AIDS MIRACLE CURE DISCOVERED IN ARMENIA?

Armenia’s Internal Affairs and State Security Ministry, which has yet to resolve the series of spectacular assassinations of senior and lesser Armenian officials (see the Monitor, December 11, 1998, and February 10, 1999), claims to have scored an entirely different kind of achievement. The minister, Serge Sarkisian, went on national television to announce that scientific research sponsored by his ministry has developed the definitive cure for AIDS.

The medicine, labeled Armenicum, has been experimented–with complete success, according to Sarkisian–on a batch of thirteen AIDS patients who volunteered for the treatment. Armenia’s medical and pharmaceutical agency has already authorized the use of Armenicum for treatment purposes within Armenia, pending the drug’s evaluation by international authorities. Armenian officials are being quoted as anticipating “billions of dollars” in revenue from the treatment of patients worldwide, once Armenicum is authorized for international use (Noyan-Tapan, Respublika Armeniya, BBC, February 22-25).

RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES CLAIM TO HAVE APPREHENDED UZBEK TERRORISTS.