TWIN TOWNS: Kapan, in southern Armenia, and Glendale, California, are going to become sister-cities by the initiative of the Dashnaktsutyun party. A Glendale delegation of 25 people has come to Armenia to plan cooperation between the cities, ARMINFO reported October 3

The U.S. city of 200,000 is nearly half Armenian, most settling there between 1970-90 from Lebanon, Iran, Syria and from Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia.

WOMEN'S ISSUE: The "National Plan of Actions to Improve the Conditions of Women and Increase Their Role" is being prepared and will be sent to government's approval late in October, ARMENPRESS reported October 4.

The Plan of Actions has been elaborated for almost 12 months with participation of non-governmental and international organizations. The National Plan of Actions encompasses the role of women in all areas of social, economic and political life.

EX-PRESIDENT'S REVELATION: The first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, is unlikely to return to big politics unless a final solution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict is found, said the former president's ally Ararat Zurabyan, the ex-prefect of Yerevan's Centre community.

As ARMINFO reported October 5 Zurabyan stressed that in private conversations the former president deeply regrets the fact that in his time he had invited Robert Kocharyan to Armenia, and in fact he invited him "to head the government but not for the presidency."

SAFE AVIATION: The Armenian government approved October 6 the National Program on Aviation Safety, which determines the principles of the state policy in this sphere and aims at providing foreign and internal aviation safety, smooth and effective work, ARMENPRESS reported.

An inter-agency commission, which is to determine the regulations, was created for implementation of the program, which reflects the standards and principles determined by Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.

RUSSIA'S ADVISE TO AZERBAIJAN: The new Azeri president will need time for determining his position on the Karabagh conflict settlement, says Russia's Ambassador to Armenia Anatoly Dryukov.

As ARMINFO reported October 6 the Ambassador said that the situation around the conflict is quite difficult now as the Azeri leadership is going through a change of generations. "I sincerely wish this process to be intensified with the election of a new Azeri president and the conflict to be resolved with due regard for the interests of both Armenia and Azerbaijan," said Drukov.

FIGHT AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING: Armenia made another step toward implementing the international experience of fighting corruption YERKIR daily writes.

On October 6 President Kocharyan submitted to the National Assembly's ratification the Convention on Laundering, Searching and Confiscation of the Money Acquired by Criminal Ways.

Armen Rustamyan, the National Assembly's Foreign Relations Committee Chairman called the ratification of the 1990 Strasbourg convention a critical precondition in fighting corruption. Rustamyan also said that the ratification is important in the sense of joining GRECO, an anti-corruption organization.

ISTAMBUL-YEREVAN FLIGHT: Turkish Flay Airlines will start operating next week a new Istanbul-Yerevan flight, ARMENPRESS reported October 7. The idea to start the new flight was conceived by an Istanbul-based Tower Travel and the Yerevan Bagrat Tour. The first plane will arrive in Yerevan October 16.

Tigran Altoun, a Turkish Armenian businessman and head of Tower Travel, described the flight as "a revolution, the first step towards opening Turkish-Armenian borders". Round-trip tickets price will range from $230 to $270. The flights will be operated on Monday and Thursday by Turkish pilots and Armenian flight attendants.

LESS CORRUPT: Armenia was rated the second least corrupt country of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in an annual global survey released by the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, RFE/RL Yerevan bureau reported October 7.

Only one CIS country covered by the survey, Belarus, ranked higher than Armenia, grabbing the respectable 53rd place. Together with four other countries, Armenia shares 78th place in the Berlin-based organization's 2003 rankings of 133 nations based on the degree of their government corruption perceived by business leaders, academicians and risk analysts.

MONITORING OF ARMY ISSUES: An Armenian non-governmental organization Soldier's Mother, is monitoring the situation of murders and suicides in the Armenian armed forces. ARMENPRESS reported October 7 that Embassy of Great Britain has pledged to provide funds for implementation of the monitoring.

WASHINGTNON DOES NOT OBJECT, BUT: Official Washington's adopting any bill on the Genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 will not contribute to a final resolution of the problem, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Ordway said at a press conference October 8.

ARMINFO news agency quoted Ordway as saying that a final solution to the issue could be reached only in case of developing a dialogue between Armenia and Turkey. The American diplomat said that one should not focus on the 1915 events, but try to learn relevant lessons from them and think of how to develop relations with the neighboring states.

NO MORE PETROL STATIONS: Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan signed an order banning allocation of land for construction of new petrol filling stations and other buildings, ARMENPRESS reported October 9. The decision also bans reconstruction of other buildings into petrol filling stations. Zakharyan said the problem of petrol filling stations which have mushroomed in the last couple of years must be reviewed.