Aliyev urges OSCE Minsk group to force Armenia to continue Karabakh talks.

BAKU, June 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia, the United States and France as
co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group must persuade Armenia to adopt the
updated Madrid principles of the Karabakh settlement, President of
Azerbaijan Ilkham Aliyev told journalists on Tuesday.
"The updated Madrid principles are proposals put forward by the three
co-chairing countries. I hope these countries will respect their own
proposals and give Armenia serious signals. If we all are interested in
the continuation of talks, we must take certain steps," Aliyev stressed.
If it does not happen and Armenia continues to drag out the
negotiating process or voices negativism of the intermediaries' proposals,
he said, Azerbaijan "must seriously think over its participation in the
talks."
"We are thinking about it, considering various options and will seek
to restore Azerbaijan's territorial integrity by all means," he added.

.Medvedev to attend international ant-drug forum in Moscow.

MOSCOW, June 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will
attend an international forum on counteracting drug production in
Afghanistan, which opens here on Wednesday.
The forum entitled "Afghan Drug Production - A Challenge to the
International Community" will focus on stepping up the fight against drug
trafficking from Afghanistan, which has grown dramatically in the recent
years. The forum will be attended by heads of anti-drug authorities and
law enforcement agencies from various countries, Russian and foreign
experts, representatives from such international organizations as the
United Nations, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, NATO and the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The Russian president has repeatedly said that the current efforts
were not enough to stop drug trafficking from Afghanistan. "Afghanistan is
in a difficult situation, we are trying to help it, and it is vital that
our efforts in the Afghan direction are not solitary," he said and noted
that Moscow closely cooperated with Washington for the Afghan settlement.
"Russia and the United State are helping Afghan residents to transform
their country into a stable, steadily developing state. We are jointly
working for the political settlement, strengthening the national army and
police," he said.
However, he noted, the international anti-drug laws needed to be tuned
to take into account the changing situation in the world, particularly, in
Afghanistan and Latin America. "Priority should be given to efficient
methods, joint operations and measures to improve the international
anti-drug laws," he stressed.
The situation around drug production in Afghanistan has gained a
catastrophic character. Some 100,000 people died globally from Afghan
drugs in 2009 alone. In all, Afghan-made opiates have claimed one million
human lives in the past decade, and 16 million more ruined their health.
Russia has come to be faced with a "heroine epidemics." According to
official statistics, the number of drug addicts in Russia has gone up
20-fold in the past 20 years to reach two to two and a half million
people, with 90 percent of them being heroine addicts.
Last year, according to the Russian anti-drug authority, 46 tons of
drugs were seized and heroine and hashish of the Afghan origin accounted
for 90 percent.

.FISU technical experts to inspect Universiade-2013 facilities in
Kazan.

KAZAN, June 9 (Itar-Tass) -- A technical delegation from the
International University Sports Federation (FISU) on Wednesday will
inspect the Universiade-2013 facilities in Kazan, which will host the
World Summer Student Games in 2013.
"More than 50 FUSU inspectors have arrived in Kazan. They are chairmen
of technical committees in 22 sports disciplines on the programme of the
World Summer Student Games," Vladimir Leonov, the Kazan-2013 executive
director, told Itar-Tass. The guests include sports officials from 20
countries, including Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Canada, Finland,
Sweden, the Czech republic, and Japan.
The delegation, according to Leonov, will study in detail the state of
the sports facilities with specific attention to living, public catering,
training and recreation facilities. Technical experts on football will
inspect the Rubin stadium, which will be used for coaching purposes. On
June 10, volleyball experts will visit the Tatneft-Arena ice stadium,
which will host Universiade volleyball tournaments.
For the first time Russia hosted the World Student Games in 1973. They
were held in Moscow. For the second time they will be held in Tatarstan's
capital city Kazan in July-August 2013 in 13 basic and 13 extra sports
disciplines.
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