Protests have ended in Tajikistan’s volatile Gorno-Badakhshan region after several hours of negotiations between government officials and representatives of the demonstrators on November 28, local residents told RFE/RL.

During the talks, the authorities pledged not to launch criminal probes against the protesters who had been staging demonstrations in front of the government building in the provincial capital, Khorugh, since November 25, said a local activist who attended the negotiations.

The activist spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to media.

According to the source, the officials also promised to open an investigation into the death of a local man who was shot dead by police in an incident that sparked the four-day protests.

The protesters dispersed in the afternoon and the situation in the city have returned to normal, several Khorugh residents said. There was no immediate comment from government officials.

Earlier, police sources said that Gorno-Badakhshan's acting governor, Alisher Mirzonabot, and several other officials and lawmakers were negotiating with some 40 representatives of protesters in the governor’s office to end the tensions.

Protests in Khorugh broke out after security forces fatally wounded a local man wanted on charges of kidnapping. On November 25, protesters brought the dead body of the man, Gulbidin Ziyobekov, to the town’s main square, demanding an investigation into the incident.

Some in the crowd then attempted to seize the building of the regional administration using "firearms, stones, and sharp objects," wounding four members of the security forces and a staff member of the prosecutor's office, the state security service said in a statement.

In response, security forces fired on protesters, killing at least one person and wounding several others, sources told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.

Violence continued in the following days. According to provincial prosecutors, protesters threw stones and wounded Aziz Ghiyoszoda, a member of parliament. That incident happened on November 27 when Ghiyoszoda along with the acting governor, Mirzonabot, came to the central square, unsuccessfully attempting to hold talks with the protesters.

Local residents say that up to 5,000 people were taking part in the rallies every day. However, the size of the demonstration on November 28 was considerably smaller with several dozen protesters gathered in front of the government headquarters.

Police also removed several checkpoints they had set up in the city after the tensions began.

Dismantling the checkpoints was among the protesters’ requests.

Protests are rare in the tightly-controlled nation of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled for nearly three decades.

Tensions between the government and residents of the nominally autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan region have simmered ever since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

A linguistically and ethnically distinct region, Gorno-Badakhshan has been home to rebels who opposed government forces during the conflict.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Turkmenistan for talks on November 27 with his counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, and to attend a summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) on November 28.

During his meetings with Berdymukhammedov, Erdogan signed a joint agreement on trade, focusing on energy, culture, and education.

Erdogan told journalists that both countries were committed to increasing bilateral trade, which currently has a volume of some $5 billion.

On November 28, Erdogan will attend the 15th ECO leaders' summit. The ECO comprises all five Central Asian countries (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), as well as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Erdogan was scheduled to hold unspecified bilateral talks with the heads of other ECO member countries.

Based on reporting by TRTWorld and Hurriyet

The United States Navy said on November 28 that it had rescued two Iranian mariners who had been adrift aboard a fishing vessel for eight days in the Gulf of Oman.

The navy cargo ship Charles Drew was sent to the scene on November 27 with food, water, and medical personnel after a distress call was received, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.

The two men recovered "in good health and spirits" and were transferred to an Omani Coast Guard vessel to be taken to the Omani capital, Muscat.

The bodies of five coal miners who were killed when an explosion ripped through a mine in the Siberian region of Kemerovo on November 25 have been recovered and brought to the surface, local officials reported.

The regional government's office posted on November 28 that one team of rescue workers was still in the mine, pumping out water and stabilizing carbon monoxide levels.

The bodies were reportedly found at a depth of 365 meters and rescuers had to travel 4.6 kilometers to reach them. Thirty-two bodies are yet to be recovered.

In all, 51 people, including five rescue workers, were killed in the disaster. Sixty people were injured and hospitalized, while a total of 239 miners were successfully evacuated.

On November 27, a group of miners from the mine told journalists that they were regularly given meters for measuring methane levels in the mine that had been tampered with to give lower readings. Nonetheless, the miners said, the equipment recorded excessive methane levels both in August and earlier this month. The miners provided photographs and videos showing the purported violations.

The miners also alleged that, for the first 90 minutes following the explosion, no ambulances or rescue workers arrived at the scene and only other miners began helping those still below ground.

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Two criminal cases into allegations of safety violations and criminal neglect have been opened and five people -- the mine director, his deputy, the immediate site supervisor, and two state safety inspectors -- have been arrested and charged.

The Listvyazhnaya coal mine, opened in 2003, is part of SDS-Ugol, one of Russia's largest mining companies. It is Russia's third-largest coal extractor and exporter.

