Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has returned home after a triumphant tour of Europe, where she won enthusiastic support for her role in Burma’s democratic transition and was celebrated like a head of state.

In 1996, a journalist met a political prisoner in Rangoon.

Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has resumed her European tour after a brief bout of illness prompted by exhaustion.

When Aung San Suu Kyi last saw Europe, it was still divided into the democratic West and communist East. Her homeland of Burma was still under oppressive military rule.

David Cameron is to become the first Western leader to visit Aung San Suu Kyi since the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was elected to parliament.

Supporters of Burma’s opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi erupted in euphoric cheers yesterday after her party said she won a parliamentary seat in a landmark election, setting the stage for her to take public office for the first time.

Supporters of Burma’s opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi erupted in euphoric cheers today after her party said she won a parliamentary seat in a landmark election, setting the stage for her to take public office for the first time.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party claimed today she has won a seat in Burma’s parliament after a landmark election, setting the stage for the pro-democracy leader to hold public office for the first time.

Burma was today holding a landmark election that was expected to send opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament for her first public office since launching her decades-long struggle against the military-dominated government.

Vast crowds were gathering at Burma’s most sacred Buddhist shrine to celebrate a festival banned for more than 20 years under the former military government.

Burma’s Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is hitting the campaign trail as an official candidate and travelling to the Irrawaddy delta for the first time in two decades.

Thousands of supporters in Burma’s countryside cheered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today as she made a political tour ahead of by-elections, highlighting how quickly and dramatically politics is changing in the long-repressed south-east Asian nation.

Ecstatic cheers of “Long Live Aung San Suu Kyi!” echoed through the streets of Rangoon as Burma’s best-known woman registered her candidacy for a parliamentary by-election.

Burma freed many of its most prominent political prisoners today in a long-awaited step toward national reconciliation that also has been a key condition set by Western nations for easing sanctions against the country.

A warehouse fire that spread to neighbouring houses has killed at least 16 people and injured more than 79 in Rangoon, Burmese officials said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Burma on a historic visit to the long-isolated nation to test the new government’s commitment to reform.

Senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party is meeting to decide whether to register it as a legal body so that it can take part in future elections.

Burma’s president has granted amnesty to more than 6,300 prisoners, state radio and television announced today, in what appears to be the biggest step so far in a series of reform actions undertaken by the new elected government.

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.

Officials in Burma said the military-backed government has deported Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh, who stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming film.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said she plans to tour rural Burma next month in her first trip into the provinces since a 2003 political tour ended in her lengthy house arrest.

A MOTHER in Burma says her baby girl’s 12 fingers and 14 toes have been no disadvantage — and she’s now grasping for a Guinness World Record.

Witnesses in Burma have seen missile and nuclear sites being built in remote locations with support from North Korea, according to the latest US cables released by WikiLeaks.

Burma's ruling general considered buying Manchester United for a billion dollars after his football-loving grandson asked for it, according to new WikiLeaks memos.

MANCHESTER UNITED were briefly a target for a takeover by the leader of Burma’s military junta, according to a secret document leaked by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

BURMESE democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi began the nuts and bolts work of reviving her political movement yesterday, consulting lawyers about having her now-disbanded party declared legal again, her spokesman said.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom today amid massive cheers from elated supporters who flooded the streets outside her home in Burma.

Burma’s pro-junta political party secured a majority of seats in both houses of parliament as speculation mounted today that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed from house arrest.

BURMA’S democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not accept conditions on her freedom if the military government releases her this week when her latest period of detention is due to end, her lawyer said.

Fighting between ethnic rebels and government troops continued for a third day today as activists warned that the violence which sparked a refugee exodus from Burma could escalate in the aftermath of contentious elections.

Clashes between rebels and Burmese government troops raged in a key border town today, a day after the country’s first election in two decades – polling which critics say will the cement the military-run government’s power.

Burma’s secretive military-ruled government gave no sign today of when results from the country’s first election in two decades would be released, though it is almost certain power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies.

Voters in the secretive military-ruled nation of Burma cast their first ballots in 20 years today, as slim hopes for democratic reform faced an electoral system engineered to ensure that most power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies.

People in Burma are voting in the country’s first election in 20 years, although the military regime has cancelled polling in many districts.

Burma’s ruling junta staged a lavish welcoming ceremony for the country’s fifth white elephant captured in recent years as it arrived in the capital, state media reported today.

Burma's ruling junta held a lavish welcome ceremony for a rare white elephant, a traditional symbol of power and prosperity, state media reported today.

Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 65th birthday today locked in her dilapidated lakeside compound as global calls for her freedom erupted at rallies and prayer vigils around the world.

Floods and landslides killed at least 46 people in northwest Burma and rescue workers are evacuating residents affected by the incessant rains, official media said.

THREE bombs ripped through traditional New Year festivities in Rangoon, the biggest city in Burma, yesterday, killing nine people and injuring 75 others, officials and state television said.

Six people died and dozens were injured by three bombs which exploded at traditional New Year festivities in Rangoon today.

A special United Nations envoy arrived in Burma today on a five-day mission to evaluate progress on human rights in the military-ruled nation.

Burma’s military government has freed the 82-year-old deputy leader of the pro-democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi after nearly seven years in detention.

Lawyers for Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said she was in good spirits during a strategy session that finalised 11 grounds for appealing her conviction next week.

Lawyers for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said today a Burmese court had accepted their request to appeal against the conviction that extended the democracy leader’s house arrest by 18 months.