ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 5 2004

Azeri presid notes positive changes in OSCE Minsk group work

BAKU, May 5 (Itar-Tass) – Azerbaijani president Ilkham Aliyev has
noted positive changes in the activities of the Minsk Group of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Nagorno
Karabakh.

Aliyev told journalists on Wednesday, `the activity of the Minsk
Group has become noticeable, its co-chairmen are persistently seeking
solution to the problem.’

The Azerbaijani president believes the settlement process is underway
although not very actively.

President Aliyev expressed the hope that the negotiations on the
Karabakh conflict settlement with mediation of the OSCE Group,
co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States, will bring
concrete results.

`If we did not believe in that there would be no sense in conducting
talks,’ the head of Azerbaijan stressed.

He positively assessed meetings held between the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents in Geneva in December 2003 and in Warsaw in April
2004, as well as talks held at the level of the two states’ foreign
ministers.

The next meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia
with participation of co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will be held
in Strasbourg on May 12.

On this day ten days ago the two sides reached an agreement on
ceasefire on the Karabakh conflict zone which is still being
observed.

IRNA, Iran
May 5 2004

Iran to export natural gas to Azerbaijan, Armenia

Tehran, May 5, IRNA — Iran is to export 200 to 350 million cubic
meters of natural gas to Azerbaijan per annum from the coming winter
according to a contract that is to be signed by the two sides after
necessary negotiations and agreements.
Deputy Minister of Petroleum for Caspian Oil and Gas Affairs
Hamdollah Mohammadnejad told IRNA here on Wednesday that Iran has
been in talks for more than one decade with the republics of
Azerbaijan and Armenia on export of its natural gas.

Mohammadnejad said that Iran is also to export 1.2 to 2.5 billion
cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia a year for a period of 20
years through a 20-inch pipeline.

The gas, he added, would be transferred to Magri border region
through a 120 kms pipeline.

The official said that feasibility studies on the pipeline project
has been completed and it would be implemented once related contract
is signed by Iranian and Armenian sides.

He said Iran gives the priority to transfer of gas to neighboring and
the Central Asian republics on the long run in a bid to upgrade
mutual economic cooperation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IRNA, Iran
May 5 2004

Iranian professor, researcher, Herman Vahramian, praised by minister
of culture

Rome, May 5, IRNA — Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance
Ahmad Masjed Jamei praised an Italian-based Iranian research
professor for his efforts at making the world more familiar with
Iranian civilization and culture.
In a letter to Professor Herman Vahramian, Masjed Jamei said that all
Iranian citizens would be proud of his untiring efforts to introduce
Iranian and Islamic culture and civilization to the world.

The letter was handed over to Vahramian for Masjed Jamei by Iranian
Ambassador to Rome Bahram Qasemi.

Vahramian, 64, is an Iranian-Armenian graduate of architecture from
Milan University who left Iran in 1960 to continue his studies in the
field of architecture in Italy.

Since receiving his Ph.D in 1972, Vahramian has written some 106
books on Oriental and Occidental Arts some of which relate to Iranian
arts and architecture.

He has also penned more than 120 research articles on Iranian-
Armenian Oriental Art which have been published in various
publications in different parts of the world including Iran, the
United States and Armenia as well as in some countries in Europe and
the Middle East.

Masjed Jamei, in his letter to Vahramian, said that Iranian-
Armenians, along with other ethnic minorities of Iran, have always
served the country in many ways.

Praising Vahramian’s 40 years of untiring efforts in introducing
Iranian and Islamic culture to the world, the minister said Iranians
would undoubtedly be proud of him.

It was also learned that the Iranian professor was made an honorary
citizen of Italy in 1997 for his significant efforts at encouraging
relations among world nations.

Vahramian is currently in Milan taking a rest as he has been
diagnosed with a debilitating disease.

NASA, DC
May 5 2004

NASA-funded telemedicine research brings medical care to people
living in Earth’s remote regions, improves space medicine

What do villages in the Amazon jungles, the peaks of Mount Everest
and Mars have in common? All are remote places where doctors may not
be available to provide medical care for patients. Now, doctors can
reach patients via television and computers – a concept called
telemedicine. One day, space explorers may use telemedicine to
consult with doctors on Earth. Telemedicine research is being
conducted by Dr. Ronald Merrell, director of the Medical Informatics
Technology Applications Consortium – a NASA Research Partnership
Center managed by the Space Partnership Development program at the
Marshall Center.

