UN human rights chief decries new Myanmar death sentences

BANGKOK (AP) — The U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights says Myanmar’s military-installed government has sentenced more critics to death, bringing the total to 139, and is using capital punishment as a tool to crush opposition. High Commissioner Volker Türk says at least seven university students were sentenced to death behind closed doors on Wednesday and there are reports that as many as four more youth activists were sentenced on Thursday. The military seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The army’s action was met with widespread peaceful protests that were quashed with lethal force. The government hanged four political activists in July, in the country’s first executions in at least three decades.