Watchdog

MOSCOW -- Hundreds of protesters have rallied in central Moscow to demand the release of political activists jailed after clashes with the police last year.

Protesters at the rally in Novopushkinsky Park on April 6 held portraits of the jailed activists and placards with slogans such as "Free the Hostages."

Speaking at the demonstration, former State Duma member Gennady Gudkov maintained that demanding the release of political activists was a step toward preventing more repression in the country.

"Today is a protest action for those political prisoners -- real political prisoners -- who have already appeared in Russia," he said. "There are dozens and even hundreds [of them]. It's not mass repression yet, but we are holding this demonstration in order to stop the possibility of the mass repression that we already overcame -- the most terrible repression in the 1930s, when tens of millions of people were victimized. We don't want to repeat the Gulags, we don't want to repeat the tragedy. That's why we are here to express our opinion."

The fate of the activists, who were arrested on the eve of Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in Mayh 2012, has united the opposition movement.

A total of 25 people have been charged over participating in a May 6, 2012, march and rally on Bolotnaya Square that descended into violence.

Fifteen have been put in pretrial detention and another three, including radical opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, are under house arrest.

The fate of the businessman Maxim Luzyanin hints at the scale of the punishments they may face. After pleading guilty to charges of mass unrest last year, he was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.

Unprecedented protests shook the Kremlin late in 2011 but gradually died down in the months that followed.

To keep the movement alive, the opposition is preparing to hold a bigger rally next month, which will mark the first anniversary of the May 6 protest.

With reporting by AFP, Interfax, and Reuters

ISLAMABAD -- The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) says hundreds of women were killed in so-called honor killings in the country last year.

In its annual report, the HRCP said 913 girls and women, including 99 minors, were killed in 2012.

The report said 604 were killed after being accused of having illicit relations with men.

Around 191 were reported slain for marrying their own choice of husbands and going against their families' wishes.

Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the HRCP, speaking in a telephone interview with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, said many of the perpetrators were close relatives of the victims.

"In most cases they are identified because they happen to be family members," Yusuf said. "They are either the husbands or the fathers or the brothers. ...In some cases they are also arrested. But...in many cases they are allowed to escape. [And] the conviction [rate] is very low."

Honor killings are illegal in Pakistan, but Yusuf said such killings are still carried out in remote tribal areas.

She said many cases of honor killings are the result of decisions taken by tribal courts.

"This is like any murder," she said. "Honor killings should be considered a crime against the state. It is not a case between two parties. It should be considered as murder, which it is under the law, and the system of tribal justice for taking the law into their own hands needs to be addressed."

The independent commission noted honor killings were not restricted to the Muslim community.

It said around seven Hindu and six Christian women were also killed.

Yusuf said the number of honor killings in Pakistan usually ranges between 600 and 900 each year.

The HRCP painted a grim picture of human rights in Pakistan, saying ethnic, sectarian, and politically linked violence in 2012 killed some 8,000 people.