Photo: Merrell (Virginia Commonwealth University)

What do villages in the Amazon jungles, the peaks of Mount Everest
and Mars have in common? All are remote places where doctors may not
be available to provide medical care for patients.

But now, thanks to high-tech electronics, doctors do not always have
to be with the patient to assist with medical care. Instead, doctors
can literally visit patients or consult with other doctors via
television and/or computers – a concept called “telemedicine.” One
day, these “television calls” may become routine for the first humans
living on lunar and Martian outposts.

“Telemedicine changes the way we approach medical care, both
intellectually and logistically,” explains Dr. Ronald C. Merrell,
director of the Medical Informatics Technology Applications
Consortium, a NASA Research Partnership Center at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

“And with the nation embarking on a new space exploration voyage,
back to the Moon and onto Mars, long-term medical care becomes even
more important for space travelers,” adds Merrell. “The constraints
of providing medical treatment using telemedicine to patients at
remote places on Earth and to people in space are similar, so what we
learn on Earth can be applied to using telemedicine for human space
exploration.”

Merrell, a professor of surgery, recently returned from Sucua,
Ecuador, where his medical team and local physicians set up a mobile
unit for diagnosing and treating tropical diseases in Amazon villages
that are only reachable by small planes or canoes. They installed
computers, cameras and other equipment, along with medical and
surgical tools. Through this technology, Merrell and his team can
consult with their colleagues in South America.

The Medical Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium has
been a partner with Cinterandes Foundation in Cuenca, Ecuador, for
several years. The foundation has provided a mobile surgical facility
that transmits the vital signs of patients in Ecuador to doctors
3,000 miles away at Virginia Commonwealth University. In one case, an
anesthesiologist at the university, monitoring a surgery in Ecuador,
noticed a life-threatening irregularity in the patient’s heart
rhythm. He warned the surgeons, who responded in time to prevent harm
to the patient.

“Testing technologies that provide medical care to space crews not
only benefits individuals who need medical care, but entire
countries,” says Merrell. “Medical students and physicians from
across the globe have visited Virginia Commonwealth University,
learned about telemedicine and gone back to their countries to start
telemedicine programs.”

For the past several years, the Medical Informatics and Technology
Applications Consortium has tested different telemedicine units
operating under a variety of conditions in many locations – including
Mount Everest, the Artic Circle, Russia, Brazil, Mongolia and Kenya.
Telemedicine is used not only to consult with colleagues, but also to
train medical students – requiring them to watch experts perform
surgeries and other procedures.

“Providing the best medical training to students and practicing
physicians is one of the most rewarding aspects of this research,”
Merrell says. “One of my teachers at Ensley High School in
Birmingham, Ala., was the first person who got me interested in
science, so I believe it is important to inspire the next generation.
What could be better than making it possible for students and doctors
– no matter where they are studying or practicing medicine – to learn
from the world’s leading medical experts?”

Merrell, an Alabama native, obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry
from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and doctorate of
medicine from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He completed
his residency and fellowship training at the Barnes Hospital at
Washington University in St. Louis. He has held prestigious positions
at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and Yale University
School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. He began his relationship with
NASA in 1984 when he was a professor of surgery at the Texas Medical
Center in Houston near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He led programs
in clinical medicine, education and research, and his first
telemedicine project funded by NASA provided care as part of a relief
effort in Armenia.

Now, Merrell’s team is testing how doctors might use telemedicine to
train space crews to perform surgery. This summer, doctors from
Virginia Commonwealth University will fly aboard NASA’s KC-135
aircraft – a plane that flies roller coaster patterns and exposes
researchers to a few minutes of low-gravity in which they float about
like space crews. Merrell and his fellow researchers will practice
surgery techniques, so they can experience how space conditions
affect the way surgery is conducted.

“We know that performing surgery and other medical procedures in
space will be different from working on Earth,” Merrell says. “The
more we can learn, the better we can help space crews complete long,
productive exploration missions to the Moon, to Mars and beyond.”

