A ransomware attack on JBS, the world's largest meat processor, has forced some operations to stop production and is believed to have been carried out by cybercriminals based in Russia.

The company informed the U.S. government that the “ransom demand came from a criminal organization likely based in Russia,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on June 1.

Brazil-based JBS -- a meat supplier with operations in North America, Australia, Latin America, and Europe -- announced on May 31 that it was targeted by a cyberattack on some servers in its North American and Australian IT systems.

The company said it took immediate action to suspend all affected systems and is working with authorities and third-party experts to resolve the situation. It said its backup servers were not affected and no data is believed to have been compromised or misused as a result of the intrusion.

JBS said that while experts resolve the issue, it “may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers.”

The cyberattack comes just three weeks after a suspected Russia-based hacking group targeted Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. pipeline, creating gasoline shortages across parts of the U.S. East Coast.

Colonial ended up paying a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency to resolve the issue.

In a ransomware attack, a victim’s data is encrypted, making any files and systems unusable. The criminals then demand money in exchange for software decryption keys.

The attacks, often carried out by criminal syndicates operating out of Russia, have become increasingly prevalent, targeting governments and critical infrastructure organizations.

After the Colonial attack, U.S. President Joe Biden said he intends to speak directly to President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s harboring of ransomware criminals when the two meet for a bilateral summit in Geneva on June 16.

"The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals," Jean-Pierre said.

The FBI is investigating the JBS attack. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reacting to any meat processing and supply problems.

The disruption to JBS's operations is already having an impact, with reports of the company’s Australian business being paralyzed and several slaughterhouses in the United States halting production, impacting about one-fifth of the U.S. meat supply.

If the disruption continues, supply shortages could push up U.S. beef, poultry, and pork prices.

The United States has been hit in recent months by two other major cybersecurity breaches: the SolarWinds hack that compromised U.S. government agencies and private sector computer networks, and another penetration of some Microsoft e-mail servers.

The SolarWinds hack was blamed on Russian state-backed hackers, while the Microsoft breach was attributed to a Chinese cyberespionage campaign.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

A freelance journalist working for Deutsche Welle (DW) was released on June 1 after spending 20 days in detention in Belarus, the German international broadcaster said.

DW quoted Alyaksandr Burakou as saying after his release that police guards in the detention facility where he was being held woke him up "twice a night every night" for checks that involved him getting completely naked.

Similar checks took place during the day, Burakou said, adding that he was also moved to a different cell every day.

SEE ALSO:

Belarusian Activist Cuts His Throat At Hearing, Saying Authorities Threatened His Family, Friends

The journalist also complained that the guards didn't provide him with a pillow, a blanket, or bed linen, as well as warm clothes or most of the food or personal belongings his relatives had brought him.

DW said Burakou went on a hunger strike, which he had to break off after seven days due to health problems.

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.

Burakou was arrested on May 12 in the town of Mahileu, where he was supposed to report on a trial against an opposition politician, and later sentenced to 20 days in jail for "repeatedly participating in an unsanctioned demonstration within a year." The reporters rejected the charges.

Burakou's arrest and prosecution came amid unprecedented protests against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's claim of victory in a disputed presidential election in August 2020. Thousands of people, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, have been arrested in a violent crackdown on dissent. Rights groups say there is considerable evidence of torture being used by authorities on detainees.

DW's Director General Peter Limbourg welcomed Burakou's release from detention, but expressed concern that "there are growing concerns that the spiral of state violence against journalists keeps turning.

"It is becoming more and more probable that the regime in Belarus will try to silence the last independent voices in Belarus -- no matter with which means."

With reporting by DW

Seven EU nations have introduced a COVID-19 vaccination certificate system for travelers, weeks before the program is to be rolled out across the 27-nation bloc on July 1.

The countries starting early were Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Poland, the European Commission said on June 1.

Greece, whose economy is dependent on tourism, had been calling for a commonly recognized certificate that uses a QR code with advanced security features.

The certificates will be issued to people who are fully vaccinated, as well as those who have already contracted the coronavirus and developed antibodies and others who have had a PCR test within the last 72 hours.

The documents will have both digital and paper forms. They’ll be free of charge, distributed in the national language plus English, and be valid in all the bloc’s countries.

“EU citizens are looking forward to travelling again, and they want to do so safely. Having an EU certificate is a crucial step on the way,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.

With reporting by AP

A Moscow-imposed court in the Russian-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea on June 1 sentenced the leader of the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body to six years in prison and issued a fine after finding him guilty of organizing mass riots in 2014 and of issuing calls to violate Russia’s integrity.

Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov, a citizen of Ukraine, was tried in absentia at Crimea’s main court in Simferopol.

He left Crimea shortly after Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014 and is currently living in Kyiv.

The Mejlis was labeled as extremist and banned in Russia following Moscow’s takeover of Crimea.

Russia took control of Crimea after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. Moscow also backs separatists in a war against government forces that has killed some 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.

Moscow’s takeover of Crimea was fiercely opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Moscow-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against the annexation.

A Jehovah’s Witness in the western Russian republic of Mari El has been found guilty of extremism and given a suspended 6 1/2 year prison sentence.

Ekaterina Pegasheva, who was convicted by the Gornomariskiy district court on June 1, denied the charge and vowed to appeal the ruling.

“The only victims in this criminal case are me, my mother, [and] my elderly sick bedridden grandmother. We have suffered significant damage -- property, physical, emotional, mental, as well as damage to our reputation,” Pegasheva told the court before the verdict was issued.

“I am a law-abiding citizen of the Russian Federation. I did not call for violence. My conscience is clear before God, before the state, and before the people.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a Christian denomination with an estimated 175,000 followers in Russia. In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the group an extremist organization.

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Camera In The Banya: Russia's FSB Spied On Jehovah's Witnesses In Bathhouse

Since then, Russian law enforcement has raided the homes of more than 1,300 worshippers and over 400 have been either charged or convicted of extremism in a brutal crackdown that has swept up followers aged 19 to 90.

The European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses estimates that between 5,000 to 10,000 of its members have fled Russia since the ban came into force.

The case against Pegasheva was opened in September 2019. According to the authorities, Pegasheva continued to preach her brand of Christianity despite the ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In October 2019, police searched her home in Yoshkar-Ola, seizing books, videos, electronic devices, personal letters, and other documents. Her mother’s home in Pirogovo, in the Kirov region, was also searched.

Pegasheva was held for more than four months in pretrial detention before spending more than a year under house arrest.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops from “the sovereign territory of Armenia" after a series of recent border incidents between the two South Caucasus countries heightened regional tensions.

Hosting Armenia's caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for talks in Paris on June 1, Macron also called on the two neighbors to demarcate their border through negotiations and without “any fait accompli on the ground.”

Tensions have been running high since Yerevan accused Azerbaijani troops last month of crossing several kilometers over its southern border in what it said was a bid to stake a claim to territory. Azerbaijan insisted that its troops simply took up positions on its side of the frontier.

The rivals have since blamed each other for a number of border incidents, stoking fears of fresh regional instability following last year's war over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The fresh tensions come months after the two countries ended a six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh that claimed at least 6,900 lives. The conflict ended in November 2020 with a Moscow-brokered cease-fire that saw Armenia ceding swaths of territory that ethnic Armenians had controlled for decades. The truce is being monitored by some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s. Internationally mediated negotiations with the involvement of the OSCE's so-called Minsk Group have failed to resolve the dispute.

The ongoing escalation between Yerevan and Baku comes in the run-up to Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections on June 20.

“The Azerbaijani troops must leave Armenia’s sovereign territory,” Macron said after greeting Pashinian at the presidential Elysee Palace.

“I am calling on the parties to return to the positions held” before the current surge in tensions,” said the French president, adding that France is “ready to facilitate discussions.”

“We stand in solidarity with Armenia and we will continue to do so,” he added in a statement to the press made before a lunch meeting with the Armenian caretaker prime minister.

Pashinian thanked Macron for having “spoken the language of truth since the outset of the crisis.”

In a statement on May 28, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group -- France, Russia, and the United States -- said “the use or threat of force to resolve border disputes is not acceptable.”

They called on both Armenia and Azerbaijan to “take immediate steps, including the relocation of troops, to de-escalate the situation and to begin negotiations to delimitate and demarcate the border peacefully.”

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service

MINSK -- A Belarus activist has cut his own throat during a court hearing after being warned that if he didn't plead guilty to participating in mass protest, his family and neighbors would face prosecution.

Stsyapan Latypau, who has been in detention since September 2020, cut his throat at the hearing on June 1 and was rushed to the hospital, where local media said he is still alive.

"Father, after meeting with you, GUBOPiK [the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption] came to me and warned that if I didn't admit my guilt, then I would be thrown in a cell with hardened criminals and criminal cases would be launched against my relatives and neighbors," he said before cutting himself.

Video footage of the incident showed Latypau being carried from the courthouse to an ambulance, with blood spotting his clothes and face. Guards were slow to open the prisoners' cage he was in because they couldn't find the right keys, according to local media.

Latypau was unconscious when finally removed from the cell.

The Health Ministry said in the evening that he had regained consciousness.

"The patient is in a stable condition. There is no danger of death," it said on its Telegram account.

Exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in a post on Twitter that Latypau "was threatened with the persecution of his family if he didn't admit himself guilty."

"This is the result of state terror, repressions, torture in Belarus. We must stop it immediately!"

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Latypau was detained on September 15, 2020, as he tried to stop police and workmen from painting over a mural in a residential courtyard that showed off the opposition's red and white colors. The courtyard had become known as Change Square, hosting nightly events drawing protesters angry at authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's claim of victory in a disputed presidential election in August 2020.

He was charged with organizing protests, resisting arrest, and fraud. He was also accused on state television of planning to poison the police. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Latypau is one of tens of thousands of Belarusians to be detained for protesting the election results, which the West has refused to accept.

