BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
Police in Egypt are subjecting detainees to electric shocks, beatings and sexual assaults according to detailed testimonies gathered by the BBC. The accounts cannot be independently verified, but human-rights campaigners say there is systematic torture in detention. Orla Guerin has more details.
Many of those who emerge from detention are too frightened to speak, but BBC News has gathered detailed and credible testimony about a range of severe abuses, including the use of electric shocks. A 15-year-old school boy told us he was given repeated shocks by police who suspected he was a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. He said they sometimes threw water on him to increase the pain. We heard claims of sexual assault from male and female detainees. And a well-known democracy activist described being kicked, beaten and punched for over half an hour.
Egypt's military-backed government denies the allegations. At least 3 people have been killed in clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The bloodiest of the demonstrations was in the east of the capital Cairo. Two demonstrators and a female journalist covering the protests died when police moved in using teargas and live ammunition. Clashes were also reported in the city of Alexandria.
United Nations says there has been no improvement in the humanitarian situation of millions of Syrians since the Security Council passed a resolution last month intended to increase aid deliveries. Nick Bryant reports.
It's five weeks since the Security Council in a rare moment of unanimity on Syria demanded greater access to deliver humanitarian aid. But in her first report on whether there has been compliance with the resolution, the UN's humanitarian chief Valerie Amos painted a grim and disturbing picture. Calling it arbitrary and unjustified, she criticized the Assad regime's delays in allowing aid deliveries, noted that assistance had reached just 6% of those living in besieged areas.
Nato says the steady increase in the number of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine is a cause of concern for the alliance. Nato's media director, Lieutenant Colonel Jay Janzen told the BBC, there was some worry at Nato's headquarters, because the troop movements did not look like an exercise, but more like a military buildup.
There has been an increase in numbers just over the last week. I mean it's not a substantial increase, but certainly the presence isn't getting smaller. So we definitely are taking prudent action to make sure that we have surveillance on the area. So we are keeping a very close eye. Our hope is that this is gonna be solved diplomatically and politically.
BBC News.
President Obama has discussed supplying more sophisticated weapons to Syrian rebels during a meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a desert camp outside Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is one of the key supporters of the Syrian opposition and it has been growing increasingly frustrated with US policy in Syria. The Saudis are also suspicious of improved relations between the United States and Iran and worried that growing US energy independence will lead to a disengagement from the region.
Unidentified pieces of debris have been spotted in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane after the search was shifted to a new area. It's almost 3 weeks since the aircraft disappeared. From Perth, Jonathan Head.
Within hours of the Australian authorities declaring a new search zone, the first aircraft returned from there with reports that they had sighted objects which could be from the missing Malaysian airliner. These objects will still need to be retrieved by ships which are not yet in the area. But it's hoped they will reach it over the weekend. The new zone lies closer to the west Australian coast which should now allow the surveillance aircraft to spend longer scanning the sea surface.
Security officials in Afghanistan say they've killed 5 gunmen who attacked a guest house used by US based anti-land-mine charity in the capital Kabul. The official said a young Afghan girl also died in the attack which began when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a vehicle at the gate. An Afghan government minister told the BBC security forces rescued 31 foreigners from the building.
At least 11 people have been killed in the Central African Republic in a grenade attack at a funeral in the capital Bangui. It's believed former fighters from the mostly Muslim Seleka movement carried out the attack. And in response, Christians have erected barricades in one of the city's neighborhoods.
BBC News.
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