[ last updated 16:18 ] The Armenian government approved on Friday its draft budget for next year that envisages an 18 percent increase in public spending which will largely be channeled into social security, health care and education.
[ last updated 16:20 ] President Robert Kocharian chaired on Friday a joint meeting of Armenia’s and Nagorno-Karabakh’s governments, calling for a greater coordination of their policies and closer contacts between their members.
[ last updated 16:26 ] A close associate of opposition leader Aram Sarkisian issued on Friday a stern rebuke to the latter’s jailed brother for praising President Robert Kocharian in a newspaper interview published last week.
[ last updated 16:29 ] France's Armenian community said Friday it would appeal to President Jacques Chirac to prevent negotiations on Turkish membership of the European Union until Turkey acknowledged responsibility for the World War I massacre of Armenians.
[ last updated 16:17 ] “The [political] atmosphere is increasingly resembling the atmosphere that exists in the run-up to elections, even though there are still no signs that Robert Kocharian could resign or dissolve parliament,” writes “Iravunk.”
[ last updated 16:18 ] 
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