Nation

Aliyev for informal CIS summit
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev left for Kiev on January 28 to attend an informal CIS summit initiated by Russian and Ukrainian presidents.
Aliyev was invited to the Summit by CIS executive secretary Yuri Yarov during his recent visit to Baku.
The summit will center on economic issues, including the setting up of free trade zones, Aliyev told  journalists at the Bina airport of Baku.
Briefing
Answering journalists' questions, the Azerbaijani President appreciated the election of the head of the Azerbaijani parliamentary mission to PACE, MP Ilham Aliyev as PACE Vice-President.
Ilham Aliyev, First Vice-President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, is son of the Azerbaijani President.
The discussion of the Upper Qarabag conflict at the PACE session is a fact worthy of note, according to Heydar Aliyev. Although the settlement of the conflict falls within the competence of the UN and OSCE, the Council of Europe has also considerable opportunities for solving the issue.
Journalists were left unanswered over a question concerning Azeri soldier Elmaddin Abiyev being held in captivity in Armenia. Besides, the President withheld attitude towards a hunger-strike gone on by media representatives. He did not rule out the possibility of meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.
Heydar Aliyev showed positive approach to bringing main guilty of the 20th January tragedy Mikhail Gorbachov to the international court, while he withheld comment on Azerbaijan's stance on the Iraqi issue. The Azerbaijani President indicated that he would attend the meeting of the presidents of the four Caucasian nations - Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenian. It is not that the four presidents will discuss combating terrorism in the Caucasus.
The President is expected to return to Baku on Wednesday evening.

Samuel Weems passes away
US researcher and orientalist Samuel Weems, whose book on Armenian terrorism gained a great popularity both inside and outside Azerbaijan last year, died of a heart attack in the Arkansas state, the US, on January 24 at the age of 67.
In his book Armenia: The Great Deception - Secrets of a “Christian” Terrorist State, the US researcher has doubted the truly Christian nature of the Armenian church. It was the first time that a US Baptist judge, after extensive researches into international archives in Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Moscow, and Istanbul, has accused the Armenian Apostolic Church, also known as the Armenian Orthodox Church, of sponsoring terrorism!
The regrettable news of his death was given to the local Sahil Information Center by the writer's spouse, Gulnur Weems of Turkish origin.
Gulnur said that the writer loved Azerbaijan very much, stressing that she would spare no efforts to bring dreams of the writer into reality and continue his mission.
Weems was working on his second book, which was supposed to disclose facts that Armenians had served in Nazi army during the World War II, perpetrating ruthless genocide against the Jews.
Samuel Weems, an American of Scottish origin, was a big friend and advocator of Azerbaijani and Turkish nations. He had visited Azerbaijan at the invitation of the Sahil Information Center in August 2002, where he held a number of meetings with government officials and public figures and was awarded an honorary membership by the Azerbaijani Union of Writers.

Norwegian-Azeri co-op mulled
Foreign Minister Vilayat Quliyev met visiting Norwegian Foreign Ministry official York Villy Bronebak on Thursday.
The visit aimed to discuss security issues and a possible visit to Azerbaijan by the Norwegian Foreign Minister.
Vilayat Quliyev appreciated the level of bilateral cooperation. Besides, he informed the visitor in detail about the efforts being made for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Upper Qarabag, OSCE Minsk Group activities, plight of Azeri refugees, regional situation, ongoing economic reforms, development of oil industry including construction and protection of oil and gas pipelines.
York Bronebak said he attached special importance to broadening Azerbaijani-Norwegian relations, expressing hope that the Qarabag conflict would be resolved soon in joint efforts with the world community.
The Norwegian diplomat has met with Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev and Presidential Administration official Novruz Mammadov as well.

Pilgrims off to Hajj with support from int'l Islamic agencies
60 people have left for Hajj pilgrimage on Monday with the financial support of the International Islamic Youth Assembly and the Asia Muslims Committee (Kuwait). On this occasion, a see-off ceremony was held outside the Saudi embassy in Azerbaijan. The ambassador, Ali Hasan Cafar, addressed the pilgrims wishing them good luck. Head of the Azerbaijani State Committee on religious bodies Rafiq Aliyev thanked the embassy for supporting refuges and needy people to conduct the pilgrimage.
2,000-people quota
People conducting the Hajj pilgrimage via the Caucasus Muslims Clerical office will leave by bus on January 28 and 30, while air travelers will depart on February 4. According to the international relations section of the office, formalities on 800 have been already completed by 800 people, including 160 air and 640 bus travelers.  Besides, documents are still being received.  Saudi Arabia has allocated a 2,000-people quota for Azerbaijan, half of which is to be sent by the Caucasus Muslims Clerical office.
The Karvan-D travel agency has said its pilgrims will leave by bus on January 27-28 and by plane on February 1.
The cost of bus trip makes up $850 at the Clerical office and the air travel price amounts to $1500. Other agencies offer bus and air trips at $850-950 and 1350$ accordingly.