According to Andrei Vil, a representative of the state Rostekhnadzor monitoring agency, the mine was inspected 127 times in 2021, as a result of which 914 violations were documented and work was stopped nine times. The most recent inspection, according to Rostekhnadzor reports, took place the day before the explosion.

Prosecutors have alleged that two Rostekhnadzor inspectors filled out reports without actually carrying out the checks.

Demonstrators blocked roads and bridges across Serbia on November 27 to protest against new laws they contend favor business.

Police were out in force, especially in the capital Belgrade, where protesters, blowing whistles and chanting “We won’t give up Serbia,” managed to block traffic at several locations.

Huge columns of cars and other vehicles formed at several locations as the demonstrators allowed only emergency services to pass.

Similar actions were organized in several other cities across Serbia, including Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Sabac, and Kragujevac.

Several demonstrators were arrested during the protests in Novi Sad and Zrenjanin in northern Serbia.

Environmental groups and civil society organizations object to the authorities' recent moves to lower the referendum threshold and allow for the swift expropriation of private property if it's deemed to be in the public interest.

Activists argue this will pave the way for foreign companies to circumvent popular discontent over projects such as the bid by the Rio Tinto company to launch a lithium mine in western Serbia.

Serbia’s authorities have rejected the accusations, saying the new laws are needed because of infrastructure projects. President Aleksandar Vucic said a referendum will be organized on the Rio Tinto mine.

Experts have warned that the planned lithium mine in western Serbia would destroy farmland and pollute the waters.

Rio Tinto has said that it will respect all Serbian laws and denied its project could endanger the environment.

Following decades of neglect, Serbia has faced major environmental problems such as air and water pollution, poor waste management and other issues.

With reporting by AP

North Macedonia's prime minister, Zoran Zaev, has stepped down as head of the Social Democratic Party (SDSM) in the wake of the party's defeat in local elections in October.

The party’s ruling committee on November 27 accepted Zaev's resignation and scheduled a vote on a successor for December 12. The new party leader would also be submitted to parliament to replace Zaev as prime minister.

Local media reported that Finance Minister Dimitar Kovachevski is currently the favorite to win.

Zaev announced his intention to step down after the party suffered a sound defeat in local elections on October 31.

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He served as prime minister from May 2017 to January 2020 and again since August 2020.

He oversaw the resolution of his country's long-standing dispute with Greece over the name "Macedonia." Zaev oversaw a 2018 referendum that changed the country's name to North Macedonia, paving the way to advance its European Union accession bid.

With reporting by dpa

The United States has expressed deep concern after security forces in Iran cracked down on demonstrators protesting crippling water shortages.

Security forces on November 26 fired tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators as some 500 people gathered on the desiccated bed of the Zayandehrud River, which runs through the city of Isfahan.

Hassan Karami, an Iranian police general, said on November 27 that police had arrested 67 of “the main actors and agitators” from the protest. Karami added that between 2,000 and 3,000 "rioters" had taken part in the November 26 demonstration in Isfahan, some 400 kilometers south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

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"Deeply concerned about the violent crackdown against peaceful protestors," State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted. "The people of Iran have a right to voice their frustrations and hold their government accountable."

The riverbed has seen protests against the water shortages since November 9, as farmers and others have gathered there from across the region.

Although the region is experiencing a severe drought, many people blame the authorities for diverting water to neighboring Yazd Province, which has also been affected.

The largest protest, involving thousands of demonstrators, was on November 19.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni has said the water crisis is a top priority for the government.

Based on reporting by AFP and Fars

Rare protests in Tajikistan’s remote Gorno-Badakhshan region continued for a third day on November 27, after one protester was killed and five members of law enforcement were injured when a crowd stormed a local government building.

Several thousand people protested in the provincial capital, Khorugh, on November 27. According to unconfirmed reports, police opened fire on demonstrators, several of whom were reportedly injured.

Protests in Khorugh broke out on November 25 after security forces lethally wounded a local man wanted on charges of kidnapping.

Protesters brought the dead body of the man, Gulbidin Ziyobekov, to the town square on November 25, demanding an investigation into the incident, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported.

Some in the crowd then attempted to seize the building of the regional administration using "firearms, stones, and sharp objects," wounding four members of the security forces and a staff member of the prosecutor's office, the state security service said in a statement.

In response, security forces fired on protesters, killing one of them and wounding several others, sources told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.

According to the regional prosecutors’ office, Ziyobekov, 29, was "injured" when security forces raided his home in a nearby village on November 25. He and accomplices are wanted for allegedly beating and kidnapping a prosecutor last year. Another man was reportedly injured during the operation and later died in a hospital.

Authorities said Ziyobekov had resisted arrest and opened fire on officers, but they made no mention of his death.

