A group of parliament members from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) will tour the frontline on Tuesday on the occasion of the Novruz Holiday, the party’s spokesman said. Huseyn Pashayev told reporters that the delegation led by the NAP Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary Ali Ahmadov would get familiar with the conditions and combat readiness of servicemen in a military unit. The NAP chaired by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was founded in 1992. The first chairman of the party...... полностью

The United States is establishing special laboratory networks in Azerbaijan to prevent the spread of biological diseases. Such facilities have already been commissioned in the central Saatly and Sabirabad districts, and talks are now underway to set up one in the northern Guba district, the State Veterinary Service official said. “These laboratories will serve to discover, track down and prevent 44 hazardous diseases, including bird flu, tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease,” Eldaniz Z...... полностью

The United States embassy has introduced changes to the Democracy Commission Small Grants Program for Azerbaijan. The program, implemented since 1997, allows local non-government organizations to implement projects aimed at democratic development with US funding and technical assistance. Under the changes that the embassy explained by the 2008 presidential elections, NGOs will be able to submit projects concerning democracy and elections throughout the year instead of twice a year. Moreover, ...... полностью

A conference on electronic schooling (e-school) and electronic management of education will be held in Baku on Thursday. Issues relating to the application of information technologies in the country’s secondary schools and electronic management of education will be discussed in the event dedicated to the results of a relevant pilot project implemented in Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said. Minister of Education Misir Mardanov and other government o...... полностью

The Council of Europe mission on media issues arrived in Baku on Tuesday, an Azeri journalistic body head said. Chairman of the Yeni Nasil (New Generation) Union of Journalists, Arif Aliyev, told reporters that the visit of the mission also including British and French experts aimed to assess the current situation with media in Azerbaijan. During the visit to last till Friday, the delegation will meet with Azerbaijani officials as well as NGO and media representatives to discuss areas of a...... полностью

The flights from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Kabul, Afghanistan will be cancelled since Sunday over security concerns, Azerbaijan’s state airline AZAL said. “Although these flights are profitable, there are no guarantees of safety in the Afghan territory,” the AZAL spokesman Maharram Safarli said. “They will be resumed when the situation there stabilizes and the threat posed to the flights ceases to exist.” The flights between the two cities have been administered three times a week si...... полностью

The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense Industry plans to launch production of bullet-proof vests, helmets and other personal protective items soon. “We are in talks on the matter with a number of influential companies of the world, including Israeli ones,” Minister Yaver Jamalov said. He did not rule out that the country would launch output of different types of military machinery in the near future. Jamalov said several facilities manufacturing military goods would be established in the re...... полностью

Food allowances allocated by the state to internally displaced persons (IDPs) will be increased this year, an official said. The Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee on Work with Refugee sand IDPs Ali Hasanov told reporters that food allowances for IDPs currently make up 9 manats per capita. Although the figure is low, the amount of funds allocated for the purpose is great in general, he said. Hasanov said that 67 million manats was allocated from the state budget in 200...... полностью

A German church was re-opened after rehabilitation in Azerbaijan’s northwestern Khanlar District on Wednesday. The Lutheran Church, which was built in 1854, was overhauled by the German Technical Cooperation Society (GTZ). German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Per Stankina, head of the district executive power Arif Seyidov and GTZ representatives as well as MPs and others attended the event. Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador Stankina assessed the rehabilitation of the church as a sign of coop...... полностью

An 18-year-old Azeri girl accused of infecting some 200 people with the deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was convicted by a Baku district court on Wednesday. The court ruled that Elnara Ahmadova was at fault and ordered a nine-month jail sentence. However, the teenager has already spent seven months in detention and will now serve only the rest of her sentence. Ahmadova had failed to notify her sexual partners that she was infected with the virus, public prosecutors said.*... читать

The world champion for child rights UNICEF has condemned the trial of an 18-year-old girl infected with the deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus in a statement issued on Tuesday. A Baku district court is expected to deliver a sentence on the case of the HIV-infected girl, Elnara Ahmadova, who is facing criminal charges of deliberately infecting some 200 people with HIV, on Wednesday. “UNICEF is concerned that the girl child affected by the situations of sale, prostitution and pornography co...... полностью

The Congress of European Azerbaijanis (CEA) intends to open a school for Azerbaijani children in Italy. The proposal on opening the “Weekend” school was made in a meeting of the CEA president Natig Aghamirov with Azerbaijanis during his visit to Italy, according to the State Committee on Work with Azerbaijanis Living Abroad. The measure aims to help Azerbaijani children master their native language, maintain distinct national and moral values as well as to bring together Azerbaijanis livin...... полностью

A forum of Azerbaijani students in France started in Paris on Tuesday. Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov, President of the state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev and the President’s Office international relations department head Novruz Mammadov are participating in the event organized in the French Senate. Bernard Fassier, French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, and officials of several co...... полностью

Representatives of the United Nations nuclear watchdog have started official meetings in Baku. On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representatives had meetings at the Health Ministry and the Cabinet of Ministers. During the third such visit in the past year and a half, the agency officials tabled the proposals submitted by Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani government has recently informed the IAEA that it planned to build a radiation treatment facility and a nuclear rese...... полностью

The population of Azerbaijan increased 1.1% over the past year to make up 8,630,000, including 4,253,000 men and 4,377,000 women, as of early January, the State Statistics Committee chairman Arif Valiyev said. He told reporters that 152,000 babies were born in 2007, or 3,100 over last year, while 53,700 people died. The committee head said that according to estimates, in 2007 the increase in the number of population was 98,300 people, or 1,600 over last year.*... читать