Journalists to march next week
A number of newspaper editors and heads of journalistic organizations met at the Misavat Party's office Saturday to discuss lawsuits lodged against media outlets, hunger-strike of Yeni Musavat newspaper's staff members, and situation with arrested journalist Covqi Vaqifoglu. The editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat, Rauf Arifoglu, said he had gone on hunger-strike.
Following the discussions, it was decided to set up an information center on the hunger-strike and adopt a statement reflecting the recent situation with media.
To achieve collective protection against media crackdowns, the newspapers are due to sign a Great Agreement next week under the slogan of Pressure on one is tantamount to pressure on all of us. In addition, it was resolved to hold a march from the Azneft square to the Baki Soveti underground station passing by the Presidential Office in the middle of next week.
Hunger-strike ceased
Joined by heads of several journalist organizations, journalists and readers, a hunger-strike by opposition-minded Yeni Musavat newspaper's editor-in-chief Rauf Arifoglu and staff member Zahid Safaroglu was stopped on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Yeni Musavat staff members and supporters are determined to continue protest actions against pressures on the newspaper.
The objective of the hunger-strike was to protest at 12 lawsuits filed against the newspaper on charges of an insult to honor and dignity. The claimants, who brushes aside articles published by Yeni Musavat as impartial, groundless and prejudiced, seek compensations totaling $45m.

Aliyev cancels Justice Ministry resolution on split PFP registration
On Wednesday the Ministry of Justice withdrew its decision to register the Qudrat Hasanquliyev-led group as the People's Front Party (PFP) in accordance with a decree issued by President Heydar Aliyev. The decree was prompted by the fact that implications of the Azerbaijani law on Political Parties have been ignored due to failure to scrutinize documents making this decision. 
Speaking about the presidential decree, chairman of the People's Front Party (reformers) Ali Karimli underscored that this step aimed to prevent international reproaches against the government.
The incident in question indicates that Azerbaijan is on focus of the world public and international organizations closely follow developments in the country, according to Ali Karimli.

President appoints National TV, Radio Council members
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev decreed on Wednesday to appoint six out of nine members of the National Television and Radio Council. They are Nusiravan Maharramov and Mehriban Alisanova (with a six-year term of office), Alvan Agayev and Qafar Cabiyev (four years), Mubariz Eyvasov and Aslan Xalilov (two years). Thus, the long-awaited crucial and resolute step was taken to transform the State Television and Radio Committee into a public body.

FM urges UNESCO to save occupied Azeri monuments
Foreign Minister Vilayat Quliyev received visiting UNESCO deputy general director Munir Bushenaki and advisor Horst Godike on Friday. The Minister said Azerbaijan attached great importance to cooperation with UNESCO. Besides, he indicated that the country was rich in cultural wealth and historical monuments, while a big portion of the cultural heritage had been destroyed in the Armenian-occupied Azeri lands. Vilayat Quliyev urged to take necessary measures to rescue Azeri monuments in these areas by virtue of the UNESCO international convention on protection of the historical heritage.  Munir Bushenaki, for his part, said that UNESCO was interested in broadening cooperation with Azerbaijan in all spheres. He added that UNESCO was ready to make joint efforts with the Azerbaijani National Commission to protect the country's cultural heritage and rehabilitate historical monuments.

French envoy visits Azerbaijan to talk on drug trafficking
Vilayat Quliyev, the Azeri Foreign Minister, received the French Foreign Ministry's special envoy Pier Shares on Thursday. Pier Shares informed the Minister about a conference, Drug trafficking ways: Afghan opium and heroin, to be held in Paris in May.   The Azerbaijani Minister urged to organize such a conference, saying that since Armenian-occupied Upper Qarabag was out of control, separatist regime was using this territory as a transit for drug trafficking. Vilayat Quliyev voiced that Azerbaijan was ready to contribute to settling problems of this kind together with the international community.

QLO roundtable denounces Armenian terrorism
The Qarabag Liberation Organization (QLO) organized a roundtable conference, Armenian terrorism: January 28, 1992 - February 1, 1994, on Monday marking the 11th anniversary of the explosions of a helicopter en routed from Agdam to Susa District and a wagon of the Baku-Kislovodsk train. These two explosions have claimed lives of 47 people and wounded 20.  Speakers said that more than 2,000 people have been killed due to terrorist actions perpetrated in Azerbaijan by Armenians since 1986. Attended by 11 NGOs, the conference adopted an appeal to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Shvimmer, OSCE chairman Antonio Martinez de Cruz, saying that the time has come to take serious steps against Armenia that backs terror.

481 HIV-infected in Azerbaijan
Despite expedient efforts made, the number of HIV-infected people are increasing in Azerbaijan as over 481 people suffer from HIV in Azerbaijan. Of them, 459 persons are Azeri nationals and 22 expatriates. According to UNAIDS evaluations, every detected sick person could mean undetected 10-15 AIDS-infected people.  90 of 105 HIV-positive persons identified in 2002 are male.  This year HIV infections have been registered in four districts including Qusar, Samaxi, Bilasuvar and Lerik. Men constitute 76.3 per cent of HIV-positive people and women - 20.3 per cent, while anonymous persons account for 3.4 per cent. In the country, HIV infections have been occurred through narcotics (44.7 per cent), heterosexual intercourse (26.1), homosexual contacts (0.65), blood transfusion (0.21), etc. 26.8 per cent of miscellaneous reasons could not have been identified.  So far 36 people have died of AIDS in Azerbaijan.

Ombudsman dictionary to be issued
The first English-Russian-Azerbaijani dictionary on human rights terminology will be published in Azerbaijan. Authors of the first dictionary initiated by the Ombudsman institution are Marziya Kamilzada and Zaur Aliyev. The Ombudsman institution is planning to expand its educational activities starting this year, Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova has told AssA-Irada. For this purpose, it is envisaged to issue information brochures such as What does Ombudsman institution mean?, How to apply to the Ombudsman?, etc. The institution is to establish representative offices in Azerbaijani districts in 2003, while foreign experts will be invited to conduct training sessions for the staff of the Ombudsman's office.