Burma Will Allow Diplomats to Visit Suu Kyi

Myanmar's democracy icon fell ill on grueling campaign

(AP) - Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has fallen ill while campaigning for Myanmar's upcoming by-elections and has suspended her extensive tour of the country a week ahead of the polls, her party said today. A National League for Democracy spokesman said that Suu Kyi's personal physician advised taking the break after she fell ill with vomiting while campaigning in the Mergui archipelago in southernmost Myanmar. The doctor blamed her ill health on exhaustion and hot weather. Party members traveling with the 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said she had been put on an intravenous drip. More»

Security tight as she calls for unity, thousands turn out

(NEWSER) - Testing the limits of her newfound freedom and perhaps the patience of Burma's military junta, Aung San Suu Kyi ventured today outside Rangoon in her first political trip since being released from house arrest last November. Thousands gathered to see the Nobel laureate, who used the trip to Bago, some 50 miles from Rangoon, to call for unity in her fractious nation. "Unity is a strength, unity is needed everywhere, and it is needed especially in our country," she said. More»

Burmese democracy leader fails to reverse newest term of house arrest

(NEWSER) - A Burmese court rejected Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her latest spell of house arrest today. The pro-democracy leader, who was convicted of violating her previous sentence after an American swam to her home, will remain confined through next year and will be ineligible for the upcoming election. A lawyer for Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest, promised to appeal again to the high court. More»

(AP) - American John Yettaw boarded a flight home today, ending an infamous journey that began three months ago with a secret swim to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi that landed them both in prison. Suu Kyi, who repeatedly asked him to leave, and her two live-in aides, are still in custody. "It's very ugly that the person who caused the problem was released but the three people in the house remain detained," Suu Kyi said. More»

Sen. Webb: 'What he did was regrettable'

(NEWSER) - While Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi begins another 18 months under house arrest, the American responsible for her sentence is free and has landed in Thailand, reports CNN. John Yettaw, whose release was won by Sen. Jim Webb, was hospitalized for observation in Bangkok. “He had a medical emergency this morning when they read him his orders of deportation,” Webb said. Yettaw had been sentenced to 7 years' hard labor for swimming to the home of Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest at the time. More»