Nine people killed in Myanmar clashes

Nine people, all of them civilians, were killed today during clashes between the army and anti-military protesters in Yangon. They included eight Burmese protesters and a Japanese video journalist working for AFP. This was the tenth-day of Buddhist-monk-led anti-government protests in Myanmar.

Last night, the army raided several monasteries in Yangon, beat up sleeping monks and arrested hundreds of them. Therefore, there were fewer monks on the streets today than was the case before during the protests, but tens of thousands of people still participated. Clashes between the army and the civilian protesters lasted six hours, having started after some protesters apparently tried to disarm the soldiers.

ASEAN has expressed its "revulsion" at the deaths in Yangon, while the UN is planning to send a special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to deal with the crisis (BBC).

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the Burmese military regime. However, it has shown a lot of resilience in the past, and so the civilians clashing with it are either very brave, or desperate. In either case, this would be a good time for the generals to try to cut a deal and leave power, but, unfortunately, I don't think they'd be interested in that option.

Abe sends offering to controversial shrine

The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has sent a potted tree as an offering to the Shinto Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead. Visits to the shrine by previous prime ministers of Japan have courted controversy among neighbouring countries, such as China and South Korea, because, among the spirits honoured at the shrine, are those of 12 World War II "Class A" war criminals.

Abe is trying to avoid straining relations with Japan's neighbours, and has not visited the shrine since taking the prime ministerial post (BBC).

Iraqi Shi'ites protest occupation

Several hundred thousand Iraqi Shi'ites (a large number in a country of 27 million) have marched in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf to protest against the continued occupation of Iraq by US-led forces. The protest was called by the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to mark the fourth anniversary of the capture of Baghdad by the Americans. In a message to Iraqis, Sadr (who is believed to be hiding in Iran) described American forces as "your arch enemy".

Meanwhile, in a visit to Japan, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, "Iraq has escaped the constraints of the past.... The country is one and the people are one" (BBC).

Now if only that were true.

As for Sadr, one wonders whether he would quickly try to seize power for himself if the Americans were to withdraw in the near future.