Myanmar
UPDATE: Six dead as Myanmar junta intensifies crackdown on anti-coup protests
Three men were killed at a rally in Dawei, while Two teenagers were also gunned down in Bago, and a 23-year-old was shot dead in Yangon.
Three men were killed and at least 20 others injured when security forces moved on a rally in the southern coastal hub of Dawei, according to a volunteer medic and local media reports.
In Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on Saturday, police used rubber bullets to disperse a demonstration at Myaynigone junction, the site of an hours-long standoff the day before.
The country has been gripped by a torrent of anger among hundreds of thousands of people who have taken to the streets to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and a return to democracy.
The letter read: The United Nations Security Council should urgently impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the military coup and to deter the junta from committing further abuses.
Authorities have gradually ratcheted up their use of force against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The warning came after three demonstrators were shot dead over the weekend, and the funeral on Sunday for a young woman who died from bullet wounds at an earlier rally.
The move to target the Kremlin comes two weeks after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was caught in a diplomatic ambush in Moscow that enraged member states.
Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who turned 20 last Thursday as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed, was shot in the head. A doctor confirmed her death Friday.
These moves by the new junta have deepened worries that internet-hungry Myanmar will no longer have access to real-time information, be largely cut off from the outside world and face draconian punishments for some online posts.
Much of the country has been in open revolt since troops deposed Aung San Suu Kyi's government at the start of the month and took the civilian leader into custody, charging her under an obscure import law.
Since she was ousted from power, she has already been charged under the country's import and export law for having walkie-talkies in her home.
Army chief General Min Aung Hlaing has justified the 1 February coup by alleging widespread voter fraud in November's elections, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept.
Myanmar's junta deployed extra troops around the country and choked the internet on Monday as it intensified a crackdown on anti-coup protests.
Security forces have stepped up arrests of doctors and others joining a civil disobedience movement that has seen huge crowds throng streets across big urban centres and isolated villages in mountainous frontier communities.
Speaking before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN's deputy rights chief Nada al-Nashif expressed concern after Washington announced sanctions on the generals behind last week's coup in Myanmar.
Mass amnesties to empty the country's overcrowded prison system are common on significant local dates. Friday was a public holiday in Myanmar.
Hundreds of protesters had returned to the streets of Yangon on Wednesday morning, where the day before a large crowd faced off against water cannon and a phalanx of riot police near Suu Kyi's residence.
Protests erupted for a fourth straight day against last week's coup to oust civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as international condemnation of the putsch grew.