Video above — Biden: US will sanction those behind Myanmar coupMyanmar's coup leader used the country's Union Day holiday on Friday to call on people to work with the military if they want democracy, a request likely to be met with derision by protesters who are pushing for the release from detention of their country's elected leaders.“I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw for the successful realization of democracy,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said using the local term for the military. “Historical lessons have taught us that only national unity can ensure the non-disintegration of the Union and the perpetuation of sovereignty,” he added.In addition to the military commander's message published Friday in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the new junta also announced it would mark Union Day by releasing thousands of prisoners and reducing other inmates’ sentences. Min Aung Hlaing's Feb. 1 coup ousted the civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. It reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests in cities around the country.The military has said it was forced to step in because Suu Kyi’s government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in November elections, though the election commission has said there is no evidence to support those claims.The rallies against the coup — now daily occurrences in Myanmar's two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay — have drawn people from all walks of life, despite an official ban on gatherings of more than five people. Factory workers and civil servants, students and teachers, medical personnel and people from LGBTQ communities, Buddhist monks and Catholic clergy have all come out in force.On Thursday, people from Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups, who are concentrated in far-flung, border states, joined in — a striking show of unity in a country where some groups have resented the Burman majority’s control and have also had their differences with Suu Kyi. But their deep mistrust of the military, which has brutally repressed their armed struggles for more autonomy, has made them uneasy allies with her party.The protesters are unlikely to be swayed by Min Aung Hlaing’s call for unity, which come on Union Day, a national holiday celebrating the date in 1947 that Myanmar, then known as Burma, when many of the country’s ethnic groups agreed to unify following decades of British colonial rule.The junta's pardon orders published Friday in government-run media said that 23,314 prisoners would be freed, along with 55 foreign inmates. The orders also commuted some death-penalty sentences to life imprisonment and reduced the terms of other prison sentences.It is also unlikely to win over the international community, which has widely condemned the coup as well as the use of police force such as water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse some of the protests.During Mynamar's previous decades of military rule, Western governments put sanctions in place, but they were eased when elections in 2010 and 2015 showed the country’s tentative steps toward democracy.The U.S. government announced Thursday that new sanctions will target the country’s top military officials who ordered the coup.The sanctions named Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy Soe Win, as well as four members of the State Administration Council. An executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden also allows the Treasury Department to target the spouses and adult children of those being sanctioned.The move will prevent the generals from accessing more than $1 billion in Myanmar government funds held in the United States.It remains to be seen what, if any, impact the U.S. action will have on Myanmar’s military regime. Many of the military leaders are already under sanctions because of attacks against the Muslim Rohingya minority.

A young woman who was shot in the head by police during a protest last week against the military’s takeover of power in Myanmar died Friday morning, her brother said.Hers is the first confirmed death among the protesters who by the thousands have faced off with security forces after a junta took power Feb. 1, detained Myanmar’s elected leaders and prevented Parliament from convening.Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, 19, was shot during a demonstration in the capital Naypyitaw on Feb. 9. Video showed her sheltering from water cannons and suddenly dropping to the ground after a bullet penetrated a motorcycle helmet she had been wearing. She had been on life support at a hospital with what doctors had said was no chance of recovery.Her brother, Ye Htut Aung, who spoke to The Associated Press from a mortuary, said she died at 11:05 a.m. Friday. A source at Naypyitaw's 1000-Bed General Hospital, speaking on condition on anonymity because of fear of harassment from the authorities, confirmed her death.A spokesman for the ruling military did not deny the woman had been shot by security forces, but said at a news conference this week that she was one of the crowd that had thrown rocks at police and the case was under investigation. There were no independent accounts of her taking part in any violence.Protesters had already hailed Mya Thwet Thwet Khine as a hero and commemorated her during demonstrations earlier this week. News of her death is likely to inflame passions even more in the nonviolent protest movement, which embraces civil disobedience.Demonstrations continued Friday in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and elsewhere.Security forces so far have been relatively restrained on confronting protesters in Yangon, but appeared to be toughening their stance in locations where there is less media presence.Police used force for a second straight day to arrest protesters in Myitkyina, the capital of the remote northern state of Kachin. The Kachin ethnic minority has long been at odds with