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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Muslims in Myanmar's second-largest city said early morning prayers in peace Friday after an overnight curfew restored calm following two nights of violent rampages by extremist Buddhists.

Authorities imposed the curfew in Mandalay late Thursday after attacks on minority Muslims left two people dead and 14 injured, raising fears that ethnic violence that has plagued the country for two years may escalate again.

The Mandalay regional government posted details of the attacks on its website Friday, identifying the fatalities for the first time and noting that a group of 50 people including 20 Buddhist monks took part. Mandalay Chief Minister Ye Myint said four people were arrested.

Muslim-owned shops reopened in areas where Buddhist mobs on motorbikes had driven through the streets wielding sticks and hurling stones.

"We were able to say our prayers peacefully, and we all had a good night sleep," said resident Tin Aung.

He and others questioned, however, why the government waited two days to clamp down on the mobs who damaged at least one mosque, shops and torched cars.

"If authorities had taken prompt and immediate action, deaths and damage could have been prevented," said A Mar Ni, a member of a citizens' conflict prevention committee.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, has been grappling with violence since 2012 that has left up to 280 people dead and 140,000 others homeless, most of them Muslims attacked by Buddhist militants. Most of it has taken place in western Rakhine state.

This week's unrest was the first in Mandalay, an important center of Buddhist culture and learning where Muslims and Buddhists have traditionally lived peacefully together.

The government's website identified the dead as Soe Min Htway, a Muslim who was attacked by a Buddhist mob while on his way to mosque before dawn Thursday, and Tun Tun, a 30-year-old Buddhist who was attacked by a group of Muslims earlier in the night.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia broadcast Thursday night, Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the opposition National League for Democracy, said the violence in Mandalay could escalate if authorities did not take strong measures.

"Unless the authorities seriously maintain the rule of law, violence will grow," she said. Inflammatory material posted on social media had contributed to the instability, she said, a viewpoint shared by Mandalay police chief Col. Zaw Win Aung.

In a radio address Thursday, President Thein Sein called for stability as the country transitions to democracy from a half-century of military rule, but did not mention Mandalay specifically.

"For reforms to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behavior that incites hatred in our fellow citizens," Thein Sein said.

The latest unrest, which started Tuesday night, followed rumors that the Muslim owner of a teashop had raped a Buddhist woman, said Khin Maung Oo, secretary of the city's Myanmar Muslim Youth Religious Convention Center. An Information Ministry statement on Wednesday said the owner had been charged with rape.

Authorities deployed hundreds of police on Tuesday after a crowd of more than 300 Buddhists marched to the teashop, singing the national anthem. Police fired rubber bullets to try to disperse the crowd but failed to control groups that scattered into the streets, throwing stones at a mosque that caused minor damage to its exterior, while others ransacked Muslim-owned shops. Several cars were set on fire or had windows shattered by stones and bricks.

Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people.

NEW YORK (AP) — Property from the estate of noted horticulturist, philanthropist and heir to the Listerine fortune Rachel "Bunny" Mellon is going on the auction block this fall.

Over 2,000 paintings, jewelry, furniture and decorative objects are estimated to bring more than $100 million, according to Sotheby's.

The proceeds will benefit The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, which supports The Oak Spring Garden Library in Upperville, Virginia. The library houses Mellon's collection of rare books, manuscripts and works of art related to landscape design, horticulture and natural history that is visited by scholars worldwide.

Mellon was the widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon. She died in March at 103.

The auction house did not provide details but said the objects were drawn from the couple's homes in the United States and abroad and would be offered in a series of sales in the fall.

Mellon was a self-taught botanist and close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In 1961, she redesigned the White House Rose Garden and later created another White House garden that was named for Kennedy after her death.

A private person, Mellon was thrust in the spotlight when John Edwards was indicted in 2011 for using what prosecutors alleged was campaign money, including $750,000 from Mellon, to hide his mistress during his 2008 presidential bid. He was later acquitted. Mellon was never accused of breaking any laws.

During their lifetimes, the Mellons donated hundreds of important artworks to museums, including the National Gallery of Arts. The Washington, D.C. museum was founded in 1937 by Paul Mellon's father, the Pittsburgh industrialist Andrew Mellon.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan took a tentative step toward improved relations with North Korea on Friday by agreeing to lift some of its sanctions, as North Korea announced the details of a new probe into the fate of at least a dozen Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.

