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14 SPANISH BULLS BROUGHT INTO ARMENIA TO HOLD CORRIDA IN YEREVAN SEPTEMBER 7-9

SEPTEMBER 4.  Fourteen bulls are brought into Armenia to hold a Spanish corrida in Yerevan on September 7-9. Four matadors are expected to arrive on September 5.

Director of the X-Group company Khachik Khachatryan, the organizer of the spectacle, said that the bulls will not be killed during the corrida. After the 3-day show they will be kept in Armenia for development of the pedigree cattle in the country. He also pointed out that the corrida is likely to be held in the future, if "Armenian people like it."

100-YEAR OLD GEDEON RICHTER COMPANY ENJOYS GROWING SALES

SEPTEMBER 4.  The 100-year old Gedeon Richter enjoys stably growing sales. 60 names of medicines of this famous Hungarian company are registered in Armenia, manager of the Gedeon Richter Armenian Office Artashes Blourtsyan told ARMINFO.

He said the company opened a special drugstore in Yerevan in 1996 on the basis of the Farmex firm. Now there are 4 such drugstores in Armenia.

An Armeno-Hungarian JV was created on the basis of the Lambron-Farmimpex firm in 1998, which has successfully settled the problem of provision of Armenian consumers with Gedeon Richter medicines.

Blourtsyan also said the company's Armenian office tightly cooperates the country's leading experts in practical medicine and pharmaceutics. The office also carries out propaganda of Gedeon Richter products, provides experts of polyclinics and the in- and out-patient systems with samples of the company's medicines, conducts conferences and so on.

The office also provides over $20,000's worth of medicines to experts, scientific-research institutes, clinics free of charge.

INTERCITY COMMUNICATION TARIFFS REDUCED BY 40% IN SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 4.The intercity communication tariffs in all directions in Armenia were reduced by 40% in September of the current year, the "Armentel" company's press-service told ARMINFO correspondent.

Besides, in accordance with the company's new price policy, mobile radio-link communication tariffs are expected to be reduced as well. According to Armentel, the company does not provide the Internet services to the population, it only ensures a traffic to Internet-providers, who work with end users of the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, the providers haven't reduced Internet prices for some unknown reasons, the press-service told Arminfo.

The company reiterated that the per-minute payment system for digital Authomatic Telephone Exchange (ATX) in Armenia was introduced in September. In particular, the system will cover 36,39,42,44,45,52,53,54,55,56,57,58 ATXs, as well as the users of  Giumri and Stepanavan.

TRIAL OF CASE OF DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STARTS IN SWITZERLAND

SEPTEMBER 4. A trial of the case of denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Turkey started in Bern today.

According to the "Groong" Agency, a court verdict will decide Sept 14 if the 1915 events were a crime defined by a Swiss law as racial discrimination. This law was adopted in 1997.

30 person will be interrogated during the trial, 17 of whom are representatives of the Turkish Association of Switzerland.

KARABAKH'S AUTHORITIES INTEND TO RECEIVE OVER 250 FAMILIES OF
MIGRANTS FROM ARMENIA AND OTHER CIS COUNTRIES

SEPTEMBER 4. The authorities of Karabakh are planning to receive over 250 families of migrants from Armenia and other CIS countries. Individual houses for 5 persons with an improved planning are being built to this end.

According to the Department for Refugees and Migrants by Armenia's government, additional 550 families, mainly of the Karabakh origin expressed their readiness to migrate to Karabakh for a constant residence. A joint program for 2001 is worked out by corresponding governmental structures of Armenia and Karabakh to raise the efficiency of the reception and placement measures. The program defines the mechanisms of realization of the planned measures, housing and social conditions, necessary for the migrants.

If only 5 families were received and settled in 1993 with presentation of the status of migrant, envisaging a number of privileges, including money compensation and payment of credits to organize agricultural works and purchase of cattle, in 2000, with reconstruction of a number of inhabited locations, 194 migrant families received comfortable dwellings and household.

SWITCH OFF YOUR TELEPHONES TO HAVE CLEAR CONCIENCE

SEPTEMBER 4.  The radio station "Van" intends to organize an action of protest against the introduction of per minute payment for local telephone calls by the "ArmenTel" company.

The letter received by ARMINFO contains a call upon all citizens to switch off all cell and city telephones on 5 Sept from 17.00 to 17.20. The letter expresses also the solidarity with Armenia's government in the matter of prohibition of the per minute payment introduction. "In case of our solidarity "ArmenTel" will have certain financial losses and, maybe, will listen to our voice," the authors of the call say.

INVESTMENT PROGRAM OF SHOGAKN MAY BE WRECKED

SEPTEMBER 4. The Shogakn closed jsc can't buy uncut diamonds in Russia as the plant's executive manager Sergey Gasparyan gave written undertaking not to leave the country. Meanwhile, Gasparyan must be in Moscow Sept 6 to sign a contract to buy 34,000 carats with ESO ALROSA.

Gasparyan stood trial after one of his employees, Karine Ovannesyan, sued him for firing her. The court of first instance of the Kotayk province satisfied her claim. But after Gasparyan defied the verdict the prosecutor general's office instituted a legal action against him. In a press-conference today Gasparyan said Ovannesyan worked as a controller at the coffee packing workshop and has nothing to do with diamond cutting.

Shogakn was privatized a year ago and the new owner decided to close the above workshop and to fire its 20 employees. Meanwhile, the above court ruled to reinstate Ovannesyan as a controller at the diamond cutting workshop.

Gasparyan thinks that Ovannesyan has no necessary training. So,  proposed her a position of office-cleaner with the same salary, but Ovannesyan rejected the proposal.

Presently Shogakn employs 550 and gives them an average monthly  salary of $180. It was planned to invest $6 mln to buy 34,000 carats of uncut diamonds, to open yet another diamond cutting workshop and to employ additional 150 people. However, it so turned out that Shogakn's investment program may now be wrecked.

To recap, the LLD Diamonds Ltd. company belonging to Israeli businessman Lev Levayev, bought the plant a year ago for $370,000 and has already invested $1 mln in diamond production.