Business Wire (press release), CA
September 20, 2006 11:00 AM Eastern Time
Ponte Solutions Collaborates with UMC on
Design-for-Yield Methodology; UMC and Ponte to
Establish Design-Stage Yield Analysis Methodology with
Ponte’s Yield Analyzer(TM) for 90nm and 65nm
Technologies
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 20, 2006–Ponte
Solutions, Inc., the design-for-yield (DFY) company, today announced a
technology partnership with leading global semiconductor manufacturer
UMC (NYSE:UMC)(TSE:2303) to establish design-stage yield analysis that
enables pre-tapeout yield enhancement for 90nm and below technologies.
Ponte’s methodology helps reducing manufacturing cost and
time-to-volume production of complex semiconductor ICs by revealing
yield-sensitive areas of libraries, IPs, memories and full chip
designs and enabling yield improvement at the design stage, prior to
committing to expensive fabrication.
“IC designers have realized the benefits of proactive yield sensitivity
analysis in deep sub-micron technologies,” said Ken Liou, director
of the IP and Design Support Division at UMC. “Ponte’s Yield Analyzer
provides Defect Limited Yield information which can be used by tools at
virtually every step of the design flow starting from library/IP design
and characterization to netlist generation, floorplanning, full chip
detailed routing and ECO. Using Yield Analyzer, designers can use DD
(Defect Density) data to analyze two or more layouts to evaluate and
decide the best option for tape-out based on their requirements.”
“We strongly believe that yield, traditionally the domain of fabs,
must become a driving factor behind sub-90nm design flows,” said Alex
Alexanian, CEO of Ponte Solutions. “Ponte anticipated this trend more
than two years ago and has worked with technology partners to develop
and validate the accuracy, performance and usability of Yield Analyzer
as design-stage yield characterization and analysis tool.
Our partnership with UMC is an important milestone in bringing yield
driven design methodologies to the design community.”
About Ponte Solutions
Ponte Solutions, Inc., the design-for-yield company, manufactures
and delivers unique, full-chip, model-based software products for
semiconductor yield analysis and prediction, enabling designers to
perform design-stage yield optimization. Ponte’s customers include
leading semiconductor manufacturers, foundries and design houses
worldwide. Founded in 2002, the company has received funding from US
Venture Partners, Telos Venture Partners, Incubic LLC, Silicom Ventures
LLC and private individuals. The company has offices in Mountain View,
California; Grenoble, France; Tokyo, Japan; and Yerevan, Armenia. More
information about the company can be found at
Ponte Solutions and Yield Analyzer are trademarks of Ponte Solutions,
Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Kyiv Post, Ukraine
Thu, Sep 21. 10:38
Opposition parliamentarian: Ukraine needs NATO
by Oksana Bondarchuk,
Kyiv Post Staff Writer Sep 21 2006, 02:08
By Konstantin Klimenko — Outspoken BYuT oppositionist, nationalist
and NATO proponent Andriy Shkil, says that Ukraine is a classic example
of a country with a divided mentality, and that division is growing.
Ukraine’s east-west divide is growing, according to Andriy Shkil,
a vocal lawmaker in the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction,
who warned that Ukraine must join NATO to preserve its sovereignty. An
active participant in Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, Shkil accused
President Viktor Yushchenko of betraying the Revolution in September
2005 by firing Tymoshenko as premier. The current parliamentary
majority was formed out of fear of the firebrand female politician,
said Shkil.
KP: How did you start your political career?
AS: I started through public work. At the end of the 1980s, I was an
active member of the youth wing of the Helsinki Human Rights Union. I
also took part in the Organization of Independent Ukrainian Youth and
was in the [right-wing] UNA-UNSO [Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian
National Self Defense] for some time. So, I was involved in public work
first, then in politics. The movement “Ukraine without Kuchma!” in
2000 [against then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma] made me think
that not only public movements were important, but also parties. So I
decided to join a party with a wide spectrum of views. Batkivshchyna
[Fatherland] became such a party for me.
KP: Having a broad spectrum in a party can make it difficult to
achieve a single position. Is this true of Batkivshchyna?
AS: Yes, it is difficult to make certain decisions.
But a party is a part of the society that it reflects.
Unfortunately, Ukraine was formed as a country of different
mentalities.
KP: What do you mean by “different mentalities”?
AS: The problem of self-identity. And, to be honest, it is
growing. Western Ukrainians identify themselves as different from
eastern Ukrainians, but find something in common with Poles. It is
vice versa in eastern Ukraine, where people find more in common with
Russians. The state doesn’t care about this and has not even planned
to do anything about it.
