Sat Sep 29, 12:34 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - Soldiers and police took control of the streets Friday, firing warning shots and tear gas to scatter the few pro-democracy protesters who ventured out as Myanmar's military junta sealed off Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access.

On the third day of a harsh government crackdown, the streets were empty of the mass gatherings that had peacefully challenged the regime daily for nearly two weeks, leaving only small groups of activists to be chased around by security forces.

"Bloodbath again! Bloodbath again!" a Yangon resident yelled while watching soldiers break up one march by shooting into air, firing tear gas and beating people with clubs.

Thousands of monks had provided the backbone of the protests, but they were besieged in their monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the compounds in the two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay. Troops stood guard outside and blocked nearby roads to keep the clergymen isolated.

Additional troops arrived in the two cities overnight. Soldiers and police were stationed on almost every street corner in Yangon. Shopping malls, grocery stores and public parks were closed, and only a handful of residents ventured out.

The monks remained inside their monasteries late Saturday morning with troops remaining on guard outside and blocking nearby roads. The streets of the Yangon and Mandalay were quiet.

Many Yangon residents seemed pessimistic over the crackdown, fearing it fatally weakened a movement that began nearly six weeks ago as small protests over fuel price hikes and grew into demonstrations by tens of thousands demanding an end to 45 years of military rule.

The corralling of monks was a serious blow. They carry high moral authority in this predominantly Buddhist nation of 54 million people and the protests had mushroomed when the clergymen joined in.

"The monks are the ones who give us courage. I don't think that we have any more hope to win," said a young woman who had taken part in a huge demonstration Thursday that broke up when troops shot protesters. She said she had not seen her boyfriend and feared he was arrested.

Hundreds of people have been arrested, including Win Mya Mya, an outspoken member of the country's main opposition group, the National League for Democracy, who was taken overnight, according to family members.

Anger over the junta's assaults on democracy activists seethed around the globe. Protesters denounced the generals at gatherings across the United States, Europe and Asia.

The White House urged "all civilized nations" to pressure Myanmar's leaders to end the crackdown. "They don't want the world to see what is going on there," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

But analysts said it was unlikely that countries with major investments in Myanmar, such as China and India, would agree to take any punitive measures. The experts also noted that the junta has long ignored criticism of its tough handling of dissidents.

Defiant of international condemnation, the military regime turned its troops loose on demonstrators Wednesday. Although the crackdown raised fears of a repeat of a 1988 democracy uprising that saw some 3,000 protesters slain, the junta appeared relatively restrained so far.

The government has said police and soldiers killed 10 people, including a Japanese journalist, in the first two days of the crackdown, but dissident groups put the number as high as 200.

Diplomats and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday the junta's figure probably was greatly understated, based on the reports of witnesses and others. They provided no estimates of their own and cautioned that witness reports had not been verified.

Getting accurate casualty figures has been difficult, with many residents too afraid to speak out and foreign journalists barred from openly entering Myanmar. Soldiers and police were going door-to-door at some hotels in Yangon looking for foreigners.

Violence continued Friday, but there no immediate reports of deaths from the government or dissident groups.

Just a few blocks from the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, some 2,000 protesters armed only with insults and boos briefly confronted soldiers, wearing green uniforms with red bandanas around their necks and holding shields and automatic weapons.

As the crowd drew near, the soldiers fired bullets in the air, sending most of the protesters scurrying away. A handful of demonstrators still walked toward the troops but were beaten with clubs and dragged into trucks to be driven away.

"Why don't the Americans come to help us? Why doesn't America save us?" said an onlooker who didn't want to be identified for fear of reprisal from the junta.

In other spots, riot police chased smaller groups of die-hard activists, sometimes shooting their guns into the air.

"The military was out in force before they even gathered and moved quickly as small groups appeared, breaking them up with gunfire, tear gas and clubs," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press.

"It's tragic. These were peaceful demonstrators, very well behaved," she said.

Authorities also shut off the country's two Internet service providers, although big companies and embassies hooked up to the Web by satellite remained online. The Internet has played a crucial role in getting news and images of the democracy protests to the outside world.

At the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most important Buddhist temple, about 300 armed policemen and soldiers sat around the compound eating snacks while keeping an eye on the monks.

"I'm not afraid of the soldiers. We live and then we die," said one monk. "We will win this time because the international community is putting a lot of pressure."

Condemnation of the junta has been strong around the world. On Friday, people protested outside Myanmar embassies in Australia, Britain, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan.

The United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, was heading to the country to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as Saturday, one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

While some analysts thought negotiations an unlikely prospect, the diplomat said the junta's decision to let Gambari in "means they may see a role for him and the United Nations in mediating dialogue with the opposition and its leaders."

World pressure has made little impact on the junta over the years. Its members are highly suspicious of the outside world, and they have shrugged off intense criticism over such actions as keeping pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

Much of the regime's defiance — and ability to withstand economic sanctions imposed by the West — stems from the diplomatic and financial support of neighboring China. Another neighbor, India, also has refrained from pressuring the junta.

Analysts say that as long as those two giant countries remain silent and other Southeast Asian countries keep investing in Myanmar, it is unlikely the junta will show any flexibility. Every other time the regime has been challenged by its own people, it has responded with force.

Still, China has been urging the regime in recent months to get moving with long-stalled political reforms, and on Friday the Chinese government told its citizens to reconsider any trips planned to Myanmar.

Myanmar's fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations expressed "revulsion" over the crackdown and told the junta "to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution." Officials in neighboring Thailand said planes were on standby to evacuate ASEAN citizens in case the situation deteriorated.

Sat Sep 29, 12:16 AM ET

YANGON - A special United Nations envoy is due in Myanmar Saturday after a crackdown on protesters, with the US calling on the ruling junta to allow him to meet with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has dispatched Ibrahim Gambari to broker talks between the military and its pro-democracy opponents, who have mounted two weeks of mass nationwide rallies.

Members of the protest movement vowed to come out on the streets again Saturday, despite a three-day offensive by security forces that has left at least 13 dead and hundreds more jailed.

"We are ready to go to town again. We will start it all over again and we are very hopeful that things will become much more intense as the hours go by," one pro-democracy campaigner involved in the protests told AFP.

"I expect quite a lot of people to be on the streets again today also," he said.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday led international condemnation of the violence, and renewed pleas to the Myanmar junta to make a "peaceful transition to democracy".

Gambari's itinerary has not been released, but on previous visits he has met with regime leader Senior General Than Shwe, and once with Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the past 18 years.

"We have called on the Burmese to allow him to be able to meet with anyone he wants to meet -- the military leaders, the religious leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday.

Myanmar's main city of Yangon, the focus of the protests which represent the strongest challenge to military rule in nearly two decades, was under extremely tight security on Saturday morning, with troops numbers visibly higher.

The two Yangon-based army divisions which have spearheaded the crackdown have now been joined by 66 Division from Pago which lies northeast of the city.

The former capital's main pagodas, which have been rallying points for the protests, remained off-limits and 20 military trucks were stationed at Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon.

Only a few people ventured onto the streets, marketplaces were closed, and a handful of private cars and taxis were on the roads.

The only people in sight were some householders rushing to buy essential food items before trouble breaks out again.

"We try to finish everything we need to do, buying food and so on, before 11. After that we will not go outside," said one man.

The Buddhist monks who initially led the protests, turning out on the streets in their thousands, were nowhere to be seen after a brutal campaign of arrests, bashings and monastery raids which has shocked the country.

Troops have blockaded many big monasteries, including those in the religious capital of Mandalay in central Myanmar, and monks are only allowed to move around in small groups.

A Western diplomat based in Yangon said Saturday there were reports of divisions within the military on how to handle the crisis in Mandalay, home to the majority of Myanmar's 400,000 monks.

In the past there have been regular reports of tensions at the highest levels of the junta, particularly between Than Shwe and the regime's number-two Maung Aye.

On Friday, diplomats said they had received information from several sources about "acts of insubordination" within the army and that some soldiers were willing to take the side of demonstrators.

The diplomats also said the suffocating security presence had succeeded in reducing the intensity of the protests Friday, when only about 10,000 turned out in Yangon compared to tens of thousands in the previous days.

In Mandalay, thousands of young people on motorbikes rode down a major thoroughfare towards a blockade set up by security forces who unleashed a volley that witnesses believed could have been rubber bullets.

Global pressure on the Myanmar regime has mounted in recent days as images of gunfire, baton charges and tear gas used against demonstrators has galvanised world opinion.

The State Department announced more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families would be barred from traveling to the United States.

Public protesters have shown their anger outside Myanmar embassies across the globe. The UN Human Rights Council called a special meeting on the Myanmar unrest for Tuesday in Geneva.

Myanmar's main Internet connection was cut Friday, severely reducing the flow of video, photos and first-hand reports of the violence which helped inform the world of the crisis in the isolated nation.

Fri Sep 28, 11:33 PM ET

TOKYO - Japan strongly protested to Myanmar over the killing of a Japanese video journalist during an anti-government rally, and Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win offered apologies, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.

Fifty-year-old Kenji Nagai was fatally wounded in Yangon on Thursday, and pictures smuggled out of the country showed him clutching a camera as he lay dying.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura made the protest when he met his Myanmar counterpart at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday.

The death of Nagai "was extremely regrettable and we will lodge a stern protest," Japanese officials quoted Komura as telling Nyan Win, Kyodo said.

Nyan Win told Komura he was indeed sorry for the death, telling Japanese officials: "Demonstrations are beginning to calm down, and we would also like to exercise restraint," Kyodo said.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

Nagai was the first foreign victim of the protests that began as sporadic marches against fuel price hikes but have swelled over the past month into mass demonstrations against 45 years of military rule in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

Fri Sep 28, 11:19 PM ET

TOKYO - Japan lodged a protest with Myanmar over the death of a Japanese journalist during a crackdown on protesters and said it will dispatch a senior official to press the country to respond to international concerns, an official said Saturday.

Kenji Nagai, 50, was among at least nine people killed Thursday when soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura protested Nagai's death, calling it "extremely regrettable," in a meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday, according to a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

Nyan Win said he was "extremely sorry" for the death, and added that the Myanmar government hopes to exercise self-restraint, the official said.

Tokyo has so far ruled out immediate sanctions against Myanmar. Komura suggested that tougher steps could be taken.

Officials have said Nagai, who was carrying a video camera, was believed to have been shot in the chest. A video broadcast by Japan's Fuji Television Network appeared to show a soldier directly shooting him in the front.

Komura pressed Nyan Win for an accounting of what happened, the official said.

Fri Sep 28, 10:57 PM ET

YANGON - United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari travels to Myanmar on Saturday carrying worldwide hopes he can persuade its ruling generals to use negotiations instead of guns to end mass protests against 45 years of military rule.

"He's the best hope we have. He is trusted on both sides," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said. "If he fails, then the situation can become quite dreadful."

So far, the junta appears to have ignored the international clamor for a peaceful end to what blossomed from tiny protests against shock fuel price rises in August into a mass uprising led by monks, the moral core of the Buddhist nation.

Yangon was eerily quiet on Saturday morning after troops and riot police barricaded off the city centre from where the protests have reverberated around the world.

Authorities have told foreign diplomats based in Yangon that the trouble was being handled with restraint.

So far, that has meant raiding at least a dozen monasteries thought to be at the van of the protests, detaining perhaps hundreds of monks and sealing off city areas around two pagodas which marked the start and end of the daily mass protests.

So far, it appears to be working and the junta restored international Internet links early on Saturday after cutting them the previous day following a flood of pictures and video of soldiers chasing protesters traveling through it to the world.

On Friday, very few monks took part in the much smaller protests around the barricades. People in Yangon said many young monks were evading arrest by casting off their maroon robes and taking refuge in houses disguised as laymen.

"Peace and stability has been restored," state-run newspapers declared on Saturday, after security forces handled protests "with care, using the least possible force."

SCARED CITY BRACED

However, people in the neighborhood reported the Minnada monastery was raided on Friday and that shots were fired.

Monks have reported six of their brethren have been killed since the army started cracking down on Wednesday to end mass protests by columns of monks flanked by supporters who filled five city blocks.

Yeo said he did not think there would be much action on the streets while Gambari was in Myanmar, but people in Yangon were braced for more of the cat and mouse protests which had kept the city tense on Friday.

Crowds taunted and cursed security forces for hours on Friday around the barbed-wire barriers in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in crushing an uprising in the country, then known as Burma.

When the troops charged, the protesters vanished into narrow side streets, only to emerge elsewhere to renew their abuse until an overnight curfew took effect.

State-run media admit nine people have been killed since the crackdown began, prompting international outrage.

"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday after talking to U.S. President George W. Bush.

Bush and Brown discussed the need to maintain international pressure on Myanmar's rulers and the White House condemned the crackdown as "barbaric."

INTERNATIONAL CLAMOUR

Bush authorized new U.S. sanctions on Thursday against the Myanmar government, which has been operating under similar restrictions for years.

The European Union summoned Myanmar's senior diplomat in Brussels and warned him of tighter sanctions.

EU experts looked into possible restrictions on exports from Myanmar of timber, precious metals and gems, but reached no decisions, one diplomat said. Investments by specific Europeans in the country were not raised, he said.

