Daily Archives: May 13, 2013

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko started his official visit to the Republic of Armenia

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Today, the official ceremony of welcoming the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who has arrived to Armenia for an official visit, took place at the Presidential Palace. After the ceremony, the Presidents of the two countries held a one-to-one meeting followed by the negotiations in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations.

In the wake of the negotiations, the parties signed a number of the agreements aimed at the development and deepening of cooperation in a number of areas. In particular, signed were the “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and Government of the Republic of Belarus on Cooperation in the Area of Protecting Rights of the National Minorities,” “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and Government of the Republic of Belarus on Cooperation and Information Exchange in the Area of Nuclear Safety and
Radioactive Protection,” “Agreement on Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia and Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus,” Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia and Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Belarus, and Program for Cooperation in Years 2013-2014 in the Area of Physical Culture and Sport between the Ministry of Sport and Youth Issues of the Republic of Armenia and Ministry of Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus.

At the meeting with the representatives of the mass media, Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Alexander Lukashenko made a join statement on the outcome of the negotiations.


Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan on the outcome of the negotiations with the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko

 

Distinguished Mr. President,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am truly glad to welcome the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in our country. We are meeting regularly with President Lukashenko at the CSTO and CIS Summits, in the past also in the framework of EvrAzEs, and most recently we met at the December Session of the Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow and before that also at the Summit of CIS where Belarus, in the framework of its Chairmanship, has been implementing comprehensive measures aimed at the further enhancement of cooperation.

These regular meetings allow us to discuss in a working manner and provide solutions to the issues on the Armenian-Belarus agenda. However the high level reciprocal visits remain the main booster of the interstate relations. I would like to once again greet President Lukashenko in Armenia where he is always a welcome guest.

Next month, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. We are approaching this milestone not only with the corresponding level of bilateral cooperation but also with the strong realization that the positive experience of the interstate cooperation acquired through these years is our common property.

We also concur that the future of our relations should be in harmony with our historical past. We passed the hardships of the last century side by side, shoulder to shoulder fought in the Great Patriotic War, thousands of Armenian fell on the Belarus frontlines and hundreds of thousands covered their names with glory. Our friendship is cemented by the blood of our fallen heroes and we ought to preserve and multiply that legacy with care.

We have discussed the most diverse issues: we have spoken about economic and geopolitical issues, humanitarian ties. Naturally, we have also talked about the activities of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation which will hold its regular meeting in June. We have also recognized close interparliamentary relations in the framework of the specially formed Armenian-Belarus commission.

Special attention has been paid to our cooperation in the framework of international organizations. We have exchanged views on the development of cooperation in the framework of CSTO, spoke about processes going on at the CIS where we are ready to render the needed assistance to our Belarus colleagues to ensure success of their Chairmanship in the Organization.

I have also presented to Alexander Lukashenko the current stage of the NK peace process. I have underscored once again that the people of Karabakh want peace and opportunity to live freely in their historical homeland. They want equal opportunities will all those nations which have obtained international recognition of their sovereignty. I assured President Lukashenko that our position remains unchanged: we are ready for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

We have certain and promising programs in the area of economic and investment cooperation, mutual access of the goods and services to our respective markets, cooperation in the areas of tourism, agriculture, culture and science. We see great opportunities in the sphere of high technologies.

I trust President Lukashenko will agree with me that numerous contacts before this visit held on different levels contributed also to the signing a while ago of a weighty package of documents. We anticipate that they will provide the anticipated impulse to the bilateral cooperation. Thus, Mr. President, the visit is timely and is doomed to be a success.

I once again welcome the President of Belarus to Armenia and give him the floor.

 

‘I will always love youuuuuuuuu’: Woman kicked off plane for refusing to stop singing Whitney Houston song

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p1An American Airlines pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger refused to stop singing Whitney Houston’s hit song I Will Always Love You.

The solo performance began shortly into the flight from Los Angeles to New York and her crooning quickly became too much for passengers and staff on the domestic flight last Thursday.

The pilot was forced to change course halfway through the six hour flight and make an unscheduled stop at Kansas City so officers could escort the woman from the plane.

Despite staff telling passengers they could not take photographs while on board the aircraft, one managed to briefly film the woman being escorted down the aircraft’s aisle in handcuffs – still singing the 1990s pop song.

The woman was interviewed and later released without charge.

While the song she chose to entertain her fellow passengers with is best known for Whitney Houston’s cover in the film The Bodyguard, it was originally released by country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton in 1974.

The original I Will Always Love You received positive comments from critics and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart two times.

This made Parton the first artist ever to earn a number one record twice with the same song as a singer, and three times as a writer.

But it was not until Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You in The Bodyguard movie that the song became an international hit.

The Bodyguard’s original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and I Will Always Love You became the best-selling single by a female artist in music history.

 

I quit for my wife after tragedy, says Ferguson

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ֆերգյուսոնAlex Ferguson has revealed that loyalty to his wife, Cathy, was the key factor in his decision to retire from football management at the end of the current season.

The 71-year-old Scot enjoyed an emotion-charged farewell in Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Swansea City at Old Trafford on Sunday, his last home game after more than 26 years in charge of the new English champions.

“Around last Christmas,” said Ferguson, when asked when he had decided to bring an end to his reign.

“Basically, things changed when Cathy’s sister died. She is isolated a lot now and I think a lot of the time, for 47 years, she has been the leader of the family, looked after our three sons and sacrificed herself for me.