Lukashenka, in power since 1994, has tightened his grip on the country in recent months in a violent crackdown on dissent that has raised the ire of many Western nations.

Rights groups say there is considerable evidence of torture being used by authorities on detainees.

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.

In a sign of how far Lukashenka has gone to quell opposition voices, he ordered a Ryanair flight between Athens and Vilnius on May 23 to be escorted to Minsk while it was in Belarusian airspace, claiming a bomb threat had been received, even though Vilnius airport was much closer.

No bomb was found when the aircraft was searched on the ground in Minsk, but Lukashenka critic and journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend aboard the flight were detained.

The European Union and other countries have said the incident will have consequences for Belarus.

The bloc has said it is working on additional economic sanctions on Belarus, while the United States has already taken moves against Belarusian state-owned enterprises. Most European countries have urged their aircraft to avoid Belarus airspace and banned Belarusian carriers from their skies.

After meeting with Tsikhanouskaya in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on June 1, members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for harsher economic sanctions on Lukashenka's regime and the release of Pratasevich, his girlfriend, as well as other political prisoners in Belarus.

The sanctions currently in place "clearly have not been effective enough,” Senator Rob Portman (Republican-Ohio) said, adding: “I will support broader sanctions that would be sectoral sanctions, not just on individuals, but on places where Lukashenka's regime will feel the pain."

Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut) said the plane incident was "brazen," while Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire) called it an "extraordinary abuse of power.”

"To Lukashenka, I say: It is time for you to go. Make room for a democratically elected leader more deserving of your people," Shaheen said.

Tsikhanouskaya said that Lukashenka “has clearly become a threat to international peace and security” and called for "further measures and targeted sanctions against enterprises and industries supporting the regime."

With reporting by AFP

Germany and the United States are holding talks in Washington to try to settle a dispute over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on June 1.

"As you know, talks are currently being held between the German government and the administration in Washington," Maas said, adding that Germany had an interest in reaching agreement with the United States.

"This will be the topic of the talks in Washington," Maas said without giving further details. "I am confident that we will succeed in finding a way, even though it will certainly not be easy and may not happen quickly."

The pipeline, which is about 95 percent complete and could be finished by September, was at the center of a political tussle between Berlin and Washington during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Since coming into office in January, U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to heal relations with Europe after they were bruised under his predecessor.

Germany's Funke Media Group reported on May 31 that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had sent two of her top aides to Washington to work on a compromise deal on Nord Stream 2 ahead of Biden’s visit to Europe in mid-June.

U.S. officials have warned that the pipeline will make Europe more dependent on Russian energy supplies and bypass Ukraine, which relies on gas transit fees.

The German government has refused to halt the project, arguing that it is a commercial venture and a sovereign issue.

Biden, who will meet separately with Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip to Europe, said the Germans were aware of U.S. concerns.

The Biden administration on May 19 sanctioned several companies and ships for their work on Nord Stream 2, but waived penalties on the firm behind the Baltic Sea project -- Nord Stream 2 AG -- and its chief executive, Matthias Warnig, a close ally of Putin.

Russia's state-controlled energy giant Gazprom is the majority shareholder in the Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and funkemedien.de

Top officials from the United States and the European Union are visiting Kosovo to press its leadership to resume talks on the normalization of ties with former foe Serbia.

Kosovo’s new government, led by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who took office in March, has said it is busy fighting the pandemic and that talks with Serbia are not high on its list of immediate goals.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer and the EU envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said a positive outcome of bilateral talks depend on both Pristina and Belgrade.

“The meetings were very useful, and it will help us prepare for a meeting [between Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic]. We want to make sure that the meeting will be successful,” Lajcak said at a news conference on June 1 in Pristina after talks with government officials and opposition politicians.

“Among the EU leadership and the member states, there is increased interest in the region," Lajcak added.

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The 'Phantom Papers' That No One In The Western Balkans Will Own Up To Writing

Both the United States and the European Union have repeatedly said that normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo are essential for their further integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions.

Serbia and Kosovo have both applied for EU membership; Kosovo is aiming for NATO membership, too.

Palmer said that Washington strongly supports the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, with the goal of full normalization of relations and mutual recognition.

“That’s the one thing that would put this issue behind the parties and open up the path to membership in the EU for both Serbia and Kosovo,” Palmer said.

The visit came after Lajcak and Palmer met in Brussels last week to talk about the Western Balkans and the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

EU-facilitated negotiations to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo started a decade ago and stalled last year.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a 1998-99 war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serb forces. The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and an international peacekeeping force moved in.

Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but Belgrade and its allies Russia and China don’t.

With reporting by AP

Russian opposition politician and former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov has been detained by police, the state-run TASS news agency reported on June 1, after he said law enforcement searched his cottage and the homes of some of his close associates amid a broader Kremlin crackdown on opposition forces in the country.

Gudkov was detained for 48 hours on suspicion he failed to pay debt under a lease agreement for a nonresidential premises in 2015-2017, TASS added, citing unnamed sources.

