UNDP and the Government launch the 2007 Azerbaijan Human Development Report

Baku, 10 September 2007 - Azerbaijan has lately attained significant achievements in promoting equal rights and opportunities for women and men. However, the advancement of women requires further effort, states the 2007 Azerbaijan Human Development Report on "Gender Attitudes in Azerbaijan: Trends and Challenges" launched today in Baku's Hyatt Park Hotel. The Report goes on to argue that "despite the equality of men and women declared in the Constitution and other laws including the recent Law on Gender Equality, there is still considerable gender inequality in many spheres of social, political and economic life".

more

Baku, 14 September 2007 - As Azerbaijan is undergoing its second oil boom, the country is challenged by some of the same issues that it faced during its first oil boom a century ago. One such issue is the education of girls.

A progressive attitude towards the education of girls was already visible in Azerbaijan a hundred years ago, describes a book of the well-known popular historian, Fuad Axundov, launched this morning in the Museum Center of Baku.

The book entitled "Educating women to educate a nation: the Tagiyev's school for girls" was produced with support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) within the framework of a UN joint programme. It is devoted to the history of the first secular school for Muslim girls in the Islamic world. Established in Baku in 1901 by an oil baron Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, the school proved to be a vivid example of transforming "the black gold" of oil revenues into "the human gold" of an educated woman.

more

Baku, 1 August: Azartac state news agency today published a decree by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "On endorsement of the national strategy on increasing transparency and fight against corruption". The decree was signed on 28 July 2007.

With the aim of continuing measures to fight corruption, to improve the legal framework and institutional mechanisms, to increase the transparency of the work of state agencies and local government bodies and to implement state policy in this area, the president ruled the following. First, he endorsed the national strategy on increasing transparency and fight against corruption and an action plan for 2007-11.

more

The recent collapse of an apartment building in downtown Baku is fueling an increasingly acrimonious public debate in Azerbaijan about government corruption and competence. Some 20 construction workers, all from outside Baku, were killed on August 28 when the nearly completed building on Mukhtarov Street in the capital's Yasamal neighborhood, one of hundreds of structures erected amid a seven-year building boom, suddenly imploded, sending tons of debris crashing to the ground. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has attributed the cause of the collapse to uneven foundations and low-quality construction work.

more

TRAGEDY REVERBERATES THROUGH BAKU

Both the Construction company and city authorities are blamed for disaster. The disastrous collapse of a multi-storey apartment block in Baku has not only cost innocent lives, but has sent political Shockwaves through the city.

On August 28, a newly-built and still uninhabited 16-storey block of flats collapsed just before six in the evening on Mukhtarov Street, right in the centre of Baku. Witnesses say fragments of the building fell on neighbouring houses and on cars parked nearby. For a long time, the surrounding area was engulfed in a cloud of dust.

more

Azerbaijan's industrial town Sumgayit has been included in the list of the world's 10 most polluted regions. The institute identified sites in seven countries affecting some 12 million people as the areas with the worst pollution levels. Sumgayit was cited alongside such hotspots as Ukraine's town of Chernobyl, which was hit by a horrendous industrial accident in 1986, as well as Russia's towns of Dzerzinsk and Norilsk, in the World's Worst Polluted Places 2007 report released by US-based environmental charity Blacksmith Institute.

more

An international symposium, "Natural cataclysms and global issues of modern civilization", started in Baku on Monday.

Some 100 scholars from 35 countries, including the Nobel Prize winners, are attending the three-day event, which aims to conduct monitoring of natural calamities meeting up-to-date requirements, capitalize on the experience of world countries in this area and seek ways of solving problems facing the present-day world.

more

An international symposium, "Natural cataclysms and global issues of modern civilization", started in Baku on Monday.

Some 100 scholars from 35 countries, including the Nobel Prize winners, are attending the three-day event, which aims to conduct monitoring of natural calamities meeting up-to-date requirements, capitalize on the experience of world countries in this area and seek ways of solving problems facing the present-day world.

more

In the new academic year of 2007 new reforms are expected in the secondary and high schools of Azerbaijan, stated the Ministry of Education press center. According to this reform, teachers who have reached pension age will be dismissed from work and young specialists will take their place. Mislr Mardanov, Ministry of Education, said that the majority of teachers who reach 60 years or more, aren't physically able to teach lessons. Consequently, this negatively affects the quality of education. Even though last year the Education Minister mentioned this matter, no real measures were taken. But this matter is also disputable. It is still not known on what basis and on which terms teachers will be pensioned.

more

Communication is key to preventing avian influenza in the world, according co Dr. Faig Mamedzadeh, Deputy Director for the Republican Anti-Plague Station.

He stated, "We know that avian influenza could be at the point of becoming the first pandemic of the 21st century, with profound consequences for the entire world. However, il is necessary to deepen the analysis of that threat, to dispel its myths, and to provide the population with accurate information on the disease."

Now that the second avian influenza outbreak has been successfully suppressed in the South Caucasus, key players gathered for two days to share the ir expertise and discuss what can and should be done to tackle the recurrent threat of avian influenza.

more

Azerilme Ltd. is weaving a copy of Sheikh Safi carpet, which is considered to be the peak of carpet art and 8-th world miracle. A Sefevi carpet Sheikh Safi is seen striking the world already 468 years. In 1888 the carpet was sold to Victoria and Albert museum of Britain. The new: carpet will be prepared in 18 months. The famous carpet was weaved on 'Lachak-urunj' composition. It is the most beautiful example of the ornamental rugs and masterpiece of Tabriz carpet-making school. Tabriz carpet-making school is the most indent and famous carpet-making school and surrounds Tabriz, Ardabil, Marand, Maku, Khoy, Urmia, Zanjan, Garaja, Heris, Sarab, Ahmadabad, Mirish, Ahar, Salmas, Goravan, Garadagh and another rug points. Generally Turks has been laying an important role in carpet-making and development in this territory since old times.

more