TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- A woman has been arrested on charges of taking part in the sale of about 20 newborn Georgian children overseas, a police official said.

Merab Bagaturia, head of Tbilisi police criminal department, said Galina Gorelik, 36, had been obtaining children to sell abroad for about three years..

He said Gorelik , who has joint Russian-Canadian citizenship, and her accomplices had targeted maternity hospitals in the capital Tblisi.

The children were sold for up to $15,000, the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency reported. It also said two newborn children were found in her home in Tbilisi after her arrest.

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Moroccan authorities have stripped the bureau chief of French news agency Agence France Presse in Rabat of his press credentials and ordered him to leave the country.

Police gave no reason for the expulsion of Claude Juvenal, 56, who has worked in Morocco since July, 1996.

The agency's management said it considered the measures "very serious and totally unusual."

"In the absence of any justifying motive, these measures can only be interpreted as a flagrant attack on the right to inform," AFP said.

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres said it had sent a letter protesting against Juvenal's expulsion to Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi

ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- The Council of Europe stepped up its fight against discrimination on Saturday when 25 of its 41 members signed a protocol condemning racism and prejudice.

Britain and France were among 16 states that did not sign the document, which the council said pressed for an end to discrimination on any grounds. Italy and Russia were among nations to sign.

"In today's Europe, the fight against racism and intolerance is an urgent necessity," Council of Europe President Walter Schwimmer said at the signing ceremony, which ended a meeting to mark 50 years of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council said the protocol aimed to ensure that "no one can be discriminated against by any public authority on any ground."

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) -- Denmark's Queen Mother Ingrid is ill, Danish media reported on Saturday, quoting a brief statement from the royal palace which said her health had deteriorated in the past few days.

The Queen Mother's three children, Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Princess Anne-Marie, wife of Greece's exiled King Konstantin, and Princess Benedikte were staying with their 90-year-old mother who the palace said was under close observation at Fredensborg castle, a royal residence, north of Copenhagen.

"It is nothing dramatic. The Queen (mother) is an elderly lady who is tired at the moment. She is eating and seeing visitors," Soeren Hafslund-Christensen, the palace Lord Chamberlain, told national Ritzau news agency.

Ingrid, born on March 28, 1910, is very popular in Denmark although she has rarely appeared in public in recent years.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.