ARMENIAN MP WOUNDED IN MOSCOW CASINO SHOOTING

Agence France Presse — English
September 26, 2007 Wednesday 12:07 PM GMT

A member of the Armenian parliament was stabbed and shot in the swanky
Metropol Hotel in central Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday,
a police official said.

"It was in the casino of the hotel. Two unidentified attackers came
up to him and stabbed him several times. He fought back, then one
of them shot him in the arm. Then they ran away," the Moscow police
official told AFP.

Tigran Arzakantsian, who is a member of the ruling Republican Party
in Armenia, was hospitalised with "serious injuries" and has undergone
surgery, a party spokesman said.

The spokesman said that Arzakantsian was shot in the reception of
the hotel and that he was in Moscow on a private visit.

Shoot-outs and contract killings were frequent in Moscow during the
so-called "wild capitalism" years in the 1990s, though they have
since become more rare.

The five-star Metropol Hotel is located only steps from the Kremlin,
and has hosted celebrities and heads of state from singer Michael
Jackson to Chinese President Hu Jintao.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress