On the occasion of the national holiday the Armenian president paid tribute to those who died in the military service of the country at a ceremony in Yerevan.

In a telegram to the South Ossetian leadership Putin promised more support to the self-declared Republic.

If there is ever to be a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Shusha/i will be one of the more difficult issues to be resolved.

A young Armenian and his young family have arrived in Baku seeking political asylum, claiming they could no longer live in Armenia.

Armenian Foreign Minister Nalbandian told senior OSCE official that Armenia is committed to an exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs mediation.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mammadyarov discussed the conflict with visiting Turkish counterpart Sinirlioglu. The Turkish Foreign Minister on his part called on the international community to step up its efforts for a solution.

President Serzh Sargsyan informed leaders of the alliance, meeting in Dushambe, of the threat of escalation of tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and in the Karabakh conflict zone, and the risks that they constitute for the entire South Caucasus region.

This is a slight increase on last year's budget for core defence which was estimated at 1.778 billion manats. These figures however do not include expenditure on "Spercial Defence projects"

US Minsk Group co-Chair said that details will be discussed with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in New York shortly.

One of the items being discussed at the summit is the creation of a pan Turkic television station, an idea described by President Aliev of Azerbaijan as a fine project that will strengthen friendship between Turkic-speaking peoples.