Armenia commemorates Spitak earthquake victimsDecember 7, 2007 - 12:18 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - 19 years have passed since the devastating Spitak earthquake that shocked Armenia December 7, 1988. At 11.41 a.m. local time a magnitude 10 earthquake destroyed the entire city of Spitak. There was great damage to the nearby cities of Leninakan (now known as Gyumri) and Kirovakan (today Vanadzor) and some 350 surrounding villages.The earthquake claimed lives of 25 thousand people; some 100 thousand were wounded; over 500 thousand became homeless. It was rated among the most crushing calamities of the world. By Armenian President's edict, a newly formed state committee was charged with the task to develop a program of events till January 15, 2008. The government was instructed to finance the events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the earthquake. Top stories The Cabinet of Ministers decided on Thursday, November 9 to allocated AMD 120 million to arrange the gathering. Michael Roth believes sanctions must be put on the table after Baku‘s ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Yerevan City Council has elected Tigran Avniyan from the ruling Civil Contract as the mayor of the Armenian capital. The Armenian Parliament on Tuesday, October 3 voted to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |