THOUSANDS of well-wishers lined roadsides in Burma to welcome opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she tested the limits of her freedom yesterday by taking her first political trip into the countryside since her release from house arrest.

India warned Burma it was going to be hit by cyclone Nargis two days before it made landfall there, an official said today.

A UN human rights envoy who has returned to Burma after a four-year ban spoke to officials today about plans to visit prisons.

Hundreds of Buddhist monks protested today outside the locked gates of Burma’s most revered temple, challenging the country’s military rulers in the most sustained wave of demonstrations in a decade.