74 Child Laborers Rescued From Nigeria

Seventy-four boys ranging in age from 4 to 15 were rescued from Nigerian granite quarries where they had been forced to work, officials said. Their torsos scarred from beatings, they were receiving medical treatment in the Beninese city of Cotonou.

The children told authorities that over the previous three months at least 13 other boys had died, succumbing to exhaustion, disease, hunger and abuse.

The children’s parents had put them in the hands of labor traffickers for as little as $35, and the children got 35 cents a day, a U.N. official said.