Worldwide military spending increased in 2009 at the fastest pace since 2003, a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says, noting a more than 400 percent increase in military spending in Azerbaijan since 2000.

BAKU (RFE/RL)-Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has rejected as "laughable" a claim by Yerevan that Russia could back Armenia in case of a renewed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.