The annual Eurovision song contest is usually watched by a TV audience of more than 100 million people worldwide. On the eve of this year's event, police on May 25 detained dozens of anti-government protesters in Baku.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as part of an eight-day trip to countries in northern Europe, the Caucasus and Turkey, which she is due to start on May 31.

Police in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, have detained about 30 opposition protesters who were demonstrating against the country's poor human rights record.

Just hours after Azerbaijan's bid to hold the Olympic Games in Baku in 2020 was excluded by the International Olympic Committee, the president of Azerbaijan's Football Federation said his country has submitted a bid to co-host the EURO 2020 soccer championship with neighbor Georgia.

European voters have picked the last 10 finalists for competition when the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest culminates in Baku on May 26.

EU lawmakers have adopted a resolution calling for an "immediate stop to all actions aimed at suppressing the freedom of expression and assembly" in Azerbaijan.

In a new report, the U.S. State Department calls last year’s uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa “inspirational," with citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria standing up and demanding their universal rights, greater economic opportunity, and participation in their countries’ political future.

The International Olympic Committee has made its first cuts in the selection process to decide the host for the 2020 summer games.

South Ossetian leader Leonid Tibilov has signed a decree appointing former presidential candidate Alla Dzhioyeva to be deputy prime minister.