Burma campaigner 'greatest hero'

Ms Kyi has spent 10 of the past 16 years in detention in Burma

Burmese pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi has been named the greatest living hero by readers of left-leaning political magazine the New Statesman.

Nelson Mandela, who fought apartheid in South Africa, came second, with poverty campaigner Bob Geldof in third.

Former Conservative leader Baroness Thatcher was ranked fifth, a result the publication described as "unexpected".

Ms Kyi has been under house arrest repeatedly since a 1990 election win, ignored by the military government.

The magazine said she was "a true hero of this or any other time".

Other notable figures in the list include investigative writer and broadcaster John Pilger, known for his war reporting, in fourth place.

GREATEST HEROES POLL 1: Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition leader 2: Nelson Mandela, former South African president 3: Bob Geldof, anti-poverty campaigner 4: John Pilger, investigative journalist 5: Baroness Thatcher, former British prime minister 6: Peter Tatchell, gay-rights campaigner 7: Noam Chomsky, advocate of free speech 8: Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft 9: Dalai Lama, Buddhist spiritual leader 10: David Attenborough, nature documentary-maker Source: The New Statesman

Gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell (number six), award-winning BBC documentary-maker David Attenborough (at 10) and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (ranked 13) are also included.

Current prime minister Tony Blair is listed in 18th place.

He is one place behind celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who has led a campaign for the government to improve the quality of the food eaten by British schoolchildren.

There are two entries for members of the royal family: the Queen at 33 and heir to the throne Prince Charles at 46.

Poll winner Ms Kyi, aged 60, is leader of Burma's National League for Democracy party, and has spent 10 of the past 16 years under house arrest or in some other form of detention.

In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to Burma, having been described by the judges as "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless".

Meanwhile the New Statesman said Baroness Thatcher "changed British politics so fundamentally that the Labour Party had to drop socialism and change its name and objectives in order to get elected".

"You might not have agreed with her, but you can't deny that hers was an honesty of the kind hardly ever heard from today's so-called leaders," the magazine said of the British prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

More than 1,400 readers and magazine contributors took part in the survey by email and post.