The French Embassy in Azerbaijan on September 12 condemned the imprisonment in the South Caucasus nation of French citizen Theo Clerk over the painting of graffiti on metro trains in Baku. The embassy's statement stressed that two co-defendants in the case, who are citizens of other nations, were fined but not jailed on the same charges. Two days earlier, a Baku court sentenced Clerk to three years in prison on charges of hooliganism and damaging property. An Australian and a citizen of New Zealand were ordered to pay 6,800 manats ($4,000) each on the same charges. Azerbaijani-French relations have been tense lately over Paris's pro-Armenian position regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. To read the original story by Current Time, click here.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has condemned an attack that killed three of its workers who were distributing aid in the frontline Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian presidential officials said earlier that Russian forces had attacked Red Cross vehicles in an artillery strike that also wounded two other Red Cross workers.

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"Another Russian war crime. Today, the occupier attacked vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in the Donetsk region," Zelenskiy said on X. "In this war, everything is absolutely clear -- Russia sows evil, Ukraine defends life."

Miryjana Spoljaric, the president of the ICRC, condemned the attack in a statement on September 12 which confirmed that three of the organization's workers had been killed by shelling that hit the site of a planned frontline aid distribution point in the Donetsk region.

“I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms,” Spoljaric said on X. “It’s unconscionable that shelling would hit an aid distribution site. Our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured. This tragedy unleashes a wave of grief all too familiar to those who have lost loved ones in armed conflict."

The statement added that ICRC teams are regularly present in the Donetsk region, and their vehicles are marked with the Red Cross emblem.

Photos released by local police showed a truck with the ICRC emblem on its side engulfed in flames.

Earlier on September 12, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin reported that three people were killed and two were injured in the village of Virolyubivka in the Kostyantynivka locality.

"The village came under artillery fire this morning. One of the shells hit the territory of the enterprise where people were. A truck with humanitarian aid and a car were destroyed," he said.

ICRC employees had brought fuel briquettes to residents for heating before winter. They were unloading the aid when the attack happened, the Prosecutor-General's Office said later on Telegram.

One of the two employees who were injured in the strike is in serious condition, the Prosecutor-General’s Office added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on September 12 that Ukraine anticipated the recent Russian military attacks that have taken place in the Kursk region.

"The Russians have begun counteroffensive actions. This is according to our Ukrainian plan," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

The comment was Zelenskiy’s first since Russia began attacks this week on Ukrainian forces in Kursk more than a month after Kyiv's surprise incursion into the region.

Pro-Moscow war bloggers and Ukrainian military analysts said on September 11 that Russian forces had begun attacking the western flank of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region and had retaken some territory.

The same information has been shared by the Rybar channel, which is connected to the Russian Defense Ministry, and a Russian commander fighting in Kursk claimed that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements.

SEE ALSO:

Russian Forces Reportedly Attack Ukrainian Troops In Kursk, Claim Recapture Of Some Villages

Ukrainian forces began their incursion into Kursk in early August, a move that was believed to be aimed at diverting Moscow's forces from the eastern Donbas region and at taking the fight to the Russians.

Kyiv claims to have seized control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory, and according to Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, Moscow has transferred tens of thousands of troops to the region.

While Ukrainian forces made rapid gains at the start of the incursion, the situation around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, which Russia has been seeking to take for weeks, remains perilous.

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At the news conference with Nauseda, Zelenskiy reiterated earlier assertions that Ukraine had also noticed a buildup of forces across Ukraine’s border with Belarus.

"We have seen it for a long time -- this process is under control," he said.

His comments came as Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and injured two others in a village in the Donetsk region, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russian forces also knocked out power and water to a rail hub in northern Ukraine and severed water supplies to Pokrovsk. Donetsk's regional governor said a filtering station had stopped working because of heavy fighting, and it would be impossible to fix soon. He renewed calls for civilians to flee the town.

