Armenia Ranks 79 in Free Countries IndexAugust 7, 2006 - 18:54 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The 2006 State of World Liberty Index ranks countries from most to least libertarian by compiling information from four freedom indices into one single index. The indices used were:The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal, the Frasier Institute/Cato Institute, Freedom House, Reporters without Borders. The countries were broken into three criteria: individual freedom, economic freedom and government size/taxation and averaged. According to the index, the freest region is Europe whole the freest country is Estonia. "The world is not free," the experts say. The world receives a failing score of 56.9% out of 100. The mangled corpse of the Soviet Union is stretched across the list, with the Baltic states of Estonia (#1), Lithuania (#16) and Latvia (#21) all making the top 25 after embracing free market liberalism, while their neighbor Belarus (#153) and the Asian countries Turkmenistan (#154) and Uzbekistan (#152) dangle in the bottom ten. Armenia (#79), Russia (#124), Kazakhstan (#132), Tajikistan (#141) and Azerbaijan (#137) are also struggling in a post-Soviet world. North Korea is at the bottom of this list, with a score of 6.2%. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Russia sends note of protest to Armenia over envoy’s trip to Ukraine’s Bucha Russia has sent a note of protest to Armenia over the visit of Vladimir Karapetyan and Tigran Ter-Margaryan to Bucha. Armenia: Protesters march to parliament, some spend the night on street The protesters did not disperse despite heavy rain that began at around 2 a.m. local time. Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Pashinyan visits flood-hit region Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, June 8 visited the disaster area in the Lori province. |