in full
and without amendment, and said Mr Ban would not wait
indefinitely
for a response from Sri Lanka.
Human rights organisations have criticised a decision by the Pakistani Supreme Court to
acquit
five men charged with raping a woman on the orders of a village council. A sixth was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2002, the woman Mukhtar Mai was allegedly gang-raped as punishment for an offence her brother is supposed to have committed. Ali Dayan Hasan from Human Rights Watch says the
verdict
sends the wrong message.
"This judgment is a very, very problematic judgment because essentially what has happened is that a woman who was raped
in broad daylight
by people who had been clearly identified has failed to be awarded justice.
This sends a very, very bad signal across Pakistani society, and basically it suggests that women can be abused and even raped with impunity, and those perpetrating such crimes will walk."
At least 16 people have been killed in Pakistan by a bomb explosion in a gambling den in the port city of Karachi. Dozens were injured. Officials say the den was operated by a criminal gang and that the bomb was set off by remote control. Karachi has seen a series of violent political and ethnic attacks, sometimes involving criminal gangs.
World News from the BBC
The African Union says it's lifting its suspension of Ivory Coast and has dropped sanctions against the country. The announcement welcomed Alassane Ouattara's victory in a power struggle against his rival Laurent Gbagbo, which lasted more than four months. Ivory Coast was suspended from the African Union when Mr Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing last November's presidential elections.