ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS
ARKA News Agency
Aug 19 2005
YEREVAN, August 19. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan has
held a meeting with Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II. The
RA presidential press service reports that the sides discussed the
Church-State relations and the Church’s role in public life. P.T. -0–

esctoday.com, Netherlands
Aug 19 2005
Athens 2006: What is already known?
Fri 19 Aug 2005 20:18:11
Source: esctoday.com
Written by: Marcus Klier
Only three months after the contest, many countries have already
launched information about their appearance in the 2006 Eurovision
Song Contest which will take place on 18th and 20th of May 2006 in
Athens, Greece.
National finals in 2006
It’s the turn of the Dutch speaking part of Belgium to organize the
national final. Before the final, there will be a series of
semifinals. The show will be hosted by Bart Peeters in February. As
for their neighbours, the Netherlands, then only a final will be
organised, hosted by Paul de Leeuw.
National finals are still rather popular in Scandinavia. Sweden has
already announced the dates of their selection. The final will be
held on 18 March. It’s also known that some former Eurovision Song
Contest participants want to take part in it again, namely Jessica
and Magnus, who formed the Duo Fame in 2003. But this time as solo
artists.
Denmark has also announced their dates for the final, being 11
February. The songs are allowed to be performed in every language.
Finland will have semifinals and a final, which will take place
exactly a month after the Danish final – on 11 March.
Monaco was said to withdraw again in 2006, but the country shows
interest in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest next year which makes
it likely that they will also participate in the adult version again.
As for Ireland then the casting show You’re a star will no longer
choose the singer to participate in the contest like it used to the
previous years.
The most active country has been Bulgaria because they are already
looking for songs to participate in their national final. And also,
it’s known that the winner of the latest edition of the Albanian Pop
Idol show, Erti Hizmo has won a ticket for the Albanian national
final in 2006, like Anjeza Shahini did in 2004.
Internal selections getting more popular
Probably due to the good results last years by artists chosen
internally there has been an increase in that area. So far 3
countries have announced that they will choose their representatives
this way. Starting with Turkey having three candidates for Athens:
Nil, Izel and Sefarad. The Greek broadcaster ERT wanted to ask
Despina Vandi according to MAD. The result of the proposal is not
known. The selection will be similar to last year when the singer was
chosen by ERT and the audience had the choice between several songs.
Switzerland will use the a similar format too because of their last
year’s success with the Estonian band Vanilla Ninja.
Things are not clear with Germany as after a preselection with only a
few well-known artists in 2005, Germany hopes for support by the
music industry like in 2004. Many famous artists have already told
that they won’t take part. It is not even known if there will be a
national final. Jürgen Meier-Beer, head of delegation has quit his
job, his succeeder is Jan Schulte Kellinghaus.
But not all countries which have taken part in the song contest to be
held in Athens next year. Austria withdrew from the 2006 Eurovision
Song Contest after a bad result in 2004 and 2005. Still, presumably
40 countries, together with the possible newcomers Armenia and
Georgia, will be allowed to take part in the 51st Eurovision Song
Contest.
–Boundary_(ID_DyQksvW5pzfTNsSUwDivlw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Jan Hanekroot Trophy
By Marc Stroo
Korfball World, Netherlands
Aug 19 2005
In its recent meeting the council of the International Korfball
Federation (IKF) decided to name the trophy for the new event European
Bowl after the recently deceased korfball promotor Jan Hanekroot.
The European Bowl is a new IKF event being used as a qualification
event for the European senior champions 2006 to be held in Hungary
and the World championships 2007 to be held in the Czech capital
Prague. The inaugural edition will take place in Terrassa (Spain)
from 27 to 30 October 2005. Participating countries will be Armenia,
Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Catalunya representing Spain.
Naming the trophy of this new event after Hanekroot is a recognition
for his contribution to the international growth of korfball. Being
one of the IKF’s longest serving development officers, his untimely
death in February 2005 was a shock to many korfball people world
wide. The IKF decided to associate the event primarily to young
korfball countries with Hanekroot’s name since he was also involved
in the development in new korfball countries. Still he will be mostly
connected to the UK. Hanekroot was aspecially loved because of his
quiet attitude and great drive to help korfballers from all ranks
and countries.

REFERENDUM ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS MAY TAKE PLACE WITHOUT
PARTICIPATION OF OPPOSITION, VLADIMIR PRYAKHIN THINKS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 19. ARMINFO. “We think that the draft constitutional
reforms is of constructive nature, promote the democratization, and may
be improved with the participation of nongovernmental organizations”,
OSCE Ambassador to Armenia Vladimir Pryakhin told journalists, Friday.
“We hope for that all the constructive proposals of both the opposition
and civil society will be take into consideration in the second
reading”, the ambassador said. Answering the question, which will be
the position of the OSCE if the opposition refuses to cooperate in the
constitutional reforms, Pryakhin said: “We shall hope for a positive
outcome: the failure of the constitutional reforms will be the great
success of counter-productive forces”. He assured it is impossible to
make progress in ensuring freedom of mass media, indepedence of the
ombudsman, in the fight against corruption, in increasing the power
of the parliament without reformation of the Constitution.

