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. 

“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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

 Sheki is famous for the 18th century Khan's Palace. It was built in 1762 by Hussein khan who was also well known as a poet under his pen-name Mushtag. The two-storied building is decorated with magnificent frescos (one 24 m long) and exquisite stained glass work, known as 'shebeke' (northern part of the city).

Measuring thirty-two meters by eight and a half meters on the exterior, the palace is a two-story brick masonry structure elongated on the north-south axis and covered with a wooden hipped roof with long eaves. The layout of both floors is identical; three rectangular rooms are placed in a row, separated by narrow, south-facing iwans that provide access to the rooms.

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.

The spring session of the Azerbaijani Parliament started. APA reports that the first plenary meeting of the spring session, which started with playing of national anthem, is led by Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov. 4 issues were included to the agenda of the meeting. These are the reorganization of the Accounting and Disciplinary Commission of the Azerbaijani Parliament, the legislative working plan for the spring session of Azerbaijani Parliament in 2012 and the second reading of the bill on "State’s care of persons with multiple sclerosis" Asadov said that Azerbaijani Parliament is expected to work intensively and interestingly during the spring session of 2012.