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Goree island, Senegal (CNN) — A short ferry ride away from Dakar, lies the quiet and picturesque Goree Island. Three kilometers off the coast, the Senegalese island is tiny and easily accessible by foot.

Without cars or roads, the island preserves a charming ambiance with faded buildings revealing its European colonial history. Beneath its quaint facade, however, the island hides a brutal history.

Known as Senegambia at the time and located at the westernmost point in West Africa, Goree Island used to serve as a strategic trading post for the transatlantic slave trade — African men, women and children were held and traded here before being loaded onto ships to America. Estimates vary, but all of them place the number of Africans who died while in transit in the millions.

Reminders of the slave trade

The history of Goree Island

Eloi Coly has worked on the island for 26 years as a site manager. He is also the chief curator of the “House of Slaves,” built by the Dutch in 1776, and is the last slave house remaining on the island and Coly has painstakingly preserved its history.

(CNN) — Wednesday marks Losar, or the Tibetan New Year, but there will be no music, chanting, spectacular costumes or pageantry this year.

Instead, Tibetans across the world plan to observe Losar with the solemnity their government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, has proclaimed it deserves.

Lobsang Sangay, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, issued a statement asking Tibetans to refrain from celebration.

“But do observe traditional and spiritual rituals by going to the monastery, making offerings and lighting butter lamps for all those who have sacrificed and suffered under the repressive policies of Chinese government,” Sangay said.

Sangay asked for a somber New Year because of the “grim news” that continues to stream out of Tibet, he said.

Tibetans say they’re not safe in Nepal

Has China improved Tibet?

Tibetan exiles set foot on native soil

(CNN) — Children as young as 10 years old increasingly face horrific abuse in war-torn Somalia as the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab has targeted them to replenish its diminishing ranks of fighters, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday.

While the recruitment of child soldiers by the Somali insurgent group is not new, the report said the scale of child abductions over the past two years is like nothing documented in the past.

Shocking patterns have also emerged of children serving as human shields on the battlefields, according to Human Rights Watch.

“We’re beginning to see more and more instances where children are essentially being used as cannon fodder,” Tirana Hassan of Human Rights Watch told CNN.

Al-Shabaab fighters abduct young girls and boys from their homes or schools, in some cases taking entire classes, the report said.

Children can be sent out to recruit other children, according to the organization. One survivor told Human Rights Watch he was asked by a group of kids to play football at a nearby field. When he arrived, he and others were gathered up and sent to training camps, the survivor told Human Rights Watch.

The camps are places where children live in fear, said Hassan, an emergencies researcher for the international human rights group.

“They see injured and dead fighters, many of them children, coming back from the battlefield,” Hassan added.

Recruits are taught to use weapons and to throw hand grenades and are subjected to a myriad of abuses including rape, assault and forced marriages, according to Hassan.

Dozens of recruits, mostly ages 14 to 17, are driven by truckloads to the front line, where they are told to jump out only to be mowed down by gunfire while Al-Shabaab fighters launch rockets from behind, according to Hassan.

A 15-year-old boy recruited by Al-Shabaab from his school in Mogadishu in 2010 told Human Rights Watch that “out of all my classmates — about 100 boys — only two of us escaped, the rest were killed.”

“The children were cleaned off. The children all died and the bigger soldiers ran away,” the youth told Human Rights Watch.

Somalia’s transitional government also was criticized by Human Rights Watch for not ending its own use of child soldiers.

“Al-Shabaab’s horrific abuses do not excuse Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, the group’s deputy children’s rights director. “The TFG should live up to its commitments to stop recruiting and using children as soldiers, and punish those who do.”

Gen. Abdulkadir Ali Diimi, the head of Somalia’s National Army, said he was unable to comment on the report.

The 104-page report, released two days ahead of a Somalia conference hosted by the British government, grimly details countless violations against children based on more than 160 interviews conducted over the last two years with Somali youngsters who escaped from Al-Shabaab forces, as well as parents and teachers who fled to Kenya.

“For children of Somalia, nowhere is safe,” Coursen-Neff said.

On Thursday, senior representatives from more than 40 governments will converge on London in a diplomatic push to find political solutions to restore stability in Somalia.

CNN’s Jonathan Wald and journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.

Cairo (CNN) — The defense will give closing remarks Wednesday in the trial of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak after prosecutors demanded the former president be held responsible for the deaths of protesters during the clashes that led to his ouster last year.