AZERBAIJAN NEEDS MILITARY POTENTIAL TWICE EXCEEDING THAT OF ARMENIA
TO WIN THE WAR, ILHAM ALIYEV THINKS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 19. ARMINFO. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev thinks
there is no considerable progress in Karabakh conflict. According to
REGNUM, he made this statement at a ceremony of opening of the 12th
dwelling house built for invalids of Karabakh war in the town of Oghuz.
He said Azerbaijan aspires for peace settlement of the conflict. “But
we must be ready to liberate our lands by force should need arise. It
require Azerbaijan to be at least twice powerful than Armenia in the
military aspect, and the work in this direction is underway.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR PRESIDENT SENDS CONGRATULATORY LETTER TO CAPTAIN OF VESSEL
“CILICIA”
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 19. ARMINFO. President of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Arkady Ghoukassian sent a congratulatory letter to the crew of the
vessel “Cilicia” and its captain Karen Balayan.
ARMINFO was informed in the press office of NKR president, in the
letter Ghoukassian in particular says: “I am very glad for the
completion of the voyage of the legendary vessel of Cilicia round
Europe. It is symbolic that your mission was over on the threshold of
the 14th anniversary of declaration of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,
whose flag along with the state flag of Armenia was flying proudly
over the Cilicia during its historical cruise”.

US AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN HOPES FOR SUCCESS OF FORTHCOMING MEETING
OF ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS IN KAZAN
YEREVAN, AUGUST 19. ARMINFO. U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rino
Harnish Hopes for success of the forthcoming meeting of Armenian and
Azerbaijani leaders in Kazan. According to Day.az, the Ambassadoe
made this statement at his meetings with representatives of Gubin
and Khachmaz regions.
Pointing out the painfulness of the Karabakh problem, the Ambassador
expressed desire that the refugees from Fizouli and Aghdam regions
return to their lands. He expressed hope that some progress will be
reached in Kazan.

CIS countries owe $3.28 bln to Russia as of Jan 1, down on yr
Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
August 18, 2005
MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Prime-Tass) — The governments of the CIS countries
owed U.S. USD 3.284 billion dollars to the Russian government as
of January 1, down from USD 3.330 billion as of January 1, 2004,
Russia’s Finance Ministry said Thursday.
The total includes both principals and outstanding interest.
As of January 1, Russia’s largest debtor was Ukraine with USD 1.583
billion owed, followed by Uzbekistan with USD 655.343 million, which
includes USD 153.73 million of unpaid interest on loans.
As of January 1, Tajikistan owed Russia USD 305.73 million, Kyrgyzstan
owed USD 181.81 million, while Georgia owed USD 158.04 million. Belarus
owed USD 258.39 million, Moldova’s debt stood at USD 140.74 million,
and Armenia’s debt stood at USD 1.88 million as of January 1. End

AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTER HOPES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO
RECOGNIZE ARMENIA AGGRESSOR
YEREVAN, AUGUST 19. ARMINFO. Those in Baku believe that the
international community will recognize Armenia an aggressor-state
soon. Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel General Safar Abiyev said
at a briefing as a result of his visit to Latvia, Trend reports.
In his words, Azerbaijan “will restore its territorial integrity and
will not yield Armenia its native territories.” “All the occupied
lands, including Karabakh, must be returned to Azerbaijan. After,
we may agree to grant autonomy to Nagorny Karabakh and guarantee the
security of its population and development of economy,” the minister
said. He expressed concern over “dual standards in settlement of
the conflict,” “we aspire for peace settlement of the Armenian-
Azerbaijani conflict,” Abiyev said.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung
19. August 2005
Ankara benennt Strasse nach Genozid-Leugner.
Schweiz. Depeschenagentur
Ankara benennt Strasse nach Genozid-Leugner. Der Stadtrat der
turkischen Hauptstadt Ankara hat beschlossen, eine Strasse im
Regierungsviertel nach dem Historiker Yusuf Halacoglu zu benennen,
wie die Waadtlander Zeitung “24 heures” meldete.
Gegen Halacoglu ermittelt die Schweizer Justiz wegen der Leugnung des
Genozids an den Armeniern. Im Regierungsviertel Cankaya sind zahlreiche
diplomatische Vertretungen angesiedelt – allerdings nicht die Schweizer
Botschaft, die im Stadtviertel Kavaklidere untergebracht ist. (sda)
–Boundary_(ID_qL+6bhpPChPNZXDeP/pY7g)–