To the north in the Sumy region, the city of Konotop, a rail hub that Kyiv used as a staging ground for its cross-border incursion, reported heavy damage from an overnight Russian drone attack.

Local officials said at least 14 people had been hurt in the attack, which "significantly" damaged energy infrastructure and cut electricity to the settlement.

With reporting by Reuters

The Almaty regional court on September 12 canceled a lower court's decision to grant an early release to Kazakh businessman Muratkhan Toqmadi, who was sentenced in 2018 to a lengthy prison term for his alleged involvement in the killing of banker Erzhan Tatishev.

It was announced last month that Toqmadi was supposed to be released on August 10. However, the late banker's relatives filed an appeal against the court's decision to grant an early release to Toqmadi.

In March 2022, Toqmadi called on President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to review his case after he retracted his testimony against Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive outspoken critic of Kazakhstan's government and former banker.

In his open letter to Toqaev, Toqmadi said he confessed to the killing of Tatishev on a hunting trip in 2004 and falsely testified in 2018 that he killed Tatishev at the behest of Ablyazov because he was tortured and faced psychological pressure imposed on him by the National Security Committee.

Tatishev at the time was the head of TuranAlem bank, which was later renamed BTA. After Tatishev's death, which was ruled an accident at the time, Ablyazov became the bank's chief. He has been living abroad since 2009.

Toqmadi’s letter to Toqaev came after deadly unrest in January that resulted in the removal of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his clan from the political scene.

In February 2018, Toqmadi, who was initially sentenced in 2017 to three years in prison for extortion and illegal firearms possession, entered a guilty plea at the murder trial, which ended with him being sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison.

In November that year, Ablyazov was tried in absentia, convicted of murder based on Toqmadi's testimony, and sentenced to life in prison.

In a separate trial in absentia that ended in 2017, Ablyazov was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of office, and organizing a criminal group and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ablyazov has denied all the charges, saying they are politically motivated.

With reporting by Vlast.kz

Kyrgyz opposition politician Azimbek Beknazarov was detained on September 12 after the State Committee for National Security (UKMK) summoned him for questioning, his son told RFE/RL. Ruslan Beknazarov added that the reason of his father's detention is unknown. The UKMK has yet to officially announce the detention. Beknazarov, 68, was among 27 activists acquitted of charges of "calls for mass disorders" and "plotting the seizure of power" in a high-profile case related to a deal that saw Kyrgyzstan hand over a disputed reservoir to Uzbekistan last year. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, click here.

The family of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose death while in police custody in 2022 sparked the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement, hope to mark her second death anniversary -- if allowed by Iranian authorities.

In a message sent to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda on September 12, Amjad Amini said they were going to mark the occasion at the cemetery where his daughter is buried in response to calls from people wanting to pay tribute.

"We, the family of Mahsa Jina Amini, like all the grieving families across Iran, wish to exercise our right to hold a traditional and religious ceremony in memory of our beloved, marking the anniversary of her passing," he said in an audio message.

Amini said last year they were unable to hold a public gathering because the authorities blocked access to the Aichi Cemetery in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, where his daughter is buried.

"If such restrictions are not imposed this year, the anniversary ceremony will take place on September 15, in response to the many requests we have received from the honorable and dear people," he added.

Last year, Amini was briefly detained on his daughter’s death anniversary and the whole family were barred from leaving home.

The 22-year-old died on September 16, 2022. However, because the leap year is marked on different dates on the Iranian and Gregorian calendars, the anniversary this year falls on September 15.

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Amini was arrested in Tehran on September 13, 2022, while visiting the Iranian capital with her family. She was detained by Iran's "morality police" for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, or head scarf. Within hours of her detention, she was hospitalized in a coma and died on September 16.

The protests that followed lasted for months, spreading from city to city and drawing men and women into the streets. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights estimates more than 500 protesters were killed as the authorities cracked down on the unrest.