The ailing Mubarak is on trial on charges of corruption and ordering the deaths of hundred of protesters. He has denied the charges.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty for Mubarak, who was forced from office in February 2011 after three decades of iron-clad rule.

“Even if the defense statement was true that the former president was not aware of such acts, he remains responsible by virtue of the Constitution and the law — for all of these acts were committed while he was acting as a president,” said prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman, during his closing remarks on Monday.

“As president, Mubarak was responsible for protecting all Egyptian citizens. He didn’t take the appropriate measures to carry out his duty to stop the bloodshed and the acts of violence against the Egyptian people,” Suleiman said.

Also on trial is Mubarak’s two sons and other members of his regime.

About 840 people died and more than 6,000 were wounded in the 18 days of unrest that toppled the then-president, according to Amnesty International.

Egypt’s revolution came on the heels of Tunisia’s revolt that led to the ouster of that country’s leader in January 2011. Since then, protests against longtime rulers swept across North Africa and the Middle East, including uprisings in Libya, Yemen and Syria.

A verdict date is expected to be scheduled on Wednesday. Also it could be decided soon if Mubarak will be moved to a prison hospital while he waits for a verdict, said Adel Saeed, the spokesman of the general prosecutor’s office.

Khalid Abu Bakr, a civil rights lawyer, representing families of the victims is happy with the seven-month-long trial that has been dubbed, “the trial of the century ” in Egypt.

“I am proud of the transparency and objectivity of this historical trial regardless of the verdict. It has met all the standards of judicial due process in comparison with court proceedings in Europe and the United States of America,” Bakr said.

Farid El Deeb, representing the Mubarak family and Habib El Adly — the former minister of interior standing trial for murder charges along with Mubarak — is expected offer the final argument and may allow his defendants to speak in court.

“Habib El Adly, and other defendants have expressed their desire to speak today for the first time before the announcement of the date of the final verdict, ” El Deeb said.

Washington (CNN) — Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday, his office said, amid speculation that he might mount a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Australian media have been abuzz in recent days with reports that Rudd is considering contesting Gillard’s leadership of the governing Labor Party.

Observers predicted a showdown could take place next week when Parliament resumes and Rudd was due to return from an overseas trip. But his sudden announcement in Washington in the middle of the night caught people by surprise.

“We thought he was tucked up in bed,” said Angela Cox, a reporter for the Australian Channel 7 in the United States. “He called this late press conference, so we knew something must’ve been up. But I have to say most of us were pretty shocked when he actually said he was resigning as foreign minister.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry confirmed Rudd had resigned in Washington.

Kevin Rudd resigns as Australian FM

This is not the first time the two senior Labor figures have clashed; Gillard replaced Rudd as prime minister in June 2010 after he lost support within the party.

Tension between them in recent weeks has boiled over into newspaper columns and criticism from other party officials.

“There have been lots of calls for the prime minister, Julia Gillard, to sack him because he’s been accused of disloyalty because of all of this speculation that he’s doing backroom deals trying to challenge Julia Gillard for the leadership,” Cox said. “He did say he felt compelled to do it today because he felt like he didn’t have the support of Julia Gillard.”

In a statement Wednesday, Gillard called Rudd “a strong and effective advocate for Australia’s interests overseas” and said he “strongly pursued Australia’s interests in the world.”

“I am disappointed that the concerns Mr. Rudd has publicly expressed this evening were never personally raised with me, nor did he contact me to discuss his resignation prior to his decision,” she said.

Rudd has insisted that he wouldn’t be part of a “stealth attack” on Gillard, but his resignation doesn’t mean he is necessarily ruling out a leadership challenge altogether.

“Just because he resigned as foreign minister doesn’t mean he can’t still work the angles from the back bench,” Cox said.

Reporters asked him whether he planned to challenge Gillard, but he “didn’t give a strong response to that,” she said.

Rudd is considered responsible for bringing the Labor Party back from the wilderness. After 11 years in opposition, the party won office in November 2007 under his leadership.

After enjoying some of the highest popularity ratings of any Australian leader, Rudd’s poll numbers took a hit after he delayed his proposed carbon emissions trading scheme.

Gillard took over in 2010, but she has struggled to achieve high approval ratings.

CNN’s Sarita Harilela and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.

(CNN) — Kim Dotcom, the millionaire founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, was released on bail Wednesday after a judge said he didn’t appear to have enough money to flee.

Under one of the largest anti-piracy crackdowns ever, the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to have Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, and three co-workers extradited to face charges including conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

Last month, U.S. authorities shut down Megaupload’s websites and announced indictments against Dotcom and six other people connected to the site, accusing them of operating an “international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works.”

They say Megaupload generated more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and the sale of premium memberships.

The New Zealand police arrested Dotcom, a German citizen who has residency in New Zealand and Hong Kong, and the other three at the U.S. government’s request.

Megaupload’s lawyers have denied the charges, and online activists have rallied to the site’s defense.

An initial effort by Dotcom’s lawyers to obtain bail last month was denied, with the judge at the time concluding that flight risk remained “a real and significant possibility.”

But on Wednesday, District Judge N.R. Dawson said that “fresh and new” information had emerged since and that there was no longer “just cause” to keep Dotcom in custody, providing satisfactory bail conditions were imposed.

In his 13-page decision, Dawson noted that:

– Megaupload’s chief financial officer has filed an affidavit supporting Dotcom’s contention that he has no money to flee;

– He has only two passports (one Finnish and one German), not three, as previously asserted;

– The United States has extradition treaties with Germany and Finland;

– No steps have been taken to re-establish the shuttered business;

– No new evidence has been uncovered;

– Some of Dotcom’s business associates facing the same charges have been granted bail;

– An extradition hearing likely will not occur before July, an “effectively punitive” period of time, despite the fact that no criminal conduct has been established.

Dotcom’s release on bail comes after the U.S. authorities added charges and broadened their case against the defendants last week.

The other charges that the accused face include conspiracy to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement.

Dotcom holds a German passport and two Finnish passports, under the names of Kim Tim Jim Vestor and Kim Dotcom. Prosecutors had said that the multiple passports, as well as bank accounts and credit cards from various countries linked to different names, showed that he presented a flight risk.

But Dawson was unswayed.

Dotcom “legally changed his name on two occasions and each passport was obtained in his legal name at that time,” the judge wrote. “It is the applicant’s understanding that the first Finnish passport in the name of Vestor would have been canceled when he applied for a new passport from Finland in the name of Dotcom. Suprisingly, no inquiries have been made of the Finnish authorities to confirm this.”

In addition, Dotcom “is entitled to hold both his German passport and his Dotcom Finnish passport,” he said.

Dawson said Dotcom, at the time of his arrest, had 59 credit or bank cards under 13 names in his possession, 21 of them still valid. But the judge said Dotcom’s possession of so many expired cards could indicate no more than “a degree of muddlement” in his financial affairs.

The 38-year-old businessman has prior convictions related to computer hacking and insider trading. But Dawson noted that they were “historical,” with some of them dating to his teenage years.

Dotcom obatined residency status in New Zealand in December 2009. He is married to a Filipina woman with whom he has three children, and his wife is pregnant with twins.

“The factors against him being a flight risk include that he would live his life as a fugitive, he would be abandoning his expectant wife and three children and he would effectively lose all the considerable assets and bank accounts in a number of countries that have been seized or frozen,” Dawson wrote. “It is submitted that he has a good defense to the charges and that he has every reason to stay and fight for his family’s future and his seized assets.”

The arrests of Dotcom and his co-workers, along with the closure of Megaupload, prompted an angry reaction from the activist hacking collective Anonymous. After the prosecution was announced, the group took credit for temporarily crippling the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and entertainment company websites.

CNN’s Marilia Brocchetto and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) — Hundreds of Indonesian police officers charged into a prison in Bali on Wednesday to subdue rioting inmates who had set a building on fire and thrown stones at firefighters.

The police arrived at Kerobokan Prison late Tuesday to ensure that no prisoners escaped during the rioting, said Ketut Untung Sayoga, the deputy chief of police in Bali, but did not enter the facility until daylight broke Wednesday.

Three inmates were wounded, one of them shot in the leg by a rubber bullet, Sayoga said.

The riot took place in a separate block from the one housing foreign inmates. None of the 60 foreign prisoners were harmed, Sayoga said.

The prison is where Schapelle Corby, an Australian beauty therapist convicted in 2005 of smuggling nine pounds of marijuana into Bali, is serving a 20 year prison sentence.

The 12 Australians in the prison were unharmed, said Ray Marcelo, a public affairs official at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Kerobokan Prison is in southern Bali, a few kilometers from Denpasar Airport and the popular tourist area of Kuta.

It appeared to be under control Wednesday but remained heavily guarded.

(CNN) — Two days of talks with Iran have failed to produce agreement on how to verify that Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Tuesday.

Iran also refused to allow a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to visit its military base at Parchin, southeast of Tehran, during the two-day visit, the IAEA said.

“Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear program, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions,” an IAEA statement on the visit read. “Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document.”

The high-level team of experts was on its way back from Iran late Tuesday, the agency said.

But Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh, Iran’s representative to the IAEA, said the Iranian and IAEA experts’ recent negotiations involved cooperation and mutual understanding between the two sides, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported.

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Soltaniyeh also said Iran will hold further talks with the agency over its civilian nuclear energy program, according to Fars.

Iran says it is producing enriched uranium to fuel civilian power plants and has refused international demands to halt its production. But the IAEA reported in November that it had information to suggest Iran had carried out some weapons-related research.

According to November’s IAEA report, Parchin may have been the site of tests of high explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear bomb — experiments the agency called “strong indicators of possible weapon development.”

“It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in the IAEA statement. “We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached.”

The November report states that Iran built a large, cylindrical chamber at Parchin in 2000 that was designed to contain the force of up to 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of high explosives. IAEA inspectors visited the site twice in 2005, but did not go to the building now believed to have housed the test chamber, the report states.

“It remains for Iran to explain the rationale behind these activities,” the report noted.

The talks come as Iran is under intense pressure to demonstrate that it has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons. U.S. and European sanctions are crippling its currency, while a new round of sanctions are targeting its crude oil sales, which make up about half of Tehran’s revenue.

In the meantime, Israel is making clear it is pondering an attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons itself, though it has never declared itself a nuclear power and considers Iran an existential threat.

Iran has threatened to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, the only shipping lane out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, if it is attacked. But last week, it also proposed a resumption of long-stalled talks with European powers and Security Council permanent members aimed at resolving the issue.

London (CNN) — The deaths of two Western journalists Wednesday in Syria — where at least three other journalists, including two Syrians, had already been killed this year — highlight the danger reporters face in covering conflict zones.

Marie Colvin, an American veteran foreign correspondent for London’s Sunday Times, and prize-winning war photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed in shelling in the city of Homs, the besieged center of resistance to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Colleagues remembered Colvin, who lost her left eye to shrapnel while covering a conflict in Sri Lanka, as “a legend” and “a class act.”

Ochlik had covered conflicts from Haiti to Libya, and he won first prize in the 2011 World Press Photo general news category for a photo of a rebel fighter resting in front of a rebel flag in the war-torn landscape of Ras Lanuf in Libya.

The French Foreign Ministry demanded that Syria give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Homs to remove their bodies.

At least one other journalist, photographer Paul Conroy, was injured in the attack, the Sunday Times said, adding that initial reports suggest his wounds are not serious.

Their deaths come less than a week after New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, died in Syria, apparently of an asthma attack.

Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate who owns the Sunday Times, said Colvin “put her life in danger on many occasions because she was driven by a determination that the misdeeds of tyrants and the suffering of the victims did not go unreported.”

And John Witherow, the editor of the paper where she worked for more than 25 years, said Colvin “was much more than a war reporter. She was a woman with a tremendous joie de vivre, full of humor and mischief and surrounded by a large circle of friends.”

Goree island, Senegal (CNN) — A short ferry ride away from Dakar, lies the quiet and picturesque Goree Island. Three kilometers off the coast, the Senegalese island is tiny and easily accessible by foot.

Without cars or roads, the island preserves a charming ambiance with faded buildings revealing its European colonial history. Beneath its quaint facade, however, the island hides a brutal history.

Known as Senegambia at the time and located at the westernmost point in West Africa, Goree Island used to serve as a strategic trading post for the transatlantic slave trade — African men, women and children were held and traded here before being loaded onto ships to America. Estimates vary, but all of them place the number of Africans who died while in transit in the millions.

Reminders of the slave trade

The history of Goree Island

Eloi Coly has worked on the island for 26 years as a site manager. He is also the chief curator of the “House of Slaves,” built by the Dutch in 1776, and is the last slave house remaining on the island and Coly has painstakingly preserved its history.