YANGON (Reuters):

Troops cleared protesters from the streets of central Yangon yesterday, giving them 10 minutes to leave or be shot as the Myanmar junta intensified a two-day crackdown on the largest uprising in 20 years.

At least nine people were killed, state television said, on a day when far fewer protesters took to the streets after soldiers raided monasteries in the middle of the night and rounded up hundreds of the monks who had been leading them. One of the dead was a Japanese photographer, shot when soldiers cleared the area near Sule Pagoda - a city-centre focus of the protests - as loudspeakers blared out warnings, ominous reminders of the ruthless crushing of a 1988 uprising.

About 200 soldiers marched towards the crowd and riot police clattered their rattan shields with wooden batons.