Activist Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign U.K., calling the EU sanctions "pathetic," said a freeze on assets had netted less than 7,000 euros in all 27 EU member states and many countries allowed their companies to do business in Myanmar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said sanctions were premature but he was sorry to hear about civilian deaths. "As far as sanctions are concerned, this is a topic to be especially considered in the United Nations," he Putin.

Russia, like China, is a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council and has shown growing interest in Myanmar's rich gas fields.

China, the junta's main ally, publicly called for restraint

for the first time on Thursday. But at the United Nations, China has ruled out supporting sanctions or a U.N. condemnation of the military government's use of force.

The Association of South East Asian Nations, which rarely criticizes a member directly, expressed "revulsion" at the crackdown.

There were protests across Asia on Friday, with many people wearing red to symbolize the blood spilled in Myanmar, and outside the United Nations building in New York.

Fri Sep 28, 10:07 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Southeast Asian leaders delivered their strongest condemnation of a neighbor and the U.S. ordered limited sanctions, but the international community has few pressure points on the brutal military junta that has ruled Myanmar for decades.

Diplomats and analysts say Myanmar's resources, including natural gas and oil fields that foreign companies are vying to tap, make many nations reluctant to impose economic sanctions or other measures as punishment for the bloody assault on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Just as important, the generals who rule Myanmar have long been steadfast in ignoring criticism and international pressure over its tough handling of dissidents, including killing thousands during a democracy uprising in 1988 and jailing Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I don't get the sense that this regime is in the business of being conciliatory," said Derek Mitchell, an Asia expert at the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies.

But many governments are feeling public pressure to act on Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. Demonstrations against the junta were staged around the globe Friday, in Washington, New York and San Francisco, in Britain and Italy, in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

A "Support the Monks' Protest in Burma" group, set up on the Internet's Facebook site, has seen more than 110,000 people join in just nine days, its British organizer, Johnny Chatterton, said.

President Bush already imposed sanctions on key leaders in the Myanmar regime and world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly denounced the crackdown in which the government admits to 10 deaths though opposition groups say up to 200 people were killed.

"Clearly the government of Burma, the regime there, is facing a population that does not want to suffer quietly under its rule anymore," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Friday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has traditionally been extremely restrained in criticizing human rights abuses in Myanmar, one of its member states, issued its sharpest-ever condemnation of the regime, calling the crackdown "repulsive."

"ASEAN (is) appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used and demands that the Myanmar government immediately desist from the use of violence against demonstrators," a joint statement said.

It called for the regime to release all political detainees, including Suu Kyi, and open a process of national reconciliation.

Diplomats said Western nations are mostly limited to condemnation because they don't have extensive economic ties with Myanmar, and thus little influence. They predicted the countries that do have investments there would not support any punitive actions.

Among them are Russia, India, China and smaller Asian nations, including the island-state of Singapore, which is America's strongest ally in Southeast Asia. China is the largest single investor in Myanmar and its projects include a pipeline delivering gas to its energy-hungry south.

"The leaders of Myanmar know full well that whatever they do domestically, they will never face comprehensive sanctions simply because very important members of the U.N. Security Council are opposed to such a move," said an ASEAN member's ambassador to the U.N., who agreed to discuss the sensitive issue only if not quoted by name.

China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent Security Council members, argue that Myanmar's unrest an internal affair and not a matter that affects international peace and security.

Still, U.N. diplomats said China is growing worried that the violence in Myanmar could produce so much instability that Chinese interests could be hurt.

In an indication of China's anxiety, it joined the 14 other Security Council nations in expressing concern at the bloodshed and urging Myanmar's rulers to exercise restraint and accept a visit by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

China's step drew praise from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who said he perceived "a little movement coming from the Chinese government" on dealing with the junta. He said China is among "those who can do something to influence the behavior of Myanmar."

Also, Japan announced Saturday that it lodged a protest with Myanmar over the death of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai, 50, who was among at least nine people killed Thursday when soldiers fired into a crowd.

Fri Sep 28, 8:54 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The US administration on Friday slapped visa bans on more than 30 members of the Myanmar junta and their families, the State Department said.

"In response to the Burmese regime's continued crackdown, the State Department has designated more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families as ineligible to receive visas to travel to the United States," department spokesman Tom Casey said in a statement.

Casey warned the department would add to the list "others who bear responsibility for the ongoing attacks on innocent civilians and other human rights abuses."

A department official said US laws protecting personal visa information, including for those blacklisted, prevented the department from revealing the names on the list.

But the bans come in addition to Myanmar officials earlier slapped with visa restrictions under the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which banned all imports from Myanmar and hit the country with other sanctions.

Friday's move came one day after the US Treasury ordered a freeze on the assets of Myanmar's military leader and 13 other senior officials in response to the regime's violent crackdown on anti-government protestors, which has left at least 13 dead.

Among those designated for asset sanctions were junta leader Than Shwe, who is minister of defense and chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC); Vice Senior General Maung Aye, commander of the army and vice chairman of the SPDC; Lieutenant General Thein Sein, acting prime minister and first secretary of the SPDC; and General Thura Shwe Mann, joint chief of staff and member of the SPDC.

On Thursday US President George W. Bush Bush said the world must press Myanmar's military rulers to end a violent crackdown on protests and urged the junta to cooperate fully with a UN special envoy.

"I call on all nations that have influence with the regime to join us in supporting the aspirations of the Burmese people and to tell the Burmese Junta to cease using force on its own people, who are peacefully expressing their desire for change," he said in a statement.

Fri Sep 28, 8:52 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that the UN Security Council should have taken "stronger action" in response to the military crackdown on anti-government protests in Myanmar.

"Given what is going on in the streets in Rangoon (Yangon), I would have hoped that the Security Council would take a stronger action," she said here after a luncheon with her counterparts from the four other veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council.

The 15-member council met in emergency session Wednesday but failed to condemn the repression in Yangon.

Council members, however, expressed "strong support" for UN chief Ban Ki-moon's decision to end his envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Myanmar, expressed "concern" about the government crackdown and called for "restraint."

Rice also welcomed Gambari's mission, adding: "There needs to be immediately a stop to the violence against innocent people."

After her luncheon with her counterparts from Britain, China, France and Russia, she told reporters: "We are unanimous in insisting that the regime in Burma (Myanmar) receive him (Gambari) and accede to all of his requests, including to see (detained democracy icon) Aung San Suu Kyi and to talk to members of the political opposition."

Fri Sep 28, 8:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed on Friday to keep up international pressure on Myanmar's rulers, and the White House condemned the crackdown there as "barbaric."

Bush and Brown spoke by video link about "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta that they need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

In Myanmar, crowds taunted soldiers and police who barricaded central Yangon to prevent more mass protests against 45 years of military rule and deepening economic hardship in the former Burma.

