Uzbek man facing terror-related charges will remain jailed pending trial after waiving hearing

Canada.com - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

This undated image provided by the Idaho State Police shows Fazliddin Kurbanov. Kurbanov, an Uzbekistan national, pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance Friday, May 17, 2013 on U.S. charges that he gave support, cash and other resources to help a recognized terrorist group in his home country plan a terrorist attack there. (AP Photo/Idaho State ...

Azerbaijan and Iran in soft-power struggle

Asia Times - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

By Eldar Mamedov BAKU - There's a coffee shop in an out-of-the-way part of Baku where the walls are covered with illustrations from an early 20th century satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. The magazine represents a bygone era, when Azerbaijan was a font of new cultural trends in the Muslim world, pioneering such issues as female emancipation, anti-clericalism, anti-colonialism ...

Azerbaijan - Azeri blogger and activist allegedly tortured

IFEX - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

The Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) is appalled by reports that Ministry of Interior officials - as yet unnamed - tortured blogger and activist Rashad Ramazanov (a.k.a. Hagigat Agaadin) during a custodial interrogation. The Azerbaijani authorities should establish an immediate and independent investigation into this barbaric case and hold those responsible for ...

Joint probe into Russias Eurovision votes stolen in Azerbaijan

Euro News - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

17/05/2013 11:07 CET Russia and Azerbaijan are joining forces to investigate a Eurovision scandal that saw votes for Russia’s entry vanish. Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described as ';outrageous'; the revelations by Azerbaijan that although its country’s voters had put Dina Garipova’s ballad second, she got ';nul points'; instead of ...

Kyrgyzstan shutting down key US route to Afghanistan

WHP CBS 21 - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

President Almazbek Atambayev has repeatedly pledged to shut down the Manas Transit Center in 2014, dismissing U.S. assumptions that the base would remain in exchange for higher rent. The United States currently pays $60 million annually for the base.Atambayev said the Kyrgyz Cabinet had drafted a bill on the base closure and submitted it to parliament. He said Kyrgyzstan would compensate for the ...

Kyrgyzstan bent on evicting US air base in 2014

San Diego Union-Tribune - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -; Kyrgyzstan's president has reaffirmed that next year the Central Asian nation will evict the U.S. air base that supports military operations in nearby ...

Roadman of Kyrgyzstan’s accession of Customs Union to be worked out before yearend

Itar Tass - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

BISHKEK, May 21 (Itar-Tass) - Quite a lot of steps are to be made to have Kyrgyzstan join the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said on ...

Kyrgyzstan may not renew US lease on base

RT - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

USA The Kyrgyz government has penned a bill that would see the closure of the US-leased Manas air base in July next year. The country will lose $60 million for not extending the ...

Putin takes on Nigeria Navy

Asia Times - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

By John Helmer MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin will raise with West African leaders the case of the Myre Seadiver and its 15-man Russian crew, who were arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges in Nigeria last October. [1] Putin arrived in Durban, South Africa, on March 26 for a two-day visit. The Myre Seadiver crew have been accused by the Nigerian Navy of arms smuggling, charges ...

TAP surges ahead of Nabucco-West

Asia Times - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

By Vladimir Socor Among the roles of Gazprom's South Stream pipeline project was that of aborting the European Union-backed Nabucco, merely by threatening to preempt Nabucco's markets along the same route downstream. Conversely, Nabucco's European rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) can abort Nabucco by preempting the gas supply source upstream. Both TAP and the ...

Russian International Olympic University signs cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan

Inside the Games - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

Frank Kugler won four Olympics medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war at St Louis in 1904, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Games. He claimed a silver medal in the heavyweight category in wrestling, bronze in the two hand lift and all-around dumbbell events in weightlifting and another bronze in the tug of war competition as ...

Lithuanian experts say video on buying votes for Azerbaijan untrue

News.Az - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

For the past few days, the whole blogosphere and many of the media are actively discussing the provocative video, spread by Lithuanian online publication 15min.lt. In the video, two men allegedly offer money for the viewers to vote for Azerbaijan at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest and talk in detail about the mechanism of rigging the vote. The other day, the provocative video was discussed ...

Russia Azerbaijan Seek New Oil Transit Deal

RIA Novosti - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Azerbaijan are negotiating a new oil transit agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a news conference on Tuesday after a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijan’s foreign minister. "Our respective energy agencies and companies are working on preparing a new intergovernmental agreement which will reflect current ...

Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are very positive – FM

News.Az - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

Moscow and Baku have reviewed the agenda of Russian-Azerbaijani relations and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - the biggest problem facing Azerbaijan. The statement came from Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. "Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are very positive from the point of view of different areas. ...

Russia Azerbaijan prepare to sign new agreement on Azeri oil transit - Lavrov

Itar Tass - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

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China Tajikistan vow deeper strategic partnership

Global Times - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

China and Tajikistan are ready to add substantial content to their strategic partnership, top Chinese leaders said as they met with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on Monday.Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli held separate meetings with Rakhmon in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Monday ...

Statement by Chairman of Assembly of Armenians of Azerbaijan real provocation

News.Az - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

Armenians are characterized by the tendency to turn everything going on around into the myth. Political scientist Fikrat Sadikhov has told this to 1news.az, commenting on the statement of the chairman of so-called "Assembly of Armenians of Azerbaijan" Grigory Ayvazyan that allegedly "at this time, one million Armenian community is given an historic opportunity with its ...

No deteriorated relations with Azerbaijan – Russian minister

News.Az - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

"Any deterioration in relations between the two countries is out of the question," Lavrov said. In a joint press conference with Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered journalists’ questions as to Russia’s suspension of the use of Gabala radar and export of Azerbaijan’s oil via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. ...

Nabucco-West backerstake pot shot at rival bid

Asia Times - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

By Vladimir Socor The governments of transit countries in the Nabucco-West project - Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - have appealed to the European Union's top executive authorities to support the selection of this pipeline route by the Shah Deniz gas producers in Azerbaijan. The producers' consortium intends to select either the Nabucco-West route to Central Europe, or ...

Oil production from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli will increase - SOCAR

News.Az - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) predicts an increase in oil production from the block of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters that now daily oil production from ACG is 95,000 tonnes. "With such daily volume, annual oil production at ACG is approaching 33m tonnes," said ...

Lavrov finds dynamics of Russia-Azerbaijan economic relations positive

Itar Tass - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

MOSCOW, May 21 (Itar-Tass) - The dynamics of trade and economic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan is positive, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the negotiations with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov here on ...

Asia Markets Hong Kong Sydney stocks fall Tokyo ends up

CBS Marketwatch - Tuesday 21st May, 2013

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Australian stocks declined, and Hong Kong equities snapped a three-day winning run on Tuesday, weighed by overnight losses on Wall Street and uncertainty over U.S. monetary ...