Protest were also held on November 26, when crowds brought the coffins of two people killed the previous day to the central square in Khorugh.

Protests are rare in the tightly-controlled nation of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled for nearly three decades.

Tensions between the government and residents of the nominally autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan region have simmered ever since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

A linguistically and ethnically distinct region, Gorno-Badakhshan has been home to rebels who opposed government forces during the conflict.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

A large munitions factory in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk was rocked by several explosions on November 27.

The Emergency Situations Ministry reported that two workers were injured in the explosions.

A fire ignited by the blasts was later extinguished.

Officials said there was no danger to local residents.

Acting Emergency Situations Minister Aleksandr Chupriyan was at the site, having traveled to Dzerzhinsk from Kemerovo Oblast where he was overseeing rescue efforts from a November 25 coal-mine explosion there.

Officials said 88 workers were successfully evacuated from the area of the explosions.

A criminal investigation into the incident was opened.

The plant was struck by a series of massive explosions on June 1, 2019, injuring dozens of workers. That incident followed an earlier explosion in April 2019.

According to the factory’s website, it is the largest defense-industry plant in Russia. Munitions account for about 30 percent of its output, the rest comprising mostly industrial explosives and chemical products.

In August 2018, six workers were killed in an explosion and fire at the plant, while in July 2020, three workers were hospitalized following a chemical leak.

With reporting by Interfax

A court in Russia on November 27 ordered five people to remain in pretrial detention for two months pending a probe into an explosion at a coal mine in Siberia that left dozens dead.

Russian authorities reported 51 deaths after a suspect methane explosion rocked the Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia on November 25, killing 46 miners and five rescuers.

The Central District Court in the city of Kemerovo ruled to jail the director of the Listvyazhnaya mine, Sergei Makhrakov, his deputy Andrei Molostvov, and section supervisor Sergei Gerasimyonok.

They are facing charges of violating industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities that resulted in multiple deaths. If convicted, they could face up to seven years in prison.

Two officials of the local branch of Rostekhnadzor, Russia’s state technology and ecology watchdog -- Sergei Vinokurov and Vyacheslav Semykin -- have also been jailed for two months on a charge of negligence that led to two or more deaths, punishable by up to seven years in prison as well.

The two inspectors had issued a certificate for the mine this month but had not actually checked the facility.

Law enforcement officials said on November 26 that miners had complained about the high level of methane in the mine.

In all, 60 people remain hospitalized, four in serious condition, the Russian Health Ministry reported on November 27.

The head of the Kemerovo Oblast settlement of Prokopyevska, Vyacheslav Starchenko, was dismissed on November 26 for organizing a party in honor of his own appointment the previous day at a time when the entire Siberian region was officially in mourning. Regional Governor Sergei Tsivilev announced the dismissal, saying that those who attended the gathering “apparently have no heart.”

Kemerovo Oblast has declared a period of mourning from November 26 to November 28.

The accident at the mine, located some 3,500 kilometers east of Moscow, was Russia's worst since 2010 when explosions killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same region.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Iraq is sending more planes to repatriate about 800 migrants stranded on the Belarus-Poland border, adding to nearly a thousand already brought home, the Foreign Ministry said.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said on November 26 that two Iraqi Airways flights would bring back 861 migrants over the next 24 hours.

The flights will bring to 1,894 the number of Iraqis, most of them Kurds, brought home from Belarus on special flights since the operation began on November 18.

One flight on the evening of November 26 will bring 431 people to Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, followed by a flight on November 27 to collect 430 more, Sahaf said.

Poland and other EU nations accuse Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka of waging a “hybrid war” by allowing migrants to fly in, then funneling them to the bloc’s borders in retaliation for sanctions imposed over a sweeping crackdown that has been under way in Belarus since the authoritarian leader kept his grip on power following last year’s disputed presidential election.

Meanwhile, the EU is readying a fifth package of sanctions against Belarus for orchestrating the migrant crisis.

Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania have put up fences and deployed thousands of border guards, soldiers, and police to seal the border, where thousands of migrants have camped in freezing temperatures during the standoff between Belarus and the European Union. At least 11 migrants have died in recent months, according to aid groups.

In some cases, the frontline states in the crisis have pushed back migrants to Belarus, in a policy criticized by human rights groups.

Returning Iraqis say they have spent thousands of dollars to escape economic hardship or life in displacement camps to start a new life in the EU, only to be mistreated by Polish and Belarusian authorities. Most of the migrants, including minority Yazidis displaced by a genocidal campaign launched by the Islamic State in 2014, are seeking to reach Germany.

Poland says groups of migrants are still continuing to illegally cross the border from Belarus, and has warned against interpreting recent moves by Minsk to repatriate some of the migrants as a de-escalation of the crisis.

