Protests led by thousands of monks are growing in Burma, leading the military junta to issue threats of violent retribution. Here are some key dates over the last month:
August 15th:Without warning, diesel prices are doubled and the cost of compressed natural gas rises five-fold. Bus networks in Rangoon grind to a temporary halt.
August 23rd:Thirteen prominent dissidents are arrested for organising protests against the fuel price rises. They face up to 20 years in jail.
August 28th:After two weeks of sporadic marches, mostly by social activists and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), Buddhist monks join in for the first time, leading a march in the northwest city of Sittwe.
September 5th:Soldiers fire warning shots to halt 500 marching monks in Pakokku, 600 km northwest of Rangoon.
September 6th: Several hundred angry Pakokku monks hold government officials hostage for more than four hours and torch their cars.
September 12th:Monks threaten to shun the military unless the junta apologises for assaulting monks in Pakokku.
September 16th:Two monks in Sittwe are arrested, the first to members of the priesthood to be detained.
September 17th:Burmese-language foreign radio stations broadcast reports that an alliance of monks will refuse to accept alms from the ruling generals, their families and associates - a very serious threat in the devoutly Buddhist country.
September 18th:Authorities fire tear gas to break up a protest of about 1,000 monks and civilians in Sittwe.
September 19th:Nearly 1,000 monks stage a sit-in outside government offices.
September 20th:After being barred for three days, 500 monks are allowed into Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's holiest shrine, to pray. Armed police throw up barbed wire barricades near Rangoon university, a focus of the 1988 uprisings.
September 21st:Some 600 monks march through Rangoon, meeting no opposition from watching plainclothes policemen.
September 22nd:Monks are let through the barbed-wire barricades outside the home of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel peace laureate appears in a doorway and prays with the monks for 15 minutes. It is the first time she has been seen in public since May 2003.
September 23rd:Buddhist nuns join monk protests at the Shwedagon for the first time.
September 24th:Tens of thousands of people join streams of monks on marches through central Rangoon. It is the biggest demonstration against the junta since the generals crushed the 1988 uprising at an estimated cost of 3,000 lives.
September 25th:The junta broadcasts warnings including the possibility of using military force to disperse what it called unlawful protests. But some 2,000 monks and lay people gathered at the Shwedagon and then marched to the city centre.