5 Monks Killed by Burma Police

Five monks are reported dead and many are wounded after riot police fired at pro-democracy demonstrators, beat them with rifle butts and arrested more than 100  today in continuing protests in Yangong, Myanmar. Security forces surrounded six monasteries; as monks approached troops fired tear gas and live rounds over the protesters' heads, and then charged, the CNN and the BBC report.

In what a BBC analyst calls a clash between the country’s two most powerful institutions—the military and the monk-hood—monks defied orders not to march, and urged civilians, who attempted to surrounded them as human shields, not to join them. “We monks will do this, please don't join us, don't do anything violent,” they said. (More Burma stories.)