BANGKOK (AP) — Opponents of military rule in Myanmar staged a joint protest on Wednesday calling on people to stay indoors to show they are boycotting elections scheduled for late this month.
They defied harsh legal penalties for attempting to disrupt the polls. The military government has announced charges against 10 pro-democracy activists who staged a rare street protest last week in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city.
Critics say the Dec. 28 polls will be neither free nor fair and are an effort by the military to legitimize its rule after seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The General Strike Coordination Body, the leading non-violent organization opposing army rule, had urged people to join a “silent strike" on Wednesday.
It called on the public to stay inside homes or workplaces from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on International Human Rights Day. The tactic has been used on special occasions since the military takeover.
Images on social media showed uncrowded streets in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, and elsewhere.
Also on Wednesday, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that authorities were seeking the arrest of the 10 activists under a section of a new election law that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for disrupting the electoral process.
They are charged with allegedly misleading the public by distributing leaflets against the election around a crowded morning market in Mandalay on Dec. 3.
The brief flash-mob protest in Mandalay, where heavy security and frequent crackdowns have made open dissent nearly impossible, drew widespread attention. Most of the activists made no effort to hide their faces while they tossed leaflets and shouted slogans.
Among those charged are well-known activists Tayzar San, Nan Lin and Khant Wai Phyo. They led the protest calling for the public to reject elections, abolition of the military conscription law and the release of political prisoners.
Tayzar San, a physician-turned-activist, organized the first public protest in Mandalay a few days after the military seized power in 2021. That helped spark nationwide resistance, and an arrest warrant was issued for him.
“Although it has been five years, the public's mobilization is the main obvious evidence that it has not become complacent and has not cowardly given up under the oppressive mechanisms of the military dictatorship,” Tayzar San told The Associated Press after last week's Mandalay protest.
Independent media in Myanmar, including the Democratic Voice of Burma online news site, reported earlier this week that authorities had threatened shopkeepers with arrest if they closed for the opposition’s “silent strike.”
A high-angle view of a busy road with famous Inya Lake in the background in Yangon, Myanmar, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo)
ESPOO, Finland & BENGALURU, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 10, 2025--
QuantrolOx today announced a major milestone in quantum technology with the launch of VIDYAQAR, the world’s first True Open-Architecture Quantum Platform designed specifically for education, research, testing, and benchmarking. The system was unveiled today in India and will be available globally in the first half of 2026.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251210668898/en/
The name VIDYAQAR derives from the Sanskrit Vidyākar, meaning “causing wisdom, giving knowledge or science” —a perfect reflection of the platform’s mission to widen access to advanced quantum hardware and accelerate innovation.
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VIDYAQAR is a connected, fully open-architecture superconducting quantum system that brings together:
Designed for organisations entering the quantum domain for the first time, VIDYAQAR enables teams to start running experiments on day one, customize every layer of the system without constraints, and scale their infrastructure over time.
This is True Open Architecture: transparent, flexible, and modular.
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A thriving quantum ecosystem requires shared, open testbeds where hardware, software, and control methods can be prototyped, validated, and benchmarked. VIDYAQAR fills this critical gap.
The platform supports a national or institutional quantum strategy by enabling:
VIDYAQAR is built on QuantrolOx’s proven open-architecture quantum computer in Delft, already running with multiple QPUs, electronics stacks, and cryogenic components.
Built for Learning — and for Serious R&D
VIDYAQAR is not only a research powerhouse but also an ideal training environment for the next generation of quantum experts. Key features include:
Availability
VIDYAQAR launches today in India and will be available to customers worldwide in 1H 2026.
QuantrolOx invites universities, national research facilities, and industrial R&D labs seeking an open, extensible quantum platform to join us on the journey to quantum computing.
About QuantrolOx
QuantrolOx develops Quantum EDGE, a next-generation measurement and automation platform that supercharges quantum R&D. Quantum EDGE provides industry-leading capabilities in measurement and automation, all with a modern, polished user interface that is intuitive to use and designed to simplify the complexity of quantum hardware. It works out of the box and integrates with leading instruments. Quantum EDGE is developed and tested on real quantum setups with multiple QPUs across varying architectures - so you can trust it to work reliably in actual lab environments.
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VIDYAQAR - A complete quantum platform with cryogenics, control hardware and QPU - powered by Quantum EDGE.