"The crackdown on peaceful protesters there is quite barbaric," Stanzel told reporters.

State-run television said nine people were killed on Thursday, but Brown told reporters British authorities believed the death toll was "far greater than is being reported."

Brown said Myanmar's government had responded with "oppression and force" to the calls for restraint. "The international community must intensify its efforts," he said in a statement issued before his talks with Bush.

First lady Laura Bush, who has taken an active role in bringing attention to human rights abuses in Myanmar, issued a statement condemning the violence.

"The deplorable acts of violence being perpetrated against Buddhist monks and peaceful Burmese demonstrators shame the military regime," she said.

"The United States stands with the people of Burma. We support their demands for basic human rights: freedom of speech, worship, and assembly," she said. "We cannot, and will not, turn our attention from courageous people who stand up for democracy and justice."

Asked whether Bush and Brown discussed the possibility of encouraging Myanmar's people to overthrow their government if protests grew into a full-scale uprising, Stanzel said: "That would be a hypothetical. ... We certainly support the people who are marching for democracy and peace."

Bush announced tightened sanctions against Myanmar's rulers on Tuesday. Brown said on Friday that Britain was pressing for tougher European Union sanctions.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey on Friday unveiled new sanctions that made more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families ineligible to receive visas to travel to the United States.

Washington "will add others who bear responsibility for the ongoing attacks on innocent civilians and other human rights abuses," Casey said in a statement.

Jeremy Woodrum of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an advocacy group based in Washington, said Western countries were "getting it right" by tightening sanctions on Myanmar to put the squeeze on leaders.

The next step was to widen bank account freezes to "target their personal money and make sure they can't bring it in and out of the country," Woodrum said.

Fri Sep 28, 6:57 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House criticized Myanmar on Friday for cutting off Internet access and called on "all civilized nations" to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters.

"They don't want the world to see what is going on there," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talked about the situation via secure video teleconference on Friday. They agreed on the importance of a planned visit this weekend to Myanmar by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and on "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta," Stanzel said.

"They need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," Stanzel said.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, said 10 people have been killed since the violence began earlier this week, but diplomats say the toll is likely much higher. By blocking public access to the Internet, the regime cut off one of the few ways of getting information about the protests out of Myanmar, where media freedom is severely restricted.

Daily protests drawing tens of thousands of people have grown into the stiffest challenge to the ruling military junta in two decades. The crisis began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price increase, then escalated dramatically when monks joined in, drawing world attention. The crackdown has been muted by Myanmar standards, but there are fears the government is preparing to intensify it.

On Friday, soldiers clubbed and dragged away activists while firing tear gas and warning shots to break up demonstrations.

First lady Laura Bush, in a personal appeal for support for Myanmar citizens, said the acts of violence "shame the military regime."

"Seeing Burma through a peaceful democratic transition is in all nations' best interest," she said in a statement. "The United States stands with the people of Burma. We support their demands for basic human rights: freedom of speech, worship and assembly. We cannot — and will not — turn our attention from courageous people who stand up for democracy and justice."

The United States imposed new sanctions Thursday on more than a dozen of the junta's leaders. Bush's conversation with Brown was part of a U.S. determination to keep the international focus on the situation high, and Stanzel said there would be more such talks.

"We call on the junta to stop the violence," Stanzel said. "The crackdown on the peaceful protesters there is quite barbaric."

Responding to the continued crackdown, the State Department has designated more than three dozen additional government and military officials and their families ineligible to receive visas to travel to the United States. Tom Casey, deputy spokesman at the department, said the United States will add the names of others responsible for the crackdown and other human rights abuses.

Fri Sep 28, 5:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON - While the government's bloody crackdown on street demonstrations in Myanmar has drawn the world's attention, newly released satellite photos provide evidence that the military there has destroyed villages and forcibly relocated people in the countryside.

Images collected over the last year focused on sites in eastern Myanmar, helping document reports of villages being burned or eliminated, new villages where people had been relocated and rapidly expanding military camps, Lars Bromley of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said Friday.

Meanwhile Myanmar soldiers clubbed and dragged away activists while firing tear gas and warning shots to break up demonstrations and the government cut Internet access, raising fears that a deadly crackdown would intensify.

Troops also occupied Buddhist monasteries in a bid to clear the streets of Myanmar's revered monks, who have spearheaded the demonstrations, and estimates of the death toll ranged from 10 to 200 or more.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has become the focus of international pressure to curtail the violent repression of its citizens.

"We are trying to send a message to the military junta that we are watching from the sky," Aung Din, policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said Friday at a briefing on the photos.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science said it compiled the satellite images from organizations operating in the country. Bromley, director of the association's Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project, said they were obtained from commercial firms, using low-orbit satellites that pass over Myanmar every day or so.

"Physical evidence of reported attacks on civilians sometimes can be subtle compared to the slash-and-burn types of destruction that we saw in Darfur or Zimbabwe. It's also a lush ecosystem where plants can quickly grow to cover burn marks and clouds and terrain often block satellite observation," he said.

Nonetheless, he said he was able to map the locations of many reported human rights violations.

"Eighteen of the locations showed evidence consistent with destroyed or damaged villages," he said. "We found evidence of expanded military camps in four other locations as well as multiple possibly relocated villages, and we documented growth in one refugee camp on the Thai border."

"These things are happening over quite a range, it's not just an isolated incident," Bromley said.

"We're not necessarily drawing conclusions about what happened to these villages, that comes form organizations we work with," he explained.

But, for example, there were reports of attacks on villages in April and satellite images later showed the blackened remains of burned villages.

In addition, the photos showed several new villages near military camps, indicating forced relocations.

Bromley said that since the demonstrations began in recent days satellites have been turned toward the major cities, but he noted that this is the cloudy season.

"We are hoping for a gap in the clouds," he said.

Satellite images showed multiple burn scars in otherwise thick green forest in the Papun district and before-and-after images showed the removal of structures, consistent with eyewitness reports of village destruction.

Signs of an expanded military presence, such as the buildup of bamboo fencing around a camp, and construction of a satellite camp, also were identified, Bromley said.

Buildup of military camps and disappearance of villages and buildings were also documented in the Toungoo and Dooplaya districts.

The military took control of Myanmar in 1962 and since then had regularly clashed with pro-democracy groups. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy advocate, has been detained by the military for years.

The current crisis began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price hike. It escalated when monks began joining the protests.

President Bush announced economic sanctions against Myanmar on Thursday, and other countries have also condemned the actions.

First lady Laura Bush and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have previously condemned human rights violations in Myanmar.

In a plea to Myanmar's ruling military regime, Mrs. Bush said earlier this week, "I want to say to the armed guards and to the soldiers: Don't fire on your people. Don't fire on your neighbors." Her remarks were in a Voice of America interview.

AAAS, a nonprofit general scientific society, previously used satellite technology to seek evidence of destruction in Darfur and Zimbabwe. The latest research was supported by the Open Society Institute and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

___

On the Net:

AAAS: http://www.aaas.org

Fri Sep 28, 4:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday renewed pleas to the Myanmar junta to end a crackdown on pro-democracy protestors which has left at least 13 dead.

The two men discussed the situation in Myanmar and "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta, that they need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

"What is going on is certainly very troubling, and we call on the junta to stop the violence against people who want to bring about, peacefully, democracy," Stanzel added.

Ignoring world pressure, security forces on Friday clamped down on protests in Myanmar's two biggest cities, firing warning shots and using baton charges in the third day of the crackdown.

The military regime also appeared to have cut the main Internet link to block images and reports of the violence from the isolated nation, which have galvanized world opinion against the ruling generals.

"The reports today that the junta has tried to cut off access to the Internet in that country are very telling. They don't want the world to see what is going on there," said Stanzel.

"They don't want the pressure that the world community is bringing to bear."

Brown and Bush also stressed the importance of a visit to Myanmar this weekend by the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari during a secured video conference, Stanzel said.

The White House has called for Gambari to be allowed to visit democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house arrest in Yangon, during his trip to the country due at the weekend.

"We are very pleased that UN envoy Mr Gambari is going to be going to Burma, he will be there tomorrow," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, using the former name for Myanmar.

"We have called on the Burmese to allow him to be able to meet with anyone he wants to meet, the military leaders, the religious leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi," she added.

On Friday about 10,000 people surged onto the streets of the main city of Yangon, playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as they repeatedly confronted police and soldiers before scattering and regrouping once more.

In the central city of Mandalay, thousands of young people on motorbikes rode down a major thoroughfare towards a blockade set up by security forces who unleashed a volley that witnesses believed could have been rubber bullets.

The US administration has slapped economic sanctions on 14 leaders of the military junta, including its leader general Than Shwe, and Bush has called on Myanmar's powerful neighbor, China, to use its influence on the regime to end the violence.

Fri Sep 28, 3:20 PM ET

LONDON - An Internet group backing the monk-led protests in Myanmar has attracted more than 100,000 members in less than 10 days as people around the world try to harness the power of the Web to support the resistance movement.

The Internet has become a battleground in the wave of protests that erupted a month ago against 45 years of repressive military rule in Myanmar. It has played a crucial role in coaxing information out of the reclusive Southeast Asian nation, where few foreign journalists are permitted to operate and media freedom is severely restricted.

For days, the world has been watching television and still images transmitted over the Internet, and many journalism and dissident Web sites and blogs are packed with images documenting the military crackdown on the pro-democracy protests. The pictures have drawn global condemnation of the ruling junta.

But on Friday, military rulers cut off the country's two Internet service providers in a bid to stop the accounts and images from reaching the outside world. They also cut some phone landlines and intensified confiscation of cell phones.

The tight media restrictions mean "citizen journalist" accounts have been vital for media tracking the events. Reporters have relied on social networking sites such as Facebook and bloggers such as London-based Burmese Ko Htike for firsthand accounts and images.

By Friday, more than 110,000 people had joined the "Support the Monks' Protest in Burma" group, set up on Facebook nine days ago. The group has become a repository of eyewitness accounts, photos and video footage of the protests, and also provides details of demonstrations worldwide.

British organizer Johnny Chatterton said that until Internet links to Myanmar were cut, the group had been receiving images, video and reports from sources with contacts in Myanmar. He said much of it — including the report of a monk killed by soldiers — had turned out to be accurate.

"I'm passing on the details to my contacts at the papers and the BBC," said Chatterton, 23.

He said the group's goal was "to show the world's eyes are on Burma" and to coordinate protests, including a global day of action planned for Oct. 6.

On Friday, the Facebook group posted an estimate from sources inside Myanmar that 200 people had been killed in the crackdown in the past several days. The government says 10 people have died, although Western officials and diplomats say the toll is likely much higher.

The junta shut down Internet service providers BaganNet and Myanmar Post and Telecom on Friday, although big companies and embassies hooked up to the Web by satellite remained online.

"The government understood that they were losing the communications battle," said Vincent Brossel, who heads the Asia desk at media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. He said the flow of words and images from inside Myanmar, also known as Burma, had slowed to a trickle.

"Now (Myanmar authorities) are trying to do something like they did in 1988, when the information came out after the massacres."

A similar uprising in 1988 was crushed in a bloodbath, with more than 3,000 people killed, but few journalists were on hand to witness it.

Brossel welcomed the role of sites such as Facebook, which has grown rapidly since it was founded 3 1/2 years ago. But he cautioned that Western Internet companies have cooperated with governments to restrict the flow of information on the Net in the past.

Suki Dusanj of Burma Campaign U.K. said new-media technologies are playing an important role in the showdown.

"The world is watching now," she said. "The culture of mobile phones allows us easy access within the country to what is going on and the 'Support the Monks' group on Facebook means we can reach out to people easier."

Fri Sep 28, 3:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Satellite images confirm reports earlier this year of burned villages, forced relocations and other human rights abuses in Myanmar, scientists said on Friday.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science said the high-resolution photographs taken by commercial satellites document a growing military presence at 25 sites across eastern Myanmar, matching eyewitness reports.

"We found evidence of 18 villages that essentially disappeared," AAAS researcher Lars Bromley said in an interview.

"We got reporting in late April that a set of villages in Karen state had been burned. We were actually able to identify burn scars on the ground -- square-shaped burn scars the size of houses."

Myanmar, formerly Burma, is suffering its worst unrest since a 1988 rebellion by students and monks.

The military government in the poor and isolated Southeast Asian country has long been accused of repression.

Aung Din, policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma activist group, said his organization will use the evidence to pressure Myanmar's government, which this week begun a violent crackdown to quell protests led by Buddhist monks.

"We are trying to send a message to the military junta that we are watching from the sky," he told reporters in a conference call.

He said the images also will be used pressure the Chinese government to support U.N. sanctions against the junta.

Din said the satellite images corroborate reports by refugees and human rights activists, who say abuses have been going on in many parts of the country for years.

The researchers are now gathering satellite images of major cities inside Myanmar.

"As most communication links from these cities are cut, these images -- if they come through -- will be one of the few ways to understand the level of deployment of the military regime," Bromley told reporters.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Bromley's group got funding from the Open Society Institute and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to book satellite time over Myanmar and to buy archived images.

"If an attack was reported in a certain area and that attack was said to have destroyed a village or certain villages, we looked for satellite images before and after the date of attack," Bromley said.

