for that
purpose.

DEFENSE EXPENDITURE TO RISE IN LINE WITH GDP GROWTH IN ARMENIA
Panorama.am
15:30 06/11/06
Expenditures on defense will make up 3.5% of GDP annually, Serzh
Sargsyan, defense minister of Armenia told reporters today saying this
is an agreement reached with the Armenian government. In his words,
defense expenditures will grow in line with economy.
According to the draft state budget, defense expenditures will surpass
100.4 bln drams with 96.6 bln to military needs, 3.8 bln to other
costs, 26.9 mln on organization of alternative military service.
Sargsyan said 48% of expenditures will be used on salaries. He said
the average salary for officers will be 165,000 drams.
Speaking about increase in military expenditures of Azerbaijan,
Sargsyan said, “Of coarse, you cannot compare $1 bln with $300 million
but much can be accomplished even with that money if used purposefully
and efficiently.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL REPORTS CLOSE TO 3 POINT FOR ARMENIA
Panorama.am
15:35 06/11/06
Armenia is among the group of countries which have lower than
point 3 level of corruption which means that corruption is quite
widespread. Amalia Kostanyan, head of Armenia office of Transparency
International, said, “Armenia has received 2.9 points which has not
changed since last year despite of anticorruption strategy launched
for three years.”
One hundred sixty three countries were included in the rating
against 159 last year. The rating is done on 1-10 points. Countries
which receive close to 1 are considered more corrupt. No country has
received 10 points with Finland, Island and New Zealand having close
to 10 – 9.6 points. Countries like Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay,
India and Japan reported progress whereas Brazil, Cuba, Jordanian,
Israel and USA reported regression to more corruption.
Armenia is at the 93rd place together with Argentina, Syria, Eritrea,
Tanzania and Bosnia Herzegovina. Our neighbor – Georgia, Iran and
Azerbaijan are at 99, 105 and 130 places respectively.

MORE MONEY TO BE RELEASED FOR NATURE PROTECTION
Panorama.am
18:18 06/11/06
Nature protection minister, Vardan Aivazyan, happily noted that the
state budget will release 1 bln 482 million more money to environment
totaling 3 bln drams.
The state will release 10 million dram for fish protection in
Sevan. The minister said this money is not enough and he would like
to receive some 30-40 million for that purpose.
The state will release 39 mln drams for geological studies. Another
401 mln is appropriated for special areas of nature protection.
Aivazyan said also international organizations provide money for
nature protection totaling 1 bln 3358 million drams.

BRUSSELS SET TO GIVE TURKEY MORE TIME ON CYPRUS
By Mark Beunderman
EU Observer, Belgium
Nov 7 2006
The European Commission is unlikely to recommend a partial suspension
of Turkey’s EU membership talks over the Cyprus issue in a key report
on Wednesday, with individual commissioners reportedly divided over
the matter.
The Financial Times wrote on Tuesday (7 November) that Brussels is
set to postpone a recommendation on whether or not to freeze the
talks until a later date ahead of an EU leaders summit in December.
The commission had been considering whether to already make this
recommendation in Wednesday’s progress report on Turkey, according
to the UK daily.
But a draft report endorsed by chiefs of the commissioners in a
meeting on Monday merely says that “The commission will make relevant
recommendations ahead of the December European Council.”
The paper writes that the commission itself is divided over the
strategy towards Turkey, which launched EU accession talks last year,
but still refuses to open its ports and airports to trade from Cyprus.
The Cypriot, Greek and French commissioners – whose countries are
among the most sceptical about Turkish membership – have argued
Brussels should already on Wednesday propose concrete consequences
for Ankara’s defiant stance.
But other members of the EU executive – including commission chief Jose
Manuel Barroso and enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn – reportedly
want to give more space for the Finnish EU presidency to broker a
deal between Turkey and Cyprus before the December summit.
The draft still needs to be rubber-stamped by commissioners on
Wednesday.
Debate in Germany, Italy The divisions within the commission reflect
a similar rift within the German ruling coalition which is being
highlighted by German media.
Edmund Stoiber, the leader of the Bavarian conservatives and a staunch
opponent of Turkish EU membership, has urged a halt to the talks,
but social democrat members of the German government – notably foreign
minister Frank Walter Steinmeier – have said that “everything” needs
to be done to find a compromise before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Italian prime minister Romano Prodi has warned against
stopping the negotiations with Turkey altogether, telling the Financial
Times that the process will take time but “certainly you must not
stop it.”
“There is an idea in some parts of Europe to stop it all,” he said.
“But I think this is a great historical challenge.”
Free speech concession In another development, the European Commission
on Monday cautiously welcomed a fresh concession by Turkish prime
minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on freedom of expression – an issue
which is set to be one of the main concerns in Wednesday’s progress
report along with the Cyprus issue.
Mr Erdogan over the weekend said his government is willing to revise or
lift the notorious article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which penalises
insults against “Turkishness”.
“We expect this stated intention to be followed by concrete deeds and
we are thus waiting for concrete decisions,” a commission spokeswoman
said.
On the basis of article 301, charges were brought against several
journalists and novelists who raised the Kurdish issue or the Armenian
genocide including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk.
Turkish NGOs have in the past few weeks pressed the government to
reform the article.

VIMPELCOM SNAPS UP ARMENTEL
St. Petersburg Times, Russia
Nov 7 2006
MOSCOW – VimpelCom, Russia’s second-largest cellular company, said
Friday it agreed to buy 90 percent of an Armenian phone company for
341.9 million euros ($434.2 million), as it looks to expand beyond
the saturated Russian market.VimpelCom has signed an agreement with
Greece’s Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA, the Moscow-based
company said Friday in a PRNewswire statement. The company will also
assume about 40 million euros in net debt and obligations.
“With approximately 40 percent of the mobile market share, Armentel
occupies a strong position in the Armenian market and we will work to
enhance this position,” VimpelCom Chief Executive Officer Alexander
Izosimov said in the statement.
VimpelCom, and its domestic competitors Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s
biggest cellular operator, and MegaFon, the third-largest wireless
company, are looking to expand beyond Russia, a country with 143
million people and more than 146 million mobile phones. Buying Armentel
will make Armenia the sixth former Soviet country aside from Russia
where VimpelCom will have operations.
Armentel has about 600,000 fixed-line subscribers and 400,000 GSM
subscribers, the statement said.