Five of the six member states of the CSTO officially endorsed the candidacy of the head of the Security Council of Belarus Stanislav Zas for the post of Secretary General of the organization, Kommersant newspaper reported.

Zas has met with the leaders of CSTO member states, except for Armenia.

“The meeting with the acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia has been postponed to a later date,” he noted.

Moscow hopes that the issue of the appointment of the CSTO Secretary General will be settled before the end of this year and counts “on wisdom of the Armenian side”, the newspaper reported quoting a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

A woman had set on fire a man whom she knew, in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

On July 16, this 50-year-old woman had once again argued with a 55-year-old Yerevan man whom she knew, and with respect to domestic issues. During this dispute, however, the woman had poured a container full of gasoline on this man and set him on fire.

The man had sustained burns to about 20 percent of his skin, with subsequent burn shock and illnesses.

The attorneys of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan have appealed to the Court of Cassation the Criminal Court of Appeal decision on remanding him in custody.

Kocharyan’s attorneys will file a motion with the court that he be released from custody on bail.

With its ruling on December 7, the Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the first instance court’s July 27 decision on remanding Robert Kocharyan in custody.

The new Armenian authorities state that they are ready for talks with Turkey without preconditions; but our precondition is clear, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

“Would we [Turkey] make a move without taking Azerbaijan’s [respective] sensitivity into account?” Cavusoglu added in his response. “Simultaneous steps should be taken to normalize relations and resolve issues with both Azerbaijan and Turkey. The Karabakh issue, the issue of occupied lands needs to be resolved.”