Pussy Riot Member Ends Hunger Strike

A Russian activist says that a jailed member of the punk group Pussy Riot has ended her 11-day hunger strike after prison authorities met her demands. Maria Alekhina had complained that officials at her prison colony in the Ural Mountains attempted to turn fellow inmates against her with a security crackdown. Inmates, who could previously enter and leave their workplace freely, had to wait for up to an hour for prison guards to escort them.

Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of Alekhina's jailed bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, said Alekhina called today to say she has ended her action after prison officials restored the normal security regime. Alekhina and Tolokonnikova are serving two-year sentences over an irreverent punk protest against Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral. (More Pussy Riot stories.)