Armenian Exodus Passes 50,000 as US Presses Azerbaijan on Safety.

The Foreign Ministry in Baku said the offer to allow UN officials to visit Nagorno-Karabakh was Aliyev's response to the US request for an international mission. (Bloomberg) -- Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev offered to let the United Nations into Nagorno-Karabakh as the US pressed him over security for Armenians in the region to stem an exodus that's approaching half of the declared population. Former Moscow investment banker Ruben Vardanyan, who was briefly state minister in Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian administration, was detained as he tried to cross the border into Armenia, Azerbaijan's state border service reported Wednesday. [Extracted from the article]