Last week, Belarusian authorities cleared makeshift migrant camps at the border and transferred about 2,000 people to a warehouse turned into shelter, while allowing the first repatriation flight to Iraq.

Earlier on November 26, Lukashenka made his first public appearance at the border since the start of the crisis, telling migrants at a warehouse that they were free to choose whether to head to the EU or go home.

"If you want to go westwards, we won't detain you, choke you, beat you," he said in a campaign-style speech to hundreds of migrants. "It's up to you. Go through. Go."

"We won't in any circumstances detain you, tie your hands and load you on planes to send you home if you don't want that," he added.

While Belarus has begun allowing some migrants to fly home, it is pushing for Germany to accept 2,000 people, something the EU has rejected and Germany has denied agreeing to it.

Lukashenka accuses the EU of failing to meet international asylum laws by refusing the migrants entry.

The crisis has added to tensions between Russia and the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who backed Lukashenka as he crushed opposition protests following last year's election, has also backed Belarus in its migrant standoff with the EU.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, Iraqi News Agency, and Kurdistan 24

A special U.S. envoy for election reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina has told RFE/RL's Balkan Service ahead of a trip to the region that Washington sees "limited, targeted constitutional change" as a key aspect of a reform push ahead of elections next year.

Bosnia has been in a protracted political crisis as its Serb entity threatens secession and Bosnian Croats complain they are underrepresented in the country's ethnically-apportioned structures.

U.S. officials have been pressing for electoral reforms in time to ensure broad participation in an election scheduled for next October.

"The message that we will be bringing to the leaders of the various political parties and to others is -- now is the time for action," Mathew Palmer, special envoy for election reform in Bosnia, told RFE/RL on November 26.

"Everybody understands the nature of the problems that we are looking at, everybody understands the nature of the compromises that are necessary, and now is the time for leadership, now is the time for difficult choices… in order to help Bosnia-Herzegovina move forward towards a European future,” Palmer said ahead of his arrival in the Balkan country on November 27.

Bosnia's governing structures remain ethnically divided under a U.S.-brokered peace accord that ended a 1992-95 war.

The Dayton accords created two entities in Bosnia: the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The country is governed and administered along ethnic lines established by the agreement, with a weak and often dysfunctional central government.

"This is not a negotiation that has two parties. This is about all of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the future direction of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the integrity of the electoral process across the country. So there are going to be multiple stakeholders," Palmer said.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the Serbian representative in the ethnically-apportioned tripartite presidency, has been threatening to withdraw from state-level institutions, including Bosnia's joint judiciary, military, and tax administration. He has brushed aside international concerns that such an agenda could spark renewed conflict in the ethnically divided Balkan country.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has renewed a push for diplomacy to resolve the political crisis, working with European and regional partners to ensure the country's territorial integrity and compliance with the peace deal.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a letter to members of the presidency, calling for a commitment to the Dayton accords and reforms to the country’s election law and limited constitutional reforms.

"One of the key aspects of the [electoral] reform process -- as we look at it -- is limited, targeted constitutional change to help Bosnia-Herzegovina meet its obligations to the European Union and come into compliance with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights," Palmer said.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and EU officials have said Bosnia's current, ethnically defined representation is problematic.

An unidentified gunman opened fire on a bus carrying schoolchildren in western Kosovo, killing three people and injuring another, authorities said.

Veton Elshani, deputy police chief in the nearby city of Peja, said the shots were fired at the bus on the evening of November 26 as it was traveling in the village of Gllogjan, 90 kilometers west of the capital, Pristina.

The driver died on the scene and three teenagers were taken to a local hospital where two of them died.

Elshani said police believe the gunman used a Kalashnikov automatic rifle and acted alone when he fired at the bus transporting eight teenagers. It’s unclear if the bus was the intended target of the shooting.

“There is no reason to believe it was a terrorist act," Elshani said.

Chief Prosecutor Blerim Isufaj said an investigation had been launched but no suspect had been identified.

President Vjosa Osmani called the attack “shocking” and urged law enforcement officials to find the culprit.

Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said that he had shortened his visit to Albania due to the event and ordered police to fully mobilize to find the perpetrator of this "macabre act.”

With reporting by AP

U.S. and NATO officials have issued fresh warnings of the possible consequences of any new Russian aggression against neighboring Ukraine, with Washington suggesting that "all options are on the table" if the alliance is forced to respond to an escalation by Moscow.

Later, U.S. President Joe Biden said in response to a reporter's question that "in all probability" he would speak directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in an effort to defuse tensions in the region.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on November 26 that Russia had assembled combat-ready troops, tanks, and heavy military equipment near its border with Ukraine and cautioned Moscow that any force against its neighbor would incur "costs."

