=60981&cat=India
Kids refuse to part with baby elephant gifted by government to Armenia:-
Bangalore | January 16, 2005 7:40:11 PM IST
Dozens of children, some as young as five, lined the streets of
Bangalore protesting the Centre’s decision to send a baby elephant to
Armenia as a goodwill gift.
The children, many wearing elephant masks and struggling with banners
twice their size, shouted slogans and pleaded to the authorities to
let “Veda”, the six-year-old female elephant, to stay.
The baby pachyderm is currently spending its last few days at the
Bannerghatta National Park on the outskirts of the city.
People for Animals, a voluntary organisation spearheading the
campaign, says the cold and dry climate of the tiny European nation is
unsuitable for Asian elephants and “Veda”, who is used to the warmth
of the coast , faces a serious survival threat even in the special
climate controlled enclosures provided by the zoo.
Urging the government to reconsider its decision, Siddhant, also six
years old, said Veda was his friend and like him could not stay away
from home. “This elephant should not be sent to such a cold climate
which is zero degree. If my parents send me away to a cold climate I
cannot live,” he said.
Activists say that elephants are extremely sensitive and emotional and
little Veda will face both loneliness and confusion when shifted from
the sanctuary. Sharat Babu, an activist, said even the government was
not aware about how well the Armenia zoo was equipped to handle
Veda. “We are actually protesting against the illegal transfer of
Veda, the baby elephant which has for six years been in Bannerghatta
to Armenia, where temperatures are totally unsuitable and the housing
is incorrect in the Armenia zoo,” he said.
Armenian officials had asked the Indian government for a female
pachyderm in 1999. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee promised
them an elephant during a visit to Armenia last year. (ANI)

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 18 2005
VNESHTORGBANK BUYS CONTROLLING BLOC OF UBG SHARES
TBILISI/MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) – The act of Russia’s
Vneshtorgbank (VTB) buying the controlling bloc (51%) of shares from
the United Bank of Georgia (UBG) was ceremoniously signed today by
VTB President Andrey Kostin in the UBG head office. Under an
agreement, the UBG is to retain its name and the location of the head
office.
While on a two-day visit to Tbilisi, Andrey Kostin met with Georgia’s
President Mikhail Saakashvili, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvaniya and
Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia Ilya the Second.
“The Georgian president and VTB boss shared the view that there are
wide prospects for expanding Russian-Georgian partnership, in the
field of Russian investment in the Georgian economy as well,” reports
the VTB press-service..
The republic’s leading United Bank of Georgia ranks third in
reference to the value of its assets making $87.8 million and
accounts for a ramified regional network with about 40 branch
offices. The bank’s shareholders are the EBRD owning 17.8 percent of
the authorized capital, Germany’s Martin Bauer GmbH with 18.1 percent
and the residents with 64.1 percent.
“The purchase of the UBG boasting a developed clientage, in the small
and medium business as well, is to serve for the VTB’s further
expansion into the market of Georgia’s banking services,” says the
VTB press-service.
Andrey Kostin believes that the recent purchase will enable the
Vneshtorgbank to consolidate its positions as a vehicle of foreign
trade relations within the CIS environment, in particular, to promote
Russian-Georgian trade turnover.
In 2005, the Vneshtorgank Group will be represented in the
post-Soviet space by a subsidiary in Armenia, an office to open in
Ukraine and a mission in Belorussia. Further VTB plans include wider
activities on the banking markets of Belorussia, Kazakhstan and other
CIS nations.

