“Extradition of Ramil Safarov, the murderer of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, is inadmissible for Armenia,” Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said at a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Kinga Goncz.

“The U.S. wants a stable and peaceful South Caucasus,” U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ann Derse told reporters Wednesday.

A resident of Aliabad village in Azerbaijan, Zaur Balayev, detained May 20, 2007 under accusation of membership in a Christian Baptist organization, was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Balayev’s family members said he was arrested for religious convictions.

The Shushi Massacres were the massacre of Armenian inhabitants in Azerbaijan in 1920. Around 20,000 Armenians were killed and the city of Shushi was destroyed.

U.S. military experts have visited the Russian-operated Qabala (Gabala) radar station in Azerbaijan, which Moscow has offered to share with the United States to counter rogue missile threats.

Military experts from Azerbaijan, Russia, and the United States are to meet in Azerbaijan on September 18 to discuss the possibility of Washington using the country's Qabala (Gabala) radar station as part of its planned missile-defense shield.

“I have known the Ambassador of Azerbaijan for 25 years already. Not long ago we headed the Ministry of Culture in our states. Personal relations played a big role in the organization of a joint trip to Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

The last body of a worker was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed multi-story building in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, bringing the death toll to 25, a spokesman for the emergency situations ministry said.

A top European human rights official has met in Baku with rights activists and representatives of NGOs ahead of meetings this week with Azerbaijani officials.

Three-way consultations between Russia, Azerbaijan, and the United States on the joint use of the Gabala radar in Azerbaijan are scheduled for September 15, a senior Russian government official said.

Seven people have died in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, after a high-rise building that was under construction collapsed. Rescue workers are trying to reach up to 10 people believed still trapped under the debris in the basement.

EU officials have criticized Azerbaijan for its human-rights record, in particular noting violations in the area of media freedom.