From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Liz Parker reporting.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered across the United States Saturday at "March for Our Lives" rallies to demand tighter gun laws.

The demonstrations led by survivors of last month's Florida school massacre which reignited public anger over mass shootings.

One of the many powerful moments of the main rally in Washington D.C. was when nine-year-old Yolanda Renee King spoke. She is the granddaughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world, period."(Here are more powerful speeches by Emma Gonzalez and Naomi Wadler)

Demonstrations were also held in London, Paris and Sydney in solidarity as well as many other countries around the world.

Gun rights advocates also are among the throngs of demonstrators in Washington, holding a counter-rally just blocks away from the White House.

This man said he went to Washington to support his constitutional right to own a firearm.

"I believe this whole march ... is just an emotional reaction to something that is very tragic, but is not founded in logical realities that, you know, the right to own firearms is a right to ??? the constitution."

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday it is proposing a change to regulations to effectively ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic guns to function like automatic guns.

Bump stocks have been the objective of controversies since a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, last year where 58 people died.

More coverage of this and the March for Our Lives on voanews.com.

U.S. President Donald Trump has issued an order banning most transgender people from serving in the military.

This is VOA news.

A gendarme who was shot three times after voluntarily taking the place of a hostage during a supermarket siege in southwestern France on Friday has died. France made this announcement Saturday.

Reuters Scarlett Cvitanovich reports.

The French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege on Friday has died.

Officials identified him as Arnaud Beltrame, with President Emmanuel Macron saying on Saturday he "fell as a hero, giving up his life to halt a murderous jihadist terrorist."

Beltrame was shot three times as he helped bring an to the shooting spree that killed three other people in southwestern France and injured 16 more.

That was Scarlett Cvitanovich.

The Islamic State militant group's propaganda arm claimed responsibility.

Thousands of people demonstrated Saturday in central Tel Aviv. They protested against Israel's plan for the mass expulsion of Eritreans and Sudanese who entered the country illegally.

Israeli media said more than 20,000 people - migrants and Israelis - took part in the rally.

Footage broadcast live on the Ynet news website shows them chanting: "we are all human beings."

Australian actress Cate Blanchett says she is bewildered by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's silence over the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims.

The actress visited some of the displaced Muslims from Myanmar as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

"It is bewildering, is it not, that someone who has been such a fighter for even a fragile democracy, someone who upholds human rights, does not seem to be speaking out more clearly about the atrocities that are so very clearly happening under her watch."

More than 670,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have sought safety across the border in Bangladesh since August 2017. This after a military campaign against the minority group that a U.N. official has previously called genocide.

The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens of Myanmar.

A Sierra Leone court upheld a request by a member of the ruling party for an injunction on Saturday to delay a presidential election run-off that was meant to happen next Tuesday.

The member filed for the injunction on Thursday, saying there was evidence of electoral fraud that needed to be investigated before the poll could go ahead.

A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea on Saturday.

International students can report personnel and employment changes to U.S. immigration officials via a new portal launched by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

I'm Liz Parker.

That's the latest world news from VOA.