BODIES OF 47 VICTIMS IN A-320 PLANE CRASH IDENTIFIED
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 10 2006
MOSCOW, May 10 (Itar-Tass) – The bodies of 47 victims as a result
of the crash of an airplane A-320 near Sochi have been identified,
the information department of the Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass
on Wednesday. “Four victims of this tragedy could not be identified
so far,” the information department said, adding that “during the
search operation rescuers managed to find only 51 bodies.” The crashed
airplane A-320 was carrying 105 passengers and eight crewmembers.
“Large parts of the airplane could not be recovered from the water,”
a source in the operational headquarters of the search operation
deployed in Sochi told Itar-Tass. However, the search operation
does not stop. Last weekend the special equipment was supplied from
France that allows examining the sea bottom and setting the accurate
coordinates of the flight recorders. “This equipment will be installed
on the sea tugboat “Navigator” on Wednesday,” the source said.
As many as 571 people, 27 vessels and one helicopter are involved in
the search operation, he pointed out.
The airbus A-320 belonging to the Armenian airline Armavia has
crashed in the Black Sea during another attempt at landing in the
Sochi airport overnight to May 3. The catastrophe claimed the lives of
113 people. According to the latest reports, 51 bodies were recovered
from the water. A Russian transport emergency airplane Il-76 brought
the bodies of 36 crash victims to Yerevan.

ARMENIAN PUBLISHERS TO PARTICIPATE FOR FIRST TIME IN “BOOK EXPO AMERICA” INTERNATIONAL FAIR-EXHIBITION HELD IN WASHINGTON
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The National Association of Publishers
(NAP) of Armenia will participate for the first time in the “Book
Expo America” international fair-exhibition of books to be held in
Washington on May 18-22. As the Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
by NAP Chairman Vahan Khachatrian, Armenian publishers participate
for the first time in that annual exhibition held in different cities
of the U.S. According to him, about 120 titles of literary-fiction,
popular scientific and children’s publishing products will be presented
at the exhibition. Publications dedicated to the Armenian Genocide
will also been presented. V.Khachatrian mentioned that the NAP will
also participate in international exhibition of book to be held in
September in Moscow as well, and in the annual exhibitions of book to
be organized in Germany (Frankfurt) and Turkey (Istanbul) in October.

ARKADY GHOUKASYAN WISHED THE “KILIKIA” SAILBOAT HAPPY VOYAGE
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 10 2006
May 9 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) President Arkady Ghoukasyan
received a publicist Zory Balayan.
According to the information DE FACTO received at the NKR President’s
Press Service, Zory Balayan informed Arkady Ghoukasyan of the beginning
of a current phase of the voyage of the “Kilikia” sailboat and the
programs to be implemented in the course of the trip.
In his turn the NKR President wished the navigators happy voyage and
expressed hope that the crew of the “Kilikia” sailboat would fulfill
its mission on restoring traditions of the Armenian navigation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RPA IS NOT INCLINED TO DEMAND NA SPEAKER’S RESIGNATION, RPA FACTION HEAD ASSURES
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The processes connected with some MPs’
leaving the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) Party and the parliamentary
faction according to their own applications in the recent days no doubt
will have an impact on the political field, but the parliament will
not choose the way of political tensions. Galust Sahakian, Head of the
RPA faction, the Orinats Yerkir Party’s coalition partner, expressed
such an opinion on May 10, meanwhile excluding possible formation of
a new parliamentary majority. According to him, primordially there
is already no political majority at the National Assembly.
“I think the Republican Party will cope with the parliamentary
functions as it has an experience, knows the ways for it, as well as
has been able to assume rather a serious burden in this way in the
recent 5-6 years,” the faction head mentioned. He also did not exclude
the possibility of some tension during the coming autumn session, which
will be conditioned by purely preelection processes. In response to
Noyan Tapan correspondent’s question, G.Sahakian said that he would not
like the developments in the OYP to result in the party Chairman Artur
Baghdasarian’s resignation from the position of the NA Speaker or to
expressing distrust to him. “I do not think that such a way is right,
in any case, political fenomenon is so that possible developments can
be always prognosticated. If there is an issue of resignation, it will
not be the Republican Party that will demand this, I think the party
will not choose such a way,” the RPA faction head said. According
to him, nevertheless, if the issue of resignation is set, RPA will
“treat it with respect” and will try “not to permit a failure of this
party”. Sahakian called false the romours that the current processes
in the OYP are guided by the power wing and personally by him in this
wing. The MP also did not exclude the possibility that the businessmen
MPs who left the OYP can join the RPA faction mentioning that the MPs
who are not included in the party’s preelection proportional list
cannot join the faction “but in general, as a man, a personality,
with their positions, everybody are included”. Another coalition
partner of OYP, ARF Dashaktsutiun, refused to give any commentaries.