At least 10 men have been executed in relation to the protests for alleged involvement in attacks on security forces during the demonstrations.

Ahead of the anniversary of Amini’s death last year, the authorities stepped up pressure against family members of those killed, including through arrests, summons for questioning, and warnings against them holding memorial events in honor of Amini or their loved ones.

BAKU -- The Nasimi district court in Baku has set September 19 as the trial date for the chairman of the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (AXCP), Ali Karimli, who is being prosecuted on a charge of slander.

Last month, Karimli was informed that a probe had been launched against him on the basis of a lawsuit filed by Aydin Aliyev, who was expelled from the AXCP in 2019, but had his membership restored by a court decision.

If found guilty, Karimli may face up to six months in prison.

Shortly after the court pronounced its decision on September 12, Karimli accused the court of implementing a "political order" by accepting the lawsuit.

Azerbaijani rights groups and opposition activists say the police have tried to force several opposition politicians, journalists, and activists to testify against Karimli since 2013.

"The authorities were then reasonable enough not to launch a probe against me, but now the regime seems to feel complete impunity, ignoring calls by the United States, the European Union, the Council of Europe, etc. to stop repression. By launching a probe against an opposition party's leader, the authorities want to completely liquidate the opposition, civil society, and free media," Karimli told his supporters in Baku.

Karimli has been under pressure from authorities for decades.

In 1994 he had to fight a charge of illegally possessing explosives. Since 2006 he has been unable to travel internationally as the authorities have refused to issue him a passport.

Critics of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's government say authorities in the oil-rich Caspian Sea state frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing opposition activists, journalists, and civil society advocates on trumped-up charges.

Azerbaijani officials have insisted that there are no political prisoners in the tightly controlled country.

President Aliyev has ruled the oil-rich South Caucasus state with an iron fist since 2003 after taking over from his father, Heydar, who was president for a decade.

Ukraine accused Russia on September 12 of using strategic bombers to fire missiles at a civilian ship carrying Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea.

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Romanian authorities said the ship was in the maritime economic zone of Romania, a NATO member, when it was hit. The vessel was transporting the grain from Chernomorsk, Ukraine, to Istanbul when it was struck, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenciuc said the ship's cargo was bound for Egypt. Russia used Tupolev Tu-22 bombers to fire the missiles at around 11 p.m. local time on September 11, Ukraine's navy said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the strike was "a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security."

The strike was confirmed by the Romanian Coast Guard, which said the vessel had a crew of 22 people on board and no one was injured, and the ship's mobility was not affected, a Coast Guard spokesperson told RFE/RL.

The ship's captain requested a change in course so that it could head to Constanta to assess the damage. A maritime surveillance vessel was sent in coordination with the Romanian Navy to monitor the distressed ship and provide any assistance needed, the Coast Guard said.

The ship was 55 kilometers from the town of Sfantu Gheorghe in the exclusive economic zone of Romania when the explosion occurred, according to the Coast Guard. The exclusive economic zone is the maritime area adjacent to a country's territorial waters and can extend up to a maximum of 200 nautical miles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that a cargo ship carrying wheat was hit by a Russian missile strike in the Black Sea as it was headed for Egypt.

"Today's strike in the Black Sea was against an ordinary civilian vessel immediately after leaving Ukrainian territorial waters. According to preliminary data, fortunately, there were no casualties," he said. "Ukraine is one of the key global donors of food security. The internal stability and life of dozens of countries in different parts of the world depends on the normal and smooth operation of our export food corridor."

Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain producers and exporters, has been shipping about 4 million tons of grain each month through the Black Sea corridor, which was set up through a deal mediated by Turkey and the United Nations.

With reporting by Reuters

The Kazakh Prosecutor-General's Office said on September 12 that four individuals and two companies have been fined for holding opinion polls on the issue of the construction of a controversial nuclear power station. The unidentified persons and companies were found guilty of failing to inform the authorities about their intention to conduct the opinion polls. A nationwide referendum on the issue is scheduled for October 6. Nuclear power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the now defunct Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still operated by Moscow. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, click here.

