Author: Hunanian Jack

Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
July 9, 2009 Thursday

HUNGARY, ARMENIA FMS MEET IN BUDAPEST

Budapest, July 9 (MTI) – The Hungarian foreign minister discussed
bilateral relations, international affairs and opportunities under the
EU’s eastern partnership programme with his Armenian counterpart at
their meeting in Budapest on Thursday.

Regarding bilateral relations Peter Balazs and Edward Nalbandian
explored cooperation possibilities in health care, culture and
education, in which areas a number of agreements are planned to be
signed in November.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting Balazs said that the president
of Armenia is expected to visit Hungary also in November.

AZERI MPS ACCOMPANY ENVOY ON TRIP TO BREAKAWAY REGION

ANS TV
July 3 2009
Azerbaijan

Two Azerbaijani MPs are accompanying ambassador Polad Bulbuloglu
on his trip to the breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh today,
the independent news agency Turan has reported.

Turan quoted an unnamed informed source as saying that MPs Asim
Mollazada and Tahir Rzayev as well as the rector of the National Music
Academy, Siyavus Karimi, are visiting Karabakh along with Bulbuloglu.

In a separate report, Turan quoted the Azerbaijani ambassador to
Russia as saying that the visit was not aimed at "substituting"
the political process of the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement.

"We do not interfere in talks between the two countries’ presidents
and foreign ministers. We only give people a chance to communicate
with each other in a humanitarian context… The two nations have
to live together. Contacts need to be created in this format in the
future as well," Bulbuloglu told Turan.

THE DELEAGATION HEADED BY THE RA HEALTH CARE MINISTER TAKES PART IN THE WORLD ARMENIAN MEDICAL CONGRESS IN NEW YORK

ARMENPRESS
JULY 9, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JULY 9, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian delegation headed by
the Health Care Minister Harutyun Kushkyan took part in the World
Armenian Medical Congress, July 1-4 in New York. The delegation also
included the Armenian Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan, Head of
the NA Permanent Commission on the issues of Health Care, Maternity
and Childhood Ara Babloyan, NK Health Care Minister Armen Khachatryan.

RA Health Care Minister Harutyun Kushkyan told Armenpress that an
agreement has been reached at the congress that the next suchlike
meeting is to take place in Yerevan in 2011 chaired by head of RA
National Health Care Institute Derenik Dumanyan.

At the opening ceremony of the congress on July 2 the Health
Care Ministers of Armenia and the United Kingdom delivered
speeches. H. Kushkyan presented a report on "Providing of health care
services in Armenia".

UK Health Minister Ara Darzi, who is of Armenian by nationality
and a specialist of endoscope surgery and who heads the UK health
care sphere for over 2 years, presented health care reforms in his
country. The Ministers got acquainted with the health care systems
of the two countries, the existing issues.

To establish closer cooperation H. Kushkyan invited A. Darzi to
Armenia. "The invitation was received with pleasure, and A. Darzi
expressed readiness to visit Armenia in the nearest future", – the
Minister said.

In his opinion, the visit of his Armenian counterpart will enable
to get acquainted with the reform experience of that country and to
implement new reforms in Armenia.

In New York the Minister met with Armenian doctors arrived from
different countries of the world and discussed the latest achievements
of medical science with their participation.

H. Kushkian said that the report of the UK Minister on the robotized
surgery arouse a special interest and great attention.

Within the frames of the congress H. Kushkyan also met the head of
Health Care Sub-Commission of the USA Congress Frank Pallon, discussed
issues on implementing reforms in the sphere of health care of the
two countries.

RA Health Care Minister also met the head of the "Armenian Children’s
Fund" Karo Armen, with whom he discussed the process of the repair
works of the health center of Myasnikyan’s region of Armavir province
under the sponsorship of Armenian philanthropist Bakunyan.

K. Armen invited the Minster to the opening ceremony of the center
to scheduled for already October, this year.

The Minister attached importance also to the meeting with the
co-chairman of the Organizational Committee of USA Congress, leading
vascular surgeon Vigen Pamukyan noting that he expressed readiness
to visit Armenia and get acquainted with the current issues of the
sphere of vascular surgery atn place aiming at implementing development
projects in the future.

Within the frames of the visit at the reception organized for the
Armenian delegation by the "Fund for Armenian Relief" and the Armenian
church, Certificates of Honor were handed to RA Health Care Minister
Harutyun Kushkyan, head of the NA Permanent Commission on the issues
of Health Care, Maternity and Childhood Ara Babloyan, Director of
Yerevan’s "Saint Grigor Lusavorich" medical center Ara Minasyan.