For example, living in Kyiv, I read Polish periodicals because it
doesn’t matter to me what newspapers I read, excluding Ukrainian
ones, but I prefer Polish to Russian periodicals because they are
more impartial.
This is the way I maintain contact with the world, because I don’t
want to do this through Russia. If I have a choice between Polish
and Russian, I choose Polish without hesitation. If I had the same
product, movie or TV program in Ukrainian, I would never have such
a problem of choice.
Ukraine is a classic example of a divided country. And with each month
of its independence, the difference in mentality is increasing. To
accuse [Donetsk-born Prime Minister Viktor] Yanukovych or someone else
of this doesn’t make sense. He just made use of an already existing
problem. We need to unify the mentality. And it has to be done at
state level with a definite program. We should defend our culture
and language.
And if someone proposes Russian as a second official language, I will
propose Polish as a third official language to save my identity.
KP: Besides promoting Polish as a third language, what are you planning
to do as a lawmaker?
AS: I work in the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, where I
try to push the government to actively work on the issue of Ukraine’s
east-west divide. If we had a common view about this at the highest
level, Ukraine could be issuing Schengen visas. To preserve Ukraine,
we need integration. And a certain part of Ukraine has already
integrated into Europe without asking anyone. If you spend several
days in Donetsk Region and then several days in Lviv or Chernivtsi
Region, you’ll see that these are two different Ukraines.
KP: President Viktor Yushchenko is apparently in favor of Ukraine’s
integration with Europe and NATO. What needs to be done to achieve
this?
AS: You know, I headed the delegation to the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly in Paris, where the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Georgia and Ukraine were invited. Two of them didn’t come. Guess who?
Yushchenko didn’t come. He was very busy. I don’t know what with. And
it was difficult for me to explain to the members of the Assembly
why the president of a country that intends to enter NATO had not
come. We cry about joining, but don’t take the first step.
KP: But joining NATO remains a controversial issue for Ukrainian
society. Is there really such a need to join?
AS: NATO has been defined as part of Ukraine’s state policy. That’s
it. This policy has to be implemented.
If someone doesn’t like this, he has a right to express his will,
to protest and so on. To preserve Ukraine we need to integrate into
NATO and Europe.
KP: Getting back to you, how do you see your role in the Batkivshchyna
party?
AS: I take responsibility for international contacts.
Consequently, I’ve made a lot of trips to attend different
meetings. We are developing Batkivshchyna as a European political
force and discussing areas of cooperation. I also work with young
people because I like them and I enjoy some popularity among them.
KP: First you were elected to parliament as an independent, weren’t
you?
AS: Yes, that was in 2002. I was elected while still serving time in
jail for my part in the “Ukraine without Kuchma!” campaign. People
who voted for me didn’t look at what party I belonged to. They
elected me for my struggles. Maybe some felt sorry for me, but
most supported me because they couldn’t take part in the campaign
themselves. These people came to Kyiv [to support President Viktor
Yushchenko’s presidential bid] during the [2004] Orange Revolution.
KP: You were a prominent participant in the Orange Revolution,
which brought Yushchenko to power. Do you feel that the president
and members of his current circle betrayed the revolution?
AS: It was a betrayal of the Orange team when [Yulia] Tymoshenko
was removed as premier [in fall 2005]. All the rest, including
recent events, was only the consequences of that move. However,
nobody expected that we [BYuT] would receive so many votes in the
[March 26 general] elections and that [the pro-presidential] Our
Ukraine would receive so little.
KP: Tymoshenko’s BYuT did better than expected in the March 26
parliamentary elections, but its popularity has dropped since then. How
do you interpret this?
AS: We were partners of Yushchenko. We actively campaigned for
a coalition [with Our Ukraine and the Socialists] and we lost
because we encouraged a coalition that was not formed. In addition,
there is distrust in the authorities in general in [Ukrainian]
society. The opposition is also associated in people’s minds with
the authorities. The drop in popularity could also be caused by Yulia
Tymoshenko’s absence from the public for some time. But even according
to the most pessimistic forecasts, we have maintained our popularity
since March.
KP: What, in your opinion, was the reason why most members of the
pro-presidential Our Ukraine party supported the parliamentary
majority formed by the Regions, the Communists and the Socialists
[in July 2006]?