the central government, and there has been intermittent armed struggle against the army there for decades.On Thursday night in the southeastern city of Dawei, local media reported that several people were wounded by rubber bullets when police staged nighttime raids to try to arrest some activists. Large but peaceful protest marches have taken place in the city, with negotiations between the demonstrators and the authorities to avoid confrontations.Tom Andrews, the independent U.N. human rights expert on Myanmar, told The Associated Press this week that the initial restraint of police dealing with “robust citizen opposition to the coup” has moved in some instances to use of rubber bullets, real ammunition and water cannons.Speaking from the United States, he also said “hardened” troops were being deployed from border areas to some cities, raising the possibility of bloodshed and “a tragic loss of life.”Related video — Biden: US will sanction those behind Myanmar coupThe junta has said it took over — after detaining the nation's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others and preventing Parliament from convening — because elections last November were tainted by voting irregularities. The election outcome, which Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, was affirmed by an election commission that has since been replaced by the military. The junta says it will hold new elections in a year’s time.The U.S., Britain and Canadian governments have imposed sanctions on Myanmar's new military leaders, and they and other governments have called for Suu Kyi's administration to be restored. The coup was a major setback to Myanmar’s transition to democracy after 50 years of army rule. Suu Kyi come to power after her National League for Democracy party won a 2015 election, but the generals retained substantial power under the constitution, which was adopted under a military regime.

Video above: Police break up protests as Myanmar crisis heightensMyanmar security forces early Wednesday raided a neighborhood in the country's largest city that is home to state railway workers who have gone on strike to protest last month's military coup. Police sealed off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt neighborhood in Yangon where the Ma Hlwa Kone train station and housing for railway workers are located. Photos and video on social media showed officers blocking streets and what was said to be people escaping. At least three arrests were reported but it was not immediately possible to independently confirm that.The raid comes just days after several Myanmar unions, including the Myanmar Railway Worker’s Union Federation, issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage. The statement said the strike would be part of a broader effort for “the full, extended shutdown of the Myanmar economy.”Myanmar has been roiled by protests and other acts of civil disobedience since the Feb. 1 coup that toppled elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government just as it was to start its second term. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian nation after five decades of military rule.Security forces have responded with mass arrests and at times lethal force. At least 60 protesters have been killed since the military takeover, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.Authorities have also moved to shut down independent reporting on the situation, both through arrests of journalists the closure of media outlets.Despite the increasingly violent tactics of security forces, protests continued Wednesday in cities and towns across the country, including Yangon, Mandalay, Monywa, Dawei and Myitkyina.State railway workers were among the earliest organized supporters of the protest movement and their strike began soon after the coup.Police last month made an effort at intimidating railway workers in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, by roaming through their housing area one night, shouting and randomly firing guns.The junta now in control of the country, formally called the State Administration Council, indirectly acknowledged the effectiveness of the rail strike.The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper in a Tuesday report on a junta meeting, cited officials as saying that rail transport between Yangon-Mandalay would resume “in the near future.”It also acknowledged that the banking sector has been affected by the protest movement.The dawn raid on the railway workers followed another night of intimidation by police marching through residential areas in several cities after an 8 p.m. curfew, firing guns and stun grenades, and staging selective raids to arrest people.There were more reports Tuesday of protesters dying in custody after being arrested. The latest was a school principal who died of unknown causes after being taken into custody by security forces, according to media reports and an activist who knew him.Previously, an activist with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party died in custody. Witnesses said his body had wounds consistent with torture, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 1,930 people have been arrested in connection with the coup. Dozens of journalists have been arrested, including Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, who has been charged under a public order law that carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.Authorities continued their assault on the media on Tuesday, raiding the offices of Kamayut Media and detaining its co-founder and editor-in-chief. The military also raided the offices of Mizzima, an online news service. No one was arrested in the latter raid, though equipment was vandalized and property was taken away.The military government on Monday announced that the licenses of five local media outlets — Mizzima, DVB, Khit Thit Media, Myanmar Now and 7Day News — had been canceled. All five had been offering extensive coverage of the protests.