Category: Azer News

Non-resident companies and individuals providing goods and services to customers in Azerbaijan through electronic commerce will be required to register for tax purposes once their annual turnover exceeds the equivalent of $10,000 in Azerbaijani manats, AzerNEWS reports.

The relevant amendments, adopted on February 13, will enter into force on August 23.

Under the new rules, non-residents conducting e-commerce through online platforms and earning income from providing services or performing work for customers in Azerbaijan must complete electronic tax registration within 30 days after their turnover exceeds the $10,000 threshold during a calendar year. Non-residents whose turnover remains below the threshold may register electronically on a voluntary basis.

However, certain services will not be classified as e-commerce services under the new provision. These include consulting, legal, financial, accounting, design and engineering services provided via email or other interactive communication tools, as well as real-time online educational and training services and online ticket booking for scientific, educational, cultural, sporting and entertainment events.

The relevant authorities will establish procedures for the electronic registration, re-registration and deregistration of non-residents, as well as their registration as VAT payers, submission of VAT returns and payment of VAT.

China’s National Supercomputing Internet announced that it had made the official version of DeepSeek V4 Pro (DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813) and the DeepSeek Harness agent framework available on its platform, a move that a Chinese expert said could lower technical barriers for domestic developers and accelerate the adoption of AI agents in scientific research and industrial applications, AzerNEWS reports, citing Global Times.

DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 places a particular emphasis on enhanced agent capabilities. DeepSeek Harness, launched alongside the model and open-sourced under the MIT License, adopts an “everything is a plugin” architecture, allowing components such as models, tools, skills and sessions to be freely replaced and recombined. It offers four operating modes: Standard, PTC, Minimalist and Creative.

Backed by an independently developed and controllable national computing infrastructure powered by domestic technologies, the platform enables users to download DeepSeek models and source code, conduct private deployments and distributed inference, and carry out secondary development of AI agents through a one-stop service, helping bridge the critical gap between cutting-edge large-model research and industrial application.

According to the platform, the National Supercomputing Internet operates China’s first 100,000-accelerator resource pool integrating supercomputing and AI computing, supporting the entire large-model life cycle from training to deployment.

DeepSeek-V4-Pro-0813 features enhanced agent capabilities, with particularly significant performance improvements in production environments. Its overall performance is comparable to that of foreign closed-source models such as Claude Fable 5 and Opus 4.8.

On August 13, the developer preview of DeepSeek Harness (v0.1) was released for testing by agent-harness developers worldwide, with its source code made available under the MIT License. The National Supercomputing Internet’s AI community has also made the complete source code available, allowing developers to download the full project files from its code repository for compilation, debugging, further development and deployment.

The National Supercomputing Internet’s AI community currently hosts more than 1,700 popular open-source models from China and abroad, including leading Chinese model families such as DeepSeek, Qwen, MiniMax and Kimi.

Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the rollout goes beyond adding two new services. It connects an advanced model and agent framework with national computing infrastructure, making computing resources easier to use while strengthening compatibility with domestic systems.

The enhanced agent capabilities of DeepSeek V4 Pro reflect a broader shift from models that provide answers to agents that execute tasks. Users can set a goal, while the agent plans the workflow, calls tools and completes the task, expanding AI applications from content generation to software engineering, industrial simulation and scientific computing, Wang said.

For research institutions and smaller technology firms, the integrated platform could reduce computing costs and technical complexity. Its 100,000-accelerator resource pool supports the entire model life cycle, while Harness’s plug-in architecture simplifies model adaptation, development and deployment.

Wang added that the MIT-licensed framework allows flexible customization, enabling smaller teams and individual developers to build AI agents and supporting the growth of China’s domestic agent ecosystem.

A 17th-century wooden Catholic church has been destroyed by fire at the Open-Air Museum of Folk Architecture in the Polish city of Sanok, AzerNEWS reports.

According to Poland’s State Fire Service in the Podkarpackie region, the fire broke out overnight on August 16.

Around 120 firefighters were dispatched to the scene. Although they managed to prevent the flames from spreading to nearby buildings, the church could not be saved.

Museum officials said the collection housed inside the church was also destroyed in the blaze. The historic church had undergone restoration shortly before the fire.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

The church was considered one of the oldest churches in Poland.

South Korean troops fired warning shots after several North Korean soldiers crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) earlier this week, AzerNEWS reports, citing Yonhap.

According to the information, this was the first time in 2026 that the South Korean military had fired warning shots in response to North Korean troops crossing the MDL.

The incident occurred in the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula. Several North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line, prompting South Korean troops to issue warning shots in accordance with established operational procedures.

The North Korean soldiers subsequently withdrew to the northern side of the MDL, and no further unusual activity was reported.

It was noted that North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the MDL in recent years while reinforcing border areas. Following Pyongyang’s decision in late 2023 to characterize inter-Korean relations as those between “two hostile states,” North Korea intensified fortification work near the border in 2024 and 2025. Seventeen such incidents were recorded last year alone.

Under South Korean military procedures, troops first issue verbal warnings when North Korean soldiers approach or attempt to cross the MDL. If the line is crossed, warning shots are fired and measures are taken to compel the troops to withdraw.

North Korea has not yet issued a statement on the incident.

The third meeting of the Association of Research Institutes and Archaeology Centers of the Turkic World (ARICA) has been held in Bugac, Hungary, focusing on advancing cooperation in archaeology and cultural heritage preservation and developing joint international projects, AzerNEWS reports.

