A well-known Armenian human rights activist remains in hospital, suffering wounds inflicted when he was attacked Tuesday morning in Yerevan.

Mikael Danielyan, 45, Chairman of the Armenian Office of Vienna based Helsinki Association was attacked by four unknown men outside his home on Papazyan Street, while walking his dog. His assailants attacked Danielyan from behind, knocked him down, then kicked him until he lost consciousness.

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I’ve just returned from Tbilisi, where Georgia’s political air is fresh with change and promises being fulfilled by an opposition’s hero. Returned to Yerevan, where the pollution of threat is about as much as this “Opposition” can muster, relying on names that are now sunk by whatever weight they might once have carried.

Not since last year’s presidential elections has there been any public demonstration of discontent against Robert Kocharyan’s government. In his sixth year at the helm the Ship of State has sailed mostly smoothly, if one ignores the considerable fact that it has left many behind in its voyage toward prosperity.

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In the Ltchashen village of the Gegharkunik Region, some 100 kilometers northeast of Yerevan, 65 year old Paytsar Grigoryan runs from house to house administering vaccinations to children before the medicine can spoil.

She has no way of keeping it fresh, and there is not even a window in what used to be the village medical outpost.

Paytsar has been a nurse for 50 years, and remembers when the Soviet system managed an efficient clinic in Ltchashen.

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The troublesome problem of Yerevan street dogs may be about to come to a more civilized conclusion than the current method for control.

In the absence of a better -- previously unaffordable – animal control policy, nuisance dogs are simply shot by hunters who go out late at night to claim a 70-cents bounty on each dog they shoot dead. It is a barbaric method that also creates disruption, disturbing residents’ sleep with the sound of gunfire and yelping dogs.

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This year, and for the first time in five years, 50 million drams (about $90,000) have been allotted from the budget of Armenia for preservation of historical monuments.

"Of course 50 million drams is a small sum but it is important that the sum has finally been allotted and from year to year this sum will be increasing," says Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Gagik Giurjyan.

Three monuments are scheduled to be restored from the allotted sum: Vorotnavank (medieval architectural monument and monastery in Sisian), Bardzrial cross (in Noyemberian) and the old bridge of Ashtarak.

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Armenia ’s Under-17 national football team finished third in Group 2 of the second qualifying round and failed to enter the final tournament that will be taking place this May in France.

Armenians must have taken only first place in the group to enter the final stage, however two losses and one victory were not enough for that.

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