Reports of a Russian buildup of more than 90,000 troops recently prompted the United States and Germany to reiterate their support for Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

"If Russia uses force against Ukraine that will have costs, that would have consequences," Stoltenberg said in Brussels.

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Moscow has denied direct involvement in Kyiv's seven-year war with separatists in eastern Ukraine despite overwhelming evidence of Russian troop and other assistance. It has downplayed the recent reports of its troop movements as an internal matter.

"This is the second time this year that Russia has amassed a large and unusual concentration of forces in the region," Stoltenberg said in an allusion to a purported buildup in the spring that eased soon after a summit between Putin and Biden in June.

Russia this week launched military drills in the Black Sea region near Ukraine.

Earlier on November 26, Zelenskiy said his country was prepared for any Russian escalation and alleged that unidentified Russians and Ukrainians were plotting to overthrow his government next week.

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Russia has recently stepped up its involvement in an ongoing feud between Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the West since a highly criticized Belarusian presidential election in 2020.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO's 29 other foreign ministers are scheduled to gather in Latvia on November 30, with Russia's activities high on the agenda.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are both expected to attend an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial meeting on December 2-3.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried said on November 26 that a key focus of Blinken's European trip next week would be how to respond to challenges including Russia and Belarus.

"As you can appreciate, all options are on the table and there's a toolkit that includes a whole range of options," Donfried told reporters.

"It's now for the alliance to decide what are the next moves that NATO wants to take," she said of the NATO and OSCE gatherings.

"Next week, we will talk about our assessment of what's happening on Russia's border with Ukraine and we will begin that conversations of what are the options that are on the table and what it is that NATO as an alliance would like to do together."

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security (UKMK) has announced the arrest of 15 suspects in an alleged coup plot, just two days before elections in the country's fourth major vote in a little over a year.

The UKMK said the alleged plotters included lawmakers in the Jogorku Kenesh, the unicameral legislature, and former high-ranking officials but did not identify any suspects.

It said pretrial proceedings had already been instituted under articles of the Criminal Code relating to violent efforts to overturn the government.

The Prosecutor-General's Office has set up an interagency group to investigate the case.

Street protests have sparked government ousters three times in the past two decades, including after a vote last year that swept the current president, Sadyr Japarov, to power.

National parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 28 to repeat the October 2020 vote.

Japarov has since organized a presidential election and a concurrent referendum on changing the constitution to grant more power to the presidency.

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A spokesman for the intelligence service, Kumushbek Shabdanov, said the suspects had recruited about 1,000 people and were preparing for a postelection riot.

Officials said mass riots were part of the plan and that a search turned up weapons, ammunition, and drugs.

RFE/RL has learned that Green Party candidate Beknazar Kupeshov is among those detained early on November 26.

One of the purported detainees named by local media, Nurbek Kalekeev, had recently become a vocal critic of the government on social media over an ongoing coal shortage.

In August, the Interior Ministry said it had tapped the phones of dozens of politicians and their relatives, civil society activists, and human rights activists earlier this year as part of an investigation into violence in October 2020.

The list of politicians and civil-society activists arrested and charged under the current administration with attempting to seize power through force includes former Interior Minister Kursan Asanov, whose trial began last month.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have expressed a willingness toward progress on border delimitation and improving economic and transport links after Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted trilateral talks in Sochi.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, and Putin began their three-hour meeting on November 26 by saying that "a lot has been done" since last year's Moscow-brokered cease-fire ended 44 days of intense fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby districts.

A deadly flareup last week has rekindled fears of a return to large-scale violence.

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In a statement after their talks, all three pledged "to take steps to increase the level of stability and security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and to work towards the creation of a bilateral commission on the delimitation of the state border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia with its subsequent demarcation with the consultative assistance of the Russian Federation at the request of the parties."

They also vowed "to intensify joint efforts aimed at the earliest possible resolution" of commitments from the past year on resuming economic and transport links in their Caucasus region.

Moscow said it would lend "all necessary assistance" toward "normalizing relations" between the longtime foes and "creating an atmosphere of trust" between their peoples and "building good-neighborly relations in the region."

Putin said that Russian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani deputy prime ministers would meet in Moscow next week "to summarize some results and announce the decisions that we have coordinated today."

Aliyev expressed hope that the Sochi talks could lead a "more secure and predictable" situation in the Caucasus.

“Today we had a very detailed and I would say frank conversation on issues of border delimitation and demarcation and unblocking of transport arteries," Aliyev said.

"We openly discussed our plans, we openly discussed issues that cause concern with both sides. The most important thing is that the decisions that we’ve made in the issue of settling disputes, differences will contribute to a more secure and predictable situation in the South Caucasus."