GLITCH HALTS SEARCH FOR CRASHED JET
Sergey Ponomarev / AP
The Moscow Times, Russia
May 10 2006
Combined Reports
A man weeping as he holds roses during a ceremony on a ship at the
Black Sea crash site near Sochi on Friday.
The search for victims’ remains and flight recorders from the airliner
that crashed last week in the Black Sea was interrupted Tuesday as
a diving vehicle broke down, news agencies reported.
A Transportation Ministry official said Kalmar, a deep-sea device
that had been searching for the plane’s fuselage and the recorders,
would be fixed by late Tuesday and resume searching, RIA-Novosti said.
Some bodies are thought to be trapped in the fuselage. Authorities
believe it is about six kilometers off the coast.
The Armavia Airbus A320 went down early Wednesday near Sochi as it
was approaching Adler airport in a heavy storm.
The crash killed all 113 on board. Officials have blamed the crash
on bad weather and, possibly, human error.
The ministry official, who was not identified, did not elaborate on
what was wrong with the unmanned, Russian-made deep-sea device.
Meanwhile, equipment to help distinguish the flight recorders from
the fuselage was expected from France. Also, French specialists were
expected to assist in the search.
Vladimir Derkunov, head of the search effort out of Sochi, added
that the French equipment would help in the removal of the flight
recorders from the fuselage, RIA-Novosti said. The Russian ship
Navigator, which arrived Monday in Sochi from Novorossiisk, planned
to transport the French team and equipment to the disaster site.
As of Sunday, 47 out of 51 bodies retrieved from the water had
been identified, Interfax reported, citing officials at the search
operation’s headquarters in Sochi.
Russia and Armenia observed a day of mourning Friday.
“For us, the most important thing now is raising the bodies, because
we understand that for the victims’ relatives, not raising the bodies
or fragments would be an even bigger tragedy,” Transportation Minister
Igor Levitin said Friday.
The crash of the plane, which had been en route from Yerevan, the
Armenian capital, hit Sochi’s Armenian community particularly hard.
About 125,000 of Sochi’s 400,000 residents are ethnic Armenians.
Twenty-six of the victims were ethnic Armenians living in Sochi.
Another 70 or so victims were thought to be Armenian citizens.

GARY KAH “ENROUTE TO A GLOBAL OCCUPATION” BOOK PUBLISHED IN EASTERN ARMENIAN
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Presentation of Hakob Bodrumian’s
translation of Gary Kah’s “Enroute to a Global Occupation” book in the
Eastern Armenian language took place in Yerevan on May 10. Earlier
the book was published in Beirut in Bodrumian’s Western Armenian
translation. According to Gevorg Yazechian who bound, edited and
published the book, the American author’s book in H.Bodrumian’s
translation is an event in the newest history of the Armenian public
ideology. In the book, G.Kah presents opposing global and satanic
forces striving for unity of the world and establishing anti-Christ
power. According to Yazenchian, reading of the book helps to penetrate
into in the real essence of the new and newest history and world
processes and events of our days (for example, the September 11,
2001 act of terrorism shocked the world, continuous war of Iraq,
obliging people’s numeration in RA with the help of social cards)
and understanding their real motives and goals. It is characteristical
that, according to initiators of the publication, it is first of all
envisaged for employees of national security as well as for political
figures, historians and students.

