An Azerbaijani soldier was killed in Nagorny Karabakh on Thursday, the first casualty in almost a week following the worst outbreak of violence in the disputed breakaway region for decades.

The army sergeant was killed while "preventing the enemy's next provocation along the line of confrontation," Azerbaijan's defense ministry said in a statement, referring to archfoe Armenia.

Armenia and Azerbaijan on Saturday traded accusations over the shelling of each other's territory in violation of a days-old ceasefire aimed at halting a flareup of violence over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces on Wednesday said they were largely observing a truce that halted four days of clashes which claimed scores of lives in the worst outbreak of violence in decades over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

"The ceasefire was largely observed overnight along the Karabakh frontline," the Armenia-backed separatist defense ministry in Karabakh said in a statement.

Azerbaijan and Armenian separatist authorities in the Nagorny Karabakh region reached an agreement Tuesday to end four days of fierce fighting over the disputed territory, Azerbaijan confirmed

"Military actions were halted as of 12:00pm local time (0800 GMT) on Tuesday," Azerbaijan's defense ministry said in a statement after a similar announcement by separatist authorities in Karabakh.

Pope Francis will probably visit Armenia in June, his spokesman said Friday.

"It is under examination, probably for the second half of June," spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters, while stressing that dates and a detailed itinerary are yet to be finalized.

Armenians voted to curb presidential powers in a disputed referendum, official results showed Monday, sparking calls for protests from the opposition which says the reforms are aimed at keeping the ruling elite in power.

Around two-thirds (63 percent) backed the constitutional changes in Sunday's referendum, with 32 percent voting against, according to preliminary results from the election commission.

Azerbaijani sharpshooters have shot dead two ethnic Armenian soldiers of the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh's army, separatists said Friday, in the latest clash over the disputed enclave.

"On November 12, two Karabakh army servicemen were killed by Azerbaijani snipers at the southern sector of the Karabakh frontline," the rebel defense ministry said in a statement.

Armenian forces killed three Azerbaijani troops in fierce clashes overnight, Azerbaijan said Monday, as tensions spiral in the Caucasus neighbors' protracted conflict over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.

"Three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in heavy fighting" with Armenian forces across the frontline of breakaway Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijan's defense ministry said in a statement.

Azerbaijani forces on Thursday shelled Armenia, killing three civilian women, officials in Yerevan said, as tensions mounted in the Caucasus neighbors' decades-long conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.

Three women aged up to 94 "died as a result of shelling by Azerbaijani armed forces" in Armenia's north-eastern Tavush region close to the border with Azerbaijan, Armenia's interior ministry spokesman Ashot Agaronyan told AFP.

A Russian military court on Wednesday sentenced a soldier accused of killing a family of seven in Armenia, including two children, to 10 years in jail for deserting his base in the ex-Soviet state. 

Conscript soldier Valery Permyakov is accused of murdering a man and a woman and their grown-up son and daughter, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren at their home close to the Russian base in Gyumri, some 55 miles (90 kilometers) from the capital Yerevan.