on the verge of
sharing power in Egypt for the first time.
Several hundred activists have demonstrated in the Moroccan capital Rabat against the law on sexual violence, which allows a rapist to marry his victim as a way of avoiding prosecution. It follows the news spread by the Internet of the suicide a week ago of a 16-year-old girl, Amina Filali, near Tangier in northern Morocco. Her parents say their daughter was
pressured
by a court into marrying her rapist. She took her own life by swallowing rat poison when she was subsequently abused by her attacker and his family. Morocco updated its legal code eight years ago, but activists say there's still much more to do.
A militant Shia group in Iraq says it's released a former American soldier it kidnapped last year. The group, which is loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, produced the man in US military uniform at a news conference in Baghdad. Rami Ruhayem reports from the Iraqi capital.
It would have been hard to believe were it not for the tall, dark-skinned man standing next to the Promised Day Brigade spokeswoman. As soon as she finished their announcement, the man stepped forward and explained in an American accent that he'd been
deployed
to Iraq in 2003, spent 15 months as a soldier and then moved to a civilian role. He said he was abducted on 18 June last year, and it was thought he'd be released for humanitarian reasons.
BBC News