WORLD IN BRIEF : EL SALVADOR : U.N. Rights Team Launches Probe

The United Nations began an unprecedented mission in conflict-torn El Salvador to verify human rights accords between the U.S.-backed government and leftist rebels. About 110 non-Salvadoran civilian, military and police officials are to take up posts in San Salvador and in three of the country’s 14 provinces, marking the first tangible result of U.N.-mediated peace talks between the rightist administration and leftist rebels. El Salvador’s 11-year-old civil war, which has claimed about 75,000 lives, continues unabated despite 15 months of peace efforts brokered by the United Nations.