New shelling rocks Karabakh ahead of first mediation efforts

Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region spilled over into Thursday, with fresh shelling in the province's capital ahead of a first meeting of international mediators in Geneva. Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov was to meet diplomats from France, Russia and the United States, who make up the “Minsk Group” that has sought a solution to the Karabakh conflict since the 1990s. Armenia's foreign minister will not be attending, after Yerevan ruled out talks between the two countries' top diplomats as long as...