“The US intelligence is concerned about the situation in the Nagorno Karabakh and the probability of appearing new flashpoints in Eurasia”, said the Director of US National Intelligence James R. Clapper in his report to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “The unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus and the fragility of some Central Asian states present most likely flashpoints in the Eurasia region.

U.S. intelligence is concerned about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the possible emergence of new terror hot spots in Eurasia, the U.S. director of national intelligence James Clapper's report, presented at the hearing in the Senate Committee of U.S. Congress, said, ITAR-TASS reported. 'The unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus and instability in some Central Asian countries are the most possible causes of hot spots in Eurasia', the report said.

France has lost the moral, rather than the legal right to the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group, speaker Oktay Asadov said at a meeting of the Azerbaijani Parliament on Wednesday. "We must determine the legal means of removing France from the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group," he said. "This issue does not depend on our wishes." MPs voiced the initiative to exclude France from the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a sign of protest against the law criminalising the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" adopted by France.

The Session of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (PUIC) held in Palembang (Indonesia) has ended. It calls upon the Member Parliaments to initiate starting from 2012 (20th anniversary of the tragedy) a proper recognition to the genocidal massacre of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces in the town of Khojaly on 26 February 1992, Ambassador Elshad Iskandarov, Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation (ICYF-DC)'s Secretary General, who took part in the work of the Session said.

Employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited Azerbaijani POW Mammadbagir Akhundzade kept in Nagorno-Karabakh on Jan.30, the ICRC Baku Office Spokesperson Shahla Gahramanova told Trend on Tuesday. He said the ICRC employees delivered a "Red Cross" letter to the POW, and received a "Red Cross" letter from him. The POW's family was informed about the meeting. Junior sergeant of Azerbaijani Armed Forces Mammadbagir Akhundzade (born in 1990) was captivated near the Yukhary Chayli village on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

Co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee Joseph Debono Grech and Pedro Agramunt attended the plenary meeting of the Azerbaijani Parliament on Wednesday. Speaker of the Parliament Ogtay Asadov said while being a member of the parliament during the past 10 years for the first time he witnessed that the PACE co-rapporteurs joined the parliament meeting in Azerbaijan. 

Head of the EURONEST Secretariat John Louis Beltran arrived in Azerbaijan. According to APA, the goal of his visit is to discuss the issues of the preparation for the EURONEST April session in Baku.  Beltran will meet the members of the parliament and government officials of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani parliament has issued an appeal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hold the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Baku. The appeal has been made today at the first meeting of the parliament's spring session. The Azerbaijani parliament agreed to hold the Olympic Games and calls on the IOC to hold them in Baku. The IOC included Baku in the list of cities nominated for hosting the 2020 Olympic Games. As a result, Azerbaijan has set up an organising committee in connection with it.

The law envisaging the criminal penalty for the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" is directed against Turkey. It demonstrates hostility towards it, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by TRT Haber TV channel as saying. Turkey will not remain silent in the face of Islamophobia. It urges Europe to take actions against this, Erdogan said. French Senators who do not agree with the adoption of the law envisaging the criminal punishment for the denial of "Armenian genocide" on Jan. 31 collected the required number of signatures demanding the cancellation of the law.

Russia on Tuesday warned foreign countries against meddling in the internal affairs of Syria, saying that "the Syrian crisis can only be resolved with the Syrian-led political process", Xinhua reported. The statement came as Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, was addressing an open meeting of the UN Security Council on the current situation of Syria.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishenko will visit Uzbekistan on Feb.5-6, Uzbek media outlets report with reference to Ukrainian sources. During the negotiations with the Uzbek leadership Grishenko plans to discuss energy cooperation, as Uzbekistan has great volumes of energy resources. According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Ukraine amounted to $552.6 million in 2010, which enabled Ukraine to rank third among the CIS countries in terms of trade turnover. According to preliminary data, in 2011 the trade turnover between Ukraine and Uzbekistan amounted to about $900 million.

The State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) will soon conduct indexing of the insurance part of labour pensions in accordance with the consumer price index for 2011, head of the Fund Salim Muslimov said at a meeting with members of the Caspian Integration Business Club (CIBC). "We appealed to the State Statistics Committee and received data stating that the consumer price index in 2011 hit 7.9 per cent. This indicates that from Jan.1, 2012 the insurance part of labour pensions will grow by 7.9 per cent," Mr Muslimov said.

India has said it won't cut down its oil imports from Iran, apparently making it clear that it would not buckle to any pressure from the U.S. or western countries which have imposed sanctions on Tehran, Xinhua reported. "It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan has prepared a bill on the customs tariff and submitted it for endorsement to relevant departments, head of the SCC Aydin Aliyev said at a meeting dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Customs Committee. Currently customs tariffs in Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the law adopted in 1995. The customs tariff is a code of customs dues applied for goods transferred across the Azerbaijani customs border and classified in accordance with product nomenclature of foreign economic trading.