Top of the Morning: Peacekeepers Killed in Mali Bomb Attack

Top stories from DAWNS Digest

Turnout Low in Mali Presidential Elections Following Attack on Peacekeepers

 A Tuareg radical group has claimed responsibility for the attack There were no serious incidents during 10 hours of voting but polling stations were reporting turnout as low as 15 percent as voters were scared away by a recent upsurge in rebel attacks against African troops tasked with election security alongside French and Malian soldiers. Two Senegalese UN peacekeepers were killed and seven wounded on Saturday when a suicide bomber ploughed his explosives-laden car into a bank they were guarding in the northeastern rebel bastion of Kidal. (AFP http://bit.ly/1c64nlo)

Children Tortured in Bahrain, Says Amnesty International

 Amnesty International says the authorities in Bahrain are routinely torturing children arrested on suspicion of participating in Shiite anti-government protests. “By rounding up suspected under-age offenders and locking them up, Bahrain’s authorities are displaying an appalling disregard for its international human rights obligations,” said Said Boumedouha, Amnesty’s deputy director for MENA. “Bahrain’s government purports to respect human rights yet it is brazenly flouting international obligations on a routine basis by resorting to extreme measures such as imposing harsh prison sentences on children.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/18uLXKi)