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Project Manager for Azerbaijan Andrei Chupov was expected to start his visit to Baku on late Monday. The goal of the three-day visit is to study the situation with implementation of planned projects on Azerbaijan as well as hold discussions on execution of five projects within technical cooperation. Chupov will also hold meetings in Azerbaijan’s relevant bodies.*... читать

The European Court of Human Rights issued three rulings on Azerbaijan on Thursday. One of the cases was brought by Elchin Abbasov who maintained that his rights to fair trial set forth in a relevant European convention had been violated during the consideration of an appeal on his sentence in the absence of the defendant. The court upheld Abbasov’s plea and ruled that the Azerbaijani government is required to pay him 1,000 euros in damages. Another ruling concerned a plea filed by the head...... полностью

Four officers of the Azerbaijani peacekeeping contingent in Iraq have been conferred with the Order of Achievement of the US Navy and Marine Corps, the Ministry of Defense said. So far, five Azerbaijani officers have been conferred with this award. The Azerbaijani peacekeepers have been repeatedly awarded by the leadership of NATO and Multinational Forces. A peacekeeping detachment was established within the Azerbaijani Army in 1997. Later a peacekeeping battalion was set up and is curre...... полностью

Azerbaijan’s broadcasting regulator has authorized the broadcasts of a number of TV programs in foreign languages, the National Television and Radio Council (NTRC) chairman Nushiravan Maharramli said Friday. The Council had earlier forbidden the broadcasts of feature films and documentaries in languages other than Azeri since January 1. Turkish was not cited as a foreign language as it is understood by the overwhelming majority of citizens. “At a meeting we had today, a decision was adopte...... полностью

Azerbaijan is among leading states for religious tolerance unlike Armenia, a California-based publication said. The conclusion was made by the editor of La Opinion, a major Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles, after he visited Azerbaijan. Gabriel Lerner wrote in a story carried by the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles that the local community and Jews in the eight-million nation have lived side by side for many years without tension. For comparison’s sake, he indicated that whereas 12,0...... полностью

Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva met with Sandra Roelofs, the wife of Georgia’s presidential hopeful Mikhail Saakashvili, in Baku on Friday, spokesman for the Georgian embassy in Baku said. Mamuka Balavadze told reporters that Roelof’s visit to Baku aims to discuss issues on cooperation between the two countries in the humanitarian and cultural fields as well as in the health sector. She will also visit several medical and cultural centers.*... читать

110 ambulances delivered to Azerbaijan will be presented on Saturday. President Ilham Aliyev will attend the ceremony. 12 million manats were allocated from the President’s reserve fund in February to purchase the ambulances with a view to improving the first aid system in the country, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health Anar Gadirli said. The new vehicles equipped with all devices in order to provide first aid will be distributed among newly set up 70 first aid teams in Baku, he said. ...... полностью

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened the newly constructed over-ground pedestrian crossing at the Heydar Aliyev Avenue in Baku on Thursday. The first-ever crossing with the total length of 74 meters was constructed within five months.*... читать

A group of prominent Azerbaijani politicians, political analysts, rights defenders, NGO representatives and journalists on Thursday appealed to the parliament over what they described as violation of religious freedom in the new draft law On Education that bans female students' wearing veils. The appeal said the changes to the law stipulating that students, faculty members and employees of local educational institutions are not allowed to wear head-dress or any religious attire blatantly infr...... полностью

The last three refugee camps established in Azerbaijan’s central Saatly and Sabirabad districts were abolished on Monday. The displaced persons settled in these camps will be moved to a new settlement constructed in the Zobujul settlement of Fuzuli District, the State Committee on Work with Refugees and IDPs said. A total of 2,150 IDPs mainly from Jabrayil and Fuzuli districts had been settled in the refugee camps. All suitable conditions have been provided for IDPs in the new settlement, ...... полностью

The UN nuclear watchdog has granted an official permission for the construction of a nuclear reactor in Azerbaijan for research purposes. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a decision to endorse the $36 million project at its meeting in Vienna, said Adil Garibov, director of the Institute of Radiation Problems of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. Construction operations are due to kick off in 2009 to be completed the following year. Garibov said the capac...... полностью

An Azerbaijani group has come out against the new draft law On Education that bans female students’ wearing veils. The Center for Religious Faith and Protection of Freedom of Conscience (DEVAMM), which is known for its tough stance on religion-related issues, issued a relevant statement on Tuesday. The head of the center, Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, said adoption of the law in the current state would have adverse ramifications. He said that if veils are banned in schools, thousands of women will b...... полностью

Facts on illegal registration of about 1,600 land plots have been discovered in Azerbaijan this year, chairman of the State Committee on Land and Mapping Garib Mammadov said. Mammadov said 40,000 manats had been transferred to the state budget as a result of the payment of fines. Approximately 1,300 violations were committed by municipalities, while 500 to 600 such cases involved state-owned land plots. Mammadov said most of the violations were prevented by the committee’s employees. 111 ...... полностью

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened on Wednesday another overpass, a seventh in row, constructed in the third micro-district of Baku. The construction of the bridge, which is 776.7 meters long and 19.8 meters wide, had commenced in June 2006. Materials and equipment produced in Azerbaijan, Russia and Italy were used during the construction of the overpass. Several pedestrian crossings were commissioned earlier in the capital city. A total of 146.8 million manats ($174.7 million) h...... полностью

The leader in Azerbaijan’s cellular communication market Azercell has been conferred the Intellect-2007 award in two categories by the IT Magazine and the Project Management Association. Azercell was named “Leader in the non-oil sector” for its contribution to the development of the national economy, while the company’s general manager Halim Ates became a winner in “The Manager of the Year” category for his brilliantly demonstrated management capabilities and his role in advancing the operator...... полностью