Baku metro plans to put into operation additional exit of 'May 28' metro station on the street of Salatyn Askerova in December, a source in the metro said on October 31. "Operations are being held. Additional exit is planned to be put into operation in December 2009, a source said.

Despite Turkey's attempts to become an active participant in the peace dialogue in the Middle East, the U.S. will remain a key player and mediator in the Arab-Israeli peace process. Experts believe that an obstacle for Turkish ambitions in the Middle East can become a rapprochement with Syria and Iran, as well as tensions in the relations with Israel.

Iran has imposed quarantine on 370 schools at the Iranian Isfahan province under the appropriate measures to prevent spread of the swine flue, the Iranian Mehr news agency reported. So far, about 70 pupils infected with this virus were hospitalized in this province. Moreover, the number of the people infected with A/H1N1 has reached 50 in the Kashan city and about 250 schools were closed because of this.

Turkey and Iran signed an intergovernmental memorandum on energy which envisages not only making of the Turkish investment in the Iranian gas projects, but also transportation of the Iranian gas to Turkey and to Europe, as well as transportation of the Turkmen gas to Turkey via Iran. Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz and Iran's Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi signed this document during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Iran visit.

A new law "Science" will be discussed in working groups of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) and the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences soon, president of the academy Mahmud Kerimov told Trend News on October 29. He said that the draft of the corresponding law has been prepared.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will travel to Paris on November 6 as guest of his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, French officials said on Thursday, Anadolu reported. Davutoglu and Kouchner will discuss bilateral relations, Turkey's EU membership process, regional issues and the activities of ongoing cultural event "Season of Turkey" in France.

Iran proposed changes to a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel deal on Thursday, Iranian media said, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia, Reuters reported. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had requested a reply by last Friday, said its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, had now received an "initial response" from Tehran.

As many as 5.7 million Americans were infected with the H1N1 virus between April and late July, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, offering the clearest picture yet of how quickly and widely swine flu can spread, Reuters reported. Researchers used computer models to estimate the number of people who have contracted swine flu, which began infecting Americans in April.

An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale hit Afghanistan early Friday morning, said the National Seismological Network of China, Xinhua reported. The quake happened at 1:44 a.m.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on December 7, Erdogan's office said in a statement on Thursday, Anadolu reported. Erdogan will travel to the United States at the invitation of Obama, the statement said.

The computing center of the Institute of Physics of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), which will be connected to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), was opened in Baku On Oct. 29. The CERN is the world's largest particle physics laboratory and its current project is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.

Only 12.5 percent of the Kazakh people have access to the Internet, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov said at the international conference "E-government initiatives" in Astana on Oct.29. Under the latest census of the country's population, only 55 percent of the people use the personal computer," Masimov said.