Leader of Tseghakron  Party Shant Haroutiunyan has ended hunger strike, but he is still at  "Hospital for Convicts" Penitentiary, the Criminal Executive  Department of the Justice Ministry told ArmInfo.

According to the source, later today the Department will decide  whether to leave Haroutiunyan at hospital or move him to the  Nubarashen Penitentiary. 

To recall, Shant Harutyunyan was arrested following the 5 Nov 2013  developments in Liberty Square. The clashes in Liberty Square started  at 5:30 PM when the demonstrators came across a police cordon. The  police say that the demonstration was not sanctioned. As was reported  earlier, the demonstrators were moving to Mashtots Park, when Shant  Harutyunyan tried to cross the street against the traffic lights. The  police's attempt to stop him ended in a skirmish. Harutyunyan was  detained. Some demonstrators began blowing up bottles with gasoline.  Earlier Shant Harutyunyan organized a picket in Liberty Square. He 
stood there with a poster saying "I am Declaring a Revolution!" A  total of 37 people were detained, 14 of them were arrested.

The statement made by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Moscow in Dec 2013 has questioned the future of integration in the post-Soviet area, independent Russian expert Sergey Markedonov said in an interview to ArmInfo.

Tbilisi. Crime rate dropped by 25,7% in 2013, as compared with the data of 2012 - Georgian Ministry of Interior's (MoI) press service reported on Thursday, January 9.

Tbilisi. Gigi Ugulava, whom the court dismissed from Tbilisi Mayor's post in connection with the state funds embezzlement case, has offered his mother- in-law's apartment as a bail for his release from detention  for the period of investigation - Ugulava's lawyer, Gogita Gabaidze, told journalists.

There is unconfirmed information that OJSC NC Rosneft has acquired all the oil assets of Mika Limited in Armenia, a source close to oil business in Armenia told ArmInfo.  

After a 16-day hunger strike, Leader of Tseghakron Party Shant Harutyunyan was moved to Hospital for Prisoners on January 9.   

 The smoked crocodile, the New Year offer from one of the large Armenian trade chains, has found itself in the focus of the French media's attention. 

 Enterprise Incubator Foundation, which specializes in information technologies, will become the operator of Guymri Information Technologies Center. Such a decision was adopted at today's session of the government. 

The draft decision was submitted by the Economy Minister Vahram Avanesyan. He said that the building of the Center has been completed.  After registration, the Center will be transferred without charge for 20 years to Enterprise Incubator Foundation, the minister added.  The property on the books of the Industry Development Foundation will be also transferred to the Enterprise Incubator Foundation.

Salaries of civil servants in Armenia will be increased 40% in average starting July 1 2014. So, they will avoid any difficulties with payments to the mandatory accumulative pension fund, Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Artyom Asatryan told reports, Thursday. 

 Director of the Scientific Centre for Zoology and Hydro Ecology under Armenia's National Academy of Science, Bardukh Gabrielyan, has pointed at positive and negative sides of the programme for replenishment the stock of trout in Sevan and development of fish breeding. According to this programme, an incubator, fry breeding farm and fish processing factory will be created. Production of this factory will be chiefly exported. As ecologists informed, "Emi Fruit" company has already finished the pilot project and submitted its calculations to the government.  

Armenians are not able to make a revolution, they prefer observing the process, Aharon Adibekyan, Director of Sociometer Center, told reports, on 9 January. 
He said Armenians do not want to change anything in their country.

 National Revival Party has disseminated a statement wherein it blames the prosecutor's office for not reporting details of the assassination attempt on Vitaly Balasanyan, parliamentarian of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The National Revival Party Executive Board casts doubt on impartial inquiry into the case.

The South Caucasus Railway CJSC carried over 7,100 passengers During the New Year holidays (Dec 26 2013-Jan 7 2014)

In Nov 2013 economic activity in Armenia dropped by 9.4%.

 A protest action will be held in Liberty Square in Yerevan Jan 10, 1 pm. The action will be held in support of Leader of Tseghakron Party Shant Harutyunyan and his supporters arrested following the 5 Nov 2013 developments in Liberty Square.     

 Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov will probably take place in the third week of January, according to a diplomatic source. In the near future the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will visit Geneva to discuss the format of negotiations with the OSCE Chairman- Minister for Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, contact.az reported.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto joined with people of Armenian descent around California and the world in calling for the United States to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as a sovereign state.  The resolution, AJR 32, invokes strong language from the United States' own history regarding the rights of the people to "self-determination and democratic independence", Azatutyun.am reported referring to the Armenian Council of America.