A court in Russia's Vladimir region on September 12 began the trial of three former lawyers for late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny on extremism charges over their association with the Kremlin critic and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). FBK and Navalny’s other groups were labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in 2021. The trial of Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Aleksei Liptser is being held behind closed doors. The lawyers were arrested in October 2023. Investigators say the lawyers smuggled Navalny's letters from prison, "assisting him to conduct extremist activities from behind bars." Two other former lawyers for Navalny, Aleksandra Fedulova and Olga Mikhailova, fled Russia last year. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.

A military court in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk said on September 12 that Private Oleg Gorbachyov of the Russian armed forces was sentenced to eight years in prison for beating his wife to death.

According to Military Court No. 24, Gorbachyov attacked his wife at home in April, punching her at least 35 times.

The woman died of injuries sustained in the attack. The court did not specify why the punishment was the minimum allowed eight years in prison. The maximum sentence for such an offense is 15 years.

Since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Russian courts have given mitigated sentences to individuals who fought in the war in Ukraine.

The number of crimes in Russia committed by ex-military personnel, including former inmates recruited from prisons, has been on the rise since early 2023 as soldiers returned from duty in Ukraine.

Also on September 12, media reports in Russia's Far Eastern island of Sakhalin said police in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk detained a person who participated in Russia's invasion of Ukraine on suspicion of attacking two persons with a knife and a stone.

The victims are hospitalized in serious condition, the reports said.

The reports identified the suspect as Vitaly Prisukhin, born in 1982 in the city of Kostroma, who might be the person who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for double murder in Kostroma in 2011.

The Vyorstka Telegram channel, citing Interior Ministry statistics, reported on September 11 that during the period between January and August this year, the number of serious and extremely serious crimes registered in Russia was the highest in the past 13 years.

In total, 403 537 such crimes were registered across Russia and Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories. The highest number of such crimes were registered in the Moscow, Krasnodar, and Rostov regions.

The Interior Ministry's Research Institute had predicted a sharp rise in serious and extremely serious crimes in 2023-2024, emphasizing factors such as men returning from the war in Ukraine and an increase in the number illegal firearms available on the black market since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called a Chinese-Brazilian peace proposal "destructive" that was created without the input of Kyiv.

Speaking in an interview with the Brazilian media outlet Metropoles, Zelenskiy said the proposal, announced last month by Beijing and Brazil, was "mostly pro-Russian" as it calls for a compromise from Ukraine, which has been fighting inside its own territory to repel invading Russian forces.

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"They say Ukraine must agree for compromise. What compromise? To give up its lands, forget that they are killing our people? What sort of compromise exactly? Compromise is something unacceptable here. You want us to forget murders, forget everything? I think this view is destructive," Zelenskiy said in the interview, published on September 12.

"How is it possible to propose something saying – this is our initiative, without even talking to us? And Russia immediately comes up and says we support the Brazil-Chinese proposal. We are not fools. Why do we need this theater?"

On August 1, China and Brazil jointly published a "six-point consensus" meant to bring about a lasting political solution to the war, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.

The plan is a diplomatic outline that calls for cooling down fighting on the battlefield and a recognition that dialogue and negotiations are the only way to end the war.

Beijing has said the plan to end Russia's war against Ukraine has received a "positive response" from more than 110 countries.

But Zelenskiy sharply criticized the initiative in the interview, saying it "has nothing to do with justice, with values, this is, for sure, without taking into account Ukraine’s position and the issue of territorial integrity, of which both China and Brazil have been talking so much."

China has made a previous attempt to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, with a 12-point plan it put forward in February 2023 quickly dismissed by European leaders.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has strong working ties with China and has looked for his country to play a role in pushing for a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.

In July, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine would only engage Russia in peace talks when Moscow was "ready to negotiate in good faith," and added that "no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side."

Russian TV journalist Nikolai Svanidze, who is credited as one of the founders of Russian television, died in Moscow on September 12. He was 69. Svandize had been seriously ill and had recently been diagnosed with cerebral ischemia. He was a critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and described it as an "unprovoked attack" on the same day that Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022. Months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin expelled Svanidze and other activists and journalists from the Human Rights Council, replacing them with people who had a pro-war tilt. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Russian Service, click here.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces crossed from the Sumy region into Russia and swiftly seized a significant part of the Sudzhansky district in the Kursk Oblast.

Over the ensuing weeks, Ukraine made a number of substantial and headline-grabbing gains in this Russian region, with even Moscow admitting that Kyiv had captured scores of settlements and occupied hundreds of square kilometers of territory.

In making the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II, Kyiv says its aims include pushing back Russian artillery, disrupting supply lines, and diverting forces from the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow has been making grinding gains in recent months.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have reportedly begun attacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and have retaken some territory.

As fighting continues to rage in Kursk, RFE/RL’s Russian Service has been keeping track of Ukraine’s incursion with an interactive map of events that uses information compiled and verified from open sources, such as Twitter and Telegram.

The map provides details of major developments that have occurred during Kyiv’s surprise invasion, such as the destruction of three bridges on the Seym River or the mass exodus of ordinary Russians fleeing the fighting.

Click on each icon to view details of combat operations, civilian evacuations, damage to infrastructure, and other significant events as Kyiv’s military operation continues.

The map is updated daily to include the latest developments and any changes in territorial control.

Media reports say Britain, behind closed doors, has given Ukraine the green light to use its Storm Shadow missiles for long-range strikes deep into Russian territory as Moscow's troops again targeted energy facilities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine's northeast overnight, injuring at least 14 people.

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According to The Guardian newspaper, government sources said a decision has already been made to allow Kyiv to use the British-made cruise missiles inside Russia, although the move has not been announced and is unlikely to be made public even when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on September 13.

British officials have not confirmed The Guardian report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv's allies for months to allow Ukraine to fire Western weapons, including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

Biden said earlier this week that his administration is "working out" a way to lift the restrictions, though he gave no specifics.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted strongly during a trip to Kyiv on September 11 that the White House is on the verge of lifting restrictions on the usage of its long-range weapons.

"We're working with urgency to continue to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to effectively defend itself," he said at a press conference after meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.

The Sumy regional military administration said Russia had used Shahed-type suicide drones in the overnight attack, with the mayor of the city of Konotop, Artem Semenikhin, saying on Telegram that the attacks had cut power in parts of the town and work was under way to restore electricity and water. He said energy infrastructure had suffered significant damage.

• RFE/RL

Recent media reports claim Russia has received Fath-360 missile systems from Iran, along with hundreds of missiles. Here is what that weapon system looks like, and how it could influence the war in Ukraine.

Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, causing enormous damage and limiting electricity supply for the civilian population, prompting regular blackouts.

In return, Ukrainian drones have struck deeper inside Russia, damaging energy facilities critical for Moscow's military effort, mainly oil installations.

Blinken and Lammy left Ukraine after meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv and announcing a new aid package.

Blinken announced more than $700 million in aid, much of it to bolster Ukraine's energy grid, while Lammy confirmed that his country would provide another 600 million pounds ($782 million) in assistance and loan guarantees.

An appeals court in Belgrade has annulled a decision to extradite Belarusian journalist and political activist Andrey Hnyot to Belarus, but the court said the case must be retried.

The decision of the High Court in Belgrade on Hnyot's extradition was made "based on an incomplete establishment of the facts, which led to a significant violation of criminal procedure rules," the Court of Appeals said in its ruling, which was published on its website on September 11.

Serbian authorities arrested Hnyot in October 2023 at the Belgrade airport on an Interpol warrant issued at the request of Belarusian authorities for alleged tax evasion.