RAMBO VS. KING KONG: VIC DARCHINYAN – JOSEPH AGBEKO PREVIEW AND PREDICTION
Tim Starks

The Queensberry Rules
July 8, 2009 at 11:40 PM

Many of you hate Vic Darchinyan because he’s a total prick. But I
can’t get enough of the bastard. He cracks me up, plus his words
and deeds reveal the spirit of a true fighter. He managed to work in
shades of both in this anecdote from an Eric Raskin column where he
interviewed the angry Armenian-Australian:

As I was trying to hang up the phone at the end of our interview,
he was yelling into the phone, "I’m going to knock out everyone!"

Check out the picture above, too. If you know Vic, can’t you imagine
the conversation with the photographer? "Take a picture of me shooting
out of the water! It will show my power! Like Rambo!" (The photo credit
[Tom Casino/Showtime] even says it’s "’Rambo’ style.") Anyway,
the lovable (or, at worst, love-to-hateable) Darchinyan returns
this weekend, and once again, by virtue of his fighting style, all
he needs is another slugger to put himself into a potential Fight
of the Year. Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko, though less experienced than
Darchinyan, fits the bill, slugging wildly like he does. Darchinyan not
only is funny, not only is a mean knockout artist, but he’s risen to
the elite of the sport by cracking everyone’s top-10 pound-for-pound
list with a series of wins against top-flight guys. But that doesn’t
necessarily mean Agbeko’s out of his league. Darchinyan is debuting
at bantamweight, a division Agbeko has long called home, and Agbeko’s
made out of that specifically tough brand of Ghanaian head and flesh
that isn’t easily brought to heel. It should be a good one Saturday
on Showtime. Fight of the summer, probably, at minimum, although with
some of the recent fight cancellations and postponements that’s not
as ringing an endorsement as it sounds.

Most everyone’s pretty familiar with Darchinyan by now,
right? Loudmouth, arrogant, looks like a crab when he fights by
jutting his arms out at weird angles and scuttling about, strong as
hell and as a result punches harder than just about any little man
in the sport. He was a flyweight and definitely carried his power
to junior bantamweight, and he’s reportedly sparred with men as big
as middleweight. When he was just an awkward power guy who lunged
forward with abandon, he got outclassed by the first quick, tough
counterpuncher he met, Nonito Donaire, and therefore got his ass
on the receiving end of the 2007 Knockout of the Year. Since, he’s
rebuilt his defense, straightened up his punches, timed his lunges
more intelligently and learned to control distance pretty well. Now
he’s not just fun, he’s bona fide.

In his last fight, he dominated and stopped the tough, hard-hitting
but largely technique-bereft and past-his-prime Jorge Arce. Arce
wasn’t fast enough for Darchinyan by a long shot, whose straight
left is super-speedy, nor has he ever met a punch he didn’t block
with his face. That noggin’s like a magnet for fists. Yet, because
Arce is tough, and because Darchinyan got impatient here and there,
and because Arce can punch and Darchinyan’s chin is very good if
not spectacular, Arce wobbled him a couple times in the fight. If
there’s a big question I have about Darchinyan moving up to bantam
it’s not whether he has enough power. It’s whether he can handle a
big puncher at bantam. Donaire knocked him out, Z Gorres decked him
and Arce hurt him.

As such, Agbeko is a dangerous opponent against whom to debut
at 118. He has 22 knockouts in 26 wins. He’s also not anywhere
near as slow as Arce, having above average speed for a man in his
division. We’re talking about a pretty good offensive machine,
physically. His defense? Comes and goes. He has the capacity, as he
showed against Luis Perez in his "I’m a boxer to be taken seriously"
performance and at moments in his last fight against William Gonzalez,
to block and dodge shots. Since he focuses on volume, though, he
doesn’t spend much time blocking, as throwing is his bag. Now, I
think there are grounds for questioning whether Agbeko is as powerful
as he seems, and whether he’s better or worse on defense than he
seems. Agbeko didn’t knock out Perez, his first top-notch opponent,
so much as he wore him down. And Agbeko couldn’t knock out Gonzalez,
even though he’d once been KO’d in three rounds by Jhonny Gonzalez. One
suspects Perez was also at the end of the line physically after lots of
wars, so maybe Agbeko’s defensive acumen was inflated there. And maybe,
because Agbeko was coming off a 15-month layoff against Gonzalez,
he was rusty and better overall than he looked that night. I guess
what I’m saying is, there are a lot of mitigators on Agbeko’s career.

One thing I expect Agbeko is for sure, as he’s shown it repeatedly:
a sucker for throwing wide punches. Perez, a similar sucker, had a
really hard time hitting Agbeko, who was faster and a tad sharper with
his own wide punches. Gonzalez had his best moments when he countered
Agbeko with straight lefts as Agbeko threw wide. A straight left
is, of course, Darchinyan’s money punch. And Darchinyan has gotten
awfully good at countering. He countered Arce all night long, and even
countered the much more technically proficient Cristian Mijares plenty.

Agbeko, I expect, will test Darchinyan’s chin at times. He’s too
determined, and Darchinyan is still prone to lapses. Agbeko’s also
going to get tagged by plenty of straight lefts as he tries to do
so. But he’s demonstrated that famous Ghanaian punch resistance,
even if Gonzalez hurt him a couple times. It’s not that I don’t think
Darchinyan can’t knock out Agbeko, it’s just that it seems unlikely
under the circumstances, moving up in weight against a guy with an
iron beard. I think Agbeko can KO Darchinyan, too, but I don’t think
he’s going to land enough monster shots to do so; as I mentioned,
he wears down more than he flat out drills opponents. As such, I see
this turning into a grueling war, where both men are hurt or decked at
times, with each having their moments — Darchinyan probably early and
late, Gonzalez in the middle rounds when Darchinyan sometimes fades
and after he has some luck solving the Darchinyan awkwardness riddle,
before Darchinyan readjusts. I’m going to go with Darchinyan for a
reason I couldn’t have imagined just a couple years ago: He’s the more
technically sound, in my view, with the better defense. But ultimately,
it’ll be worth watching mostly to see all the bombs drop. Like, say,
in a Rambo or King Kong movie .

AZNAVOUR TO LEAVE STAGE IN CARTHAGE

NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY
JULY 9, 2009
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JULY 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. World-famous chansonier
Charles Aznavour’s farewell concert will take place on July 21
in Tunis. It will take place within the framework of the Carthage
International Festival.

As Azg reported, Aznavour stated this in the interview to Tunis Assabah
periodical and said: "It is a great happiness for me to leave the stage
in Carthage, which is a symbol of civilization, history and eternity."

WB APPROVES THE FIRST DEVELOPMENT POLICY OPERATION FOR ARMENIA IN THE AMOUNT OF US$60 MILLION
Lilit Muradyan

"Radiolur"
07.07.2009 19:19

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the
First Development Policy Operation for Armenia in the amount of
US$60 million.

In the context of the global economic crisis, the proposed series of
three annual Operations supports Armenia’s two strategic objectives
of addressing vulnerability to the current shocks by protecting the
poor and supporting greater human capital development; and improving
competitiveness by removing constraints to better governance and a
more favorable investment climate–a key requirement for post-crisis
recovery and growth over the medium term.

"This Operation supports the implementation of the Government’s
program to help mitigate the social impact of the externally-driven
crisis and attract private investment for strong post-crisis growth,"
said Mr. Asad Alam, World Bank Regional Director for the South
Caucasus. "It provides for maintaining essential social services,
particularly for the poor and the vulnerable, who are hurting from
the loss in jobs and incomes." "

Expressing gratitude to the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors,
Armenian Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan said: It’s clear that
Armenia would not receive loans if our economic policy failed to
correspond to the requirem ents of international organizations." This
means that we are on the right path, the Minister of Finance added.

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE OMBUDSMAN’S OFFICE OF FRANCE TO ASSISTS ARMENIAN COUNTERPARTS

armradio.am
06.07.2009 13:26

On July 6 the Minister of Justice of Armenia, Gevorg Danielyan,
received the Human Rights Defender of France, Jean-Paul Delevoye.

Jean-Paul Delevoye informed that the Human Rights Defender’s Office of
France has won the tender for providing assistance to the Ombudsman’s
Office of Armenia. A representative of the Ombudsman’s Office of
France will work in Armenia for a year and a half.

The French Ombudsman was interested in the cooperation between
the state agencies of the Republic of Armenia and the Human Rights
Defender’s Office in the direction of protection of human rights.

During the meeting reference was made to common issues and the ways
of their solution. The Armenian Justice Minister responded to the
questions of the French guest and expressed willingness to assist
the employees of the French Ombudsman’s Office during their mission
in our country.

GAZPROM TO BUILD GAS PIPELINE LINKING AFRICA RESERVES TO EUROPE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
06.07.2009 13:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Three African countries signed an accord to build
trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.

France’s Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Russia’s Gazprom have all
expressed interest in helping Nigeria’s state-run NNPC and Algeria’s
counterpart Sonatrach in the project. Gazprom and NNPC agreed
to invest at least $2.5 billion to explore and develop Africa’s
biggest oil and gas sector, including building the first part of the
Trans-Sahara pipeline.

The project, with capital costs estimated at $10 billion for the
pipeline and $3 billion for gathering centers, would send West African
gas via a 4,128 km (2,580 mile) pipeline from Nigeria via Niger and
Algeria starting from 2015.

Nigeria has estimated natural gas reserves of 180 trillion cubic feet,
the seventh largest in the world. Its liquefied natural gas company
Nigeria LNG says it already provides 10 percent of world supply,
much of it to Europe and North America.