Aliyev said that "in Azerbaijan we feel like turning over the page of many years of confrontation with Armenia and begin a stage of normal interaction," adding, "I think our meeting will lead to good results that won’t make us wait for too long."

Pashinian described the meeting as "very positive."

"This wasn't a meeting to hide problems," the Armenian prime minister said. "I think that we can expect concrete results if we manage to build on the dynamics of our talks."

The intense conflict last year ended with Azerbaijan in control of major swaths of territory in and around the breakaway Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that had been under ethnic Armenian control since a bloody war in the 1990s.

Police have used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating in the Iranian city of Isfahan to demand government action over a drought.

Video footage on social media appeared to show police and protesters clashing in the dry bed of the Zayandehrud River on November 26. Other videos showed similar unrest in nearby streets of Isfahan.

The gathering of some 500 people in Isfahan was ended by what the Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency said was a large security force.

Farmers reportedly ended a nearly weeks-long protest in the area on November 25, after authorities promised to compensate them for losses suffered in drought-stricken areas of central Iran.

Drought has been a problem in Iran for some 30 years, but it has worsened over the past decade, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. The Iran Meteorological Organization says that an estimated 97 percent of the country now faces some level of drought.

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The farming area around Isfahan was once well supplied by the Zayandehrud River, but nearby factories have increasingly drawn on it over the years. The river once flowed under historic bridges in Isfahan's city center, but it's now a barren strip of dirt.

In 2012, farmers clashed with police in a town in Isfahan Province, breaking a water pipe that diverted some 50 million cubic meters of water a year to a neighboring province. Similar protests have continued sporadically since then.

Based on reporting by AP

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukraine's intelligence service has uncovered plans to stage a coup involving people from Russia that was due to occur next week.

Zelenskiy did not give full details of the plot nor did he accuse the Kremlin of direct involvement in his comments at a press conference in Kyiv on November 26.

The Kremlin swiftly denied any role in any coup plot.

At the press conference involving journalists from Ukraine and abroad, Zelenskiy also said Ukraine was ready for any escalation from Russia amid recent reports of Russian troops massing in Russia's western regions and in illegally occupied Crimea.

Media outlets including The New York Times and Bloomberg have quoted U.S. officials as warning that Russia might attack this winter, with some saying a potential invasion could be "on a scale far greater" than in 2014, when Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

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On the coup allegations, Zelenskiy said he had "certain audio recordings" in which plans for carrying out such a plot on December 1 or 2 were being discussed between unspecified people from Ukraine and Russia.

He said they mentioned Rinat Akhmetov, the Ukrainian billionaire, who didn't personally take part in the conversation, according to Zelenskiy.

Zelenskiy stressed he didn't believe the billionaire would get involved in the plot, as it would be a "fatal mistake" for him to take part in the "war" against the president.

"I believe this is a setup of Rinat Akhmetov," Zelenskiy said.

Akhmetov issued a statement on Telegram calling Zelenskiy's claims "an absolute lie" and saying that he was "outraged."

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegation of Russia being involved in the planned coup attempt.

"We never do things like that," Peskov said.

Akhmetov owns Ukraine's largest private power utility, DTEK, plus multiple businesses in eastern Ukraine, including steel and iron-ore producers, a bank, insurers, and a television channel.

In his other comments on November 26, Zelenskiy said that Ukraine was in full control of its borders and was ready for any escalation with Russia.

"There is a threat today that there will be war tomorrow," Zelensky told the press conference. "We are entirely prepared for an escalation."

Zelenskiy also said his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, would soon be contacting representatives of Russia about the standoff between the two countries. Separately, Yermak said he would be contacting Dmitry Kozak, President Vladimir Putin's deputy chief of staff.

U.S. intelligence officials and senior figures in Ukraine's military have suggested that as many as 92,000 Russian troops are massed to the north and east of Ukraine -- many in the area around Yelnya, near Russia’s border with its ally Belarus -- and in Crimea, the peninsula that lies south of mainland Ukraine.

Amid Russia’s build-up, CNN this week quoted sources in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration as saying it was considering sending military advisers and new equipment including weapons to Ukraine.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington had "real concerns" about the Russian military moves and a possible new offensive, which he warned would be a "serious mistake."

Moscow, which also massed thousands of troops along its border with Ukraine last spring, has dismissed talk of a potential Russian invasion as "groundless."

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Rescuers have found a survivor after an explosion at a mine in Siberia left at least 51 dead in what appears to have been Russia's deadliest mine accident in more than a decade.

The man pulled out of the mine shaft was a rescuer who had been presumed dead, reports said.