NATIONS WITH POOR RIGHTS RECORDS WIN SEATS ON NEW HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
May 10 2006
UNITED NATIONS – Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia won seats on the
new UN Human Rights Council despite their poor human rights records
but two rights abusers, Iran and Venezuela, were defeated.
Human rights groups said Tuesday they were generally pleased with
the 47 members elected to the council, which will replace the highly
politicized Human Rights Commission. It was discredited in recent
years because some countries with terrible rights records used their
membership to protect one another from condemnation.
“The spoiler governments, the governments that have a history of trying
to undermine the protection of human rights through their membership
on the old commission are now a significantly reduced minority when
it comes to the council,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of
Human Rights Watch. “That doesn’t guarantee that the council will be
a success but it is a step in the right direction.”
Even before the vote, Roth said, “the council was a vast improvement
over the discredited commission” because many countries that violate
human rights who had been commission members didn’t seek seats on
the council including Sudan, Zimbabwe, Libya, Congo, Syria, Vietnam,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Yvonne Terlingen, UN representative for Amnesty International, said
it was “fairly pleased” that the council members “constitute a good
basis to make a fresh start with creating a strong and effective
human rights body.”
“Some countries have been elected with weak human rights records,
but they also are now committed to uphold the highest human rights
standards,” she said.
The United States opposed the establishment of the council, saying it
did not go far enough to prevent rights abusers from winning seats,
and the US decided against being a candidate.
But US Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg said “on the
whole, we think it is an improvement over the commission.”
“We are committed to engaging actively in the coming weeks with all
of the elected members … to make sure that this body is effective,”
she said. “We think that the real test of this council will be whether
it can take effective action in serious cases of human rights abuse
like Darfur, … Burma, North Korea and other places.”
Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican and critic of the UN,
criticized the vote, saying Cuba’s election showed the new council
suffers from the same weakness as the commission. The new council,
he said, “is the perfect example of the UN’s failure to reform.”
Anne Bayefsky, an adjunct professor at Columbia University Law School
who runs a web site on UN activities, said that at least 20 countries
that were elected “are ranked `partly free’ or `not free’ by Freedom
House,” a Washington-based organization that promotes democracy around
the world.
“That’s an astonishing number of countries that have made it on to
the UN’s primary human rights organ,” she said.
Under the rules for the council, any UN member was eligible to run
and 64 countries submitted their candidacies but Kenya dropped out at
the last minute. Members needed to be elected by an absolute majority
of the 191 UN states – 96 members.
To ensure global representation, Africa and Asia were given 13 seats
each; Latin America and the Caribbean eight seats; Western nations,
seven seats; and Eastern Europe, six seats.
Roth said Human Rights Watch would have preferred that Cuba, China,
Russia, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan had not won seats because of
their poor human rights records.
“The good news is that two of the least deserving governments were
not elected,” he said. “Both Venezuela and Iran failed to make the
cut. That is a step in the right direction.”
Richard Grenell, spokesman for the US Mission to the United Nations,
said Iran’s defeat “just shows their lack of standing in the
international community.”
Russia’s UN Ambassador Sergey Lavrov congratulated his countrymen
and women for being elected in the first round, expressing hope that
Moscow’s presence “will contribute to the balanced composition of this
council and to the balanced … discussion of the human rights agenda.”
Russia was a candidate in the most hotly contested regional group –
Eastern Europe – which fielded 13 candidates for six seats. It was
the only group where a second round of voting was needed.
The other winners were Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania
and Ukraine. The East European losers were Albania, Armenia, Georgia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia.
With Kenya dropping out, Africa fielded 13 candidates for the 13
seats and all won: Algeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gabon, Ghana, Mali,
Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia.
The 13 Asians elected to the council were Bangladesh, Bahrain, China,
India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines,
South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. Those defeated were Iran,
Iraq, Kyrgystan, Lebanon and Thailand.
In Latin American and the Caribbean, the 8 seats went to Argentina,
Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Nicaragua
and Venezuela were defeated.
The 7 countries elected from the Western bloc were Britain, Canada,
Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. Greece and
Portugal lost their bid for seats.

FEDORCHUK, SARGISSIAN, PETROSIAN WIN 8TH DUBAI OPEN
Chessbase News, Germany
May 10 2006
10.05.2006 This year’s Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Cup
boasted 22 grandmasters, 19 IMs and 40 FIDE titled players in a field
of 146. A Ukrainian and two Armenians took the lion’s share of the
$40,000 total cash prizes. A number of young players made IM or WGM
norms. Illustrated report.
The event was staged in the Dubai Chess and Culture Club in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates. It was a nine-round Swiss event held under
Fischer System of 90 minutes for entire match with 30 seconds
additional time for each move. At stake were the Sheikh Rashid Bin
Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Cup and $40,000 in cash prizes, including special
prizes for local, Arab and female players.
The tournament was won by Sergey Fedorchuk, Gabriel Sargissian
and Tigran L Petrosian, who tied for first with 7/9 points. 13
players shared second at half a point less. Two IM norms were made
by talented youngsters: Sethuraman Panayapan, a 12-year-old school
boy from Chennai, India, and So Wesley, the youngest member of the
Filipino squad for the Chess Olympiad.
for photos, go to 7

ARMENIA ENVISAGES TO SIGN INTERSTATE AGREEMENT WITH IRAN AND BULGARIA CONCERNING REMOVAL OF MANPOWER
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Ministry of Labour and Social
Issues does works at present on signing interstate agreements
concerning removal of manpower with corresponding departments of Iran
and Bulgaria. The Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed about it by
Vahan Simonian, the Chief of the Labour and Employment Department of
the Ministry. He mentioned that according to the interstate agreements,
the states are bilaterally obliged to protect the legal rights of
employees. Points concerning salary, working hours and other issues
will be fixed in the agreements. V.Simonian mentioned that there are
such agreements signed with CIS countries. But, according to him,
they do not almost function at present, as RA citizens go to those
countries to work with their wish but not within the framework of
the above-mentioned agreements.

A SHEPHERD DIES FROM SHELL EXPLOSION ON MAY 9 IN ARAGATSOTN REGION
Noyan Tapan
May 10 2006
ASHTARAK, MAY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. 1/3 lower part of the right shin
of 53-year-old Hakob Mikaelian was cut off from shell explosion on
May 7, in the border zone of the village of Khachik, Vayots Dzor,
and Nakhichevan. He was taken to Yeghegnadzor hospital. According to
the latest information, his leg was amputated: now his life is out of
danger. According to the report of RA Territorial Government Ministry’s
Rescuing Service, at about 2:00 pm on May 9, they received a signal,
according to which a shell was exploded in the firing range near the
village of Bazmaberd, Aragatsotn region, in consequence of which
a shepherd died. The rescuers found out that 35-year-old Mkrtich
Grigorian found a non-blown up shell at about 11:00 am. Taking out
the shell’s explosive he tried to burn it, which resulted in the
explosion of the shell. M.Grigorian died on the spot.