He spent seven months in Belgrade Central Prison before being transferred to house arrest on June 5. The High Court in Belgrade on June 13 issued a ruling on the extradition that would send him back to Belarus, but the Court of Appeals reversed that.

The Court of Appeals said in its decision that the defense’s appeal "rightfully challenges the legality and correctness of the first-instance court’s decision."

The decision came after the Interpol warrant was revoked, but Hnyot remains in Belgrade under house arrest.

SEE ALSO:

Belarusian Activist Awaits Serbian Verdict On His Extradition, 'Torture,' And 'Death'

He told RFE/RL that while it is good news that he will not be extradited, his "prisoner" status has not changed.

"I am not given freedom. I am kept like a criminal in a home prison, and I am not guilty of anything. The Court of Appeals actually confirmed it," he said.

He said that while under house arrest, he is only allowed to leave his apartment for one hour a day and is unable to work and lead a normal life. He has had trouble paying his rent and buying food and medicine, he said, emphasizing that he lives off donations from supporters, as he has no savings.

The Court of Appeals' decision is "a very formal compromise solution, convenient for anyone but me," he said.

Hnyot describes the charges against him as "false," claiming it is part of a "systematic mechanism of persecuting" political opponents of the regime in Minsk.

Hnyot is one of thousands of Belarusian citizens who participated in mass protests in 2020 challenging the election victory of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Hnyot is the founder of the Free Association of Athletes (SOS BY), which is considered an extremist organization in Belarus. In an open letter signed by more than 2,000 Belarusian athletes and sports representatives, SOS BY called for the annulment of the election, Lukashenka's resignation, and freedom for all arrested during the postelection protests.

The Court of Appeals said that the High Court provided "unacceptable reasons" and "unclear explanations" for the suspicion that Hnyot committed the criminal offense he is accused of in Belarus.

The Court of Appeals further stated that the first-instance ruling by the High Court claims that Hnyot committed a criminal offense in Belarus as if it were already a settled matter. This violated the presumption of innocence, which ultimately goes against Serbia’s legal order as the requested country.

A small group of Afghan women took to the streets of Kabul on September 11 in a rare protest to demand their rights and call on the international community to denounce Taliban rule. More than 10 women participated in the demonstration, advocating for the restoration of basic freedoms that have been severely curtailed under the Taliban-led government since the group seized power three years ago. The protest was organized by the Afghan Women's History Transformation Movement. Ruqiya Sa'i, head of the movement, said the women ended the protest after 30 minutes because of the possibility of a violent attack by the Taliban. The severe restrictions on women ban education beyond the sixth grade and bar them from working in many offices. To read the full story by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, click here.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off on September 11 for an express trip to the International Space Station. The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off from Russia’s space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the space station three hours later, in contrast to some missions that last for days. The mission commander is Aleksei Ovchinin, with Russian compatriot Ivan Vagner and American Donald Pettit in the crew. The rocket blasted off without obvious problems, and the Soyuz entered orbit eight minutes after liftoff.

Grand Mufti of Tajikistan Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda was attacked in the capital city, Dushanbe, on September 11 in the city’s central mosque. The press office of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry said Abdulqodirzoda, the state-selected head of Tajikistan’s Muslims, was injured but is in stable condition. The press office said the attacker injured the mufti "with a cutting tool out of a sense of hooliganism." The attacker is currently under arrest and no motive has been determined. Abdulqodirzoda is 61 years old and has been the chairman of the Council of Scholars of the Islamic Center, the only fatwa-issuing body in Tajikistan, since 2010. To read the full story by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.

Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has pardoned noted sinologist Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who was released on parole in April after serving more than half of the 10-year prison term he was handed in 2019 on high treason charges.

Syroyezhkin said on September 11 that the Kazakh presidential commission on clemencies had approved his application for a pardon, which means his parole restrictions are now lifted.

The 68-year-old Syroyezhkin was sentenced on October 7, 2019.