AS: It’s clear: It was fear of Tymoshenko. Everyone knew about the
negotiations. In Ukraine, if you want to keep something secret,
you shouldn’t say or do anything. But it is impossible to avoid some
things. A professional differs from an amateur in that he understands
that he lost, but he should play till the end, because the most
important is the result that can come tomorrow or in a year’s time.
KP: Would you support cancellation of the constitutional reforms that
came into effect this year and weakened the authority of the president?
AS: We have never supported these political reforms and we won’t
do this. But we won’t initiate their cancellation. It’s not our
task today. Our task is to keep what we have today. However, the
presidential form of a republic is important for Ukraine, with its
different mentalities. As the opposition we can only propose some
things while not allowing other things to happen.
KP: What are BYuT’s specific goals in this parliament?
AS: We still don’t have a law on the opposition. This is essential,
and to change the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada. Our task is also to
tell society honestly about illegal actions taken by the authorities.
KP: Some lawmakers from the BYuT faction break rank, for instance,
when they voted for the new coalition headed by Regions. What will
you do with them?
AS: We won’t expel them from the party or bloc because the law
doesn’t allow this. They want this but we will not oblige them. We
will deprive them of their mandates. We are working on this. There
is such a mechanism.
KP: The pro-presidential Our Ukraine party is reportedly split over
joining the Regions-led coalition. Could you see a possible merger
with some members of this party?
AS: There will be an inter-faction merger. Such deputies will remain
in their party and will be members of this inter-faction merger.
KP: You didn’t hold a government post under the Tymoshenko
government. Would you like to one day?
AS: I don’t have such a strong desire to work in the government. The
posts that I wanted when Tymoshenko was in power were already
taken. But I am a politician and I am ready to use my skills both in
the executive and the legislative branches of power.
KP: You are an active and well-known politician. Don’t you want to
create your own party?
AS: Believe me, I don’t have such plans now. But if they appear,
I will implement them.

Russia to sell 100% of its shares in Sochi airport in 2006
RIA Novosti
14:37 | 20/ 09/ 2006
MOSCOW, September 20 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian government plans
to sell 100% of its shares in Sochi International Airport, on the
country’s Black Sea coast, during 2006, the Cabinet press office
said Wednesday.
Sochi has been short-listed as a host city for the 2014 Olympic
Winter Games, along with Austria’s Salzburg and South Korea’s
PyeongChang. The city bid for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics,
but was rejected largely due to its poor-quality Soviet infrastructure.
Sochi International Airport received unwelcome publicity in May as
the destination of an Armenian airliner that crashed into the Black
Sea in stormy weather, killing all 113 passengers and crew on board.
Following a government order passed on July 3, 2006, the airport was
included on a list of federal unitary companies to be privatized in
2006. The airport has since been converted into a joint-stock company,
with 100% state ownership.
The government’s privatization plan for 2006, announced last year,
listed 885 federal unitary companies and 383 joint-stock companies.
Sochi International Airport has air links to 120 cities in Russia
and abroad. During the first eight months of 2006, the airport served
975,570 passengers.

Trading Markets, CA
First Alert: 8:30-11:30 A.M. Investrend / Bestcalls
Thursday, September 21, 2006; Posted: 02:52 AM
Sep 21, 2006 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) —
September 21, 2006 (Financial Wire) Conference calls
scheduled at 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Investrend
Broadcast via partner BestCalls include Comtech
Telecomm. Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL), Apogee Enterprises
Inc. (NASDAQ: APOG), Docucorp International Inc.
(NASDAQ: DOCC), Xyratex Ltd. (NASDAQ: XRTX).
Conference calls are often impacted by market trends,
geopolitical conditions, news coming from conferences
and economic releases.
Science fiction doesn’t fare well on television these
days, at least not on the main networks. Not since
Star Trek in the 60s has one made much of a mark. Star
Trek’s early days were marked by the not-always hidden
agenda of human rights. The multi-cultural crew caused
quite a stir. Now, the cause-celebre is taking care of
the earth, a major point of last night’s Jericho, a
post nuclear holocaust drama. It was also a part of
three of last year’s failed sci-fi shows. Can Jericho
survive on its seemingly slim premise? CBS sure hopes
so. Will such programs make the world more aware of
global warming and, more importantly, do something
about them? We should all hope so.
The Investrend Earnings calendar features FedEx Corp
(NYSE: FDX), expected at $1.52 a year ago versus
$1.25, Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL), expected at $1.46
versus $1.36, General Mills (NYSE: GIS), expected at
$0.67 versus $0.68, Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE), expected at
$1.42 versus $1.61.
