Myanmar junta keeps pressure on protesters, journalists

MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) — Police in Myanmar have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in the country’s two largest cities and elsewhere, as authorities continue their harsh crackdown on opponents of last month’s military coup. A German news agency reported the apparent arrest of a Polish freelance journalist, in the latest attempt by the junta to control coverage of the protests. The use of tear gas and rubber bullets was reported in Yangon and Mandalay, as well as in north-central Myanmar’s gem-mining region and a town just west of Yangon. In Mandalay, about 500 railway workers marched down a city street to protest the coup. A court in Yangon extended the detention of an Associated Press journalist detained last month.