Officer, 2 suspects killed in Chechnya
MOSCOW -- Two brothers attacked police with knives Monday in Chechnya, killing an officer and injuring another before being shot dead, the Russian republic's leader said.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman head of Chechnya, said the men attacked road police in the center of the provincial capital, Grozny, in an attempt to seize their weapons.
Kadyrov said the brothers came from the neighboring region of Ingushetia and were working at a bakery.
The Kremlin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two separatist wars in the 1990s and has provided generous subsidies to help rebuild the region.
International human rights groups have accused Kadyrov of rampant rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings by his feared security forces.
Despite Kadyrov's relentless crackdown on suspected extremists, some of whom have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State, militants have continued to launch sporadic attacks in Chechnya and other regions in Russia's North Caucasus.
Azerbaijan reports attack on its troops
MOSCOW -- Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Monday its army units have been attacked by "an illegal Armenian armed group" in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing an Azerbaijani serviceman and wounding another.
The ministry said the attack took place in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday and was thwarted, leaving all six attackers dead.
The Nagorno-Karabakh military Monday dismissed the statement as "misinformation" and a "propaganda provocation," saying the territory's army was "strictly observing" the cease-fire. The Armenian Defense Ministry also denied media reports of fighting in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.
Heavy fighting erupted in late September in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing more than 5,600 people on both sides. A Russian-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan reclaim much of the separatist region along with surrounding areas ended six weeks of fighting Nov. 10.
On Dec. 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan reported new clashes in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh, accusing each other of breaching the cease-fire. Russian peacekeepers deployed to monitor the peace deal also reported a violation at the time, but didn't assign blame.
Avalanches kill 12 people near Tehran
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian rescue workers ended their search for survivors Sunday following a series of avalanches that killed 12 people in a mountainous area north of the capital, state TV reported.
The avalanches struck in four areas Friday following strong winds and snowfall a day earlier.
The Alborz mountain range where the avalanches occurred is a popular weekend destination for hiking and climbing. Fridays are a day off for most Iranian workers.
State TV aired footage showing emergency crews using a helicopter to search for the missing. Iran's Red Crescent Society also released photos of rescue workers unloading body bags from a helicopter Saturday.
The report said 11 people were found dead, and one died after being transferred to a hospital. It said rescue teams found 14 people during the operation.
Authorities said many had disregarded reports by the meteorological office about possible strong winds Friday.
Russian agency orders Navalny to appear
MOSCOW -- Russia's federal penitentiary service Monday gave top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny one day to report to its office or face imprisonment if he returns to Russia after the deadline.
Navalny is convalescing in Germany after his August poisoning with a nerve agent, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied their involvement.
The Federal Penitentiary Service issued a statement Monday saying that an article by doctors from Berlin's Charite hospital and published in medical journal The Lancet indicated that Navalny has fully recuperated.
The prison service demanded that Navalny report to its office in line with the terms of a 3½-year suspended sentence he received for a 2014 conviction. If he misses the deadline, he could be imprisoned, the statement said.
Navalny's lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, tweeted that the agency told the politician to show up at its office today. Navalny, who previously said that he planned to return to Russia once he fully recovered, scoffed at the demand, saying the penitentiary service's reference to the article in The Lancet amounted to the government accepting that he was poisoned.
"That means that the state has officially recognized the poisoning," he tweeted. "And where is the criminal case then?"
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports