PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philadelphia Inquirer has documented stories of rape, torture and murder of Tibetan nuns, monks and ordinary people at the hands of Chinese authorities in a series of articles to be published in the newspaper beginning Sunday, Dec. 8. The series will be followed on Sunday, Dec. 15, with an article and powerful photographs in Inquirer Magazine, documenting the escape of 14 Tibetans as they trekked through the Himalayas to Nepal and freedom.

The articles are being published at a time when human rights activists have begun to worry that recent contacts between President Clinton and China President Jiang Zemin signal a retreat from the administration's efforts to improve international human rights.

Staff writers Loretta Tofani and Jeffrey Fleishman, along with photographer Vicki Valerio, covered this story over a period of two years, traveling on tourist visas and exposing themselves to danger, including a trek with refugees through the Himalayas past the frozen bodies of others who had tried to escape and failed. Tofani was seriously injured in a fall and had to be airlifted out.

In the articles, nearly two dozen cases are documented, including names and dates, verified by polygraph and by physical and psychological examinations conducted by physicians. The torture victims agreed to allow their names and photographs to be used, although they have reason to fear retaliation by Chinese authorities.

"This is a critical story that lays bare the efforts by the government to wipe out the culture and religion of the Tibetan people through torture and worse," said Inquirer Editor Maxwell E.P. King. "This is exactly the kind of thing the human rights activists talk about, and we have documented it in detail," he added.