The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Myanmar

Buddhist nuns joined the growing protests against Myanmar's ruling generals on Sunday, a day after a dramatic appearance by detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to pray with monks now leading the marches.

About 100 nuns joined more than 1,000 monks to pray at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, devoutly Buddhist Myanmar's holiest shrine, before marching to the centre of the former capital.

There were no signs of trouble. There were no police or soldiers in sight and people on the streets applauded as the marchers passed.

The mood was cheerful, with many people in Yangon seeing the emergence of Suu Kyi from her lakeside villa as a sign the military, which has ruled the former Burma for 45 years and ruthlessly put down a 1988 uprising, was being flexible.