KIEV — A Ukrainian opposition activist who went missing last week says he was kidnapped and tortured, the latest in a string of mysterious attacks on anti-government protesters in the two-month-long political crisis. Dmytro Bulatov, a member of Automaidan, a group of car owners that has taken part in the protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, went missing Jan. 22. Bulatov was discovered outside Kiev on Thursday. He says his kidnappers beat him severely, sliced his ear and cut his face. Bulatov is among three activists whose disappearances have shocked the country, especially after one of them was found dead. The protests started after Yanukovych backed out of an agreement to deepen ties with the European Union, but quickly came to encompass an array of discontent over corruption, heavy-handed police and dubious courts. – AP
