Pro-democracy activists in Myanmar march to protest fuel hike

YANGON (AP) - Hundreds of pro-democracy activists began marching in Myanmar on Wednesday to protest a massive increase in fuel prices imposed by the military regime a week earlier, witnesses said.

About 300 protesters started marching from the outskirts of the commercial capital Yangon, encouraging onlookers to join the rare display of public opposition, witnesses said. Plain clothes police officers watched the protest from a distance, they said.

Early Wednesday, the military regime arrested at least nine leaders of a pro-democracy group who staged another protest against the fuel price hikes, the U.S. Campaign for Burma said in a statement

The Washington-based group said virtually the entire leadership of the 88 Generation Students activist group was taken to a detention center in Yangon at midnight.

Five university students and three members of another activist group were also arrested in separate sweeps by the authorities, the group said.