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The former chief interrogator and top torturer for Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime died early Wednesday in hospital in Phnom Penh. He was 77.Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch, had served as the head of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison and was later convicted of crimes against humanity by a UN-backed war crimes tribunal for his role in the "Killing Fields" regime.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (AP) - The man who ran the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison in Cambodia accepted responsibility Tuesday for torturing and executing thousands of inmates and expressed "heartfelt sorrow" for his crimes. Kaing Guek Eav (pronounced "Gang Geck Ee-uu"), better known as Duch ("Doik"), told the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal he wanted to apologize for his actions under the Khmer Rouge, whose radical policies while in power from 1975 to 1979 left an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians dead. Duch, 66, who commanded the group's main S-21 prison, accepted responsibility for the crimes committed there, "especially the torture and execution...

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- The boss of a prison where some 16,000 men, women and children were tortured and executed appeared before Cambodia's genocide tribunal Tuesday in its first trial over the Khmer Rouge reign of terror more than three decades ago. [snip]Duch, 66, is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison - formerly a school - where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured, before being put to death. "This first hearing represents the realization of significant efforts to establish a fair and independent tribunal...

Trials of five brutal leaders will begin next monthFinally, at everlastingly long last, someone is to answer for the atrocities of the Khmers Rouges - in particular, the savagery of 1975-79, when they ruled all of Cambodia. Agence France-Presse reports from Phnom Penh that Feb. 17 is the day the regime's torturer-in-chief will go on trial in the capital for crimes against humanity. Kaing Khek Iev, better known as Duch, is the first of five scheduled to go before a UN-sponsored tribunal for one of the great crimes of the 20th century. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians out of a...

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia (Reuters) - The chief torturer under the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" regime wept and prayed on Tuesday as he led the judges who will try him for crimes against humanity around the mass graves for some of its victims. Duch, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, accompanied 80 judges, lawyers and other officials of a U.N.-backed tribunal to the 129 graves, uncovered after a Vietnamese invasion sent the Khmer Rouge back to the jungles in 1979. "I saw Duch kneel in front of the trees where Khmer Rouge soldiers smashed children to death," a policeman told reporters...

A Dutch politician who has announced her bid for the chairmanship of the largest party in the polls, the Labour Party, was involved in the cover-up of a gang-rape five years ago. Thirteen year old, retarded Tessa was brutally gang-raped for months by 14 Moroccans aged between 9 and 16 years old. She was threatened by a gun (that later turned out to be a fake). After the police were informed of the crime, the District chairman, Annemarie Hoogland, immediately assembled a project group. But not to prevent further horrible crimes like this, but to keep people from knowing that...