YANGON (dpa) -- The Myanmar military’s involvement in the deaths of 10 Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, admitted by the commander-in-chief, is just a fraction of the abuses for which security forces are culpable, rights groups say.
Following the discovery of a mass grave in Inn Dinn village, the military launched an investigation into the incident last month. On Wednesday, it admitted that ethnic Rakhine villagers and security forces killed the 10 Royingya Muslims in the village on September 2 last year.
In separate statements, Fortify Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch all described the admission as the "tip of the iceberg” and urged an international investigation.
Matthew Smith, co-founder and chief executive of Fortify Rights, said the group, based in Bangkok, had documented similar atrocities across the northern Rakhine State, where a military crackdown prompted by Rohingya militant attacks has driven more than 650,000 Rohingya to flee the country.
"Massacres and mass graves have been a reality in all three townships in the north,” Smith said, referring to the areas of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, where the minority Muslim population lived.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Russian Communist Party moved to overhaul its geriatric image Friday, registering a wealthy 57-year-old farm boss to challenge incumbent Vladimir Putin for the presidency in a gamble it hopes will revive its electoral fortunes.
Russia's central election commission on Friday said it had registered Pavel Grudinin, who runs a farm business on the edge of Moscow, as the party's candidate for the March 18 election after the communists unexpectedly decided against putting up their veteran 73-year-old leader Gennady Zyuganov.
Backed by state TV, the ruling United Russia party, and many voters who live outside big cities, polls show 65-year-old Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for the last 18 years, is on track to comfortably win a fourth presidential term.
Putin said Thursday opposition leader Alexei Navalny appeared to be Washington's pick for the Russian presidency, which was why the United States had complained about Navalny not being allowed to run for office.
Russia's central election commission last month barred Navalny from taking part in a March presidential election, ruling he was ineligible due to a suspended prison sentence on charges he says were trumped up.



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MADRID (Reuters) -- The Spanish government dismissed outright Friday the possibility of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont ruling the region from self-imposed exile in Brussels, and said Madrid would contest any attempt to do so in the courts.
Catalan separatists agreed Wednesday to try to re-elect Puigdemont as regional leader, raising the scenario of the fugitive former leader governing by video link from Belgium. He faces arrest in Spain for sedition and rebellion.
"Parliamentary rules are very clear," Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said, at a weekly press conference. "They do not contemplate the possibility of a (parliamentary) presence that is not in person."
Puigdemont spearheaded a movement last year for the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia to split from Spain, culminating in Madrid sacking his administration and imposing direct rule. He moved to Brussels shortly afterwards.

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BORNO, Nigeria (Dispatches) -- Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have killed at least 20 loggers, militia members and residents said on Friday, in the latest attack against civilians in Borno.
The attack happened on Monday when gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers collecting firewood at Kaje village, near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
"They (Boko Haram) killed 20 people in the attack. Fifteen others are missing and presumed kidnapped by the attackers,” civilian militia leader Ibrahim Liman told AFP.
Details of the attack have been slow to emerge due to limited communications infrastructure after years of fighting in the remote region. Kaje resident Shuaibu Sidi corroborated Liman’s account and said his brother was among the dead.
The federal government and military maintain that the Takfiri militants, who have pledged allegiance to Daesh, are on the verge of defeat.

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VIENNA (AFP) -- Austria's new far-right interior minister sparked an outcry Thursday by saying that his government wants to "concentrate" asylum-seekers, employing a word widely associated with Nazi camps.
Herbert Kickl told a news conference he wants "basic services centers, suitable infrastructure that enables us to concentrate people in the asylum process in one place".
The comments quickly provoked outrage, with Alexander Pollak, head of migrants charity SOS Mitmensch, calling it a "deliberate provocation" and left-wing essayist Robert Misik saying "a Rubicon has been crossed".
The opposition Green Party warned against the "language of National Socialism creeping into our way of thinking and feeling", while the NEOS party said Kickl must apologize for his "deliberate provocation".
Kickl, who became interior minister last month when his Freedom Party (FPOe) formed a coalition with the center-right following elections in October, back-peddled, saying he did not "intend to provoke anyone".

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India launched its 100th satellite on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to project the country as a global low-cost provider of services in space.
A total of 31 small satellites were launched into space on Friday. More than half of the micro and nano satellites were for the Unites States, and the remainder India, Canada, Finland, France, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
India’s space program has a budget of around $4 billion and Modi’s government hopes the latest launches will improve its prospects of winning a larger share of the more than $300 billion global space industry.