Watchdog

The United Nations has voiced "serious concerns" over the recent execution of six Taliban prisoners on death row in Afghanistan.

"We regret the execution on Sunday, 8 May, of six people in Afghanistan, amid persisting serious concerns about compliance with fair trial standards, and reports about the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment as a means of extracting confessions," the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, said in a statement on May 10.

Colville urged Kabul to "refrain from approving death sentences and to immediately introduce an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty."

President Ashraf Ghani has toughened his stance against the militants after a major Taliban assault on Kabul that killed 64 people and wounded another 340 last month.

The president's office defended the executions, saying in a May 8 statement that they were conducted after a fair legal process and in accordance with the country’s constitution and Islamic laws.

Moscow authorities have removed an improvised memorial near the Kremlin where Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was gunned down last year.

The OVD-Info online news portal reported on May 9 that police detained two activists, who were watching over the site overnight, and removed the memorial that included flowers and posters.

The activists, whose names have not been disclosed, were released several hours later.

Activists have organized a night watch at Nemtsov's memorial because it has been vandalized several times since January.

Nemtsov was fatally shot on a bridge near the Kremlin on February 27, 2015.

Several men from the North Caucasus region have been arrested and charged with Nemtsov's killing.

Nemtsov's relatives and lawyers have expressed skepticism about the probe, insisting the killing must have been ordered by high-ranking Russian officials.

With reporting by OVD-Info