The Investrend Economics Calendar lists Weekly Initial
Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Leading Indicators for
August (10 a.m.), Philadelphia Fed Index for September
(12 p.m.), Weekly Money Supply (4:30 p.m.).
The Investrend Events calendar showcases Investrend
Forums co-sponsored Corporate Forum presentations by
Arcadia Resources in Newport Beach, California, and
Environmental Solutions in Boston, Massachusetts,
AMLN, VVUS, CJC, SNY, KOSP at Oppenheimer Diabetes
Conference, CELG, THRX at Prudential Equity Group
Midwest Healthcare Day, CRM, MSSR, ACN at Bank of
America 36th Annual Investment Conference, UAPH at
Credit Suisse Small Cap Basics Day,.
The Investrend Money Index is an indicator of the
depth of market direction or indirection. While not
always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ 50
Most Actives indicate the direction in which the mass
of money is flowing. Last session’s trading showed 34
advancers versus 15 decliners and one unchanged.
Advancers were led by Oracle Corp (NASDAQ: ORCL) up
11.16%, Bea Systems Inc (NASDAQ: BEAS) up 8.59%, Sonus
Networks Inc (NASDAQ: SONS) up 8.11%. Decliners
followed Genta Inc (NASDAQ: GNTA) down 31.82%.
Vote in the Investrend Poll Question of the Day at
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Investrend Website of the Day:
iwar1.htm
Quote of the Day: “Every time I see an adult on a
bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the
human race.” H. G. Wells
Today is International Day of Peace of the United
Nations, as propagated by Peace One Day, Independence
Day in Malta, Belize, and Armenia.
Happy Birthday H. G. Wells, Chuck Jones, Jay Ward,
Larry Hagman, Henry Gibson, Fannie Flagg, Stephen
King, Bill Murray, Rob Morrow, Faith Hill, Kiefer
Sutherland, Ricki Lake, Luke Wilson.
Today in History: In the Second Opium War in 1860, an
Anglo-French force defeated Chinese troops at the
Battle of Baliqiao. The “Yes, Virginia, there is a
Santa Claus” letter was published in 1897 in the New
York Sun. The Great Hurricane of 1938 made landfall in
1938 on Long Island in New York. Sandra Day O’Connor,
the first female Supreme Court justice, was confirmed
in 1981 by the senate in a 99-0 vote.
[FirstAlert was created by Gayle Essary, founder of
Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend
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The Statesman, India
Thursday, 21 September 2006
Special Article
Affirmative action-I
Experiments In The Former Soviet Union, Japan &
America
By Dipak Basu
“If our political progress is to be real, the underdogs of our society
must be helped to become men” (Rabindranath Tagore, Letters from
Russia) The debate on affirmative action in India tends to drag and
isn’t always geared to the desired objective: creation of equality of
opportunity. As with secularism, the reservation system in India has
a different political aim ~ to make the system more unequal than what
it is. Secularism, far from making the state independent of religion,
is intended to provide special privileges to certain religious
groups. Similarly, the affirmative system is politically designed to
provide restricted, not equal, rights to some chosen people.
The policy was perhaps started in India by Lord Curzon in 1905 by
banning the employment of Hindu Bengalis in government services. The
official argument was that they were too advanced and others,
particularly Muslims, would be deprived of job opportunities. Later it
was extended to the military services by giving preferential treatment
to Muslims and Sikhs who were branded as martial races.
Divide population
Reservations in government jobs were introduced in 1918 in Mysore
in favour of a number of castes and communities that had little
representation in the administration. In 1909 and in 1919 the system
was introduced for the Muslims in British India. In 1935, political
reasons prompted the government to provide job reservation for the
backward castes.
The real idea was to divide the population of India into several
warring groups along religious, ethnic and caste lines by granting
special rights so that India of the future would be divided and weak. A
number of prominent politicians had acted as agents of the Raj to
implement that line of action. Among them was BR Ambedkar. Although
today he is regarded as a founding father of the nation, the writer
of the Constitution and the cult figure of the backward castes with
four universities named after him, he took no part in the freedom
movement. Instead, like EVR Periyarer of Tamil Nadu, CP Ramaswamy Aiyar
of Kerala, Jinnah and Mohammed Iqbal, he was a staunch loyalist of the
empire, hand-in-glove with the British to divide India along caste,
religion and tribal lines.
The followers of the same person today include the Communists who,
forgetting the essentials of the Marx-Lenin ideology, are supporting
job reservation along caste and religious lines.