ISN, Switzerland
International Relations and Security Network
Jan 18 2005
Armenians in Iraq fear troop deployment
ISN SECURITY WATCH (18/01/05) – Armenian peacekeepers departed for
Iraq today to participate in the US-led occupation force’s
multinational operations. The small regiment of 46 Armenian
peacekeepers is scheduled to stay in Iraq for six months to engage in
non-combat activities under the general command of the Polish
contingent in Iraq, officials said. The unit includes 30 drivers, 10
sappers, three doctors, and unit commanders. The controversial
decision to send troops to Iraq was made on 24 December during a
closed parliamentary meeting. Twenty-three members of the Armenian
National Assembly voted against sending troops to Iraq, while 91
supported the initiative. Only two factions, the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation- Dashnakcutyun, a member of the ruling
coalition, and the main opposition group Justice, voted against the
resolution. Opponents of the initiative raised fears that sending
troops to Iraq would endanger the lives of the 20’000-strong Armenian
community in Iraq. Recent polls show that the majority of Armenian
citizens do not support the initiative and disagree with the
government’s decision to remain committed to the peacekeeping
operation. Armenia has been struggling to regain lost ground with the
US, which has, over the course of the past couple of years, shifted
the balance of its support to countries in the Caucasus, threatening
Armenia by aid to its archrival, neighboring Azerbaijan. Last
September, according Caucaz.com, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh
Sarksian said the decision to send troops to Iraq was intended to
halt Armenia’s regional isolation. Once Armenia pledged to send
troops to Iraq, Washington responded in kind by passing a budget
restoring military parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according
to Caucaz.com. But given the increased violence in Iraq, the
Christian Armenian community there is worried that they will
increasingly become targets of new violence. Father Garegin, an
Armenian religious leader in Mosul, told the Yerkir.am news agency
that sending Armenian troops to Iraq could have grave consequences
for his community. He says tensions have already risen exponentially.
`There are 20’000 Armenians in Iraq. The situation is very tense now.
People do not leave their houses because they are scared. They can’t
event go to church – they can’t go to the Armenian church in the
center of Baghdad. Our children can’t go to schools,’ he was quoted
as saying. Fear rose in early August, when five churches were bombed
in Baghdad and Mosul, killing 12 people. In mid-October, another five
churches in Baghdad were reportedly attacked. Then, in November,
eight people were killed in another church bombing, according to
various news agencies. The abduction yesterday and release today of a
Roman Catholic archbishop in Mosul has also added to the fears of
Iraq’s estimated 650’000 Christians. (By Aram Ananian in Yerevan)

ArmenPress
Jan 18 2005
ARMENIAN LAWMAKER ANGRY AT US DIPLOMAT’S REMARKS
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS: A member of the Armenian
parliament lashed today out at a senior outgoing US diplomat saying
her latest remarks jeopardize what has been done so far by the OSCE
Minsk group in an effort to help Azerbaijan and Armenia to come to a
mutually acceptable peace formula over Nagorno Karabagh.
Hamlet Harutunian, who is also chairman of Artsakh (Karabagh)
union, meant the remarks by Elizabeth Jones, a US State Department
Undersecretary that the US president George W. Bush is concerned that
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s does not exert strong enough
pressure for resolution of post-Soviet conflicts in Transdniester,
South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno Karabagh.
Speaking to a news conference the Armenian lawmaker went on to
argue that the remarks could harm the ongoing meetings of Armenian
and Azeri officials, especially with reported progress in the talks.
He said his union would ask the US State Department for explanations.
“It is in the interest of Russia that these four regions be
stable, clean of corruption and their corrupt separatist authorities
removed,” Elizabeth Jones was quoted as saying.

ArmenPress
Jan 18 2005
SECOND JAIL-BREAKER ARRESTED
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS : Armenian law-enforcement bodies
announced Monday they arrested on January 15 the second jail-breaker
who escaped from a tight security prison in Goris last December 10.
Soghomon Kocharian, born in 1966, was tracked down and apprehended in
Yerevan. He had been found guilty of murdering an Iranian businessman
and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The first runaway, born in 1975, also sentenced to life
imprisonment for murder had been arrested earlier.

ArmenPress
Jan 18 2005
AZERI NEWSPAPER ACCUSES TOP OFFICIALS OF TRADING WITH ARMENIA

BAKU, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS: An Azeri newspaper Azatlig claimed
in a recent issue that high-ranking officials have taken under their
protection companies which trade with Azerbaijan’s arch-enemy
Armenia. The newspaper alleged that the chief of AzPetrol which it
says was shipping fuel to Armenia across Georgia is the brother of
economic development minister.
It also claimed that the customs service protects those companies
which sell to Armenia tea, vegetable oil and fish products. It also
said the chief of president Aliyev’s staff protects the company that
sells wheat and grains to Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deutsche Welle, Germany
Jan 18 2005
Winter Break Champion Tipper – The Secret of his Success

