Clemency in Myanmar falls short of expectations

Associated Press

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YANGON // Myanmar plans to reduce the sentences of many prisoners, the government said, in a clemency that fell short of the general amnesty many people were expecting.

State television and radio said the president, Thein Sein, signed a clemency order to mark the country's 64th anniversary of independence.

They said death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment and some prisoners serving more than 30 years will have their sentences cut to 30 years. Prisoners sentenced to 20 to 30 years will have their terms reduced to 20 years, while those serving less than 20 years will have their sentences cut by a quarter.

It was not immediately clear how many prisoners would be affected or whether the order would apply to all political detainees. Some former student activists serving 65-year terms were included in the clemency.

Last week, state-run media reported that the government-appointed National Human Rights Commission had appealed to Thein Sein to issue a general amnesty.

The president has pushed forward reforms since taking office last March, following decades of repression under previous military regimes. His government is still dominated by a military proxy party, but changes have been made in areas such as media, the internet and political participation.

More than 6,000 prisoners, including about 200 political detainees, received an amnesty last October.

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Qaddafi killed as Sirte falls to NTC: Libya

Agencies

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SIRTE, Libya // The Prime Minister of Libya's interim government, Mahmoud Jibril, has confirmed that former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi has been killed.

Libya's National Transitional Council leader said Qaddafi died of his wounds as fighters battling to complete an eight-month uprising against his rule overran his home town Sirte today.

The era of Moammar Qaddafi has ended with his death and the capture of Sirte in Libya by the National Transitional Council.

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"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Qaddafi has been killed," Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

A NTC official said his body was now being taken to a secret location.

"Qaddafi's body is with our unit in a car and we are taking the body to a secret place for security reasons," Mohamed Abdel Kafi, an NTC official in the city of Misrata told Reuters.

Nato said they couldn't yet confirm reports from revolutionary fighters that Qaddafi was captured or killed in the fall of his hometown. In Washington, US officials were also still working to confirm the reports, a senior Obama administration official said.

However, television networks around the world are broadcasting an apparent photograph of the former leader's body released by the NTC.

The photo, apparently taken on a mobile phone, showed a pale, bloodied and dead-eyed man closely resembling the deposed Libyan ruler, with dark frizzy hair and similar facial features.

It was not clear if the man was dead or wounded. He appeared to be bandaged and had a blank expression. He had a stream of blood from the side of his mouth and was wearing a bloodstained, dark-coloured shirt.

It is common for anti-Qaddafi fighters to photograph and record scenes from the battlefield.

The Misrata Military Council, one of multiple command groups for revolutionary forces, earlier released a statement that said Qaddafi was dead. Another commander, Abdel-Basit Haroun, said Qaddafi was killed when an airstrike hit a convoy trying to flee.

Previous reports of Qaddafi family deaths or captures have later proved incorrect.

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