Journalist Beaten to Death

A journalist in Russia was tortured and eventually beaten to death by police, according to authorities, making him the 17th Russian journalist to be killed since 2000. Konstantin Popov, who was reporting in the Siberian city Tomsk for the news magazine Tema, was hospitalized after being beaten in police custody, and died while still in a coma. “This could happen to absolutely anyone,” said the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “It demonstrates the police terror is aimed against everybody.” Russian police officers have been implicated in a variety of violent incidents recently, and more than 20 news editors signed a petition imploring Russia's Interior Minister to discipline out-of-control police forces. A statement also went up on the Union of Journalists Web site saying, “Hands off journalists!”