Nepalese army officer denies torture charges

A Nepalese army officer has denied two charges of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation's civil war.
Kumar Lama, 46, was arrested in January in the English town of St Leonards-on-Sea, about 70 miles southeast of London. He was granted conditional bail at the hearing today.
Lama has served in the Nepalese military since 1984 and was in charge of the barracks at the time of the alleged 2005 offences. He had been spending Christmas in England at the time of his arrest.
British authorities claim "universal jurisdiction" over war crimes, torture, and other serious offences allowing for prosecution of such crimes regardless of where they occurred. The Nepalese government protested the arrest.

Thousands died during Nepal's civil war, a decade-long conflict that ended in 2006.