"We literally scroll through them inch by inch and look for villages that essentially disappeared."

They also found evidence of "forest relocation -- where a lot of people are taken from more remote areas and forced to build homes in areas under control of the military government," Bromley said.

"In one area around a military camp that we spotted, there were about 31 villages that popped up in a space of about 5 1/2 years," he said.

"That is either an incredible baby boom or some sort of targeted development program or, because we have no information on either of those, the forest relocation would be a logical candidate."

The AAAS has used the same technology to document destruction in Sudan's Darfur region and Zimbabwe.

The AAAS worked with three human rights groups to follow up on descriptions of more than 70 instances of rights violations from mid-2006 through early 2007 in eastern Myanmar's Karen state and surrounding regions.

It was not easy -- the satellites are only rarely over Myanmar, there is often cloud cover and the lush forest grows quickly to mask evidence of damage. But they got images of the locations of 31 reported events and were able to corroborate reports of human rights violations at 25 of them.

Fri Sep 28, 1:09 PM ET

BEIJING - Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators drew condemnation and sparked protests Friday, with the top U.S. diplomat in the reclusive nation calling the violence "tragic" and the European Union denouncing "gross and systematic violations of human rights."

The United Nations said it will convene an emergency session on human rights abuses and dispatched an envoy to Myanmar who could arrive as early as Saturday. Britain demanded an end to "oppression and force" against the demonstrators.

Myanmar's Asian neighbors expressed "revulsion" at the violence and urged the military rulers to seek a political solution. Japan said it had asked China to use its influence with junta to resolve the crisis. In neighboring Thailand, officials said airplanes were standing by to evacuate foreigners if conditions deteriorated further.

On Friday, soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and occupied Buddhist monasteries to try to put down the largest protests since 1988. The government said 10 people have been killed since Wednesday, although exile groups say the toll may be much higher.

Following telephone talks with President Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported so far."

The regime cut public Internet access, blocking one of the few avenues to get information about the protests out of the country where few foreign journalists are allowed to operate and media freedom is severely restricted. The junta has ignored international pleas for restraint.

"The military was out in force before they even gathered and moved quickly as small groups appeared breaking them up with gunfire, tear gas and clubs," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press by phone.

"It's tragic. These were peaceful demonstrators, very well-behaved," she said.

The U.S. tightened sanctions on Myanmar, saying it would freeze any assets held by 14 top officials in the junta within U.S. jurisdiction, and banning U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

"Clearly the government of Burma, the regime there, is facing a population that does not want to suffer quietly under its rule anymore," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

"We are calling on them to do the right thing, to do what the people deserve and open a dialogue with them, with the legitimate political opposition, including to release those that they hold in detention and to start the long overdue process of national reconciliation and the creation of a country in which all Burmese are free to participate."

The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, headed to the country to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as Saturday, one Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

In Geneva, diplomats said the U.N. Human Rights Council said they would call an emergency session on Myanmar on Tuesday after a petition led by Western countries gained the support of one third of the body's 47 nations.

The European Union expressed "solidarity with the people of Myanmar," saying they were exercising their rights of peaceful demonstration.

"We strongly condemn all violence against peaceful demonstrators," an EU statement said, adding that European nations were "strongly concerned with the gross and systematic violations of human rights in Myanmar."

The EU said peer pressure from neighboring countries was crucial to resolving the crisis. EU envoys are examining additional sanctions on Myanmar. The EU also urged the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, also known as Burma, including opposition leader and Noble Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who has been detained for about 12 of the past 18 years.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised the protesters and called for tougher EU sanctions.

"I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community. But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease."

Brown said he intended to speak about the crisis on Friday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Bush.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Myanmar is a member of, said it was "appalled" by the violence. "They expressed their revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win," the group said in a statement Thursday in New York.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said he agreed in a phone call with his Chinese counterpart to work together on international efforts to solve the crisis.

"I asked that China, given its close ties with Myanmar, exercise its influence and Premier Wen said he will make such efforts," Fukuda told reporters in Tokyo on Friday.

China is Myanmar's main economic and political ally, while Japan is its largest aid donor.

Fukuda ruled out immediate sanctions against Myanmar in connection with the death of a Japanese journalist during the crackdown. Japan has said it would press Myanmar for an explanation of the death of 50-year-old APF News journalist Kenji Nagai on Thursday.

"Sanctions are not the best step to take now," Fukuda told reporters.

The crackdown put China in a bind. It has developed close diplomatic ties with junta leaders and is a major investor in Myanmar. But with the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, China is eager to fend off criticism that it props up unpopular or abusive regimes.

China has so far refused to intervene, calling the protests an internal affair that did not threaten regional or global stability, the criteria for action by the U.N. Security Council.

Chinese officials say the international community may be overestimating China's influence over the regime, echoing earlier statements by Chinese academics and diplomats.

On Wednesday, China refused to condemn Myanmar and ruled out imposing sanctions, but for the first time agreed to a U.N. Security Council statement expressing concern over the violent crackdown and urging the military rulers to allow in a U.N. envoy.

Russia expressed concern about the "continuing deterioration of the domestic political situation in Myanmar."

In Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur, about 2,000 Myanmar immigrants rallied peacefully outside their country's embassy.

Smaller demonstrations against the junta took place in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

In London, a dozen Burmese monks led about 200 dissidents and activists in prayer at the door of Myanmar's Embassy before marching to 10 Downing Street to demonstrate.

U Uttara, a monk who escaped to Britain via Thailand, after being hunted by the military for playing a leading role in the 1988 protests said he was encouraged by the global support for the protesters.

He said he was told that divisions were beginning to show between the generals, with some opposing the crackdown.

"They are shaking, they are scared," he said. "They don't know what to do."

Fri Sep 28, 12:32 PM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - As soldiers in Myanmar intensified their crackdown on pro-democracy protesters Friday, authorities also went after the Internet and mobile phones that have proven so vital and powerful in documenting the dramatic confrontations.

The Internet has played a crucial role in the flow of information out of the reclusive Southeast Asian nation where few foreign journalists are permitted to operate and media freedom is severely restricted.

For days, the world has been watching television and still images smuggled out of the over the Internet, and many journalism and dissident Web sites and blogs are packed with images and links to more video and photos of the crackdown under way. The images have drawn global condemnation of the ruling junta.

Myanmar has been enflamed by protests against 45 years of repressive military rule. Security forces have killed at least 10 people in the past few days, arrested hundreds and sealed off hotbeds of dissent in Yangon and other urban centers. Exile groups and at least one western diplomat have said the actual death toll could be much higher.

Unlike in 1988, when a similar uprising was crushed in a bloodbath, dramatic photos arrive via e-mails to exiled activists and via mobile phones to journalists outside the country, also known as Burma.