Do you try to predict the winners of Bundesliga matches, but bet on
the losers? Meet Artem from Armenia, the tipper currently topping
DW-WORLD’s Kick-Off Tip betting game halfway through the German
soccer season.
Artem is a 46 year-old physicist from Yerevan in Armenia. A soccer
fan who now works and lives in the town of Deajeon in South Korea,
Artem has been an avid and passionate fan of the game since childhood
and has followed the top European leagues for as long as he can
remember.
Because South Korean television does not always carry the reports or
show the games from the Bundesliga and other European competitions,
Artem gets most of his information from the Internet. It seems to be
paying off for Artem who, with a winter break score of 129 points, is
sitting pretty on the top of the tipper’s league table ahead of many
players who have the luxury of watching the Bundesliga live. DW-WORLD
asks the current pace setter what his secret for success is.
DW-WORLD: What is the secret of your success?
Artem: I can simply guess the results better. I can’t give away my
secrets or there will be many other people instead of me out in
front.
DW: How is it that a soccer fan from Armenia can be the best tipper
in a game about the Bundesliga featuring more than 3,000 players?
Artem: I have been interested in soccer since my childhood. I have
followed many of the soccer leagues in Europe and I know the German
national team quite well. However, I’ve been living in South Korea
now for over a year and it’s a lot more difficult to find out about
the games here than in Armenia.
DW: Do you have any special ways to prepare before the games?
Artem: No, I have no special preparations.
DW: Are there any teams with which you have more success than others?

Artem: In the first half of the season, I have guessed many of the
right results featuring Hamburg and Hanover but I have also had a few
successes with teams such as Bayern Munich and Stuttgart.
DW: Do you have any advice for those players who have picked up very
few points in the betting game?
Artem: I have no advice which can help these people.
DW: Do you tip as part of a team or do you play alone?
Artem: I play alone but I have also had many offers to join a team.
DW: What is your main motivation? To win the prize or is it simply
sporting ambition, to be better than the others?
Artem: Sporting ambition and the desire to be first.
DW: Does it irritate you to receive mails from your fellow
competitors?
Artem: I do not communicate often in these mails. Mostly I get
questions about my strategies which I do not talk about, as I
mentioned before. Maybe I will reveal some secrets at the end of the
season if I win.
DW: What would make the Kick-Off Tip game even better, in your
opinion? Is there anything which the game lacks?
Artem: I think everything runs very well in the game. Maybe I think
that because I am out in front.
Martin Schülke/ Sergey Gushcha
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Jan 18 2005
Leo Krikorian — artist, photographer
Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
Leo Krikorian, an artist and photographer who also ran two well-
known Bay Area cafés during the Beat era — one in North Beach, the
other in Sausalito — died on Jan. 3 in the Siskiyou County town of
Yreka. He was 82.
For the last 10 years or so, Mr. Krikorian had been living in Mill
Valley, but in the spring of 2004, he moved to Siskiyou County to be
with his niece, Genie Stressing. He spent his last few days in a
hospice.
Mr. Krikorian was born in Fresno of immigrant Armenian parents.
Stressing said his parents had tickets for the maiden voyage of the
Titanic in April 1912, but missed the sailing because their train was
late.
Arriving in America, the family traveled to Fresno, but soon moved to
the town of Fowler, about 10 miles to the south, where Mr. Krikorian
was raised. During World War II, Mr. Krikorian was drafted into the
Army and trained as a photographer. When the war ended, he pursued
his study of photography at the Art Center School in Los Angeles,
where he was taught by the master, Ansel Adams.
While there, he heard about an intriguing experimental school back
east, Black Mountain College, near Asheville, N.C. Black Mountain,
according to the Web site , “sought to educate the
whole student — head, heart and hand — through studies, the
experience of living in a small community and manual work.” It closed
in 1957.
Mr. Krikorian spent a year there, from 1947 to 1948, studying art and
photography, then lived briefly in New York City before moving to San
Francisco, where he enrolled at what is now the San Francisco Art
Institute. He continued studying with some of the best photographers
around, returning to Adams and also taking classes from Minor White
and Clifford Stills.
In 1953, he and another Black Mountain student, Knute Stiles, created
The Place, a bar on Grant Avenue in North Beach, according to the Web
site. “During the ’50s, The Place was the center of Beat life in San
Francisco,” the Web site says, “and Leo became known as the
‘Grandfather of the Beats.’ It was there that artists and writers
gathered to drink and talk …” Every “Monday night was Blabbermouth
Night, when there was a contest for the most outrageous speech.”
It was fun while it lasted, but in 1960, the landlord sold the bar
and The Place closed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Krikorian had opened a deli called The Kettle in
Sausalito. The Kettle was more durable, lasting until 1977, when he
sold it and moved to Paris. From then on, according to the Black
Mountain Web site, Mr. Krikorian divided his time between Marin
County and his studio and gallery in Paris.
Services for Mr. Krikorian were held Saturday in Yreka. In addition
to his niece, Mr. Krikorian is survived by a brother, Vaughn
Krikorian of San Diego; and two sisters, Helen Bonner and Virginia
Krikorian, both of San Jose.

