• UN ends week of meetings with pledges to fight poverty, calls for disarmament
• Mideast Peace talks at crucial stage as West Bank settlement freeze nears end
• Farm workers push for fair treatment, equality on visit to Capitol Hill
• Anti-immigrant violence hits Staten Island communities
• Indian government investigates secret drug trials on poor residents

• Virginia executes Teresa Lewis
• Update: San Juan Copala residents displaced
• Russian court says government illegally denied protest permit
• Myanmar to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to vote in coming elections
• Aafia Siddiqui sentenced to nearly 9 decades in prison

Global leaders wrapped up a week of meetings, negotiations and debate at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon made a final push for countries to adhere to their commitments to fight global poverty, improve public health, confront climate change, and meet the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.

He offered a simple solution to development goals: redirect funds from governments’ massive spending on the military.

MOON: "Since the MDGs were first articulated a decade ago, world military expenditure has risen by 50 per cent to more than $1.5 trillion. Imagine what we could do if we devoted these resources to poverty reduction, climate change mitigation, food security, global health and other global development challenges."

The secretary general made the remarks at the opening of today’s meeting on disarmament and non-proliferation.

At the General Assembly, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, made his first UN address since becoming leader earlier this year. In discussing weapons control, he said leaders should place more emphasis on small arms, which he called one of the “greater challenges” facing African countries. He noted that, unlike nuclear and chemical weapons, there were no global treaties for dealing with small arms, which he said contribute to violence, poverty and instability in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Also today at the UN, the High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed the rape of at least 303 civilians including girls, men and boys in the Democratic Republic of Congon in July and August. The UN had been criticized for not providing protection to villagers in the area and being slow to acknowledge the incidents.

Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the commissioner, said investigators visited 13 villages.

COLVILLE: "They confirm that at least 303 civilians were raped in many cases multiple times by multiple attackers. Known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men and three boys. More than 123 houses were looted, 42 shops, as well and 116, people, that we know of were abducted to carry out forced labor."

The office released a preliminary report today, but warned that the total number of victims could be much higher. Rape continues to be used as a tactic of war in the DRC and in other countries.

This weekend marks a critical stage of the Mideast Peace process - by the end of this month Israel's partial ban on settlement construction in the West Bank expires and people on the ground are getting ready for the change to go into effect as early as Monday morning, paving the way for more expansion in the region. This week President Obama said the ban should continue, but also called on Palestinians to continue the talks. Today the AFP quotes an Israeli official as saying his government could be interested in a compromise, but that "zero construction" in the West Bank is not acceptable.

For a closer look at the moratorium and the settlement issue, we're joined from Tel Aviv by Roi Maor. He's the executive director of Yesh Din, that's a human rights organization that focuses in part on legal issues and settlements in the West Bank.

Immigrant farm workers took their struggle to Capitol Hill today and they’ve enlisted a new ally. Comedian Stephen Colbert testified before a Congressional panel about his one-day experience doing farm labor alongside immigrant workers. Today’s hearing called attention to the Take Our Jobs campaign, where the farm workers union invited unemployed people to come work in the fields. Sixteen endeavored to do it for a day and only seven actually took the jobs indefinitely.

Republicans have long charged that immigrants are taking American jobs, but farm worker advocates say that's not the case. Tanya Snyder reports from Washington.

The New York borough of Staten Island has become one of the latest fronts where tensions have grown between residents and recent immigrants. This summer there have been reports of 11 alleged hate crimes leading to a stepped up police presence on the island and a visit from the Mexican consulate. Now elected officials and community groups are trying to find ways to bring groups together.  Rebecca Myles has been following the story and files this report.

In Central India, an NGO says that multinational corporations paid nearly one hundred doctors to conduct experimental trials on patients without their knowledge. The group says the government hospitals targeted poor and illiterate patients in drug trials. The provincial government is now investigating. From Bhopal Shuriah Niazi reports.