News in Brief

Azerbaijan, Iran redouble border patrols
Control of the Iranian-Azerbaijani frontier line has been intensified following the war on Iraq waged by the US-led coalition.
Commander-in-Chief of the Azerbaijani frontier troops, Col-Gen Elcin Quliyev told AssA-Irada that the appropriate measures had been taken to address the likelihood that Iraqis, who fled from the area of hostilities, could cross the Iranian frontier and from there move forward in the northern direction.
Noting that the measures will not adversely affect the normal service by his staff, Col-Gen Quliyev said that intensified guarding of the borders would be in effect until the end of hostilities in Iraq.

Azerbaijanis in Russia high on agenda
The Azerbaijani Minister for Labor and Social Security, Ali Nagiyev, is expected to leave for Moscow to discuss social problems the Azerbaijani Diaspora faces in Russia. During the visit, Ali Nagiyev together with his Russian counterpart Alexander Kochenok will study ways to issue migration cards to Azerbaijanis living in Russia and  address problems concerning illegal immigrants.
An informed source has told AssA-Irada that Ali Naqiyev will also meet with other members of the Russian government in Moscow.

England-Azerbaijan society chairman due
Chairman of the England-Azerbaijan Society Lord Fraizer is due to arrive in Baku in the second half of April. This trip is a continuation of the meeting started in London by Rafiq Aliyev, the committee head. Earlier, Rafiq Aliyev visited Great Britain on March 3-7 at the invitation of Fraizer, where he met with members of the House of Lords and conducted discussions on the Co-existence of religions in a secular state. Attending the meeting organized by the England-Azerbaijan Society and supported by the Azerbaijani embassy in London were ambassadors of CIS countries, rights defenders, journalists, and representatives of the Forum of the Three Religions.

OSCE to monitor front lines
Monitoring of the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops located near Tartar District was held on March 25 in accordance with the mandate of the OSCE chairman's special envoy.
The Defense Ministry press service has told AssA-Irada that the special envoy's field assistants Palatinus and Repa was in charge of monitoring the Azerbaijani side, while special envoy Kaspshik and his assistants Kratuki and Pickles applied the same approach on the other side of the contact line.

Two thousand plus drug offenses reported
The state anti-drug commission has informed AssA-Irada that 2196 drug-related criminal cases were registered in the country last year. In this timeframe, 159kg of narcotics has been seized including 6.6kg of heroin, 10.1kg opium, 4kg hashish, 58kg marijuana, 1.5kg cannabis, 65kg drastic substances, etc.
1961 people have been called to account due to these cases. Of them, 40 persons are foreign nationals.
501 tons of narcotic plants, which have been cultivated or self-grown, have been burnt down last year, according to the commission.

Polish embassy to move
The Embassy of Poland in Baku is to move to a new residence in the Old City by the end of the year. An embassy-placed source told AssA-Irada that the mission's present headquarters near the Ganclik metro station has not enough space to accommodate the staff, which has been expanded over the past years. The new residence, a building dated late 19th century, has been rented by the embassy, which had undertaken to renovate it on own account. Work on renovation, to be completed by the end of 2003, will not affect the architectural design of the building. The embassy declined to identify the location of the new building.

Football team heads for Wales
The national soccer team of Azerbaijan is to challenge the footballers of Wales in the next qualifying round for the 2004 European Championship, on March 29. The press service of the Azerbaijan Football Federation Association (AFFA) told AssA-Irada that 18 players drawn into the national team are to head for Wales on March 27. Some Azerbaijani legionaries are to join the match, to be played at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff.

Cash auctions add AZM204.6bn to state budget
Eight cash and three specialized cheque auctions were held over January-February 2003 selling shares of 36 stock-holding societies. The Ministry of Economic Development has told AssA-Irada that since the start of the privatization process a total of 194 cash and 78 cheque auctions were conducted as of March 1, where shares of 1,268 stock-holding societies were sold. Cash auctions have fetched AZM204.6bn for the state budget so far, including AZM2.36bn in January-February this year.

Average salary up
Population's cash incomes have risen to AZM3,342bn by 10.7 per cent in January-February as compared to the 2002 indicator. Thus, per capita income has increased to AZM413,000. The State Statistics Committee has told AssA-Irada that in the same timeframe the average salary per worker constituted AZM364,000, exceeding the figure in last year's January-February by 20.7 per cent. The number of officially registered unemployed people in Azerbaijan is 51,485.

Differentiated profit tax to be monitored
The Taxes Ministry will monitor results of the regionally differentiated profit tax in the second half of the year. Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov has told journalists that a common profit tax rate may be applied if it brings more benefits than the differentiated system to the development of regions. Furthermore, he said a new project on regional development will be prepared within the state program on poverty reduction and economic growth.

Entrepreneurs for business forum
A delegation of Azeri entrepreneurs is likely to leave for Belgrade, Serbia,  to participate in a business forum, to be arranged within a meeting of the Presidium of the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, on April 16 through 20. The Azerbaijani Confederation of Entrepreneurs (ACE) told AssA-Irada that the forum pursued the objective of holding bilateral talks on issues dealing with joint co-operation in different fields of the economy.

Azerbaijan exposed at tourism conference
Representatives of 12 tourism companies and hotels will represent Azerbaijan at the 10th international MITT-2003 Travel and Tourism exhibition in Moscow on March 26 to 29.
The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism had rented a  space of 48 sq. m to set up a pavilion to expose Azerbaijan's tourism potential in catalogues, guides, CDs, brochures with information on picturesque places and sites of Baku and the country in general.
The delegation is led by Natiq Mammadov, head of the ministry's head department on tourism.

Card payment for pensions
The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) and the State Social Protection Fund are currently conducting talks on paying pensions and social allowances in Baku and Sumqayit via plastic cards. The IBA news service has informed AssA-Irada that the process is planned to start before the end of the year. The fund will assume all costs.