Monks resume protests despite government warnings

Buddhist monks spearheading Burma's biggest anti-government marches in nearly two decades defied orders from the military junta to stay out of politics and relaunched their protests in the country's two biggest cities today.

About 4,000 monks, cheered on by several thousand supporters, gathered for the eighth day of peaceful protest at Rangoon's soaring Shwedagon Pagoda, while some 700 marched in the country's second largest city of Mandalay.