Earlier on June 1, Gudkov said in a post on his Telegram channel that the search occurred at his cottage in Kolomna, about 100 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

"There is a search at my dacha near Kolomna. The same for my former assistant Aleksandr Solovyov. The same for my chief of staff Vitaly Venidiktov. I don't know the formal reason. The real reason, though, is clear," he wrote.

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TASS confirmed the searches with a source familiar with the situation.

Solovyov is the former chairman of Open Russia, a civic organization that said on May 27 that it had decided to end its operations to protect its members from the risk of being prosecuted.

On May 31, Andrei Pivovarov, the former executive director of Open Russia, a pro-democracy movement founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was removed from a plane in St. Petersburg and detained.

Colleagues said police questioned him, searched his apartment, and opened a criminal case against him for allegedly violating Russia's legislation on "undesirable organisations."

The law, adopted in May 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.

Pivovarov and other activists at Open Russia, which was registered in Russia, say that the organization was entirely separate from the British-registered group with the same name that was designated "undesirable" in 2017 and subsequently shut down.

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Khodorkovsky-Founded Opposition Group Says It's Ending Activities In Russia

In a statement on June 1, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s spokesperson denounced "a continuous pattern of shrinking space for civil society, the opposition, and critical voices, as well as independent media" in Russia.

The bloc calls on the Russian authorities to "immediately and unconditionally" release Pivovarov and to repeal the legislation on “undesirable organizations,” said the spokesperson, Peter Stano.

Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow office director, called Pivovarov’s detention “an audacious move by the Kremlin in its continued use of the law on ‘undesirable’ organizations to target and shut down critics.”

Zviagina urged the Russian authorities to “end reprisals against their political opponents and other critical voices in the country,” immediately release Pivovarov, drop all charges against him and “others prosecuted under the law of ‘undesirable organizations,’” and revoke “this discriminatory legislation.”

With reporting by Reuters

Prosecutors in Iran have arrested a Chinese national after he posted pictures on social media of local women he met online.

The public prosecutor of the city of Kashan said the man, who has not been named, placed the pictures of the women on the Internet without their consent, the semioffficial YJC news agency reported on June 1.

Prosecutor Ruhollah Dehqani told the agency that several complaints had been filed against the man and that he would appear before a court that hears cases involving immorality.

The semiofficial ILNA news agency quoted Dehqani as saying the man was detained by police at a tollbooth on a road in Kashan.

Contact between men and women who are unrelated is banned under Iranian Islamic law. Authorities in the country have been known to come down hard on anyone posting pictures on the Internet if they are deemed immoral.

Reuters reported that the Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the situation.

With reporting by YJC, Reuters, and ILNA

Russia says it will conduct strategic military drills in the Arctic this autumn, in another sign of the Kremlin's drive to assert its presence in the region.

The command of Russia's Northern Fleet announced the "strategic military exercise" on June 1 to check the "readiness of the forces and troops" serving in and around the Arctic.

It added that the exercises will also "ensure the safety" of the Northern Sea Route.

The growing accessibility of natural resources and navigation routes in the Arctic as climate change makes it more accessible has attracted global competition.

As Moscow seeks to assert its influence in the Arctic, military disputes have intensified in recent years, with both Russian and NATO forces carrying out maneuvers to display their ambitions.

At a meeting of Arctic Council foreign ministers in Reykjavik on May 20, Washington gathered support to curb Moscow's plans as it assumes the council's rotating chairmanship with an eye toward setting maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route and resuming high-level military talks within the eight-nation bloc after they were suspended in 2014 over Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014.

Moscow has also bolstered its military presence in recent years, in particular by deploying its S-400 air-defense systems to the region.

As ice cover in the Arctic decreases, Russia is also hoping to gain economic influence and make use of the Northern Sea Route shipping channel to export oil and gas to overseas markets.

Russia has invested heavily to develop the route, which cuts the journey to Asian ports by 15 days compared with using the traditional Suez Canal route.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Kyrgyz authorities say they have detained at least five prominent politicians as part of an investigation into corruption during the development of the Central Asian country's largest gold mine.

The State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said that members of parliament Asylbek Jeenbekov, whose brother Sooronbai Jeenbekov stepped down as president last year, and Torobay Zulpukarov were detained on May 31 on corruption charges for two months.

On the same day, former Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov, as well as ex-deputies Iskhak Pirmatov and Talantbek Uzakbaev, were detained on similar charges for 48 hours.

Babanov's lawyer said his client “did not commit any illegal actions,” while Zulpukarov's lawyer said the charges brought against his client were unfounded. The lawyer of Jeenbekov called the court’s decision to detain his client illegal.

The giant Kumtor gold project has been the focus of international attention in recent months after the government moved to temporarily take over operations at the mine for what President Sadyr Japarov said was a necessary move to remedy environmental and safety violations.

A total of four criminal cases are being investigated related to the development of the mine.

The project is run by Canada's Centerra Gold, which on May 31 said it had taken legal moves to protect the interests of the company and its investors in response to the seizure of the mine by the Kyrgyz government.

