The Sergei Paradjanov Festival in London and Bristol was opened with Yuri Mechitov’s photographic exhibition at the National Theatre Monday, February 22. The exhibition was composed of rarely seen photographs taken by Georgian photographer Yuri Mechitov during his 11 year friendship with the director. The Sergei Paradjanov Festival in London and Bristol was the first major celebration of the legendary artist and filmmaker whose talent transcends religious and political boarders, drawing on the cultural traditions of Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine and Russia. The Festival aimed to present the life and works of Sergei Paradjanov to UK audiences through a series of diverse events that include: a film season; a moving image installation; a symposium and a workshop at the BFI Southbank; a photographic exhibition at the National Theatre; screenings and talks at Pushkin House; a concert at St. Yeghiche Armenian Church; a film retrospective at Arnolfini (Bristol); and a photographic exhibition at The Bristol Gallery.

The government announced plans to connect most of Armenia’s general and secondary schools to the internet and join them into a unified network by 2011. The director of National Center for Educational Technologies Areg Grigoryan said 624 schools are already connected to the world wide web with plans pending to connect 750 more schools to the internet once work on building the dedicated network is completed as part of a World Bank funded project.

Freestyle Wrestling: Armenia's Ruslan Basiev (w/c 120) and Mihran Jaburyan (w/c 55 kg) won silver at the 2010 Takhti Cup freestyle wrestling tournament which ended in Isfahan (Iran) on February 19. Zhirayr Hovhannisyan (w/c 66) and Edgar Yenokyan (w/c 96) won bronze. Armenian freestyle wrestling coach Araik Baghdadyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that he is satisfied with the performance of his sportsmen.

February 15 is International Childhood Cancer Day. New cases of cancer in Armenia account for 7000 annually, including about 100 children under 15. The figure is terrifying, although they don’t differ much from the world statistics. Cancer is a very insidious disease without marked initial symptoms. In most cases, the latent period of the disease is durable and it can hardly be detected in the initial stage.

The GDP in Armenia grew by 2,4% in January 2010, compared with January 2009 results, to comprise AMD 149,5 billion.