A 31-year old lieutenant has become the latest Armenian soldier to die under questionable circumstances while serving in a combat post.

Artak Nazaryan died Tuesday at his base in the Tavush province. The Ministry of Defense says Nazaryan – who joined the army for contract service eight months ago – used a machine gun to commit suicide.

A drought in Russia has led to a 20-25 percent hike in bread prices in Armenia. Economists predict even steeper increases in all wheat-based products, as Russian farmers – who produce nearly 80 percent of Armenia’s wheat supply – suffer their worst drought in 120 years.

Consumer rights activists, however, say that the current increase is unfounded, charging that the stocks of current flour are sufficient to supply demand and that prices should not be affected yet. In fact, prices have not yet been affected in Russia, though officials expect up to a 30 percent increase after the autumn harvest.

Officials are concerned that prisons in Armenia are overcrowded, with double the number of prisoners they were made to hold, and are appealing to authorities to reform the parole system to grant amnesty.

This week a group of public observers held monitoring visits to nine detention centers where they found that in some prisons 20 inmates are kept in cells designed for eight. The overcrowding is believed to be a potential cause of increased violence and suicide.

The Administrative Court of Yerevan has dismissed the action of 7,230 citizens against the rise of natural gas tariffs. The court found on Monday (July 26) that the rise in prices was merited and consistent with the price of imported natural gas. The court also cited as part of its decision, the fact that ArmRosgazprom, an Armenian-Russian gas distributor company made huge investments.

Train tickets are the new breadline in 2010 Yerevan.

Like their komrades of the early 1990s queuing for loaves in the days of scarcity, residents eager to escape to the Black Sea for holiday gather as early as 5 a.m. at the railway station in Yerevan hoping to buy a ride to Batumi, Georgia.

The opposition Heritage Party and Armenian National Movement (HHSh) each held their congresses during the past two weeks; and while the oppositionists call for a change of power in Armenia, leadership changes have taken place within their own parties heralding the launch of pre-election campaigns. (The next parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled to be held in 2012).

A school planned to open in Dilijian and promising to make Armenia a respected center of regional and international study may not ever see a stone laid, due to public reaction over Armenia’s controversial “law on language”, allowing for curriculum to be taught in a foreign language.

The Dilijan International School, the brainchild of Moscow tycoon philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, broke ground in April with President Serzh Sargsyan planting a “tree of knowledge” to herald the project. Expected to open in 2013, the project now is indefinite, owing to “an atmosphere that rejects” the idea.

An Armenian historian and researcher has warned that another Armenian church in Georgia is being Georgianized – St. Gevorg of Mughni Church in Tbilisi, which collapsed last year, and which is currently being reconstructed through the efforts of Georgian authorities, now is proclaimed to be Georgian.

“This is a deliberate act of destruction, which is being implemented by the Georgian Church, whereas our Church is silent: they [Armenian Church representatives] are active when a new church is to be constructed,” Samvel Karapetyan, head of the Yerevan branch of the Research on Armenian Architecture NGO, told ArmeniaNow.

Armenia’s Criminal Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed the actions of the legal successors of Tigran Khachatryan, Armen Farmanyan and Gor Kloyan, killed in the March 1, 2008 post-election clashes after being hit by tear gas capsules presumably fired by riot police. The victims’ parents appealed the verdict by the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of General Jurisdiction, which a month ago dismissed the victims’ actions, according to which they accused the Special Investigation Service of inappropriate investigation of the murder circumstances.

The judicial process was launched on April 16, however, from the very beginning the victims’ parents were sure that all the judicial instances of the Republic of Armenia would dismiss their actions.

Specialists say the number of deaths on the roads has considerably decreased during one year after Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan last August ordered the enforcement of the seatbelt wearing rule for motorists.

According to the data presented by Colonel Norik Sargsyan, Head of the Road Patrol Service Department at Armenia’s Road Police, in the past six months alone, the number of road accident deaths has decreased by 35 as compared to the corresponding period of 2009, while the number of those injured has decreased by 65.