More renters, more jobs?

Countries with the fewest homeowners have the shortest unemployment lines, and vice-versa, says a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.
In a speech in London last night, Professor David Blanchflower said that the three European countries with the highest rates of home ownership in the 1990s — Ireland, Spain and Finland — also [...]

Myanmar’s Internet link broken

The main public Internet link between Myanmar (also known as Burma) and the outside world is down. An official with Myanmar Post and Telecoms blames a damaged cable under the sea.
Embassy internet connections, however, remain viable.
The country’s loss of Internet connectivity came this morning amid an intensifying repression against pro-democracy protestors. Government soldiers have killed [...]

Myanmar troops kill nine

Nine people have been killed in Yangon by government soldiers, according to Myanmar’s state-controlled television station. The dead include eight pro-democracy protestors and a Japanese cameraman.
The station says 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers have been injured.
Buddhist monks have led hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protestors in street demonstrations over the past 10 days.
Following government raids [...]

China, Russia, undermine UN condemnation of crackdown

China and Russia have blocked a UN security council effort to condemn the violent repression of protestors in Myanmar (also known as Burma).
Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, said that Myanmar’s problems are its own, and that a UN statement of condemnation would not be useful.
Any recognition by the security council that the [...]

Israeli jets kill two in Gaza

Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinian soldiers in Gaza during the night. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it was targeting rocket-launching facilities near Beit Hanoun, a town in the extreme northeast of the Gaza strip.
Palestinians in Gaza have sent 11 rockets into Israel since yesterday, with no reported casualties. Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak [...]

Hundreds arrested, shots fired, as junta begins crackdown in Myanmar

The eastern gate of Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon
The military junta that rules Myanmar arrested at least 200 Buddhist monks today in response to pro-democracy demonstrations that have brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets over the past week.
During the night, government soldiers used a 9pm–5am curfew to barricade pagodas used as gathering places [...]

Monks ignore threats from junta

Up to 100,000 people in Myanmar’s major cities have taken to the streets again today to protest the military dictatorship that rules their country.
The government of Myanmar (also known as Burma) said earlier today that it may break up street protests in Yangon with military force.
Loudspeakers mounted on vehicles trawled the streets of Yangon (formerly [...]

Up to 100,000 march in Yangon

About 20,000 Buddhist monks led tens of thousands of anti-government protesters through the streets of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, today.
Monks also led marches in other cities, including Sittwe and Mandalay.
Protests in Myanmar, formerly Burma, have grown since last month, when student activists protested sharply rising fuel prices. Buddhist monks took the lead after more than 150 [...]

Rift widens for US, Iraqi PM

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri Al-Mailiki, says the US is overstepping its bounds in Iraq. In New York for a session of the United Nations general assembly, Mr. Maliki said on Sunday that contractors used by the US military pose a challenge to the sovereignty of Iraq and should not accepted there.
Eight days ago, American contractors [...]

Monks’ ranks rising in Yangon

Buddhist monks marched for a fourth straight day in Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, in protest over the country’s military dictatorship. Fifteen hundred monks joined the demonstration, triple the number that marched earlier this week. They were joined by at least a thousand onlookers.
The monks gathered at Shwedagon Pagoda (pictured left) and marched downtown [...]