The Syunik Marz firefighting inspectorate has registered 96 fires this year. The amount of damage makes up 54 million 183 thousand drams. But the year is not over yet. In 2007, there were 71 fires registered.

There were some 100 enterprises in Shirak Marz during the Soviet era, which annually gave production of 11 billion rubles.

From now on, the residents of the 4 high-story buildings in Alaverdi will hold their meetings and make decisions to have clean entrances, safe roofs and nice yards and UNDP experts are lending them a hand. With their help, the Alaverdi city council has created the first condominium.

The bridge of the remote frontier village Chinari needs emergency repair. It has been tumbledown since 2004. Passengers usually get off buses at the bridge.

The Italian cities of Friul, Venice and Julia of the Udine state of Italy and the Dilijan city of Tavush Marz of Armenia are now sister cities, according to a treaty signed in Italy.

Nearly 650 citizens are registered in the Union for Blinds of the Shirak Marz. The union has production units where visually impaired people prepare folders, electric switches and other accessories.

No reductions are expected in Kapan's “Dino Gold” Company for the coming three months. The visit of three Government officials to Syunik turned out to be a success.

28 workers of the Ijevan polyclinic have sent a letter to RA Presidnet Serj Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. They are complaining of the fact that since September 1 their salary has been reduced by 50%. The salary of the nurses is at present 12 500 AMD. The doctors inform that they provide medical care for soldiers, thus saving millions of drams.

The miners of Agarak's copper molybdenum factory will go on strike from November 11 in case their demands are not met. They staged a warning strike on November 5-6. The factory administration has decided to send over 300 employees to a forced outage and fire 50 pensioners. M

Although the number of patients with intestinal disease has gone up in Gyumri’s infectious and antituberculous hospital, no epidemic outburst has been reported in the city.

The construction of an Iran-Armenia alternative highway cost dear to the municipal council of Shikahogh village. Many trees have been uprooted but so far the council hasn’t got the compensation of 500 000 drams.

It is three months no newspaper has come out in the city of Gyumri. In the result of the recent Georgian-Ossetian conflict printing-presses stand idle. Because of the war no paper has been imported to Armenian for three months.

The 7th century-old church located in the border village of Baghanis in the Tavush Marz is currently being torn down and has been abandoned. The church is “decorated” with different names and rocks have been taken out. There is an old cemetery next to the church, but there is no fence.

After the October 1, 2008, Presidential election in Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev replaced Heydar Babayev on the position of Minister of Economic Development.

Residents of building 82 in Blbulyan str., Ijevan, have been looking forward to the privatization of their flats for six years. The 5-storey building was reconstructed in 2002 after the earthquake of 1988.

The Gyumri branch of Armrusgasard CJSC ensures that the gas price will not go up by April 2009. Taking into account the grave social conditions in Gyumri gasification is carried out without the advance payment of 40 000 drams.

Wine producers of the Bagratashen, Debedavan, Ptghavan, Artchis, Ltchkadzor and Berdavan communities accepted grapes for 130 drams a kilogram this year at the Yerevan Wine and Champagne Factory in the village of Debedavan. But the factory paid only 5% of the crop that was given and postponed the rest of the payment for 2009.

It is already a month citizens of Noyemberian get drinking water once a week. The city gets water from a 58-km-long water-pipe drifting from Mount Gidzsar.

The three contenders for the mayor elections in Berd of Tavush Marz to be held on October 19 are acting mayor and head of the territorial branch of the Armenian Republican Party Andranik Sharian, individual entrepreneur, non-partisan Ashot Melikian, as well as former owner of the already liquidated Berd polyclinic, non-partisan Hmayak Adamian.

President of the “Dial Net Service” NGO, nonpartisan Ashot Hovhannisyan has withdrawn from the race for Dilijan Mayor, reports Chairman of Precinct 41 (seat in Ijevan) Smbat Gasparian.

Local elections are due in Ijevan City, Tavush Marz, on October 19, 2008. Forty-four candidates stand for the fifteen posts of the city council.

Republican Jora Sahabalian, ex mayor of Dilijan Town, head of the Tavush State Department of Environmental Protection, withdrew from the Mayor’s race on October 1, informed Chairman of Precinct 41 (seat in Ijevan) Smbat Gasparian.

Over 360 children attended Barekamavan’s eight-year school in the 1980s. Today only 42 pupils go to the local secondary school. Most doors in this frontier village became locked because of the ongoing migration. Lately a house has been pulled down and sold as building material.

Life in the Regional Center Ijevan, Tavush Region is rather active. There are many shops and food stores in the city. Besides the city is under construction, but the economic activity is not reflected in the community budget.