In brief: Sudan report finds systematic rape

UNITED NATIONS – Sudanese army troops raped at least 221 women and girls in a Darfur village in a series of organized, house-to-house attacks last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.

The organization’s Africa director, Daniel Bekele, called it “a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur.”

The incident is at the heart of a recent plunge in relations between Sudan and the international community over a region gripped by violent chaos for more than a decade.

Reports of a mass rape in Tabit in late October quickly surfaced via radio broadcasts by Sudanese overseas. A joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission at first said it found no evidence, but the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict said a heavy Sudanese military presence during its visit likely affected its findings.

Sudan’s government says its own investigation found “there had not been a single case of rape.” Russia, a Security Council permanent member, endorsed that finding.

But the new report, based on more than 130 telephone interviews with survivors, witnesses and army defectors, says girls as young as 10 were raped by Sudanese forces, and that some women and girls were assaulted multiple times and in front of their families.

Escape attempt ends in 6 suicides

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Six inmates led by a mob boss committed suicide at a prison in Taiwan early today after a failed breakout attempt in which they seized weapons and held a warden and guards hostage, officials said. All the hostages were released.

The inmates started their attempt Wednesday afternoon in the southern port city of Kaohsiung. In a telephone interview with a newspaper during the overnight standoff, the 46-year-old ringleader said the six had long planned the move and were prepared to die. Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang said officials rejected the group’s demands for safe passage out of the prison and had tried to convince them to surrender peacefully during hours of negotiations.

Chen said five prison staff were slightly injured in the standoff but did not elaborate.