In the World
RUSSIA
Nemtsov murder suspect may have been tortured
Russian investigators' working theory that opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed by Caucasus Muslim extremists began to unravel Wednesday when a human-rights monitor said the key suspect appeared to have been tortured into confessing.
Russian Human Rights Commission member Andrei Babushkin told state-run and foreign media that former Chechnya police commander Zaur Dadayev had "numerous wounds" on his body when the rights advocate visited him in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison Tuesday.
Dadayev, one of five men of Chechen origin taken before a Moscow court Sunday, reportedly confessed to the killing, Basmanny District Court Judge Natalia Mushnikova said.
But Dadayev has launched an appeal of his reported plea. He told Babushkin he had only agreed to take responsibility for the killing to spare a detained friend and because he had been mistreated during two days of detention after his arrest Saturday in the predominantly Muslim Caucasus region of Ingushetia. - L.A. Times
CAMEROON
Troops rescue 80 children
Cameroonian soldiers freed 80 children undergoing weapons training at a camp run by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in the country's far north region, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said. The children ranged in age from 5 to 18 years old, he said, adding that 104 men acting as trainers were arrested. Troops raided the camp after intelligence was received that the militant group was training children as fighters there, Bakary said.
- Bloomberg
PAKISTAN
Party HQ raided; 20 held
Pakistan's largest city was on edge Wednesday after troops raided the headquarters of a well-known political party, arresting about 20 suspects and seizing weapons, a spokesman said. The troops seized a large cache of assault rifles and detained suspects - including six "known criminals" - from the Muttahida Quami Movement's offices in the heart of Karachi, said Col. Tahir Mahmood, a spokesman for a Pakistani paramilitary force known as the Rangers. - AP