The Cabinet approved easing sanctions in three areas. It lifted a ban on North Koreans visiting Japan, allowing them on a case-by-case basis, and made it easier for Japanese and ethnic Koreans in Japan to travel to North Korea. It also raised the reporting limit for money taken or sent to North Korea. Thirdly, it approved port calls by North Korean-flagged ships for humanitarian purposes, limited to the delivery of food, medicine and clothes in small amounts.

Japanese officials say the eased sanctions will not give a significant economic boost to North Korea or weaken the impact of international efforts to punish and isolate the North for its nuclear weapons development.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that he was satisfied that a North Korean investigation committee has the mandate to carry out a serious investigation into the abductions, though previous deals with the North have fallen through. Japan will continue to abide by U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

"We have determined that an unprecedented framework has been established, where an organization that can make decisions at a national level ... will be at the forefront of the investigations," Abe said. "However, this is only a start. We are determined to do everything we can, with a renewed effort, toward a comprehensive resolution."

North Korea, in a report by its Korean Central News Agency, announced a wide-ranging investigation that will look into not only the abductees but also the remains of thousands of Japanese who died in Korea at the end of World War II, as well as any survivors from that era. Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945.

The special investigation committee will have about 30 members and be chaired by So Tae Ha, vice minister of State Security. It will research register books of citizens, interview witnesses and make site visits in what the North Korean news agency called "an all-inclusive and comprehensive investigation."

The announcements followed talks between North Korean and Japanese negotiators in Beijing earlier this week.

North Korea has demanded that Japan do more to atone for its past harsh colonization of the Korean Peninsula, when it attempted to suppress Korean culture and forced people to work in Japanese mines and factories.

"For the normalization of relations between our two countries, I think that Japan has to settle the problems of its past," Ro Hyon A, a North Korean citizen, said in Pyongyang.

In Seoul, Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said South Korea looks forward to an early resolution of the abduction issue. But he said any steps taken by Japan shouldn't undermine international cooperation on the North Korean nuclear and missile standoffs.

"The government of the Republic of Korea once again stresses that the Japan-North Korea consultations, including on easing Japan's unilateral sanctions on North Korea, should, by all means, be held in a transparent manner and that all the relevant measures by Japan should be taken in a way that does not undermine the coordination among the ROK, the U.S. and Japan on North Korea's nuclear and missile issues," Noh told a regular briefing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing, North Korea's closest ally, hopes the improvement in Japan-North Korea relations resulting from the negotiations will be "conducive to regional peace and stability."

After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged in 2002 that its agents had abducted Japanese citizens to train its spies in the 1970s and 1980s and eventually returned five of them. It said others Japan said were abducted had died or never entered the North. Tokyo disputes that and wants an investigation into at least 12 abduction cases.

Even that may not be enough, however.

Private organizations say hundreds of Japanese citizens were abducted, and suspect many may still be living in the North. Abe has vowed not to relent until all the abductees are returned or accounted for.

Though Tokyo is as concerned about North Korea's nuclear program as its allies in Washington and Seoul, the abduction issue has for years been an added complication in its relations with the North, creating both anger among the Japanese public and strong calls for an agreement to bring any survivors home.

Although North Korea made a similar agreement in 2008 to investigate, that deal fell through and relations between the countries have been virtually frozen since.

North Korea also is under sanctions based on U.N. resolutions since 2006 that include an arms trade ban, a freeze of North Korean assets, a ban on people exchanges and restrictions on education and training.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo wants the abduction investigation to be wrapped up "within one year." In Beijing, North Korea's negotiators said they will conduct the investigation promptly.

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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report. Talmadge is the AP's Pyongyang bureau chief. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/EricTalmadge.

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) — Defending champion Jonas Blixt shot a 6-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Greenbrier Classic.

Six of Blixt's eight birdies came on putts of 10 feet or less on the Old White TPC. The Swede also chipped in from the rough for birdie on No. 16.

Patrick Rodgers, the former Stanford star playing in his third tournament as a pro, was a stroke back along with Chris Kirk, D.A. Points, James Hahn, Jason Bohn, Joe Durant, Jim Renner and Danny Lee.

Steve Stricker topped the group at 66

Masters champion Bubba Watson, the top-ranked player in the field at No. 3 in the world, had a 68.