Fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi set up checkpoints in Tripoli, searching cars, ahead of planned anti-government protests Friday, raising fears of new bloodshed in the Libyan capital where a heavy crackdown the past week has spread fear among residents.

Chad's armed forces and Chadian and Sudanese rebel groups are recruiting children as young as 13 to become soldiers, Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called on the international community Thursday to forgive Sudan's $39 billion debt burden so that dividing it between the north and south won't become another issue to resolve after Southern Sudan likely votes to become its own nation.

The interior minister has reportedly said that Algeria will resume a policy of arming people to reinforce the fight against terrorism in the north African country.

Congolese community leaders say they begged local U.N. officials and army commanders to protect villagers days before rebels gang-raped scores of people, from a month-old baby boy to a 110-year-old great-great-grandmother.

Rwanda says it is ready to withdraw its U.N. peacekeepers from Sudan if the U.N. publishes a report accusing Rwanda's army of possible genocide in the 1990s.

The number of rapes carried out by civilians in eastern Congo has increased by 17-fold in the last few years, according to a study released Thursday that says sexual assaults long perpetrated by armed groups are spreading across the population.

Caroline Aya was playing in front of her house in January when a neighbor put a cloth over her mouth and fled with her.

A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says crimes against humanity were likely committed in Guinea during an army-led massacre.