Details of the charges were not made public, but some local media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, reported at the time that Syroyezhkin was accused of passing classified information to Chinese nationals for cash.

Some reports at the time of his conviction also said Syroyezhkin was stripped off his Kazakh citizenship and banned from residing in Kazakhstan for five years after his release.

Kazakh authorities were reluctant to officially announce his arrest more than five years ago, but questions about Syroyezhkin's whereabouts began circulating in the media after he failed to show up at two conferences in Kazakhstan.

Syroyezhkin was born in the southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty, which between 1927 and 1997 was the capital and remains its largest city.

In 1981, Syroyezhkin graduated from the Highest School of the Soviet KGB in Moscow with a specialization on China.

From 2006 until his arrest in 2019, Syroyezhkin worked as a leading expert and analyst at the presidential Institute for Strategic Research.

Syroyezhkin is the author of more than 1,000 analytical and research works on China and Kazakh-Chinese relations, written in Russian, Chinese, and English.

When current Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who is a trained sinologist as well, served as prime minister, Syroyezhkin was his adviser on Kazakh-Chinese relations, including during talks on delimiting and demarcating the Kazakh-Chinese border.

With reporting by Informburo.kz

Russian forces have begun attacking Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region and have retaken some territory, pro-Moscow war bloggers and Ukrainian military analysts said on September 11.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine

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The attacks, which some sources characterized as a counteroffensive, are against the western flank of Ukrainian forces that took control of part of the Kursk region after launching a surprise incursion into Russian territory last month.

Ukrainian open-source intelligence resource DeepState said on Telegram that the Russian military "began active assault operations, ferrying armored vehicles first across the Sejm, and then across smaller rivers."

It said another blow took place in the town of Korenevo, which DeepState said was lost recently.

The same information has been shared by the Rybar channel, which is connected to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements, TASS reported.

"The situation is good for us," said Alaudinov, according to TASS. "We continue to hold off and eliminate the enemy in our direction here. Enemy forces have sustained very heavy casualties and are coming to realize that it would be hard to hold this land," Alaudinov was quoted as saying.

Some Russian fighters claim to have restored Russian control over the village of Snagost and several other settlements, but this has yet to be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian side has not reported a change in the situation in the Kursk region.

The Russian attacks have not threatened the city of Sudzha, which is central to the logistics of the Ukrainian group in the Kursk region. Sudzha is 40 kilometers from the village of Snagost.

Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said last week that Russia was planning a new attack on Ukraine from the Kursk region before the start of the incursion.

Syrskiy said that he considered the incursion a success because it reduced the threat of Russia carrying out the attack and took the fight to the enemy.

“We moved the fighting to the enemy's territory so that he could feel what we feel every day," he said in an interview with CNN.

Kyiv claims to have seized control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since its forces launched the incursion on August 6. According to Syrskiy, Moscow has transferred tens of thousands of troops to the region, including some of its best airborne assault units.

It was previously reported that the operation was aimed at improving Kyiv's position in the event of peace negotiations. Analysts also suggest that the operation is aimed at conveying to the Russians the seriousness of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev unveiled a memorial to honor Crimean Tatar victims of genocide in Kyiv's Peace Park on September 11. Zelenskiy called the memorial "a symbol of our unity and willingness to restore justice...that also reminds us of three tragic stages in the history of Crimean Tatars -- the annexation of Crimea by the Russian empire in 1783, the deportation of Crimean Tatars (by the Soviets to Central Asia) in 1944, and the occupation in 2014." Since seizing Crimea in 2014, Russia has jailed dozens of Crimean Tatars who opposed Moscow's rule. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here.

The Vyasna human rights center said on September 11 that political prisoner Andrey Buday, who is serving a 15-year prison term on terrorism charges that he and his supporters reject, has been charged with "blatantly disobeying prison guards' orders."

According to Vyasna, Buday's trial on the new charge will start on September 23.

