The UN Human Rights Council on Friday condemned continuing systematic rights abuse by Myanmar's military rulers, including the high number of political prisoners.
The 47-nation body also passed a separate resolution extending the mandate of the UN investigator of Myanmar for another year.
The council expressed its "deep concern at the situation of human rights in Myanmar, including the violent repression of the peaceful demonstrations of September 2007, and the failure of the government to investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators of these violations."
Pakistan said the resolution leaned toward political aspects of the country's rule rather than human rights issues. India said the resolution was discriminatory and China said the international community should acknowledge positive steps taken by Myanmar to improve the rights situation.
But Slovenia, which put forward the proposal, said: "The European Union particularly deplores the continuous imposition of restrictions on the freedom of movement, expression, assembly and association; the prevailing culture of impunity, ongoing summary executions, torture and forced labor practices, recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence."
It said Myanmar's military junta failed to live up to the council's demand, made in an emergency meeting in October, that the violent crackdown be investigated and political prisoners be released.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
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