This is VOA news. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. Hundreds gathered at a candle-lit rally in Yangon on Saturday in a peaceful protest which defied the 8 p.m. curfew imposed by the military junta. The crowd sang songs and arranged candles around a red banner with "RIP" written in white. Earlier, security forces killed at least 12 people by shooting live ammunition at demonstrators. Thousands of protesters, many of them teachers and university students, held a rally Saturday in Mandalay, where at least four deaths were reported. Other deaths were reported in south-central Myanmar and in a suburb of Yangon, the country's largest city. The February 1 coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions.
Several people were detained on Saturday night during a vigil for a woman murdered in London in a case that has caused widespread outrage in Britain about women's safety. As night fell on Saturday, around a thousand people - mostly women - gathered at the site in south London to pay their respects and to protest at the lack of security they felt when out alone, with some chanting "shame on you" at police as they made arrests. The disappearance of Sarah Everard as she walked home on the evening of March 3 has triggered a wave of accounts from women about the dangers they have felt and experienced when walking streets alone at night. A Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, has been charged with her kidnap and murder. He had a court disappearance in London on Saturday. This is VOA news.