Equality of opportunity is the basis of a true democracy and as such
affirmative action is required to equalise opportunities among people
who are endowed differently. Even in the USA, affirmative action
was promoted first by President Lyndon Johnson in 1974 to promote
American blacks, who were deprived of most opportunities. However,
it was not a success. The countries where it was most successful are
Japan, the former Soviet Union and other former socialist countries
of East Europe along with Cuba and Vietnam.
India should take a lesson from them to implement a proper policy on
affirmative action.
The success of the Soviet society regarding affirmative action was
observed by Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote: “Throughout the ages,
civilised communities have contained groups of nameless people.
They toil most, yet theirs is the largest measure of indignity. They
are deprived of everything that makes life worth living. I had often
thought about them, but came to the conclusion that there was no
help for them… In Russia at last. Whichever way I look I am filled
with wonder. From top to bottom they are rousing everyone up without
distinction”.
Immediately after the revolution, Lenin proclaimed the affirmative
action known as korenizatsiia to provide affirmative preferences
for non-Russians, backward ethnic groups and poor Russians. To gain
the support of the non-Russian, who were largely illiterate except in
Georgia and Armenia, a Sovietization in three phases was developed. In
the first phase, the respective cultures were promoted. This aroused
their national conscience. This eventually led to the second phase
which was rapprochement and finally to the third phase which was
merger. Non-Russians were awarded their own administrative territories
and accorded preference in educational and promotion policies. This
policy led to the creation of massive educational facilities in the
republics of the backward people, employment for the representatives
of the ethnic intelligentsia, foundation of republican academies of
science and research centres supporting ethnic unions of writers,
painters and film-makers. The policy was applied uniformly to create
elites, which, like their culture, would be national in form, but
with the same content in all units of the union.
However, there was no fixed quota in admissions to the educational
establishments or in jobs. Instead, education was made free at all
stages and compulsory up to certain ages depending on their ethnic
background. Every qualified student was entitled to scholarship to
cover his or her costs of maintenance.
Education was taken to the people where they lived.
Even mobile schools and libraries were established for the nomadic
populations of central Asia. A certain number of students from
the backward areas of the Soviet Union was taken to the very best
universities and institutes of higher learning. They got separate
training so that they could compete effectively with the more advanced
Russian students.
Due to this social engineering, within two decades the Soviet Union
had eradicated illiteracy and had the best educated population in
the world. It wasn’t a reservation system for the backward people,
but completely free education and massive extension of education. Both
the Soviet Union and Japan improved the lot of the totally uneducated
without any formal reservation or quota system but through compulsory
free education on a massive scale.
Japanese system
The guiding principle of the Japanese system of education is
uniformity, conformity and integration.
There is no room for special rights or reservations in that regimented
system, which is available equally for everyone.
In the USA, the term affirmative action was first used in the
Executive Order 11246, issued by President Johnson. The order called
on federal government contractors to “take affirmative action to
ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated
during employment, without regard to their race, creed, colour, or
national origin.” However, those who were already educated or advanced
financially among the blacks or Hispanics, equivalent to the creamy
layers in India, got the benefits. Thus, the affirmative action could
not change the basic nature of the most unequal society. There was
considerable opposition to the system in the days of Reagan. Today,
nearly 26 per cent of the population is functionally illiterate. Social
mobility is on the decline. There is widespread homelessness and
poverty among the blacks and Hispanics. In a word, affirmative action
hasn’t changed the characteristics of American society.
