Burma has invited the US and the European Union to send officials to observe its by-elections to be held on the first of April.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is running for one of the 48 seats, the first time in over 20 years she is taking part in an election.

An AFP news report, citing an unnamed Burmese official, said that representatives from the UN had also been invited.

''It will be like a joint team with Asean, the EU, the US and the UN," the official told AFP.

In an open letter to the Syrian National Council, released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW), detailed allegations of kidnapping for ransom, detention, and torture of security force members and government supporters.

HRW's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said,

"The Syrian government's brutal tactics cannot justify abuses by armed opposition groups,"

"Opposition leaders should make it clear to their followers that they must not torture, kidnap, or execute under any circumstances."

Extracts reproduced below:

"We recognize that the perpetrators of these abuses are not always easy to identify nor do they necessarily belong to an organized command structure that follows the orders of the SNC or other opposition groups. Some reports received by Human Rights Watch indicate that in addition to armed groups with political motivations, criminal gangs, sometimes operating in the name of the opposition, may be carrying out some of these crimes."

The death of a farmer, who self immolated in protest against Chinese rule, sparked a protest with thousands of Tibetans gathering for his funeral, with tensions in Tibetan areas continuing to grow.

43-year old Sonam Dargye died on Saturday after setting himself alight in the province of Qinghai, becoming the third Tibetan to immolate in the past three days, and almost the 30th in the past year. Radio Free Asia commented that as many as 7,000 people gathered at his funeral.

Amnesty International has accused NATO forces of failing to investigate sufficiently civilian deaths caused by air strikes during attacks on Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.

"Nato officials repeatedly stressed their commitment to protecting civilians," said Donatella Rovera, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty.

"They cannot now brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret without properly investigating these deadly incidents."

Addressing his successors, Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, stressed the need for political reform, warning against a second Cultural revolution.

“Without successful political structural reform . . . new problems that have arisen in Chinese society will not be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again,” said Jiabao.

Drawing on recent events in the Arab Springs, Jiabao said,

A Brazilian judge has blocked attempts by prosecutors to try former army colonel Sebastiao de Moura for human rights abuses committed in the 1970s.

The judge ruled the move would go against Brazil’s amnesty laws.

Judge Matos, the federal judge in Maraba in the northern state of Para, said in his ruling:

"To try after more than three decades to dodge the amnesty law and reopen the debate on crimes committed during the military dictatorship is a mistake."

Twenty Kurdish activists in London began a four-day hunger strike Wednesday (14th) protesting against repression in Turkey. The event, staged by the Kurdish Federation UK, is taking place in parallel with similar actions within Turkey and across Europe.

Hundreds of prisoners in Turkish jails, including imprisoned members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party and other elected officials, have been on hunger strike since the end of February.

The Taliban have suspended talks with the US in Qatar, accusing the Americans of changing their position on the dialogue.

In a statement posted on their website the Taliban said,

"It was due to their alternating and ever-changing position that the Islamic Emirate was compelled to suspend all dialogue with the Americans,"

The head of the armed wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots, Thomas Lubanga, was charged Wednesday at the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the ICC's first conviction.

Lubanga was charged for his part in the killing of thousands during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war (2002-2003).

Theo Boutrouche, DRC researcher at Amnesty International, said,

A former soldier has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the massacre of Mayan villagers in Guatemala in the early 1980s during the country's civil war.

201 Mayans were killed by Guatemalan soldiers in the village of Dos Erres over 3 days in 1982, with men, women and children shot and beaten to death.

Pedro Pimentel Rios, 55, who is the fifth soldier to be convicted for his role in the massacre, lived in California until his arrest in 2010 and was extradited from the US the following year.