GONE WITHOUT A TRACE

Mexico's human rights commission says two Mexican federal police officers participated in the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero state in 2014.

An unidentified witness said the federal officers were present when 15 to 20 youths were taken off a bus and led away, the commission said.

Local police told them they were taking the students away for "the boss" to decide their fate, the commission said.

The government says corrupt local police handed them to a drugs cartel.

The criminals then killed the students and incinerated their bodies, the government says.

Jose Larrieta Carrasco from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the witness overheard conversations by Iguala police who forced the bus to stop by shooting out its tyres. 

When federal police arrived and asked what was happening, an Iguala officer reportedly said they were taking the students away to the town of Huitzuco for "the boss" to decide what to do with them.

The federal officers said "OK, that's good" and allowed the local police to take the students away, the NHRC said.

BBC News. (2016). Mexico federal police 'saw Iguala students being taken away' - BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36049348 [Accessed 3 May 2016].

MASSACRED FOR GOING TO SCHOOL

Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say.

Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army. 

Scores of survivors are being treated in hospitals as frantic parents search for news of their children.

The attack - the Taliban's deadliest in Pakistan - has been widely condemned. 

Describing the attack from his hospital bed to the BBC's Shaimaa Khalil, Shahrukh Khan, 17, said a gunman had entered his classroom and opened fire at random. 

As he hid under a desk, he saw his friends being shot, one in the head and one in the chest. Two teachers were also killed.

BBC News. (2016). Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar school attack leaves 141 dead - BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30491435 [Accessed 5 May 2016].

LIFE IS CHEAP

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have kidnapped eight more girls from a remote village in north-eastern Nigeria just three weeks after snatching nearly 300 schoolgirls who the militant group’s leader has warned face being sold into slavery.

The latest attack, news of which took a couple of days to emerge, comes as the Nigerian government faces growing criticism for its failure to find the schoolgirls and curb the activities of the group that has claimed thousands of lives in its five-year insurgency.

Residents in Warabe in Borno State said that armed militias in two camouflaged vehicles swooped on the village on Sunday night, taking girls and torching homes. "They moved door to door looking for girls," said Abdullahi Sani, a resident. "They forcefully took away eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15."

Parents of the newly abducted girls will be painfully aware of their potential fate after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau's chilling threat to sell schoolgirls taken from Chibok village, also in Borno, in the early hours of 15 April as slaves in the market.

The girls, who were at the boarding school to take their final exams, were aged between 16 and 18. The extremist leader’s comments in a video released on Monday confirmed the worst fears of the girls’ relatives amid unconfirmed local reports that some of the girls had already been sold as "brides" in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon for 2,000 naira (£8).

Stewart, C. (2014). Boko Haram kidnaps more girls – and the world asks why Nigeria has. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/boko-haram-kidnaps-more-girls-and-the-world-asks-why-nigeria-has-done-so-little-9328328.html [Accessed 8 May 2016].