Mali's ruling military junta will suspend broadcasts by French state-funded international news outlets RFI and France 24, accusing them of reporting what it called false allegations of army abuses, in an unprecedented clamp down on foreign media. The allegations were made by the head of the United Nations rights commission Michelle Bachelet and rights group Human Rights Watch, then reported by RFI and France 24 this week, the junta said in a statement published on Thursday.

The United Nations voiced disappointment after a pledging conference raised less than a third of the money it said was needed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in war-torn Yemen. The UN was seeking $4.27bn to help 17.3 million people, but raised only $1.3bn at Wednesday’s conference in Geneva, with some major hoped-for donors not pledging any funds. The UN considers war-torn Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian disaster and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that it must not be overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis.

Brazil’s justice ministry has awarded President Jair Bolsonaro the nation’s “medal of Indigenous merit,” drawing sharp criticism from Indigenous leaders who have long accused the far-right leader of promoting policies that have harmed their communities. Justice Minister Anderson Torres awarded the medal to Bolsonaro and 25 other honorees on Wednesday “in recognition of their significant altruistic service for the well-being, protection, and defense of indigenous communities,” said a decree published in the official gazette.

The Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights body, on Wednesday expelled Russia in an unprecedented move over Moscow's invasion and war in Ukraine. The 47-nation organization’s committee of ministers said in statement that “the Russian Federation ceases to be a member of the Council of Europe as from today.”

A Cambodian court has convicted 19 political opposition leaders of trying to overthrow the government, following a case that one human rights group has described as a "bogus." The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday found the members of the now-dissolved Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), and one member's relative, guilty of incitement, attempting to incite military personnel to disobey and conspiracy, the AP reports. Seven defendants, including former CNRP leader Sam Rainsy, currently living abroad were tried in absentia. All face five to 10 years in prison.

Opposition leaders and commentators in Rwanda are being persecuted by the authorities for “their speech and opinions,” intensifying a culture of intolerance toward dissent, a human rights group has said. In a damning report published on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had monitored court documents, verdicts, and judges’ arguments against several Rwandans who have ended up behind bars due to the country’s “abusive legal framework.”

Appeals judges at a United Nations-backed tribunal on Thursday overturned the acquittals of two members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The five-judge appeals panel at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon convicted Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi of five charges linked to the assassination, including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and being accomplices to intentional homicide.

More than 750 people have been arrested in cities across Russia for protesting against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its third week. Independent monitoring group OVD-Info said police had arrested at least 756 people during demonstrations in 37 Russian cities—with about half of them in the Russian capital Moscow. Since President Vladimir Putin ordered a land, air, and sea invasion of Ukraine on February 24, OVD-Info has reported more than 14,000 arrests in connection with anti-war actions, according to its website.

Turkmenistan authorities have said the son of the Central Asian country’s leader won the presidential election after an unusual vote-counting delay, establishing a political dynasty in one of the world’s most tightly controlled countries. Serdar, 40, secured 72.97 percent of votes in Saturday’s election to lead the gas-rich country and succeed his father Gurbanguly, the central election commission said on Tuesday. His nearest rival in a field of nine candidates was university official Khyrdyr Nunnayev, who won 11 percent.

In presidential and legislative elections, Colombian voters signaled they want change, solidifying a left-wing former guerrilla member’s lead in the presidential race, and splitting the country’s Congress between right and left. Centrists, meanwhile, lost out across the board, signifying the country’s deep political divide.