The main problem for more than 170,000 people with disabilities living in Armenia is finding a job.

The non-governmental organizations (NGO) which actively deal with the issue, believe that there can be considerable progress only if major and middle-sized companies have a mandatory amount of workplaces for the disabled; whereas the Government does not consider this to be a solution.

Corporal Khachatur Sargsyan has been charged with murder in the death of private Paylak Shahnazaryan, who was shot on January 27 at his unit in Karabakh.

The Reporters without Borders (RWB) media watchdog’s annual report on press freedom for 2011-2012 states that as compared to 2010 Armenia has improved its position by 24 points, enjoying the 77th position instead of the previous 101st. RWB, however, does not consider this to be great progress.

The Armenian opposition and families of the 2008 post-election unrest victims are outraged by the mid-term report on the deadly clashes released by the Special Investigation Service (SIS) that describes its 10 victims as criminal “participants of mass disorders”.

A court case concerning the death of army lieutenant Artak Nazaryan, who died under mysterious circumstance while on post in Tavush province in 2010, has been moved from Yerevan to Ijevan. Judge Samvel Mardanyan cited concerns over public order and the availability of a witness pool as reasons for the move.

Human Rights Watch released on Sunday its annual report for 2011, saying that Armenian authorities continue violating human rights in a number of spheres.

Once again Armenia has been included on the list of ‘partially free’ countries in the Freedom House Annual Report 2012, published on Thursday, however, Nagorno-Karabakh, as last year, has registered regress, being defined as a ‘non-free’ territory, instead of the previous ‘partially free’.

Life became hell for 25-year-old Armine the day when her mother made her marry her own (the mother’s) lover, who was 18 years older than Armine.

“He [her husband] used to throw me on the sofa and beat me with a metal pipe, and to kick me wearing rubber boots. He used to pull his 80-year-old mother by her hair, hitting her head on the walls and crying – go and bring my vodka,” recalls Armine Sargsyan, mother of three sons from Stepanavan, Lori province.

The Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Defense Ministry’s Investigation Service have reported a decrease in the army crime rate as well as in the number of deaths in the ranks in 2011.

But a leading human rights activist claims to possess a different statistic in this regard, which he says shows no real progress in army reforms.

Lieutenant colonel Minas Mkrtchyan, Head of Neurology Department of the Armenian Military Hospital under the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, was arrested on Wednesday as a suspect in the criminal case on conscript Hayk Khachatryan, who died of chickenpox disease. Mkrtchyan is charged with “negligent medical treatment, causing serious damage.”