Armenia, Azerbaijan Exchange Accusations Over Ceasefire Violations

Armenian soldiers stand in a trench at their position near Nagorno-Karabakh's town of Martuni, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Staff
Armenian soldiers stand in a trench at their position near Nagorno-Karabakh's town of Martuni, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Staff
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Armenia, Azerbaijan Exchange Accusations Over Ceasefire Violations

Armenian soldiers stand in a trench at their position near Nagorno-Karabakh's town of Martuni, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Staff
Armenian soldiers stand in a trench at their position near Nagorno-Karabakh's town of Martuni, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Staff

Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Sunday of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in fighting over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, hours after it was agreed.

The truce agreed on Saturday came into force at midnight after a week-old Russian-brokered ceasefire failed to halt the worst fighting in the South Caucasus since the 1990s.

The Armenian defense ministry said the Azeri army had fired twice during the night and used artillery.

Also, the Azeri defense ministry said: "The enemy fired at the vicinity of the Jabrail city, as well as the villages of this region ... using mortars and artillery".

It added that the Azeri army "took adequate retaliatory measures".

Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Azeri forces had launched an attack on the enclave's military positions and there were casualties and wounded on both sides, Reuters reported.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountain territory that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.

The ceasefire earlier this month was aimed at letting the sides swap detainees and bodies of those killed in the clashes, but it had little impact on the fighting around the enclave.

The new truce was announced on Saturday after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked to his Armenian and Azeri counterparts by phone and called on sides to observe the truce that he mediated a week ago.

Russia, France and the US belong to the Minsk Group, which has attempted to help resolve the conflict under the umbrella of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).



South Korea Says Will Send Jeju Air Crash Black Box to US

Officials take part in an investigation at the site where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on January 1, 2025. (Photo by YONHAP / AFP)
Officials take part in an investigation at the site where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on January 1, 2025. (Photo by YONHAP / AFP)
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South Korea Says Will Send Jeju Air Crash Black Box to US

Officials take part in an investigation at the site where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on January 1, 2025. (Photo by YONHAP / AFP)
Officials take part in an investigation at the site where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on January 1, 2025. (Photo by YONHAP / AFP)

South Korean investigators probing a Jeju Air crash which killed 179 people in the worst aviation disaster on its soil said Wednesday they will send one of the retrieved black boxes to the United States for analysis.

The plane was carrying 181 people from Thailand on Sunday when it issued a mayday call and belly-landed before hitting a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone aboard except two flight attendants pulled from the burning wreckage.

South Korean and US investigators, including from Boeing, have been combing the crash site in southwestern Muan since the disaster Sunday.

"The damaged flight data recorder has been deemed unrecoverable for data extraction domestically," said South Korea's deputy minister for civil aviation, Joo Jong-wan.

"It was agreed today to transport it to the United States for analysis in collaboration with the US National Transportation Safety Board."

Joo earlier said both of the plane's black boxes were retrieved, and for the cockpit voice recorder, "the initial extraction has already been completed".

"Based on this preliminary data, we plan to start converting it into audio format," he said, meaning investigators would be able to hear the pilots' final communications.

The second black box, the flight data recorder, "was found with a missing connector", AFP quoted Joo as saying.

"Experts are currently conducting a final review to determine how to extract data from it."

Officials initially pointed to a bird strike as a possible cause of the disaster, but they have since said the probe was also examining a concrete barrier at the end of the runway, which dramatic video showed the Boeing 737-800 colliding with before bursting into flames.

They also said that a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 models operated by local carriers was examining their landing gear after questions over a possible mechanical failure in the crash.

The ongoing inspections are "focusing mainly on the landing gear, which failed to deploy properly in this case", said the director general for aviation safety policy, Yoo Kyeong-soo.

Local media reported the landing gear had deployed properly on Jeju Air Flight 2216's first failed landing attempt at Muan airport before failing on the second.

The issue "will likely be examined by the Accident Investigation Board through a comprehensive review of various testimonies and evidence during the investigation process", the ministry of land, which oversees civil aviation, said at a briefing.