Moscow / AFP Armed men attacked the office of a prominent human rights organisation in the volatile Russian region of Ingushetia, the group said on Thursday, hours after an assault on journalists in the same area sparked international outrage. Footage of the attack posted on Twitter by Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee to Prevent Torture, appeared to show …

Moscow / AFP Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, on trial in Russia over the killing of two journalists, has started drinking water but will continue her week-long hunger strike until the verdict, her lawyer said on Thursday. “Nadezhda halted only a ‘dry’ hunger strike,” lawyer Mark Feigin said. “She will be fasting until the verdict is announced,” he said, using …

RIKUZENTAKATA / AP The Japanese coast guard resumed underwater searches this week for some of the more than 2,500 people still missing from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast coast. Six divers entered Hirota Bay in near-freezing temperatures on Thursday at the behest of surviving families in the city of Rikuzentakata. As reconstruction of the disaster-hit …