For more information visit:

Medical Informatics Technology Applications Consortium

Office of Biological and Physical Research

Space Partnership Development Program

UN News Centre
May 5 2004

14 elected to UN human rights commission

4 May 2004 – The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
elected 14 countries today to serve on the Commission on Human
Rights, the UN’s highest forum for examining civil rights around the
world.

Winning by acclamation were Guinea, Kenya, Sudan and Togo from the
African Group; Armenia and Romania from the Eastern European States;
and Ecuador and Mexico from the Latin American and Caribbean States.

The others were elected by secret ballot. Of the four candidates
nominated by the Asian Group to fill three vacancies, Malaysia,
Pakistan and the Republic of Korea were elected; Viet Nam lost its
bid for a seat. Canada, Finland and France, nominees from the Western
European and Others Group, where chosen while Spain was not.

After the African Group submitted Sudan for re-election to another
two-year term, the representative of the United States traded harsh
words with the Sudanese representative and the US delegation excused
itself and walked out.

US representative Sichan Siv said he was perplexed and dismayed that
the African Group had submitted, for the third time, the candidacy of
a country that massacred its own citizens in the western Darfur
region, where the humanitarian crisis had reached a tragic scale.

He urged the Group to consider the effect of that situation on the
Commission’s reputation and ability to function effectively as the
world’s protector of human rights and freedoms.

Sudanese representative Omar Bashir Mohamed Manis said his Government
had acknowledged fully the humanitarian problem in Darfur and had
asked the international community for help.

He said it was ironic that the US delegation, while shedding
crocodile tears over the situation in Darfur, was turning a blind eye
to the atrocities committed by US forces using the most lethal
weapons known to man against the civilian population in Iraq.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has
begun collecting information for a report on civil liberties in Iraq
and has said it hopes to complete it by the end of this month.

Similarly, a high-level UN fact-finding mission returned to Geneva
from Darfur last week and has been finalizing its report, according
to OHCHR. Senior UN humanitarian officials, meanwhile, have expressed
shock at the lack of protection provided to civilians in the
strife-torn region.

ECOSOC, to which the Commission on Human Rights reports, also held
elections to such panels as the Commission on Population and
Development, the Commission for Social Development and the Commission
on Sustainable Development.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Dignitaries Gather for European Summit

By VANESSA GERA
.c The Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Shop owners boarded up windows and police sealed
off parts of the Polish capital for a summit of eastern European
leaders focusing on the challenges facing the European Union after
eight former Soviet bloc countries join this week.

The European Economic Summit starting Wednesday brings together
hundreds of dignitaries, including 20 presidents and prime ministers
and representatives from leading corporations, for talks on EU
expansion.

The three-day event – organized by the Geneva-based World Economic
Forum, which is best known for its annual summit in Davos, Switzerland
– concludes Friday, hours before midnight celebrations in several
cities usher in the historic expansion.

Mark Adams, a spokesman for the group, said the forum provides
political and business leaders the chance for informal talks on
challenges of common concern such as health care, environment and
labor issues.

Anti-globalization groups have mobilized against the meeting, viewing
the forum funded by many leading corporations as an exclusive club for
the rich. About 5,000 protesters are expected to march Thursday,
organizers say.

Downtown Warsaw shops – from elegant boutiques to fast-food chains –
boarded up their windows with slabs of wood, corrugated tin and
cardboard. Police helicopters whirred above the city center as
officers in riot gear guarded a barricaded perimeter of several blocks
around the conference venue, a hotel.

But the government leaders can also expect criticism from other
quarters.

Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies in
Brussels, said economic dialogue in Europe has been reduced to “a
charade” as countries pay lip service to limiting their budget
deficits and economic reform, but then do little to measure up.

“In economic terms they don’t have to talk to each other a lot – they
just have to go home and do their homework,” said Gros, who will also
be participating.

Alongside workshops on the benefits of adopting the euro currency and
the competitiveness of the EU countries, one-on-one talks between
political leaders also feature at the forum.

These include a planned meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia, which have been locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an
ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan.

Ethnic Armenian forces drove out Azerbaijan’s army from the region in
the 1990s and ethnic Azeris fled. Though a cease-fire was established
in 1994, the two sides periodically exchange fire.

President Johannes Rau of Germany, President Ion Iliescu of Romania
and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia are also expected to
address the meeting.

