Two Senegalese teenagers will stand trial this coming week for allegedly committing homosexual acts. It is the latest in a string of cases targeting gay men and now young boys in Senegal.

Newspapers here in Dakar are preoccupied with the onset of the Muslim holiday Ramadan and the final matches of the season for Senegal's most popular sport, traditional wrestling. They have yet to comment on the story of two young men from the religious town of Darou Mousty in northern Senegal. The two seventeen-year-old boys will stand trial this week for "homosexual acts" in a juvenile court in the region's capital, Louga.

Iraqi militias are carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct, or of not being "manly" enough, and Iraq authorities have done nothing to stop the killing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called on Iraq's government to act urgently to rein in militia abuses, punish the perpetrators, and stop a new resurgence of violence that threatens all Iraqis' safety.