The latest in Azerbaijan

BP to pay $7 bln for Devon Energy assets

2010-03-11T03:15:48Z

<div><p>British oil giant BP said Thursday it would pay US firm Devon Energy 7.0 billion dollars (5.1 billion euros) for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.</p><p>"BP today announced a transaction that will deliver a material exploration positio...

BP to pay £4.7 bln for Devon Energy assets

2010-03-11T03:15:42Z

<div><p>Oil giant BP said Thursday it will pay US firm Devon Energy $7 billion (£4.7 billion) for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.</p><p>"BP today announced a tra...

BP to pay 7 bln dlrs for Devon Energy assets

2010-03-11T01:17:33Z

<div><p>British oil giant BP said Thursday it will pay US firm Devon Energy 7.0 billion dollars (5.1 billion euros) for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.</p><p>"BP today announced a transaction that will deliver a material exploration position...

Azerbaijan bloggers' appeal denied

2010-03-11T00:17:11Z

<div id="subtitle">Court rejects appeal of Azerbaijan bloggers convicted in politically tinged case</div><div><p>A court in Azerbaijan has rejected the appeal of two bloggers who were sentenced to prison last year in a case that supporters say was politically motivated.</p><p>The bloggers are opposition activists in a country where independent media and opposition parties have faced persistent pressure. One w...

Azerbaijan court rejects 'donkey video' bloggers' appeal

2010-03-10T12:16:29Z

<div><p>An Azerbaijani court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two bloggers jailed after satirizing the government with an Internet video that showed a donkey giving a press conference, their lawyer said.</p><p>The bloggers' case intensified concerns about media freedoms in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich mainly Muslim republic on the Caspian Sea that has repeatedly been acc...

Armenian soldier dies in Nagorny Karabakh clashes

2010-03-02T08:16:33Z

<div><p>An Armenian soldier was killed in a clash with Azerbaijani forces near the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh amid rising tensions between the two foes, Armenia's defence ministry said on Tuesday.</p><p>"On Monday the enemy committed another ceasefire violation. One serviceman was killed as a result," the ministry said in a statement, naming him as 29-year-old junior sergeant Sargis Voskanian.</p><p>There ...

Azerbaijan sees risk of 'great war' with Armenia

2010-02-25T08:30:36Z

<div><p>Azerbaijan warned on Thursday that the threat of conflict with Armenia is rising fast and that a "great war" is inevitable if Armenian forces fail to pull out of disputed Nagorny Karabakh.</p><p>"For 15 years diplomacy has not achieved any concrete results and Azerbaijan cannot wait another 15 years," Defence Ministe...

Six dead in shooting at Azeri military base

2010-02-22T13:36:02Z

<div><p>BAKU (Reuters) - Two soldiers in Azerbaijan shot dead four fellow servicemen and then killed themselves at a military base near the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the defense ministry said on Friday.</p><p>The ministry said two other soldiers were...

Oil executives talk up shale gas at Davos

2010-02-22T13:49:21Z

<div id="subtitle">Oil executives in Davos point to 'game changing' role of natural gas found in shale rock</div><div><p>New reserves of natural gas found in shale rock are a "big deal" and a "game changer."</p><p>That's the message Thursday from oil company executives at the World Economic Forum in a...

Bahamas rejects US extradition bid for financier

2010-02-22T14:07:08Z

<div id="subtitle">Bahamas appeals court rejects US bid to extradite fugitive financier to New York</div><div><p>A Bahamas court has rejected a U.S. bid to extradite a Czech-born financier on charges of plotting to bribe officials in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan in the late 1990s to get favorable treatment in oil deals, officials sa...

Armenia warns Turkey peace deal under threat

2010-02-22T16:31:42Z

<div><p>YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenia accused Turkey on Friday of trying to block a deal to establish diplomatic ties and open their border and warned their bid to overcome a century of hostility could collapse.</p><p>The comments by Reuters) - The United States and Norway called on authorities in Azerbaijan on Thursday to investigate what rights groups say was a police crackdown on Muslim worshippers in a remote region bordering Ir...

Azerbaijan to double gas supplies to Russia

2010-02-23T11:05:40Z

<div><p>Azerbaijan will double gas supplies to Russia in 2010 to one billion cubic metres, the resource-rich Causasus republic's energy firm SOCAR said on Saturday.</p><p>"In 2010 we will supply one billion cubic metres of gas to Russia," SOCAR's president Rovnag Abdullayev told jo...

Report: Weapons flight heading to Iran

2010-02-23T12:18:07Z

<div id="subtitle">Report: Soviet aircraft with weapons seized in Thailand was going from North Korea to Iran</div><div><p>The flight plan for an aircraft seized in Thailand with a load of illicit North Korean arms and ammunition shows that the mysterious plane was headed to Iran, a new report from ar...

Azerbaijan's traditional music thrives again

2010-02-23T18:11:02Z

<div><p>Lifting his daf, a traditional Azerbaijani tambourine, to his ear, Mutalim Damirov begins to sing.</p><p>As his voice rises to a long ululating lament, Damirov closes his eyes, lost in the ancient poetry that has been sung this way in Azerbaijan for centuries. In the background, two musicians improvise notes on the tar, a long-necked lute, and the kamancha, a four-stringed spiked v...

Progress in Nagorny Karabakh talks: diplomats

2010-02-23T22:30:13Z

<div><p>Armenia and Azerbaijan have made progress in talks over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, senior Russian and US officials said on Tuesday.</p><p>Meeting on the sidelines of a ministerial council of the OSCE pan-European security watchdog in

Railway blast in Russia's Dagestan: report

2010-02-23T23:10:57Z

<div><p>An explosion hit a railway in Russia's Caucasian region of Dagestan early Monday, the Interfax news agency reported quoting police officials.</p><p>"A railway was hit by an explosion before a train travelling from Tyumen to (Russia, a defence ministry spokesman said, at the same arms depot where two died in a huge accidental weapons explosion 10 days earlier.</p><p>"Eight soldiers died as the result of a munitions blast at the 31st arsenal of the Russian navy in Ulyanovsk," the defence ministry spokesma...

Armenian forces kill Azerbaijani civilian: reports

2010-02-24T01:45:06Z

<div><p>Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani civilian near the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijani media reported on Monday.</p><p>ANS television and the Azeri Press Agency said a 41-year-old man was killed on Sunday when separatist forces opened fire on Azerbaijani positions in the Goranboy region on the de facto border with Karabakh.</p>&l...

Azerbaijan threatens force over Nagorno-Karabakh

2010-02-24T02:23:24Z

<div id="subtitle">Azerbaijan's leader threatens force if talks fail to resolve dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh</div><div><p>President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said Saturday his nation may resort to military force if talks with ...