Suu Kyi supporters worldwide mark 65th birthday

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi marks her 65th birthday on Saturday under house arrest as activists hold protests around the globe and world leaders call for the ruling junta to free her.The military regime has kept the Nobel Laureate in detention for almost 15 years and she has been barred from running in upcoming elections that critics have denounced as a sham aimed at entrenching the generals' power.Even so, the woman known in Myanmar simply as "The Lady" remains the most powerful symbol of freedom in a country where the army rules with an iron fist.

As Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi began efforts to revive her political movement, investors speculated that her release could lead to the lifting of the sanctions.

Crowds of supporters of Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi gathered on Saturday ahead of her expected release from the lakeside home that has been her prison for most of the past two decades.More than 1,000 people waited anxiously under the tropical sun near her crumbling mansion in the hope of a glimpse of the 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner. Armed police stood by as the crowd swelled. Hundreds more gathered at her party's headquarters, many wearing T-shirts bearing her image and the words: "We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi."

Myanmar's Supreme Court is due to hear opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's final appeal against her house arrest, due to end days after controversial elections next month.The detention of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has kept her off the scene for the country's first polls in 20 years, which have been dismissed by critics as a charade aimed at putting a civilian cloak over military rule.

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest 10 days ago, was reunited with her younger son on Tuesday after about 10 years apart, an AFP reporter witnessed.Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, arrived on a flight from Bangkok to Yangon airport, where his 65-year-old mother was waiting to meet him. She was freed on November 13 after more than seven consecutive years in detention."I'm very glad and I'm very happy," Suu Kyi told AFP after the reunion.

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest 10 days ago, was reunited with her younger son on Tuesday after about 10 years apart.Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, arrived on a flight from Bangkok to Yangon airport, where his 65-year-old mother was waiting to meet him. She was freed on November 13 after more than seven consecutive years in detention."I'm very glad and I'm very happy," Suu Kyi told an AFP reporter who witnessed the reunion.

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest 10 days ago, was reunited with her younger son on Tuesday after about 10 years apart, an AFP reporter saw.Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, arrived on a flight from Bangkok to Yangon airport, where his 65-year-old mother was waiting to meet him. She was freed on November 13 after more than seven consecutive years in detention."I'm very glad and I'm very happy," Suu Kyi told AFP after the reunion.