Sergei Tsivilyov, governor of the Kemerovo region where the mine is located, said on the messaging app Telegram that the survivor had been hospitalized.

A total of 51 people are now presumed dead after the explosion early on November 25 at the Listvyazhnaya mine in southwestern Siberia. A total of 285 miners were in the shaft at the time of the explosion.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said hundreds of miners were successfully evacuated from the mine after the blast in a shaft that is about 250 meters deep.

Hours after a methane-gas explosion and fire filled the mine with toxic fumes on November 25, rescuers were forced to halt the search because of a buildup of methane and carbon-monoxide gas from the fire.

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At Least 52 Dead, Dozens More Trapped, After Siberian Mine Fire

Regional officials have declared three days of mourning and Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the fire over violations of safety regulations that led to deaths. It said the mine director and two senior managers were detained.

Another criminal probe was launched on November 26 into the alleged negligence of state officials that inspected the mine earlier this month.

The Investigative Committee later said two inspectors who allegedly issued a certificate without checking the facility would be charged and taken into custody.

Inspections at the mine in 2020 and 2021 reportedly uncovered dozens of safety violations at the mine, some of them serious.

The mine is owned by SDS-Ugol, one of Russia's largest coal companies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on November 25 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had extended his condolences to the families of the miners who lost their lives.

"The president instructed the regional governor [Tsivilyov] and acting Emergency Situations Minister Aleksandr Chupriyan to arrange assistance for the injured and make every possible effort to continue the rescue operation," Peskov said.

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'Unloved Children Of The Kuzbass': Life And Death In A Siberian Village

It appears to have been the deadliest mine accident in Russia since 2010, when two methane explosions and a fire killed 91 people at the Raspadskaya mine in the same Kemerovo region.

In 2016, 36 miners were killed in a series of methane explosions in a coal mine in Russia's far north. In the wake of the incident, authorities analyzed the safety of the country's 58 coal mines and declared 20 of them potentially unsafe.

The Listvyazhnaya mine, which was opened in 2003, wasn't on the list at the time, according to media reports.

But TASS reports that in 2021 an audit of the regional department of Rostekhnadzor revealed nearly 140 violations in the operation of the Listvyazhnaya mine. Violations were identified in ventilation systems and fire response.

According to Siberia.Realities, watchdog Rostekhnadzor identified 18 serious safety violations at the facility.

With reporting from AFP, dpa, and AP

A journalist who has worked for RFE/RL as a freelancer has been detained in Minsk, his wife said, amid an intensifying crackdown on independent media by the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Andrey Kuznechyk went out for a bike ride on November 25, before returning shortly accompanied by four men garbed in civilian dress, Alesya Rak told RFE/RL.

The four, who did not present any identification, then searched their apartment, Rak said, only avoiding the rooms of their two young children.

"They took all the electronic equipment and Andrey's phone; my mobile phone, my tablet, and money," she added.

Kuznechyk was then led away by the group of four, who did not give any reason for his detention.

"Andrey was ordered to get dressed and to go with them. He was not allowed to take anything with him, only a spare pair of pants. They said that they were taking him away for a short while, for a couple of days," Kuznechyk's wife said.

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

Protests erupted in Belarus last year after Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of a presidential election that opponents and the West say was rigged.

The West has refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus. The Belarusian strongman is now reliant more than ever on Russia, which analysts say is using his weakened position to strengthen its hold over its smaller neighbor.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are now in jail as political prisoners.

Independent media and opposition social media channels have been targeted as well.

"The regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues its effort to crush all independent media in Belarus," RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said of Kuznechyk's detention.

"Andrey was kidnapped by agents of the regime for nothing more than being a journalist. The regime also targeted one of our social media accounts, attempting to cut off more channels of information for the Belarusian people. Andrey should be released immediately and allowed to return to his wife and young children. He has committed no crime."

The website of RFE/RL's Belarus Service has been blocked within Belarus since August 21, 2020, weeks after the disputed August 3 presidential election.

The accreditation of all locally based journalists working for foreign media, including RFE/RL, were annulled by the Belarusian authorities in October 2020.

Ihar Losik, a popular blogger and RFE/RL consultant, was detained on June 25, 2020, and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to "prepare to disrupt public order."

Losik is now on trial in a closed-door hearing.

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Hope And Horror: How Belarus Has Changed Since An Election Ignited A Crisis One Year Ago

Six months after the arrest of journalist Raman Pratasevich, charges of "extremism" are increasingly being used against Belarusian independent media, Reporters Without Borders said on November 23.

Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, were detained in May when Belarus scrambled a military jet to escort their Athens-to-Vilnius flight to land in Minsk because of a bomb threat that proved to be false.

