YANGON, Myanmar — Hundreds of prisoners, including a former government minister and a model, walked free in Myanmar on Sunday after the junta announced annual independence day pardons, a week after the start of an election that watchdogs have denounced as sham. The military grabbed power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war, pitting pro-democracy rebels against junta forces, with thousands of activists since arrested. A dozen buses full of released prisoners exited Yangon’s Insein prison on Sunday morning, with some waving to crowds of well-wishers, AFP journalists saw. Family members outside Insein — notorious for alleged brutal rights abuses […]... Keep on reading: Myanmar junta frees hundreds of prisoners in annual amnesty