The Canadian company said in a statement that its Kyrgyz subsidiaries, Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) and Kumtor Operating Company (KOC), have filed for bankruptcy in New York under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The move "provides, among other things, for a worldwide automatic stay of all claims against KGC and KOC" and is meant to "facilitate potential negotiations with the Kyrgyz government," according to the statement.

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According to a new law approved on May 14, the Kyrgyz government can take control for up to three months of any company that operates under a concession agreement in Kyrgyzstan if that firm violates environmental regulations, endangers the local environment or lives of people, or causes other significant damage.

The head of a Kyrgyz state commission investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kumtor mine said on May 17 that his group concluded that the agreement on giving the mining concession to Centerra Gold must be revoked due to what he called "corruption" and "violations of safety and environmental regulations."

At the same time, a Kyrgyz court fined KGC more than $3 billion for dumping mining waste on glaciers near the mine 4,000 meters above sea level. A state commission also recently alleged that the KGC owes more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes.

SEE ALSO:

Former Kyrgyz PM Detained In Gold-Mine Investigation

In light of the latest developments, the Toronto-based company also said in its statement that it was conducting a "strategic review" of its ownership of the KGC and KOC "following the recent steps taken by the Kyrgyz authorities."

Kumtor Gold Company (KGC), Kyrgyzstan's biggest taxpayer, is the only firm in the former Soviet republic that operates under a concession agreement.

Centerra has called Kyrgyzstan's actions "wrongful and illegal." On May 16, the Canadian firm said it had "initiated binding arbitration to enforce its rights under long-standing investment agreements with the government."

It also accused Kyrgyz law enforcement of intimidation -- including police visits to the homes of several senior KGC managers and a May 15 raid of KGC's office in Bishkek.

Japarov's sudden rise to power in October 2020 after being freed from jail in the midst of a political crisis was particularly bad news for Centerra. As an opposition politician during the past decade, Japarov had led an unsuccessful bid in parliament and on the streets to nationalize the mine.

He oversaw several chaotic rallies against the company, including a 2013 rally in which a provincial governor was kidnapped, the basis of Japarov's 2017 arrest and 11-year prison sentence on hostage-taking charges.

Babanov ran against Japarov last year to be chosen prime minister by parliament after protests toppled the previous government and eventually prompted Jeenbekov to step down.

Canada, Britain, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have all criticized Kyrgyzstan's moves against Centerra.

Romania and Italy will open up COVID-19 vaccinations for adolescents, becoming the first EU countries to do so after the European Commission approved use of the BioNTech/Pfizer shot for children aged 12 and older.

The EU executive approved use of the vaccine for adolescents on May 31, a week after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) endorsed the shot for the age group. Each of the EU’s 27 member states can now decide whether to expand their vaccination campaigns to adolescents.

Wasting little time, Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu said children 12 and older can start receiving COVID-19 shots from June 1, while Italy’s government said it would also allow the shot for adolescents.

Other countries in Europe are expected to follow suit, although some may initially continue to prioritize vaccinating adults and only children with preexisting health problems that make them vulnerable to the virus.

The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccination has already been approved for use by children aged 12 and up in the United States and Canada.

A Ukrainian court on May 31 commuted the prison sentence of a controversial former leader of a far-right paramilitary group and set him free on probation.

Serhiy Sternenko, who once led the Right Sector group in the city of Odesa, was found guilty in February of kidnapping, robbery, and the possession of an illegal weapon in the case of the abduction of a local lawmaker in 2015.

At the time, the court ruled that due to the statute of limitations, Sternenko could not be sentenced for the kidnapping. It did, however, sentence him to seven years and three months in prison on the other two charges.

After he was sentenced, hundreds of Sternenko's supporters violently protested in front of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office in Kyiv, demanding he be freed.

In the May 31 decision, an Odesa appeals court acquitted Sternenko of robbery and sentenced him to three years in prison for possession of an illegal weapon. But the prison time was dropped in favor of a one-year suspended sentence. The court upheld the kidnapping verdict.

Sternenko and his supporters say his legal troubles are politically motivated because he is a critic of top Ukrainian officials, particularly in Odesa.

Sternenko is also a suspect in another high-profile case that has been challenged by his supporters for years. He is accused of premeditated murder and possession of an illegal bladed weapon in the killing of a man almost three years ago.

Sternenko claims he acted in self-defense while being attacked by two men late in the evening in May 2018.

The former executive director of Open Russia, a pro-democracy movement founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was removed from a plane in St. Petersburg and detained in the latest crackdown on opposition forces in the country.

Andrei Pivovarov was taken in for questioning in St. Petersburg and detained for repeated alleged violations of the law on so-called “undesirable organizations,” according to a message transmitted through his lawyer on Telegram late on May 31.

“They just said that a case was opened against me under Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code for cooperation with an undesirable organization, which is nonsense,” Pivovarov said in the letter.

He said authorities planned to take him later to Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia, for as yet unknown reasons.

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.

