VOA常速英语:缅甸遭断网,数万人上街抗议军方

This is VOA news. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Myanmar on Saturday in a show of resistance against the country's military coup earlier this week. The crowd of workers, students, unionists and activists marched through Yangon before being blocked by hundreds of riot police. Protesters shouted slogans against the military coup and in support of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. They marched with their hands in the air formed into three-fingered salutes, a symbol of defiance adopted from protesters in neighboring Thailand. The march came as authorities imposed an Internet blackout on the country. The military seized power shortly before a new session of parliament was to convene last Monday and detained Suu Kyi and other top politicians. The military accused Suu Kyi and her party of failing to act on its complaints that November's elections were fraudulent though the election commission said it had not found evidence to support those claims.

Egyptian authorities on Saturday released Mahmoud Hussein, an Egyptian journalist working for Qatar's Al Jazeera television network who had been held in pre-trial detention for more than four years. Hussein was detained in December of 2016 after arriving in Cairo from Doha for a vacation. He was held on charges of spreading false news, joining a banned group and receiving foreign funds. Hussein was released after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt agreed in January to restore diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar. Those ties were severed in 2017 over allegations that Qatar supported terrorism, a charge that Doha denies. You can find more on our website VOAnews.com. This is VOA news.