Officers blocked roads and took control of the capital’s airport. At least one person has been killed and dozens injured in the clashes. The President has accused the opposition and security forces of a coup attempt. The military declared its loyalty to Correa, but asked for the controversial law that sparked the protests to be reviewed.

Correa speaking at 01:50 – "Comrades, If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me! Kill the health system, kill our values, kill the fight for freedom!"

We can also reccommend you the great Scorpio birthstone.

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Col. Photsawat Tangchui, a police chief in Thailand’s border district of Mae Sot – across the Moei River from Myawaddy – said that a bomb exploded in a room at the Shwebyisaya Guest House, located near the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge linking the two countries.

He said two hotel staff were hurt. But a Myawaddy resident interviewed by phone said five people were injured by the blast. The resident, who insisted on anonymity for fear of harassment by the authorities, said police interrogated all the lodgers at the guest house and held four for further questioning.

Maj. Gen. Surachet Chaiwong, the Thai army commander for Mae Sot, said a Myanmar counterpart told him that a cooking gas tank at a small hotel had exploded, injuring one person.

There was no immediate evidence linking the incident to the pro-democracy protests in other parts of Myanmar that have been suppressed by the ruling military.

Local residents who saw Turkish troops pursue Kurdish rebels over the border in the 1980s and 1990s, with inconclusive results, believe a new operation will be no different.

This time, more is at stake. There is concern about hurting Turkey’s relationship with the United States, and fear in Iraq of instability in its north, which has escaped the violence that plagues the rest of the country.

In addition, any economic fallout could destroy livelihoods in the poor region. Turkey provides electricity and oil products to the Iraqi Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, and the annual trade volume at Habur Gate, the main border crossing, is more than $10 billion (EUR7.4 billion).

“If this border gate is closed because of war, then everybody in this region will suffer,” said Mehmet Yavuz, a Turkish truck driver, hauling cement to the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil. “This border gate is daily bread for us.”

Still, Turkish leaders are gearing up for a possible cross-border operation despite opposition from Washington and Iraqi Kurds, who say they are unable to control Turkish Kurd rebels fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey while seeking refuge in remote mountains in Iraq.

For now, residents of the border towns of Cizre, Silopi and Sirnak are sipping tea at outdoor cafes at night while shopping for candy dayside for the religious holiday this week marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Kurdish separatist rebels operate mostly in rural, sparsely populated areas, but concern in the towns and cities is growing.

The mostly Kurdish residents on the Turkish side of the border fear that despite increased attacks by the Kurdish rebels who killed around 30 people – half of them soldiers – in less than two weeks, a cross-border offensive against the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is unlikely to bring peace after more than two decades of fighting.

But Turkish military leaders have described an incursion as a necessary tactic to push back the rebels and disrupt their safe havens and supply lines. The government is also deeply frustrated at its inability to curb attacks by concentrating on operations within its own borders, and under pressure to show resolve to an outraged public.