SEE ALSO:

Khodorkovsky-Founded Opposition Group Says It's Ending Activities In Russia

Pivovarov was taken off a plane heading to Warsaw as it was taxiing on the runway at Pulkovo Airport.

Open Russia said on May 27 that it had decided to end its operations to protect its members from the risk of being prosecuted.

Activists of the Russia-based civic organization have regularly faced pressure from the authorities since its designation as an "undesirable organization" by Russian prosecutors in 2017, including administrative and criminal charges.

The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in May 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.

The UN's nuclear watchdog agency said on May 31 that Iran has failed to explain traces of uranium found at several undeclared sites and that it continues to breach enrichment limits spelled out in the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

The news, outlined in two separate reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), could complicate talks currently under way in Vienna to revive the deal.

One report by IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said that Tehran has failed to provide “the necessary explanation for the presence of the nuclear material particles at any of the three locations where the agency has conducted complementary accesses [inspections]."

Most of the activity in question dates back to the early 2000s, before the Iran nuclear agreement, and has long been a center of inquiry about Iran's past nuclear program.

Another report estimated Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium at 3,241 kilograms, or around 16 times the limit set out in the 2015 deal with world powers.

Of that stockpile, it said Iran has produced 62.8 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 20 percent purity and 2.4 kilograms enriched up to 60 percent purity.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran is allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent purity, far below the 90 percent purity needed for a nuclear weapon.

"Sixty percent is almost weapons grade," Grossi told the Financial Times.

The IAEA hasn't been able to access data important to monitoring Iran's nuclear program since late February when Tehran started restricting international inspections of its facilities, according to the Vienna-based organization.

The IAEA and Iran earlier acknowledged the restrictions limited access to surveillance cameras at Iranian facilities, but the report issued on May 31 indicated they went much further.

Iran started limiting inspections in a bid to put pressure on the government of U.S. President Joe Biden to lift crippling sanctions reimposed after then-President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran unilaterally in 2018.

Since the U.S. withdrawal from the pact, Iran has been steadily violating its various restrictions, including on the types of centrifuges it's allowed to use, the amount of enriched uranium it is allowed to stockpile, and the purity to which it is allowed to enrich.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, and AP

Iran says ongoing talks on reaching a "common understanding" with regional rival Saudi Arabia are taking place in a “good atmosphere.”

Last month, media reports revealed that Iranian and Saudi officials met in Baghdad in April, their first high-level meeting since Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2016. Ties between the two countries were cut in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions following the kingdom's execution of a revered Shi'ite cleric.

"Talks are still continuing in a good atmosphere," ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a press conference on May 31. "We hope these talks can achieve a common understanding between Iran and Saudi Arabia."

The talks in Baghdad, facilitated by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, remained secret until the Financial Times reported that a first meeting was held on April 9.

Khatibzadeh confirmed the talks on May 10, saying their purpose was "both bilateral and regional," but stressed it was "too soon" to disclose any details.

"De-escalation and [establishing] ties between two great Islamic countries in the Persian Gulf region is to the benefit of both nations," he said at the time.

Iran in late April welcomed a "change of tone" from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman after he called for a "good and special relationship" with Tehran.

The regional rivals have backed opposite sides of several regional conflicts, from Syria to Yemen, where a Saudi-led military coalition is fighting Huthi rebels.

Iran backs the Huthis, who are battling the coalition that intervened in Yemen's war in support of an internationally recognized government in 2015.

With reporting by AFP

Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny asked a court on May 31 to halt the hourly nighttime checks he has been subjected to in his penal colony, saying the measure amounts to “torture.”

Speaking to the court in a video link from prison, Navalny said that he has done nothing that would warrant the authorities' decision to designate him as a flight risk that has resulted in the checks.

“I just want them to stop coming to me and waking me up at night,” he told the Petushinsky District Court in the Vladimir region. “What did I do? Did I climb the fence? Did I dig up an underpass? Or was I wringing a pistol from someone? Just explain why they named me a flight risk!"

The Kremlin foe argued that the nighttime checks “effectively amount to torture,” telling the judge that “you would go mad in a week” if subjected to such regular wake-ups.

The court adjourned the hearing until June 2.

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Navalny, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin -- accusations that Russian officials reject.

He is serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that he says were trumped up because of his political activity.

The opposition leader went on a 24-day hunger strike in prison to protest the lack of medical treatment for severe back pain and numbness in his legs, ending it last month after getting the medical attention he demanded.

While he still was on hunger strike, Navalny was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow where he was serving his sentence to the hospital ward of another prison in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers east of the capital. He still remains at that prison, where he said the nighttime checks continue, although they are less intrusive.

With Navalny in prison, prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to designate his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his network of regional offices as extremist groups. A bill, which has sailed quickly through the Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament, bars members, donors, and supporters of organizations designated as extremist from seeking public office.

The parallel moves have been widely seen as an attempt to keep any of Navalny's associates from running in September's parliamentary elections.

