The Armenian government moved on Thursday to obtain yet another large-scale foreign loan which it hopes will help the country overcome the ongoing economic crisis.

The Armenian authorities have again failed to sell off a mineral water company that was controversially confiscated from a wealthy opposition-linked businessman, a senior official said on Wednesday.

A key watchdog of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has given a mostly negative assessment of government-drafted amendments to an Armenian law regulating the work of non-governmental organizations, it emerged on Wednesday.

Citing a continuing slump in construction, one of Armenia’s two cement factories halted production operations and effectively laid off most of its 600 workers on Wednesday.

The Armenian authorities will make another attempt this week to sell off a mineral water company that was controversially confiscated from a wealthy opposition-linked businessman.

Yelena Bonner, the widow of Soviet-era rights defender Andrei Sakharov and an outspoken rights campaigner in her own right, has lamented what she says is a decline in the invocation of her late husband’s name and ideals, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned President Serzh Sarkisian late Thursday just hours after he threatened to annul Armenia’s fence-mending agreements with Turkey if Ankara fails to unconditionally implement them, it emerged on Friday.

International mediators visited Baku on Friday to start preparations for more talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents which they hope will lead to a framework peace accord on Nagorno-Karabakh next year.

Armenia on Thursday explicitly threatened to walk away from its landmark agreements with Turkey if Ankara continues to make their implementation conditional on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia’s leading oligarchs have all but stopped funding a pan-Armenian charity that has been implementing large-scale infrastructure projects in Nagorno-Karabakh, it emerged on Wednesday.

Armenia on Wednesday denounced Turkish leaders’ continuing linkage of Turkish-Armenian relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that Ankara risks wrecking the western-backed rapprochement between the two states.

Russia is ready to reopen its main border crossing with Georgia heavily used by Armenian exporters despite refusing to deal with the current Georgian leadership, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

The National Assembly allowed the Armenian government on Tuesday to deploy a small contingent of troops in Afghanistan in line with its commitments to NATO.

The parliament overwhelmingly ratified a relevant agreement, signed by Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian and top NATO officials last month, after a one-day debate that attracted surprisingly little interests from many lawmakers.

Armenian farmers have grown 10 percent more grapes this fall and have already sold out of them despite the ongoing economic crisis, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday.