Documents and torture equipment found in Syrian security buildings in rebel-held Raqa show detainees were tortured when President Bashar al-Assad's regime held sway over the city, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. A team of researchers working for HRW toured Raqa in northern Syria in April, a month after the city fell into rebel hands, and found the incriminating evidence, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.

OTTAWA - Canada is obstructing efforts to compensate three men who suffered torture in Syria — effectively ignoring a key recommendation from the United Nations Committee against Torture, says Amnesty International. In a brief to the UN committee, the human rights group says it is "profoundly concerned" that Canada has not heeded the committee's call to provide redress to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin. The three Arab-Canadians were brutalized in Syrian prisons, in part due to lapses by Canadian agencies documented by a federal inquiry in 2008.

HALIFAX - A review of the Halifax school board's handling of the Rehtaeh Parsons case could lead to revised anti-bullying guidelines to help schools prevent a similar tragedy, a panellist said Monday. "We're really hoping to move forward and look at how we could prevent something like this from ever happening again," said Debra Pepler, a professor at York University in Toronto. "We hope we'll be able to provide some guidelines so students who struggle are supported and recognized in a different way."

WINNIPEG - Prime Minister Stephen Harper met in Winnipeg today with parents of some children who have been victims of cyberbullying. Harper says he wishes such meetings weren't needed, but they are. Among those at the meeting were the parents of Rehtaeh (reh-TAY'-uh) Parsons and the mother of Amanda Todd —- two girls who committed suicide after relentless bullying. The federal government has already committed to look at new criminal laws that could include a ban on distributing intimate images without consent.