Navalny's regional headquarters have been instrumental in implementing a Smart Voting strategy -- a project designed to promote candidates who are most likely to defeat those from the ruling United Russia party in various elections.

With reporting by AP

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said personnel at Belarus's diplomatic mission to the alliance will have their access restricted at its headquarters in the wake of the forced landing of a passenger plane by Minsk and the arrest of an opposition journalist who was on board the plane.

"We have decided to restrict the access of Belarusian personnel to the NATO headquarters based on our assessment of security measures at the headquarters," Stoltenberg told reporters on May 31 on the eve of a NATO defense and foreign ministers meeting.

The move is said to involve a Belarusian ambassador and four other diplomats.

"They can still enter, but only as visitors with a day pass and an escort," a NATO official was quoted as saying.

Belarus is not a member of NATO but has maintained a diplomatic mission to the Western military alliance since 1998.

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Belarusian personnel can attend seminars and meetings at the alliance and in NATO countries as part of a Partnership for Peace cooperation program that tackles issues such as arms control and crisis management.

The forced landing of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania on May 23 by Belarus and the arrest of journalist and opposition activist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, who was traveling with him, has caused international outrage.

NATO has called for an independent international investigation into the incident, saying this “unacceptable act seriously violated the norms governing civil aviation and endangered the lives of the passengers and crew.”

"This is not only something which is violating international norms and rules, but also a direct attack on the freedom of expression and the free and independent press,” Stoltenberg said, welcoming sanctions imposed on Minsk by EU and NATO member states.

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Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters that Moscow -- Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s chief supporter -- will continue to provide support to Minsk in the face of Western sanctions.

"We definitely will [provide support to Belarus]. We are both part of the Union State," Ryabkov said, without specifying what measures Moscow could take.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pushing Lukashenka in recent years to take steps toward the integration of their economies in order to cement a 20-year-old agreement to form a union state.

Lukashenka has rebuffed the pressure, but unprecedented street protests over a presidential election in August 2020 and subsequent Western sanctions have weakened his negotiating position with the Russian president.

NATO foreign and defense ministers meeting in Brussels on May 31 will focus on preparations for a summit to be held in the Belgian capital on June 14.

The ministers are also to discuss issues such as the alliance’s engagement in Afghanistan, as well as developments in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, Stoltenberg said.

The meeting comes amid a low point in relations between the NATO allies and Russia, Belarusian authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s chief supporter.

"What we see is a pattern of Russian behavior where Russia over the last years has invested heavily in new modern military capabilities from conventional to nuclear weapon systems," Stoltenberg said, adding that Moscow “has been willing to use military force against neighbors in Georgia and Ukraine, continuing to destabilize…eastern Ukraine, and illegally annexing Crimea.”

"And then we've seen more Russian military presence in the high north, in the Barents Sea, and in the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad, the Black Sea, and also down to the Mediterranean and Middle East. And this is one of the main reasons why NATO over the last years have increased the readiness of forces."

Stoltenberg was responding a question about Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s announcement earlier on May 31 that his country would deploy “around 20 new military formations and units” near its western borders by the end of the year to counter what he claimed was a growing threat from the transatlantic alliance.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, TASS, and AFP

A court in Bosnia-Herzegovina has sentenced former Security Minister Sadik Ahmetovic to six months in prison for abuse of office.

The Sarajevo court on May 31 ruled that Sadik Ahmetovic abused his position by providing a fictitious job to a man at cost to the state budget in 2011-12.

Adnan Bektic, the man who acquired the illegal salaries and per diems, was ordered to give back a total of $9,600 to the state.

Ahmetovic said he would appeal the verdict in a case he has described as politically motivated.

Bosnia, which is among the most corrupt countries in Europe, is seeking entry into the European Union.

The devastating Bosnian War in 1992-95 ended in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement that divided the Balkan country into two entities -- the Bosniak-Croat federation and Republika Srpska -- held together by joint central institutions.

Former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov has been detained as part of an investigation into corruption during the development of the Kumtor gold-mine project.

The State Committee for National Security said on May 31 that Babanov was detained on the basis of evidence obtained during the investigation. It did not give any details of the evidence.

The giant Kumtor gold project has been the focus of international attention in recent months after the government moved to temporarily take over operations at the mine -- which is run by Canada's Centerra Gold -- for what President Sadyr Japarov said was a necessary move to remedy environmental and safety violations.

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According to a new law approved on May 14, the government can take control for up to three months of any company that operates under a concession agreement in Kyrgyzstan if that firm violates environmental regulations, endangers the local environment or lives of people, or causes other significant damage.

Centerra's Kyrgyz subsidiary, Kumtor Gold Company (KGC), Kyrgyzstan's biggest taxpayer, is the only firm in the former Soviet republic that operates under a concession agreement.

The head of a Kyrgyz state commission investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kumtor mine said on May 17 that his group concluded that the agreement on giving the mining concession to Centerra Gold must be revoked due to what he called "corruption" and "violations of safety and environmental regulations."

Centerra has called Kyrgyzstan's actions "wrongful and illegal." On May 16, the Canadian firm said it had "initiated binding arbitration to enforce its rights under long-standing investment agreements with the government."

