Videla trial opens in Argentina

Videla, already serving a life sentence for abuses committed during military rule, is one of more than twenty defendants.

A presidential pardon given to him in 1990 was recently overturned by the supreme court.

Up to 30,000 people were tortured and murdered between 1976 and 1983.

As the head of the military junta until 1981, Videla is considered to have been the main architect of what became known as the "Dirty War".

The case now being heard relates to the killing of a group of left-wing activists who were taken from their jail cells in the central city of Cordoba and shot dead shortly after the military took power.

The army said at the time that they were killed while trying to escape. See www.news.bbc.co.uk for full version