WASHINGTON: The Washington Post stepped up a campaign for the release of its jailed reporter in Iran, Jason Rezaian, on Wednesday, appealing to the UN Human Rights Council to help secure his release after a year of what it called "arbitrary" detention. The newspaper filed a petition with the council's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention seeking action to press Tehran to free Rezaian, one of four Americans detained or missing in Iran whose release is being sought openly by the US administration. Rezaian, 39, who was born in California and holds dual US and Iranian citizenship, was arrested with his Iranian wife Yeganeh Salehi at their home on July 22, 2014. Salehi was later freed but Rezaian, who had been reporting for the Post in Tehran for two years, was charged with espionage.

13 killed in Cameroon

YAOUNDE: Two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 13 people in northern Cameroon on Wednesday, the president's office said, in what appeared to be the deepest incursion by Boko Haram militants from neighbouring Nigeria. The first explosion hit a market and the second a densely populated neighbourhood, both in the capital of Cameroon's Far North region, Maroua, a military source told Reuters. No one claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram has stepped up attacks on the countries bordering its northeast Nigerian stronghold - Chad, Niger as well as Cameroon. All three have contributed troops to a regional offensive against the Islamist militants.