May 29 was the day all were waiting impatiently. From the very beginning, Eva Rivas’s Apricot Stone was screened with mystery. Some said that David Copperfield will make an apricot tree grow at the stage for a huge fee. Participation of famous duduk player Djivan Gasparyan was also questioned.

Open Society Institute Foundation (Soros Foundation) announced localization contest for Symbian, Android and Windows mobile operational systems. With application process completed, expert team will announce the winner to be in charge of project development. Armenian Mobile OS localization program development will be finalized by autumn 2010. Localization package requirements are: Symbian 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.5 (Nokia S60 3rd and 5th Editions), Maemo, Android and WindowsMobile 6.1, 6.5 7.0. OS support; open source programming language.

The upcoming elections in Javakhk, if held, might bring this Armenian-populated region in Georgia to confrontation with the central government of Tbilisi. Today’s Akhalkalaki, alas, is no different from what was here 20 years ago: broken roads, poverty, unemployment, mass migration of the working population into Russia. In fact, all of the Georgian President’s statements on the “care taken of the problems of this region” have no value: there are neither normal roads, nor jobs. People here warm themselves with wood not because the region has no gas, but because the latter is too expensive. The situation in Akhalkalaki further deteriorated after withdrawal of the Russian military base, thanks to which Armenians could work in Javakhk instead of leaving it.

Despite the GDP growth, international financial organizations are not optimistic about Armenia’s capability to overcome the crisis, naming the lack of raw material resources and dependence on foreign financial sources as the main problems.

Boxing: WBC/WBA super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (35-2-1, 27 KOs) stepped up to bantamweight to take the vacant IBO bantamweight belt against Eric Barcelona (51-18-4, 19 KOs) on Thursday night at the Leagues Club in Parramatta, NSW, Australia. Darchinyan dropped Barcelona three times en route to a 120-103, 118-105 and 116-108 win. Barcelona was also deducted two points from low blows.

The past weeks highlights were the parliamentary elections in NKR and debates on European Parliament’s resolution.

With passions over the demolition of Moscow Cinema Open-Air Hall fading, Yerevan residents launched a collection of signatures against construction under way in the Student Park. A group of public activists made a statement, saying that “construction works carried out in the Park can transform the urban green belt into another ferroconcrete structure.” “We are ready to use all legal tools to rescue the parks of Yerevan,” people say.