On the eve of the summit, Poland’s President Aleksander Kwasniewski
stressed the importance of bringing together generally richer Western
countries with the new EU members as well as countries further east
that face difficult obstacles in their search for prosperity.

“I am convinced that the conference hosted by Poland will show that
no new curtain will appear in our continent – not even a velvet one,”
Kwasniewski said.

04/28/04 01:24 EDT

Pravda.RU:World:

US does not intend placing permanent military bases in South Caucasus

18:09 2004-04-27

The United States will not be placing military bases either in Azerbaidjan
or in the South Caucasus region in general, according to deputy commander of
US European forces, Charles Wald.

As reported by a Rosbalt correspondent, Wald told a press conference in
Yerevan that ‘we will, together with Russia, Armenia and Azerbaidjan, fight
terrorism, and are ready for ongoing cooperation. At the same time, we do
not want to have permanent military bases here.’

© RosBalt

The Moscow Times
Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2004. Page 2

Armenian Opposition Rallies, Halts Talks

The Associated Press Several thousand people rallied in the heart of the
Armenian capital, Yerevan, on Tuesday calling for the ouster of President
Robert Kocharyan, and opposition leaders said they have halted talks with
the governing coalition.

The rally, estimated at up to 7,000 people, was the latest in the weeks-long
series of protests that have raised political tensions in the country.

On Monday, opposition figures met with the speaker of parliament and other
governing coalition figures in an effort at easing the tensions, but Viktor
Dallakyan of the opposition Justice Party said Tuesday that the talks were
discontinued.

“The authorities are only pretending to be in the middle of a dialogue with
the opposition, but they are in fact continuing the policy of terror against
their own people,” Dallakyan said.

Dallakyan said that the next rally will be held May 4, after the situation
in Armenia is brought up at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe.

Parliament Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan said the decision to halt talks was
mutual and was meant to give the two sides time to ponder each other’s
proposals.

Kocharyan won a second term in presidential elections a year ago that led to
mass protests, including nearly daily demonstrations between the first round
and the runoff.

Opposition groups alleged widespread violations in both rounds of the
election, which was followed by a parliamentary ballot in which the
pro-government party won the most votes.

Noah’s Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for Summer

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
April 27, 2004

Photo caption: This satellite image of Mount Ararat in Turkey shows what
looks like a large object emerging from melting snow. An expedition is
planned to visit the site to see if it is Noah’s Ark.

Image Courtesy Shamrock/DigitalGlobe

Satellite pictures taken last summer of Mount Ararat in Turkey may
reveal the final resting place of Noah’s ark, according to Daniel
McGivern, the businessman and Christian activist behind a planned summer
2004 expedition to investigate the site.
“We’re telling people we’re 98 percent sure,” said McGivern, a member of
the Hawaii Christian Coalition. “In one image we saw the beams, saw the
wood. I’m convinced that the excavation of the object and the results of
tests run on any collected samples will prove that it is Noah’s ark. ”

McGivern wrote a list in his Bible more than 20 years ago of ten great
projects. Finding Noah’s ark was at the top of his list.

McGivern began his quest in earnest in 1995, when the publication of a
book on the topic moved him to arrange for satellite images to be taken
of Mount Ararat.

Attempts to take satellite images in previous years had been foiled by
clouds, unavailability of imaging equipment, and lack of image
resolution. But the attempts had helped pinpoint the location. In the
summer of 2003, everything came together.

“Last year was the hottest summer in Europe since 1500; more than 21,000
people died of the heat wave,” McGivern said. “The summer melt was far
more extensive than it has been in years.”

DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite-imagery company, confirmed that
they took the images that McGivern is using.

An international team of archaeologists, forensic scientists,
geologists, glaciologists, and others is being recruited to investigate
the site sometime between July 15 and August 15.

Ahmet Arslan, a professor in Turkey who has climbed the mountain 50
times in 40 years, will lead the expedition. Arslan reported an
eyewitness sighting of the ark and took a photograph in 1989 from about
220 yards (200 meters) away. However, he couldn’t get any closer, and
the picture is not definitive.

“We hope to assemble what we’re calling the Dream Team,” Arslan said.
“The slopes are very, very harsh and dangerous on the northern face-it
is extremely challenging, mentally and physically.”

Noah’s Ark

The story of Noah’s ark is told in the Book of Genesis. It says God saw
how corrupt the Earth had become and decided to “bring floodwaters on
the Earth to destroy all life under the heavens.” God is said to have
told Noah, an honorable man, to build an ark 450 feet (137 meters) long,
75 feet (23 meters) wide, and 45 feet (14 meters) high, and fill it with
two of every species on the Earth. It reportedly rained for 40 days and
40 nights. After about seven months, the waters receded, and the ark
came to rest, according to the Bible.

Three major world religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-believe in
Noah and his ark. Reports of ark sightings have been numerous. Witnesses
often describe an old wooden structure sticking out of the snow and ice
near the summit of Mount Ararat.

Despite the numerous sightings and rumors-of pictures taken by the CIA
and locked in vaults, of lost photographs taken by a Russian expedition
at the behest of Tsar Nicholas Alexander in 1918-no scientific evidence
of the ark has emerged.

“On the one hand, I’m hopeful. On the other hand, I’m very skeptical” of
the validity of the satellite images, said Rex Geissler, president of
ArcImaging (Archaeological Imaging Research Consortium). “There is no
publicly available picture that readily shows a man-made object that has
any clarity whatsoever . Some of the photos are outright
misrepresentations, non-scientific, and do not prove anything.

“We think that with the hundreds of explorers who have visited the
region, if the ark was jutting out of the ice, it would be obvious.”

ArcImaging was the first organization to receive permission from the
Turkish government to survey the mountain since 1981. The archaeological
research organization conducted a preliminary investigation of the
icecap using ground-penetrating radar in 2001.

The Search Continues

The Bible states that Noah landed in the region of the ancient kingdom
Urartu. Mount Ararat (its name probably a corrupted version of Urartu)
has been the focus of those seeking the ark because it-at 17,000 feet
(5,165 meters)-is the highest point in the area.

A volcanic mountain, Ararat is covered by an icecap from 14,000 feet
(4,300 meters) to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters). The icecap is about 17
square miles (44 square kilometers) in size and is as deep as 300 feet
(90 meters).

Known to locals as Agri Dagi-Turkish for “mountain of pain”- Ararat is
not easy to access. Located in eastern Turkey-close to the borders of
Armenia and Iran, and only 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Iraq-the
region is politically volatile and often dangerous. Much of the region
is part of a military zone, and getting permission to explore it is
extremely difficult.

The ArcImaging team hopes to visit the region to continue their mapping
of the icecap this summer.

McGivern is optimistic his group will also be on the face of the
mountain this summer. He and Arslan met last week with the Turkish
ambassador to the U.S. Arslan, who at one time worked in the Turkish
prime minister’s office, plans to meet with the prime minister next
week.

“The ark is broken into a minimum of three pieces, up to six, from a
huge earthquake that occurred in 1840. But it’s been miraculously
preserved. The satellite imagery shows vertical beams, and one
horizontal beam,” McGivern said.

© 2004 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 28 2004

European economic summit opening in Warsaw

WARSAW, April 28 (Itar-Tass) – A European economic summit, organized
by the World Economic Forum, opens here later Wednesday.

The conference entitled Europe’s Enlargement and Future Prospects
will take three days and is organized under the patronage of Polish
President Alexander Kwasniewski.

It is expected to bring together 700 people representing the economic
and political elite of 45 nations, including the presidents, prime
ministers and ministers from 31 countries.

Expansion of the European Union coming May 1 and its impact on the
future economic and political activity of the EU, as well as the
pressing issues of competition, demography, public health, and
pensions make up the core of the agenda.

Russia has delegated to the conference President Vladimir Putin’s
special spokesman on the EU expansion, Sergei Yastrzhembski, and a
group of businessmen.

Some other high-rank participants are Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, Malta’s Prime Minister Tonio Berg, Lithuanian Prime Minister
Algirdas Brazauskas, Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Armenian
President Robert Kocharian, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma,
President Svetozar Marovic of Serbia and Montenegro, German President
Johannes Rau, Georgian President Mikhai Saakashvil, Slovak President
Rudolf Schuster, and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.

Alexander Kwasniewski, Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, Foreign
Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, and Labor Minister Erzy Hausner
will play host to the participants.