"Modern technology has become the generals' worst enemy. There were only rusty phones, if you could get through (in 1988)," says Bertil Lintner, a Myanmar expert and author of several books on the country.

But on Friday, the government closed Internet access, at least temporarily. It also cut some phone landlines and intensified confiscation of mobile phones, said Aung Zaw, Burmese editor of the independent Irrawaddy magazine in Thailand which covers Myanmar.

"The Internet was cut this afternoon. If you watch television, they are showing images from yesterday," he said, predicting people would find other ways to gain access this weekend and resume the outflow of information.

The government suspended the services of the two Internet service providers, BaganNet and Myanmar Post and Telecom, but big companies and embassies hooked up to the Web by satellite remained online.

"I'm not surprised. They have always tried to control information," Shari Villarosa, the top diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Yangon, told The Associated Press by telephone on Friday. "The photos and videos that are getting out reveal the truth about how they hold on to power."

Though the government has cut some phone landlines, it has had less success clamping down on mobile phones.

Stopping the flow of information through new technology will be all but impossible, Aung Zaw said, adding that in 1988, "it took days, sometimes weeks, even months" to get images out and now people are finding ways to get them out swiftly.

The immediacy has been vital in telling the world so it can act quickly as developments unfold, he said.

"The world doesn't know where Burma is. Now they see images about the situation and want to know more. That's a huge difference from 1988," Aung Zaw said.

Mobile phones have proven invaluable in getting information to people outside, said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, a coalition of opposition groups based in Thailand.

Communication inside the country is also important, said Aung Din, Policy Director with the U.S. Campaign for Burma in Washington D.C.

"Students use cell phones to SMS each other to share information," he said, referring to text messages activists use to organize demonstrations or inform one another of the locations of soldiers. "The junta can't control the technology totally, and it's a huge difference (if you can) deliver the information fast."

___

On the Net:

http://www.dvb.no

http://www.irrawaddy.org

Fri Sep 28, 11:50 AM ET

NEW DELHI - Indian MPs and religious leaders protested the crackdown in Myanmar and prodded its military junta to free hundreds of detained pro-democracy activists.

Parliamentarians from various political parties attacked the Myanmar regime for the crackdown, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests and left at least 13 dead.

The protest came as India walked a diplomatic tightrope, juggling energy and security concerns with a commitment to democracy.

The Indian protest coincided with a street rally in New Delhi by a group of Myanmar students, witnesses said.

"We, the MPs, cutting across party lines express solidarity with monks, nuns and the people of Myanmar," said veteran MP Nirmala Deshpande, who leads a forum of Indian parliamentarians for democracy in Myanmar.

"We would like to appeal to all concerned, that the political leaders be released (in Myanmar) and the process for establishing democracy be started soon," Deshpande said in a statement.

In a separate statement, six religious leaders based in the Indian capital called for an end to the crackdown, which entered its third day on Friday.

"We strongly support and express solidarity with the non-violent, peaceful demonstrations of the Buddhist monks and nuns and the Myanmarese for democracy and freedom," the religious heads added.

India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, now on a visit to the United States, was quoted as saying New Delhi hoped to see a peaceful end to the crackdown in Myanmar, sandwiched between India and China.

"It is our hope that all sides will resolve their issues peacefully through dialogue," he told CNN-IBN television network.

"As a close and friendly neighbour, India hopes to see a peaceful, stable and prosperous Myanmar," he said as fresh protests erupted in three locations in Yangon on Friday.

New Delhi kept the military junta at arm's length after a 1988 crackdown on democracy protests and until the mid-1990s was a staunch supporter of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

It bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award -- named after India's first prime minister -- in 1993.

But India changed track when it realised its security interests in its far-flung rebel-infested northeastern region, which neighbours Myanmar, were in jeopardy.

It rolled out the red carpet for military strongman Than Shwe in a 2004 visit.

Since India began engaging the generals, there has been cooperation between Indian and Myanmar's security forces in flushing out the northeastern rebels.

Fri Sep 28, 11:42 AM ET

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown led renewed calls on Friday for the Myanmar junta to end its violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Discussing the crisis in Myanmar by videoconference, Bush and Brown expressed "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta, that they need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

Security forces fired warning shots and used baton charges to clamp down on protests in Myanmar's two biggest cities on Friday, the third day of a crackdown that has left at least 13 people dead.

Amid mounting international anger, even the junta's southeast Asian neighbours expressed their "revulsion".

While the United States tightened economic sanctions, China, the closest ally of the generals running Myanmar, was also working to end the deadly unrest in Yangon.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao told Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda that Beijing was making efforts to calm the situation, Japanese officials said.

"The international community should play a constructive role and China will also make an effort," a Japanese foreign ministry statement quoted Wen as saying in a telephone conversation with Fukuda.

Wen also voiced hope that a visit to Myanmar by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari would produce results.

China and Japan have faced Western criticism for continuing to do business with Myanmar's military regime.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council called a special meeting on the Myanmar unrest in Geneva for Tuesday.

Portuguese ambassador Francisco Xavier Esteves, speaking on behalf of the European Union's presidency, said: "Urgent situations require urgent action and the Council must work to help find a solution."

Public outrage over the shooting of demonstrators in Yangon spilled over into clashes between Australian police and protesters outside the Myanmar embassy in Canberra.

There were also public demonstrations outside the Myanmar missions in London, Paris, Geneva, Rome and major Asian cities.

Hundreds of people who gathered outside the Myanmar embassy in Rome included ministers from the centre-left government.

"We must not be discouraged and throw in the sponge, we must do everything possible to defend the monks in Myanmar," said Emma Bonino, Italy's minister for European affairs and foreign trade.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi urged China and another Myanmar ally, India, to use their "authoritative influence" to call off the troops.

French socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal joined demonstrators in Paris.

About 2,000 Myanmar people gathered outside their country's embassy in Malaysia. There were smaller protests at the Myanmar missions in Manila, Jakarta and Phnom Penh.

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has traditionally held back from criticising one of its members, took a stronger line.

ASEAN ministers meeting at the UN headquarters in New York "were appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used and demanded that the Myanmar government immediately desist from the use of violence against demonstrators," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

The ministers "expressed their revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win over reports that the demonstrations in Myanmar are being suppressed by violent force and that there has been a number of fatalities," he said.

In Manila, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo called for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

ASEAN member Vietnam also urged Myanmar to cooperate with the UN envoy.

Earlier the US administration ordered a freeze on the assets of Myanmar's military leader Than Shwe and 13 other senior officials.

The US State Department has been adding Myanmar officials, regime supporters, and family members to a list of people barred from entering the United States, a White House spokesman said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "I can just assure you that the US is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty in Rangoon (Yangon)."

Fri Sep 28, 7:58 AM ET

LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday that violence against demonstrators in Myanmar "must cease," condemning the military regime and saying the coming days will be critical.

"I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community. But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease," he said in a statement.

His comments came after Myanmar security forces again fired warning shots and launched baton charges on protesters, trying to quell the biggest demonstrations against the junta in 20 years.

At least 13 people have been killed since the crackdown began Wednesday.

"The coming days will be critical. The international community must intensify its efforts," said Brown.

"The UK is pressing urgently for tougher EU sanctions. We strongly back the mission of Ban Ki-moon's representative, Ibrahim Gambari, to Burma. I applaud the powerful call for restraint from the countries of ASEAN," he said.

He added that he would be speaking to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and US President George W. Bush later in the day about the situation.

Fri Sep 28, 6:17 AM ET

YANGON - Security forces fired warning shots and launched baton charges against some 10,000 demonstrators in Myanmar's main city Friday, in the third day of a crackdown on anti-government rallies.

Several warning shots were fired, but there were no immediate signs of injuries among the cheering, chanting crowd of mostly young people and students in the centre of downtown Yangon, witnesses said.

A second protest also broke out near a city park, with up to 500 people marching in the street, singing the national anthem, and thousands more clapping from the sidewalks as they walked by.

At the downtown protest, security forces used loudhailers to order the crowd to disperse from its position on a road leading to the city's Sule Pagoda, a key rallying point in nearly two weeks of protests.

Buddhist monks have led nearly two weeks of mass demonstrations against the ruling junta, but after a series of raids on monasteries and arrests of dozens of monks, there were few, if any, in the crowd on Friday.

"The monks have done their job and now we must carry on with the movement," a student leader told the protesters near Sule Pagoda, who clapped and shouted slogans.

"This is a non-violent mass movement," he shouted as the protesters tried to move towards the pagoda, one of several in the centre that have been cordoned off as part of a suffocating security presence.

In a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, they moved as close as possible before being confronted by advancing police and soldiers, only to scatter and then regroup and try to advance again.

Police and soldiers have unleashed two days of violent retaliation against the protest movement, using weapons, tear gas and baton charges. At least 13 people have been killed, including a Japanese journalist.

At least two monasteries were raided Wednesday night, including one in the northeastern satellite town of South Okkalapa, where about 100 Buddhist monks were arrested and eight people shot dead after protesting the action.

On Friday four more monks were arrested in a raid on a nearby monastery in North Okkalapa, triggering more skirmishes between their supporters and security forces, witnesses said.

In Wednesday's storming of the Ngwekyaryan monastery in South Okkalapa, security forces smashed windows and left behind bloodstained floors that appeared to indicate the monks were beaten during the night-time raid.

Witnesses said that as anger swelled in the community, thousands of protesters gathered in the streets near the monastery and began pelting the soldiers with stones.

After 30 minutes of stone-throwing and jeering, the soldiers appeared to panic and started firing automatic weapons to break up the group, they said. Eight people were killed, including a high-school student.

Fri Sep 28, 1:15 AM ET

TOKYO - Japan on Friday condemned the killing of a Japanese journalist covering protests in Myanmar but refused Western calls to impose sanctions on the military regime.

Japan remains a leading donor to Myanmar, in a rare break in foreign policy with its US and European allies.

A Japanese videojournalist, Kenji Nagai, was shot dead Thursday as he filmed the military regime's clampdown on demonstrations, becoming the first foreigner to die in the turmoil.

Japan said it would probe if he was deliberately killed as he was shot in the chest at close range.

"I am very sorry. It is really deplorable and I want to extend my condolences to his family," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters.

But he added: "Many of the Japanese aid programmes are for humanitarian purposes. Japan has to consult with other countries rather than just hastily slapping sanctions."

Japan in 2003 suspended low-interest loans for major projects, such as infrastructure, to protest the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Japan says aid continues for emergencies and humanitarian purposes.

Nobutaka Machimura, the chief spokesman for Fukuda's government, said separately that Japan has "not decided to stop grant aid immediately."

"Regarding the nature of the aid, the government will consider it by watching how the situation develops and what facts we get," he said, referring to the probe into Nagai's death.

Machimura had earlier said Japan would lodge a protest over the journalist's death.

The United States and European nations have decided to tighten sanctions on Myanmar and called for the world to ramp up pressure due to the bloody crackdown on protests.

But Japan, which often jostles for influence with China in Asia, has preferred the approach of most regional nations of trying to engage the junta.

Japan said it was considering sending Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka to Myanmar for talks.

Myanmar agreed Thursday to issue a visa for UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to visit

Fri Sep 28, 1:04 AM ET

SEOUL - South Korea's Daewoo International Corp (047050.KS), which leads a multi-billion dollar energy project in Myanmar, will not alter its investments there following a violent government crackdown on protests, the company said on Friday.

Daewoo operates Myanmar's large A-1 and A-3 natural gas fields, South Korea's largest overseas energy project, which hold 4.53-7.74 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable reserves.

"We have gas fields under production and three other fields under exploration, which are all long-time investments. They can't be easily changed because of domestic issues," said Cho Sang-hyun, spokesman for Daewoo International.

"Politics is politics. Economics is economics."

The fields are being operated by an international consortium, with Daewoo having a 60 percent stake in the blocks. Other stakeholders include Korea Gas Corp. with a 10 percent stake, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC.BO) with 20 percent, while India's natural gas utility GAIL (GAIL.BO) owns 10 percent.

Myanmar state media said nine people were killed when soldiers fired on crowds in Yangon on Thursday, drawing international outrage.

Despite the country's political isolation and Western sanctions, Myanmar's offshore natural gas fields have become a hotly contested commodity as neighbors seek stable, secure sources of cleaner fuel for their fast-growing economies.

Myanmar has at least 90 tcf of gas reserves and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves in 19 onshore and three major offshore fields.

Earlier this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged French firms, including oil major Total (TOTF.PA), to hold back from making new investments in Myanmar. Chevron (CVX.N) is also a major stakeholder in the Total-led project.

But Total, the world's fourth-largest publicly traded integrated oil and gas company, said its departure from Myanmar would only aggravate the situation.

The oil firm's presence in Myanmar, where it leads a consortium that extracts gas offshore, has been frequently attacked by human rights activists.

In December, South Korean prosecutors charged 14 defense industry executives, including some from Daewoo International, with illegally exporting to Myanmar equipment and technology for making tens of thousands of artillery rounds.

"Many countries including U.S., France, India, China and Russia are either under production or under exploration in Myanmar. These are long-term plans, and they can't be impacted because of the protests," said the Daewoo spokesman.