It also accused Kyrgyz law enforcement of intimidation -- including police visits to the homes of several senior KGC managers and a May 15 raid of KGC's office in Bishkek.

Japarov's sudden rise to power in October 2020 after being freed from jail in the midst of a political crisis was particularly bad news for Centerra.

As an opposition politician during the past decade, Japarov had led an unsuccessful bid in parliament and on the streets to nationalize the mine.

He oversaw several chaotic rallies against the company -- including a 2013 rally in which a provincial governor was kidnapped, the basis of Japarov's 2017 arrest and 11-year prison sentence on hostage-taking charges.

Canada, Britain, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have all criticized Kyrgyzstan's moves against Centerra.

The Russian online media outlet NEWSru has announced its closure, blaming the country's current "political situation," which has made it economically impossible to function, as advertisers shun independent sources of information.

NEWSru, which has functioned primarily as a news aggregator in recent years, said in a statement on May 31 that regulations requiring media in Russia to label anyone the state regards as "extremists" or "foreign agents" when referencing them in their articles was increasingly impacting its bottom line.

"We are stopping work for economic reasons, but they are provoked by the political situation in the country," the Moscow-based newsroom said on its website.

NEWSru began operations in 2000, the year President Vladimir Putin started his first term in the Kremlin.

The company said that the turning point came seven years ago as both Russian foreign policy and the domestic economic structure changed dramatically.

Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine in early 2014 and weeks later threw its support behind separatists in Ukraine's east, where some 13,200 people have been killed in an ongoing conflict.

"Our picture of the day became so different from the picture favored by state [media] resources that major advertisers stopped cooperating with us after the events of 2014, while others began to be particularly wary this year," NEWSru said.

The site opened as an Internet news portal for NTV in August 2000. When the channel became part of Gazprom-Media, the website remained under the control of Russian tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky and changed its domain name to NEWSru.com.

NEWSru said Russia's recent declaration of several news outlets -- including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Meduza media portal, and the VTimes news site -- as "foreign agents" had impacted media and made it a possible target for the restrictions as well.

"We had to label more and more respected people and sources of truthful information as foreign agents and extremists. The current situation in the economy and in the legal field makes the high-quality work of NEWSru.com impossible," the company said.

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Russia's so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits.

Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.

The law, which has been further expanded to include individual reporters, is one of several Kremlin-backed measures aimed at restricting foreign-funded activities in Russia.

A parallel measure known as the "undesirable organizations" law has forced the shutdown of a number of nongovernmental civil society groups in Russia, mainly from Europe and the United States.

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NEWSru said that the news archive it accumulated over 21 years will remain open and accessible to the public.

"News from the recent past, without unnecessary interpretations and comments, convincingly shows how our recent history has evolved. It will not be possible to 'clean up' this history, no matter what resources the state is now spending to do so," it said.

A Ryanair flight from Dublin to Krakow was diverted to Berlin after the crew were warned of a "potential security threat" on the plane, the Ireland-based budget airline says.

In a May 31 statement, Ryanair said German air traffic control warned the crew of the potential threat on May 30, prompting the captain to follow procedures and land in Berlin, the nearest airport, where passengers were taken off the plane.

"Extensive security checks of passengers and all baggage" were performed by German police, who determined there was no danger, the airline said.

The 160 passengers were eventually flown to Krakow on a spare plane after a seven-hour delay.

German tabloids Bild and BZ said that there had been a bomb threat, but neither the police nor Ryanair confirmed those reports.

The incident comes after Belarus dispatched a fighter jet earlier this month to intercept a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania and forced it to land in Minsk, because the Belarusian authorities claimed they had received information there was a bomb aboard the plane.

Following the landing, opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, a Russian national, were taken off the aircraft and detained.

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No bomb was found on board. Belarusian authorities claimed that they had received an e-mail warning them about the existence of explosives on the flight.

The move sparked international outrage and demands for Pratasevich's release. The European Union has since banned flights from Belarus.

After meeting some of the passengers of the May 23 Ryanair flight in Lithuania, EU commissioner Thierry Breton on May 31 said that Europe "has been under attack with this act of state piracy.”

“We will not leave this unpunished," Breton told AFP, adding that the EU was working on additional economic sanctions on Belarus.

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The United States has imposed sanctions against Belarusian state-owned enterprises over the air incident, while most European countries have urged their aircraft to avoid Belarus airspace and banned Belarus carriers from their skies.

Also on May 31, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya discussed possible EU economic sanctions with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid during a visit to Tallinn.

The regime of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka “is now a threat to regional and European security,” Tsikhanouskaya told a joint press conference.

Kaljulaid promised that during her presidency at the UN Security Council, Estonia would do everything possible to "raise the issue of Belarus…as much as possible."

During their press conference, Tsikhanouskaya and Kaljulaid were dressed in white and a bouquet of white and red flowers was on display -- the colors of the flag used by the Belarusian opposition.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and AFP