Burma protests update

"Earlier on Tuesday, loudspeaker vehicles cruising the streets of Rangoon, Burma’s biggest city, announced that monks had been ordered to stay out of politics.

”People are not to follow, encourage or take part in these marches. Action will be taken against those who violate this order,” the broadcasts said, invoking a law allowing the use of military force to break up illegal protests.

Separately, authorities admitted via official media that protests have spread across the country.

The government’s New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung, the religion minister, as saying protests by monks had spread to cities like Mandalay, Hinthada and Monywa in seven of the country’s 14 states and divisions.

In Taunggok, a coastal city northwest of Rangoon, people said up to 40,000 monks and civilians took to the streets, Reuters reported."(1)

1) Financial Times