According to the Turkic Academy, the meeting brought together Turkic Academy President Academician Shahin Mustafayev, President of Hungary’s Turan Foundation András Bíró, heads and representatives of archaeological institutions from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Trkiye, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, representatives of the Turkish Historical Society, as well as officials and experts from the Hungarian National Museum.

Opening the meeting, Mustafayev said that over the three years since ARICA was established, the association had progressed from building the foundations of cooperation to creating an active international scientific network.

ARICA was established in Samarkand in 2023 on the initiative of the Turkic Academy. Its first official meeting was held in Shusha in 2024, while the second took place in Ankara and Gaziantep in 2025. During this period, participants identified key areas of cooperation and launched joint scientific initiatives and publication projects.

A major focus of the third meeting was the development of practical mechanisms for joint activities. Participants discussed establishing an ARICA International Program for the joint study of the archaeological heritage of Turkic countries. The program would enable specialists from different countries to identify priority archaeological sites annually and conduct joint field research, excavations, documentation and scientific analysis.

Potential areas of research include cities along the Great Silk Road, early Turkic-era monuments, ancient irrigation systems, the archaeological heritage of Eurasian nomadic cultures, and medieval production centers.

Participants also discussed establishing an ARICA Digital Information Portal and electronic research database to facilitate the continuous exchange of scientific information among archaeological institutions, researchers and research centers across the Turkic world.

The proposed platform could consolidate information on joint expeditions, publications, conferences, grants, educational programs, researchers and specialized institutions.

The Azerbaijan Tourism Board’s representative office in Russia, in cooperation with Russian tour operator FUN and SUN, held a presentation of Azerbaijan’s tourism opportunities in Moscow, AzerNEWS reports.

According to the information, the event was organized in the format of a business breakfast and brought together representatives of around 50 leading travel agencies partnering with the tour operator. The meeting aimed to strengthen cooperation with Russia’s tourism community and promote Azerbaijan as an attractive destination on the Russian market.

As part of the business program, representatives of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board’s office in Russia, together with partners from Absheron Hotel Group and Sea Breeze, presented existing tourism offers and opportunities for further cooperation.

Participants discussed Azerbaijan’s tourism potential, the variety of recreational options available in the country, and prospects for expanding cooperation with Russian travel agencies.

More than 600,000 Russian citizens visited Azerbaijan by the end of 2025. In July this year, the number of Russian tourists visiting Azerbaijan exceeded 73,000, surpassing the figure recorded during the same month last year.

Currently, flights between the two countries are operated by Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), UTair, Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines, Ural Airlines, S7 Airlines, and IrAero. In total, air routes connect four airports in Azerbaijan with more than 10 airports in the Russian Federation.

The U.S. Department of State has informed Congress that it has extended the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act with regard to Azerbaijan, AzerNEWS reports.

The notification, dated August 10, has been formally entered into the official record of the U.S. Congress.

The State Department submitted the document to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Section 907, enacted in 1992, limits U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan. However, in 2001, Congress granted the U.S. president the authority to waive those restrictions.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Saturday that Abu Hassan Alaa, a senior commander of Hezbollah’s Badr Unit, had been killed following an attack on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, AzerNEWS reports.

In a statement, the IDF said Alaa was targeted over Hezbollah’s activities against Israeli soldiers operating in the security zone.

According to the Israeli military, Alaa was involved in organizing numerous attacks against Israeli forces, including the launch of explosive-laden drones targeting Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

The IDF also reported that in recent years, Alaa had commanded several Hezbollah combat units involved in operations against Israeli military personnel and civilians.

The military described his elimination as a significant blow to Hezbollah’s command capabilities.

It was noted that the strikes were carried out in response to an attack by Hezbollah militants against Israeli soldiers in the Ali al-Taher mountain range in southern Lebanon. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incident.

Azerbaijani and Romanian representatives have discussed prospects for expanding economic and business cooperation between Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region and Romania’s Maramure? region, AzerNEWS reports.

A delegation headed by Elchin Yusubov, the Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in Khankendi city and the Aghdara and Khojaly districts, who is on an official visit to Romania, met with Florentin Nicolae Tu?, chairman of the Maramure? Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Business representatives and local entrepreneurs from Maramure? also attended the meeting.

The sides discussed opportunities for developing cooperation between the two regions and expanding direct business ties. Tu? expressed interest in establishing direct contacts and organizing reciprocal visits to increase trade turnover.

Yusubov briefed the Romanian side on large-scale construction and infrastructure projects underway in Karabakh, as well as favorable conditions and tax incentives available to investors. He also highlighted the positive dynamics in trade between Azerbaijan and Romania, noting that stronger interregional cooperation could create additional opportunities to diversify economic ties.

Elchin Yusubov invited Maramure? businesspeople and local entrepreneurs to visit Karabakh and explore potential investment and cooperation opportunities.

A Spanish fighter jet deployed in Romania as part of a NATO mission shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace near the borders with Ukraine and Moldova, AzerNEWS reports, citing Romania’s Defense Ministry.

According to the ministry, the drone, which had entered Romanian airspace from Moldova, was intercepted by an F-18 fighter jet at 5:01 a.m. local time.

The ministry also warned that debris from the drone could have fallen in an uninhabited area near Gala?i, close to the Ukrainian border.

Romania, a NATO member with a population of around 19 million, has been among the alliance’s countries most exposed to the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Its eastern border along the Black Sea lies close to areas that have been repeatedly targeted by strikes.

Other NATO members on the alliance’s eastern flank, including Poland and the Baltic states, have also reported repeated airspace violations.

On Friday, NATO said that a drone entering Latvian airspace had been shot down by Italian fighter jets.