Suu Kyi lawyers’ plea

YANGON: Lawyers for Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi argued an appeal against her extended house arrest sentence on Monday at the country’s supreme court. The 64-year-old democracy icon was ordered to spend another 18 months in detention in August after being convicted over an incident in which a US man swam to her house. A lower court rejected an initial appeal in October. During the morning hearing in Yangon, which lasted roughly one-and-a-half hours, Suu Kyi’s legal team argued that her conviction was legally unsound, according to her main lawyer Kyi Win.

Sri Lanka ‘war crime’

COLOMBO: The United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to explain allegations by a former army general that surrendering Tamil rebel leaders were killed in cold blood in mid-May, the government said on Monday. The presidency in Colombo said the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, sought explanations on what had happened to three rebel leaders and their families who wanted to surrender. “The government is making a careful study of the UN Rapporteur’s letter, prior to a formal response, and any action that may be necessary,” the president’s office said in a statement.