Buday and five other members of the journalism advocacy group Busly Lyatsyat (Storks Are Flying) were handed lengthy prison terms in late September 2022 on terrorism charges that rights activists have called politically motivated.

The 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.

Buday was sentenced to 15 years, Alyaksey Hamez to 14 1/2 years, Alyaksey Ivanisau to 14 years, Alyaksandr Muravyou and Alyaksandr Sidarenka to 12 years each, and Mikalay Biblis to 8 1/2 years in prison.

The six men were found guilty of being members of Busly Lyatsyat, which was officially declared a terrorist organization and banned in Belarus in November 2021.

They were also convicted of participating in activities disrupting social order, conducting a terrorist act against a state official, premeditated damage to private property, incitement of hatred, and public calls for international sanctions against Belarus.

The trial was linked to the unprecedented mass protests challenging the results of an August 2020 presidential election that proclaimed authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the winner.

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenka's rule.

Thousands were detained during nationwide protests and there were credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus's opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenka has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.

Miroslava Reginskaya, the wife of imprisoned Russian nationalist Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), has rejected reports saying her husband was released and allowed to join the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Reginskaya wrote on Telegram on September 11 that Girkin's request to be sent to fight in Ukraine had been rejected twice.

She cited a letter from her husband saying that in the rejection letters, officials wrote that "we do not need colonels."

Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison in January on a charge of making public calls for extremist activities.

In April, Reginskaya and Girkin's lawyers said the former leader of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had received written consent from a Russian military unit that it would make him a commander of one of its platoons, adding that Girkin planned to join Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russian law does not allow those convicted of extremism to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, but several reports in recent weeks said Girkin might have been recruited from prison to the war in Ukraine.

The 53-year-old was arrested in July 2023 after strongly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin online for his handling of the Ukraine invasion. He accused the Kremlin leader of "cowardly mediocrity" and described him as a "nonentity."

He also called out then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for making "mistakes" in the invasion and accused him and Putin of "incompetence."

Girkin last year even called on Putin to transfer power to "someone truly capable and responsible."

A former officer of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Girkin has also argued for a total military mobilization to ensure Russian victory in the war.

Girkin was a key commander of the separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and helped Russia occupy Ukraine's Crimea that year.

In November 2022, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Girkin and two other defendants to life in prison in absentia in the case of the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. All 298 people onboard died in the attack.

In February, international investigators said there were "strong indications" that Putin was personally involved in the incident.

The Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, over territory held by the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The victims came from more than a dozen countries, although more than two-thirds were Dutch.

Russia has denied any involvement in the downing of the plane.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, kicked off a three-day visit to neighboring Iraq on September 11 on what is his first foreign trip since taking office in late July.

Expanding relations with neighbors is Iran’s state policy, and Pezeshkian has vowed to deliver.

Pezeshkian, who speaks fluent Kurdish, will also make history by becoming the first Iranian president to visit Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the government in Tehran has had good relations with the authorities in Irbil, ties have often been tested over the semiautonomous Iraqi region's hosting of outlawed opposition Iranian Kurdish groups.

Baghdad and Irbil recently started implementing a security agreement signed last year with Tehran to move the groups away from the border with Iran and disarm them.

"It was a very good opportunity to visit the friend and brother country of Iraq in my first foreign trip as the president of Iran," Pezeshkian said in Baghdad.

"We need to implement security cooperation agreements between the two countries in order to deal with terrorists and enemies," he added.

The neighbors have strong economic relations, and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani told reporters during a joint news conference with Pezeshkian that the two countries signed 14 memorandums of understanding to boost relations.

Pezeshkian will also visit Basra, Iraq's economic hub, which Iran hopes to link to the town of Shalamcheh just across the border via rail as part of a larger railway project connecting Iran to Syria.

Pezeshkian and Sudani also discussed the war in Gaza, with the latter telling reporters at a joint press conference that both leaders opposed any expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.

With reporting by AFP and AP