(Reuters) - At least nine people were killed in Myanmar on Thursday as the military junta cleared the
streets of central Yangon by giving protesters 10 minutes to leave or be shot, tightening a two-day crackdown on the largest uprising in 20 years.
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.
State television said at least nine people were killed.
International concern over the crackdown mounted.
President George W. Bush called on all countries with influence over Myanmar to tell the junta to cease using force against the demonstrators. The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against 14 senior government figures.
Neighboring China, one of the isolated country's few allies and seen as wielding considerable sway over the junta, said it was extremely concerned.
One of dead on Thursday was a Japanese photographer, shot when soldiers cleared the area near Sule Pagoda -- a city-center focus of the protests -- as loudspeakers blared out warnings, ominous reminders of the ruthless crushing of a 1988 uprising