Vic Darchinyan On Joseph Agbeko: "King Kong" Will Become A Chimpanzee
Stoker Mas

Bleacher Report
July 01, 2009

"I think after this fight they are going to change your name to Joseph
‘Chimpanzee’ Agbeko."

Those were the fighting words from two-division world champion Vic
"Raging Bull" Darchinyan directed at Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko when two
of the hardest-hitting bantamweight boxers in the world participated
in a media conference call to discuss their upcoming fight to be held
in Sunrise, Fla., on July 11.

Agbeko, of Accra, Ghana, and now fighting out of the Bronx, N.Y.,
has an alphabet title and has also knocked out more than 81 percent
of his opponents. Yet, Darchinyan, 32-1, 26 KOs, of Sydney, Australia,
by way of Armenia, is right behind him at 76 percent.

Suffice it to say that this fight may not last long.

Darchinyan was in fine form at the conference, doing his smack-talking
best to get under the skin and gain a psychological edge over his
opponent "This is going to be the biggest mismatch. Where would
you like me to hurt you most? In the body or in the face?" stated
Darchinyan-who took full advantage of the media exposure to hurl his
usual plethora of insults.

"I hope you are working hard and training extra hard for this fight. I
don’t want it to be another easy fight for me. I want to be your
nightmare after this fight and not before because I want you to get
a good night’s sleep," Darchinyan said.

A victory over Agbeko would award Darchinyan his fifth major world
title belt, and would also make him a three-division world champion,
charting him on a steady course in his quest for all-time boxing
greatness.

Someone once said that an overwhelming desire to succeed, a huge ego,
and a abundance of self-confidence are the three main ingredients
needed in the recipe for success in the fight game, if so, then
Darchinyan’s well on his way to the summit.

The 33-year-old boxer seems-at last-to be entering his prime boxing
years, and is attempting to climb to cross divisional stardom in the
same fashion as Filipino great Manny Pacquiao.

Darchinyan is a crowd pleaser, a tough, and highly entertaining
fighter, who possesses an exciting "go for broke" style with
crippling power, especially in his left hook, which comes out of a
crouch position.

However, he does have a loss, a one-punch left hook KO from Nonito
Donaire-in July of 2007; that single misfortune is one that many fans
and critics refuse to let him forget.

When faced with that rematch question-which is often-Darchinyan’s
response is always basically the same: "I can’t spend my career just
defending, defending, defending. I have to move up in weight and go
after more titles. I have the power to demolish anyone. I’m going to
keep moving up.

As you can see, Darchinyan intentionally avoids the question, and
if he happens to not find enough excuses, no worries, his promoter
Gary Shaw is right there to help him out by adding more: "There is
absolutely no point in us fighting Donaire, there is no money in it,
who would buy it? Somebody would need to pay the freight, and I don’t
know who that would be," said Shaw.

As a result of the loss to Donaire, when Darchinyan next squared off
with tough Mexican Cristian Mijares three fights later, many fight
fans saw him as a definite underdog.

Darchinyan sent notice to his detractors, and proved the critics dead
wrong by administering a one-sided beating to Mijares; which started
by flooring him in round one and completely dominating him for the
the next eight rounds, ultimately stopping his battered opponent in
the ninth.

Darchinyan then became a man on a 115-lb mission, and planted
himself firmly on The Rings pound for pound list by hospitalizing and
thoroughly destroying-the dangerous but fading-Jorge Arce in his very
next outing.

Now, even though King Kong is his opponents nickname-it’s Darchinyan
who is thumping his chest and being outright braggadocios.

"I’ve seen Agbeko’s fights and they don’t impress me. You will see,
nothing compares to my power. I will knock him out with my power. I
can open my jaw and let him punch it and he still won’t hurt me."

If this fight lives up to Darchinyan’s expectations, we can expect
a thrilling, yet short fight, which will include a boxer nicknamed
King Kong being gored by an Armenian Raging Bull.

I wouldn’t want to miss that.

ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS – ON THE LEVEL OF DIPLOMATIC GESTURES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
01.07.2009 19:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian-Georgian relations are not so smooth, as
some people imagine, Eurointegration NGO’s chair Karen Bekaryan said
during Yerevan-Tbilisi TV bridge. "As a matter of fact, bilateral
ties are on the level of diplomatic gestures," he stressed.

Touching upon Moscow’s response to Georgian President’s visit to
Armenia, he also noted that both Russia and Armenia were astonished by
Saakasvili’s being awarded an Honor Order. "Besides, Georgian public
has a stereotype that Yerevan is more interested in Armenian-Georgian
relations than Tbilisi. Unless such stereotype is overcome, bilateral
relations will remain on the same level," Bekaryan stressed.