Many countries called Belarus's actions a "state hijacking."

A day after his arrest on May 23, Pratasevich appeared with his face swollen in a video broadcast by Belarusian TV, admitting to his involvement in organizing "mass rioting."

Pratasevich faces charges of being behind protests that followed the August 2020 disputed election, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

He was a key administrator of the Telegram channel Nexta-Live, which like other social media channels was widely used during the street protests against Lukashenka last year both to coordinate demonstrations and share footage of the violent police crackdown.

Six months after his detention, Pratasevich is under house arrest at a secret location. His mother is allowed to take him food and his mail, but she has signed a confidentiality pledge.

The most recent official comment on Pratasevich's case was on September 12 when, speaking on state-owned STV, the head of the Minsk Investigative Committee said the criminal investigation into the case would be completed in October.

He added that the case – which he said also concerned Nexta founder Stepan Putylo, 1863x.com news website founder Eduard Palchys, and "anarchist movements" -- already consisted of "more than 600 volumes of documents." There has been no further official word since then.

Pratasevich, who had to wait four more days to see his lawyer, delivered additional seemingly forced confessions in several more public appearances, including one in an ONT television interview in which he professed “unconditional respect” for Lukashenka, who -- he said -- had "balls of steel." He remained in prison for just over a month before being transferred to house arrest.

"The physical and psychological pressure to which Raman Pratasevich has been subjected for the past six month constitutes inhuman treatment and even torture," said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF's Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. "We call for his immediate release and the release of the 30 other journalists and media workers arbitrarily imprisoned in Belarus."

Around 600 Iraqis stranded for weeks on the Belarus-Poland border have returned home, local media report.

Hundreds of Iraqis, most of them Kurds, returned home last week on the first repatriation flight from Belarus, where thousands of migrants have camped in freezing temperatures during a standoff between Belarus and the European Union.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Sahaf said that 617 citizens were being voluntarily repatriated on two Iraqi Airways flights from the Belarusian capital, Minsk, the official Iraqi news agency reported on November 25.

Both planes later landed on November 26 in Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, multiple media reported, including Kurdistan 24.

On November 18, a total of 431 migrants returned on an Iraqi Airways plane from Minsk. The plane stopped first in Irbil before flying on to Baghdad.

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Trafficked In, Trafficked Out: Iraqi Kurds Recount Failed Journey To Belarus's Borders

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The EU accuses Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka of flying in mostly Middle Eastern migrants and funneling them to the borders of member states Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania to retaliate for sanctions the bloc imposed over a sweeping crackdown following last year's disputed presidential election.

Brussels has accused Minsk of an "inhuman, gangster-style approach" to the crisis at the border, where at least 11 migrants have died in recent months.

In response, Poland has bolstered its border to prevent a surge of migrants, seeking to push them back in a policy criticized by human rights groups.

Warsaw says groups of migrants are still continuing to illegally cross the border from Belarus, and has warned against interpreting recent moves by Minsk to repatriate some of the migrants as a de-escalation of the crisis on the EU's eastern frontier.

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Merkel Urges EU Unity On Russia, Assures Poland, Ukraine Amid Border Tensions

Meanwhile, the EU is readying a fifth package of sanctions against Belarus for mounting a "hybrid attack" using migrants against the bloc and has been in contact with Iraq and other countries about repatriating the migrants.

In a BBC interview, Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994, denied inviting migrants to Belarus in order to provoke a border crisis.

"I told them I'm not going to detain migrants on the border, hold them at the border, and if they keep coming from now on I still won't stop them, because they're not coming to my country, they're going to yours," he told the BBC.

With reporting by AFP and Kurdistan 24

Another associate of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny is going into exile amid an ongoing crackdown against the defunct organizations associated with the Kremlin critic that were labeled extremist earlier this year.

Sergei Boiko is a member of the Novosibirsk city council and former head of Navalny's network of regional campaign groups in the Siberian city until a court labeled it extremist this year, effectively outlawing it.

Boiko wrote on Twitter on November 25 that he and his family would not return to Russia from a business trip, saying that he had information that he would be arrested.

He said that he decided not to return from an unspecified country after the arrest of the former chief of Navalny's support group in Ufa, Lilia Chanysheva, earlier this month.

SEE ALSO:

U.S., 17 Other Nations Condemn Russia’s ‘Intensifying Harassment’ Of Media, Journalists

Earlier this week, the chief of Navalny's network of regional campaign groups in St. Petersburg also said that she had left Russia for an unspecified country. Irina Fatyanova said that she decided to leave Russia after the arrest of Chanysheva.

Navalny has been in prison since February, while several of his associates, many of whom have fled Russia, have been charged with establishing an extremist group.