Armenia-Israel relations can be characterized as positive, but genuine efforts are still needed to develop these relations, Israel's Ambassador to Armenia Shmuel Meirom told reporters, Friday. 

 Businessman  Ashot Sukiasyan involved in the offshore scandal with ex-premier of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, and Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan - Vicar General of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has been arrested upon extradition to Armenia, Armenia's Prosecutor General's Office reported. 

 Director of the Zvartnots Historical-Cultural Museum- Reserve V. Grigoryan has been fired over carelessness, with Head of the Service for Protection of the Historical-Cultural Museum-Reserves in Armenia Vardan Poghosyan being roundly rebuked. Ministry of Culture told Armenia a private company organized a corporate party in the area of the Reserve, but failed to fulfill all the provisions in the appropriate agreements. 

 Official Baku has been recalling the 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council on the Karabakh conflict very often in the recent years. Baku keeps demanding Armenia to fulfill these resolutions. Meanwhile, this is a very volatile topic for Azerbaijan, first of all.  

Armenia's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) can have no direct impact on settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Vladimir Kazimirov, the former OSCE MG Co-Chair of Russia, told reporters in Yerevan on 20 June. 

 Magnus Carlsen, the World Chess Champion, will visit Armenia on 22-24 June, the Chess Federation of Armenia said.

 Foreign Minister of Georgia Maya Panjikidze believes that direct flights Tbilisi-Yerevan must be resumed. The minister made such statement at the Thursday meeting with her Armenian opposite number Edward Nalbandian in Tbilisi. 

The Foreign Ministers Council of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted a number of anti-Armenian resolutions, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend on June 19.

On June 18-19, Saudi city of Jeddah hosted the 41st Session of the OIC Foreign Ministers Council held under the slogan 'Exploring Areas of Islamic Cooperation."

On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee unanimously passed AB 1915, The Armenian Genocide Education Act, with a vote of 7-0. The human rights education measure authored by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (D - Sherman Oaks), will require the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in the list of studied subject areas for the adopted courses of study in Social Science for 7-12. It will also encourage the incorporation of an oral history component into the teaching of human rights, and genocides, including the Holocaust, Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides. Asbarez said.

 "Russia can achieve much by helping Azerbaijan settle the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," said the Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov, APA reported.

 Georgia and Armenia have agreed to open direct flights from Batumi to Yerevan, Minister of Economy of Georgia Georgi Kvirikashvili said after signing a cooperation agreement, Thursday, in Tbilisi.

Two activists of "Get Your Hands Out of Our Pockets!" movement have been detained in the course of today's motor rally in Yerevan. The activists demand liquidation of paid parking in the public areas, a 5-fold reduction of the fines for the violations registered by radars, as well as writing off the fines registered before a new system will be introduced in Yerevan.

Armenian and Georgian officials did not discuss opening of the Abkhazian railway at their meeting in Tbilisi, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Georgy Kvirikashvili and Foreign Minister of Georgia Maya Panjikidze told reporters, Thursday.  

 Armenia seeks restoration of direct railway communication linking Georgia and Russia via the territory of Abkhazia, but is no 'serious talk' on that topic so far, Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan told Rustavi-2 TV, Novosti-Gruzia reports.  The Armenian president is on an official visit to Georgia these days. 

 Armenia's railway infrastructure is absolutely ready to opening of traffic towards Turkey, president of the "Russian railways" OJSC, Vladimir Yakunin, said when replying to Arminfo correspondent's question. 

 Despite the complicated economic situation, in 2013 South Caucasus Railway (SCR) CJSC ensured profit, which, however, considerably dropped as compared with the previous year, Russian Railway President Vladimir Yakunin said during the commissioning of two SCR industrial complexes on Wednesday. (For the first time, the company started operating at a profit in 2011. In 2012 the SCR net profit totaled 40 mln RUR - editor's note).

 It's not dreadful to hold events near the Temple of Garni, the law does not forbid it, says Vladimir Poghosyan, Director of the Agency for Historical Environment Protection and Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserves of the Armenian Ministry of Culture.   

 The opposition has managed to break the situation when the authorities used to force any odious decision in the parliament without any obstacle, the head of the Armenian National Congress parliamentary faction, Levon Zurabyan, told Arminfo correspondent. 

Georgia's National Security Council will consider the possibility of a direct railway service with Russia through Abkhazia, the leader of the majority of the Georgian Parliament Georgy Volsky told journalists on Thursday.

The existence of such inscriptions as "Nagorno Karabakh Republic" and names of a row of other regions in the territory of Artsakh in the Armenian language in International search system Google Maps has produced hysteria in Azerbaijan.