[JURIST] Protesters in 12 cities around the world demonstrated against the Myanmar junta Wednesday to commemorate 12 years of detention [press release] for Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. The protests coincided with an increase in international attention on Myanmar following the junta's violent September crackdown against anti-junta demonstrators, and came a day after the United Nations announced that Myanmar will allow UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to revisit the country several weeks earlier than previously planned [UN report]. On Monday, Myanmar said it will also allow UN Human Rights Investigator Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to visit, lifting a ban against him that had been in place since 2003 [JURIST report].

The Myanmar military junta said earlier this month that Suu Kyi [personal website] would likely not be released from house arrest [JURIST report] until a new constitution for the country is approved. Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, has spent 11 of the past 17 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law [text]. AP has more.