Boston Globe, MA
January 18, 2005
Norma Karaian, 100; was Boston real estate attorney
By Glenn E. Yoder, Globe Correspondent |
Norma M. Karaian, considered the first American-born Armenian female
attorney in the United States, died Sunday at her home in Watertown.
She was 100.
Starting her career as a title examiner after graduating from Boston
University Law School in 1925, Mrs. Karaian ignored gender bias while
becoming widely recognized in her field. She spent the bulk of her
career at the Boston-based firm Gaston & Snow and was highly regarded
for her legal work in real estate.
“She was very accomplished and so well-known in the legal arena when
it concerned real estate law,” said her son John, adding that Mrs.
Karaian handled the title for the Prudential Center’s construction.
“I remember her saying that she could call a title company and upon
her name alone being mentioned they would issue a title policy.
That’s how well-respected she was.”
Born Yaghnor Maksoodian in Providence in 1904, she changed her first
name to Norma after the actress Norma Talmadge to “sound American,”
friend and fellow attorney Cerise Jalelian said. She began her
working career at the age of 8, operating the cash register at her
father’s store.
She graduated from Boston University Law School at the age of 20, but
had to wait a year to take the bar exam since she had not yet turned
21. In the interim, she found a job at a law office that paid $15 per
week.
Although she wished to become a litigator, women were banned from the
practice at the time, Jalelian said.
“She didn’t look at being female as an obstacle; she just thought
everyone should be treated the same,” she said. “She was really born
before her time.”
Mrs. Karaian found her calling when she became a real estate attorney
in 1926. She remained at the post until 1941, when she retired and
had three children.
However, in 1951, hard times struck. Her husband, Leo J. Karaian, an
organic chemist, died. Mrs. Karaian began performing contract work
for the firm of Hoag & Sullivan. Even without a high income, she put
her children first, her son said.
“She always made sure if she could buy us one pair of shoes, it would
always be the best,” he said. “She wanted to give her children the
very best because that’s how much she thought of us.”
The family lived in an apartment in Watertown until 1969, when Mrs.
Karaian purchased her first and only house, where she lived with her
son.
She continued contracting before joining the firm Rackemann, Sawyer &
Brewster for one year. In 1972, she moved to Gaston & Snow, where she
remained until the firm folded in 1991.
For the remainder of her life, Mrs. Karaian took on legal projects
and was honored with numerous awards. She was a member of numerous
organizations and in 1954, she served a year as president of the
Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers.
Her son said that at Boston’s finest restaurants waiters would vie
for the right to serve her.
“People were attracted to my mother like a magnet,” he said. “I’ve
never thought of my mother about being anything but my mother, but
there was this aura about her that would be totally engaging to
people.”
For her centennial in September, a celebration was held at Anthony’s
Pier 4 in Boston. Mrs. Karaian personally greeted each of the more
than 100 guests.
“We ended the evening with my dancing with mom to Nat King Cole’s
‘Unforgettable,’ which I think she is,” her son said.
Besides her son, she leaves two daughters, Lenore of Waltham and
Marilyn Hollisian of Watertown.
A funeral service will be held at noon tomorrow at St. James Armenian
Church in Watertown.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 18, 2005 Tuesday 12:28 PM Eastern Time
Armed forces, journalists forming new info model – minister
MOSCOW
The Russian armed forces and journalists are forming a new
information model based on maximum openness and constructive
partnership, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a Tuesday
reception for Russian media’s military writers. The reception was
held on the occasion of the Russian Press Day.
“More than 11,000 journalists were accredited for covering the army
life last year,” the minister said. About 900 representatives of the
federal media visited army units stationed in conflict zones and
areas of peacekeeping operations, including 600 in Chechnya, Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, over 160 in Tajikistan, over 100 in Armenia and 16
in Sierra Leone.
The Press Club, working trips to military unit locations, foreign
visits, briefings and press conferences provide for direct dialog
between defense ministry officials and the press, he said. More than
15,000 articles on military development and armed forces routine were
published in the federal press last year.