“Now she has the grandchildren, and they all dote on her, but now she has lost her best friend — her sister — so that was important.

“I think it is also important to go out as a winner. That is really important at this club. It is all I ever wanted to do here — be a winner.”

– See more at: https://archive2.ankakh.com/i-quit-for-my-wife-after-tragedy-says-ferguson/#sthash.tK4sioHI.dpuf

Pyrethrum

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երիցուկPyrethrum refers to several Old World plants of the genus Chrysanthemum (e.g., C. coccineum) which are cultivated as ornamentals for their showy flower heads. Pyrethrum is also the name of a naturalinsecticide made from the dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium and Chrysanthemum coccineum.

Some members of the Chrysanthemum genus, such as the following two, are placed in the Tanacetum genus instead by some botanists. Both genera are members of the daisy (or aster) family, Asteraceae. They are all perennial plants with a daisy-like appearance and white petals.

  • երիցուկ1Tanacetum cinerariifolium

    T. cinerariifolium is called the Dalmatian chrysanthemum, denoting its origin in that region of the Balkans (Dalmatia). It looks more like the common daisy than other pyrethrums. Its flowers, typically white with a yellow center, grow from numerous fairly rigid stems. Plants have blue-green leaves and grow to 45 to 100 cm in height. The plant is economically important as a natural source of insecticide. The flowers are pulverized and the active components, called pyrethrins, contained in the seed cases, are extracted and sold in the form of an oleoresin. This is applied as a suspension in water or oil, or as a powder. Pyrethrins attack the nervous systems of all insects, and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. When present in amounts less than those fatal to insects, they still appear to have an insect repellent effect. They are harmful to fish, but are far less toxic to mammals and birds than many synthetic insecticides and are not persistent, beingbiodegradable and also decompose easily on exposure to light. They are considered to be amongst the safest insecticides for use around food. Kenya produced 90% (over 6,000 tonnes) of the world’s pyrethrum in 1998, called py for short. Production in Tanzania and Ecuador is also significant. Currently the worlds major producer is Tasmania, Australia.

  • Tanacetum coccineum

    C. coccineum, the Persian chrysanthemum, is a perennial plant native to Caucasus and looks somewhat like a daisy. It produces large white, pink or red flowers. The leaves resemble those of ferns, and the plant grows to between 30 and 60 cm in height. The flowering period is June to July in temperate climates (Northern Hemisphere). C. coccineum also contains insecticidal pyrethrum substances, but it is a poor source compared to C. cinerariifolium.

  • Other species, such as C. balsamita and C. marshalli, also contain insecticidal substances, but are less effective than the two species mentioned above.

Tanacetum cinerariifolium

Insecticides

Sprays

Pyrethrum was used for centuries as an insecticide,and as a lice remedy in the Middle East (Persian powder, also known as “Persian pellitory”). It was sold worldwide under the brand Zacherlin by Austrian industrialist J. Zacherl.

The flowers should be dried and then crushed and mixed with water. Pyrethrum can be harmful to humans.

  • Pyrethroids are synthetic insecticides based on natural pyrethrum (pyrethrins); one common example is permethrin. A common formulation of pyrethrin is in preparations containing the synthetic chemical piperonyl butoxide: this has the effect of enhancing the toxicity to insects and speeding the effects when compared with pyrethrins used alone. These formulations are known as synergized pyrethrins.

Companion planting

Because Chrysanthemums contain pyrethrums, they are used as companion plants, to repel pest insects from nearby crops and ornamental plants.[4] They are thought to repel aphids, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius), leafhoppers, spider mites, harlequin bugs, ticks, pickleworms and imported cabbage worms, among others that are in gardens and farms. For example, they are planted among broccoli plants for protection from several common insect pests.

NY Times bureau chief expelled from Pakistan

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2New York Times-ի աշխատակիցը վտարվել է ՊակիստանիցThe New York Times bureau chief in Pakistan was expelled from the country early Sunday after being ordered to leave for unspecified “undesirable activities”.

Declan Walsh, who was hired by the newspaper last year after covering Pakistan for British newspaper The Guardian since 2004, was handed an expulsion order at his home at 12:30 am, according to the Times.

“Here I go. Hard to believe this is happening,” the 39-year-old tweeted early Sunday after filing his last report on the country’s landmark general elections.

The expulsion order stated: “It is informed that your visa is hereby cancelled in view of your undesirable activities,” according to the Times.

“You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours.”

Walsh has written about the country’s political strife, its insurgency and its sometimes tense relations with the United States.

Bangladesh to raise garment workers’ minimum wages

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1Բանգլադեշում կարի գործարանների աշխատակիցների աշխատավարձերը կբարձրÕBangladesh has set up a panel to raise the minimum wage for millions of garment workers, a minister said Sunday, as tens of thousands protested over poor conditions highlighted by a series of disasters.

“We’ve set up a minimum wage board for the garment sector. We did it in view of the workers’ demand to hike their salaries,” textile minister Abdul Latif Siddique told AFP.

A typical Bangladeshi garment worker takes home less than $40 a month, a wage that Pope Francis has condemned as akin to slave labour. Their minimum wage was last raised — by 80 percent — in November 2010.

The panel will include union representatives as well as factory owners, Siddique added. “There is no doubt the salaries will be hiked,” he said.