(To be concluded)
The author is Professor in International Economics, Nagasaki University

APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW US AMBASSADOR AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE (ANALYSIS)
Armen Manvelyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 19 2006
During the past 10 days the struggle around the appointment of a new US
Ambassador to Armenia has been transferred from the Foreign Relations
Committee to the Senate itself. The main question specialists are
concerned with is whether the upper House of the US Congress will
vote or the nomination will be postponed. To remind, Senator Robert
Menendez has declared he is against Hagland’s candidacy, which means
that the discussion of the question may be delayed. Nevertheless,
notwithstanding all this Hoagland may be appointed next US
Ambassador to Armenia with the simple majority of the votes. It
should be mentioned that members of Bush’s party comprise majority
in the Senate, which means 51 votes will be enough for Hoagland’s
appointment. Therefore, it is possible that for the first time in
the history of the Senate the Ambassador will be appointed with the
simple majority of votes, while up to now all Ambassadors have been
confirmed, receiving 100 percent of the ballots. The situation with the
appointment of a new US Ambassador to Armenia is associated with the
activity of Armenian lobbyist organizations in the US – the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA), which demand from George Bush to fulfill his promise and
recognize the Armenian Genocide. To remind, the recall of the former
US Ambassador to Armenia John M. Evans by the Department of State was
connected with the fact that the latter properly characterized the
events at the turn of the century as genocide. The Armenian lobbyist
organizations consider that it is immoral to appoint an Ambassador
to Yerevan, who does not recognize the Genocide or avoids using the
term. However, this was the approach Richard Hoagland demonstrated
during the inquiry in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: he
used evasive terms when responding to questions about the events
in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, we can assert that Richard Hoagland
has become the victim of the struggle between George Bush’s policy
on the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian lobbyist organizations and
pro-Armenian Senators. Famous Democrat Senator John Kerry has declared:
“I will vote “no,” but I don’t mind Hoagland’s candidacy. I disagree
with the Administration’s policy.” We can say that the struggle over
Hoagland’s nomination shows that number one world power, which has
declared itself the main agent of freedom and justice in the world,
should understand at last that it cannot endlessly deny the demand
of the Armenian American community to characterize the massacre of
Armenians as genocide.

THE PROCES OF RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY CZECH REPUBLIC NOT GOING TO BE SIMPLE
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 19 2006
The process of recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide
in the Czech Republic will not be simple, RA Ambassador to Czechia
Ashot Hovakimyan told “Armenpress.” The Ambassador clarified that
recently parliamentary elections were held in the country, while the
process of government formation is rather complex. In a few weeks
elections to the Senate are expected in the Czech Republic, and it
is not clear whether Senator known for their pro-Armenian position
will be elected to the Senate or not.
To remind, several members of the Czech Parliament, including Senator
Yaromir Shtetina, intend to present a bill on condemnation of the
Armenian Genocide to the consideration of the Parliament.

FOREIGN MINISTER: ARMENIA-DIASPORA RELATIONS BASED ON MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING AND TRUST
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 18 2006
YEREVAN, September 18. /ARKA – Novosti-Armenia/. Armenia-Diaspora
relations are based on mutual understanding and trust, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said Monday speaking at the third
Armenia-Diaspora forum opening in Yerevan.
He said the forum would give a new impetus to these relations.
In his words, the forum will outline future activities of all Armenians
worldwide, who has many common problems.
“We don’t overestimate our expectations from the forum and don’t think
it will solve all problems in Armenia and Diaspora. However it will
spur these relations and we’ll be able to reach our goals thanks to
consolidation”, Oskanyan said.

SHUSHI (NKR) MAY BECOME SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL, HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CENTER OF ALL-ARMENIAN SIGNIFICANCE
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2006
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. President of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic Arkady Ghukasyan told journalists in Yerevan on Monday
that Shushi city (NKR) might become a scientific and educational,
historical and cultural center of all-Armenian significance.
He said that the program on rehabilitation of Shushi was one of
the wide-ranging directions of rehabilitation and development of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“It’s also a serious political step of NKR in strengthening of peace”,
he said.
In this connection Ghukasyan emphasized that one of the most
perspective directions of cooperation of Karabakh and Diaspora is the
intellectual sphere, and particularly search for ways of cooperation
with leading Armenian businessmen of world scientific centers.
“The international experience and the best scientific and educational
traditions of Armenia may become a basis for creation of a system of
training of high-qualified specialists in Karabakh”, Ghukasyan said.
On September 18-23, the third Armenia-Diaspora forum is being
held in Yerevan. Presidents of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Robert
Kocharyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, Catholicos of all-Armenians Garegin
II and Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I, as well as
representatives of the scientific and educational spheres, Diaspora
and national minorities.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SILVER COMMEMORATIVE COIN DEDICATED TO 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE PUT IN CIRCULATION IN SEP 2006
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 18 2006
YEREVAN, September 18. /ARKA/. A silver commemorative coin,
dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, is put in
circulation on September 2006. The press service of the Central Bank
of Armenia reported that this coin is the seventh from the series of
commemorative coins titled “Armenian Statehood”.
The nominal value of the coin is AMD 5000. It is made from pure
silver. It’s weight amounts to five troy ounces, the diameter being
63 mm. The image of the Armenian president’s residence is stamped on
the coin. There are a total of 300 coins.
In 2001, the CBA issued another commemorative coin, dedicated to the
10th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.