UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Preliminary investigations by the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo indicate that Congolese army soldiers committed rapes, looting and other human rights violations after they retreated from the key city of Goma following its capture by M23 rebels, the United Nations said Friday. The U.N. mission could Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

SAN SALVADOR El Salvador (AP) - Rights groups are calling on El Salvador to investigate the 1981 army massacre of about 1,000 people at El Mozote. Judiciary officials say cases could be opened despite a 1980s amnesty law. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights says El Salvador should Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

BUENOS AIRES Argentina (AP) - Judges found all defendants innocent Tuesday in a high-profile case of an Argentine woman who was allegedly kidnapped and forced into prostitution a decade ago. The 13 people on trial in the province of Tucuman had Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Sudan may face more charges for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Thursday. Fatou Bensouda told the U.N. Security Council that crimes continue to be committed under Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

SANTIAGO Chile (AP) - Chile's government has apologized to a lesbian judge who was denied custody of her three daughters because she is gay. The apology was issued Friday during a ceremony led by Justice Minister Teodoro Ribera. Chile says it will pay Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

CARACAS Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan authorities began trying the country's most famous judge in absentia Wednesday while she refused to enter the courtroom alleging violations of her rights. Coming nearly three years after her arrest, the trial of Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni started amid a scandal generated by Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

HAVANA (AP) - A leading Cuban opposition figure said Thursday that he and another dissident were threatened, and in one case attacked, by people they took to be intelligence agents in separate incidents on the same day. Elizardo Sanchez said two plainclothes officials Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Human rights groups say they found hundreds of women and children subjected to sexual and physical abuse at a public psychiatric hospital in Guatemala's capital. The Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala led an investigation by Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Committee Against Torture strongly criticized Russia in a report for failing to investigate widespread allegations of torture and stepping up intimidation and reprisals against human rights advocates and journalists. The panel of 10 independent experts expressed concern at the discrepancy between Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

BERLIN (AP) - German pastor Gabriele Stangl says she will never forget the harrowing confession she heard in 1999. A woman said she had been brutally raped, got pregnant and had a baby. Then she killed it and buried it in the woods near Berlin. Stangl wanted to Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to sanction the leaders of Congo's M23 rebel force, which hours earlier occupied the eastern Congolese city of Goma as U.N. peacekeepers stood by without resisting. But it did not name two Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

COLUMBUS Ohio (AP) - A former military colonel with a Somali security force dubbed the "Gestapo of Somalia" by its critics was responsible for the torture of a human rights advocate in the 1980s, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that opens the door for a hearing on Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian authorities arrested more than 300 children during protests in Cairo over the past year, beating and torturing some and trying many as adults, a leading international rights group said Tuesday. Human Rights Watch said in a report that the arrests and treatment of detained children Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

CARACAS Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's opposition leaders are calling on President Hugo Chavez to grant amnesty to the country's self-proclaimed political prisoners. Opposition congressman Edgar Zambrano said he was optimistic after presenting a proposed bill amnesty bill to the Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

TUNIS Tunisia (AP) - A second suspect in the attack on Tunisia's U.S. embassy died Saturday after months on a hunger strike, his lawyer said. Mohammed Bakhti, a prominent member of the ultraconservative Muslim Salafi movement, was admitted to intensive care days earlier following complications resulting from Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

ISLAMABAD (AP) - A Pakistani court on Tuesday acquitted a Christian girl accused of blasphemy over the burning of the Muslim holy book, her lawyer said. The ruling was the final chapter in a case that caused an international outcry over Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, which are very Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

LONDON (AP) - Amnesty International workers in London walked off the job on Tuesday as the second strike in as many months raised questions about the organization's ability to remain one of the world's pre-eminent human rights advocates. Workers from Amnesty's international and local British operations picketed their Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

KINGSTON Jamaica (AP) - Jamaica is preparing to abolish a slavery-era law allowing flogging and whipping as means of punishing prisoners, the Caribbean country's justice ministry said Thursday. The ministry said the punishment hasn't been ordered by a court since Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

RABAT Morocco (AP) - Morocco has made progress in reducing the number of girls working as domestic servants but much more needs to be done, Human Rights Watch reported Thursday. Tens of thousands of girls under the age of 15 are still working as domestic servants in Morocco, and they are subject to Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

VICTORIA FALLS Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's diamond conference was rocked by controversy Tuesday over the Kimberley Process, the world diamond trade regulatory body, whose chairwoman was publicly asked to resign because she is Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

MOSCOW (AP) - Adding to fears that the Kremlin aims to stifle dissent, Russians now live under a new law expanding the definition of treason so broadly that critics say it could be used to call anyone who bucks the government a traitor. The law took effect Wednesday, just two days after Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

GENEVA (AP) - The United Nations says access to contraception is a universal human right that could dramatically improve the lives of women and children in poor countries. It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund's annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right. It effectively declares that Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

LONDON (AP) - A radical Islamist cleric described by prosecutors as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe cannot be deported from Britain to Jordan to face terrorism charges, judges ruled Monday in the latest twist in a protracted legal saga. Britain's government has been Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States was re-elected Monday to another three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Council in the only contested election for the organization's top human rights body. The U.S. was competing with four countries for three open seats belonging to the Western Group on the council. Germany and Ireland Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)

DOHA Qatar (AP) - The leadership of Syria's main opposition group in exile is an all-male affair after elections failed to promote a single woman to the decision-making group of 41 members. Some of the female delegates at the Syrian National Council conference in the Qatari capital of Doha rushed the Full version (available to lexis.com subscribers)