US condemns Myanmar blasts

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday condemned blasts in Myanmar that left nine people dead and said it was unsure about the motivations.

“We condemn any kind of violence that victimizes innocent civilians,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing,” he said.

Crowley said the United States did not know who was responsible or what their motivation was. No Americans were injured, he said.

Three blasts rocked a park in Myanmar”s largest city Yangon as revelers celebrated an annual water festival.

The explosions come as the junta prepares for the nation”s first elections in two decades later this year, which have drawn widespread criticism from Western nations and the opposition which fear they will be a sham.

President Barack Obama”s administration last year initiated a cautious dialogue with the junta, concluding that the previous US policy of trying to isolate the regime had failed.

Venezuela’s Ties With Nation Like Russia and China: Chavez

CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela’s ties with nations like Russia and China have gained importance as the U.S. moves to expand its military presence in Latin America.

Chavez says there are now “much more significant reasons to accelerate cooperation plans with allied countries.”

The U.S. is negotiating an agreement with Colombia to use seven bases there for anti-drug operations. Chavez calls the plan a threat to the region, but Colombian and U.S. officials say there is no reason for concern.

Chavez said Saturday he plans to visit Russia and the former Soviet republic of Belarus within the next month. He added that Venezuela hopes to triple oil shipments to China over the next four years to 1 million barrels a day.

US Senators Meets Suu Kyi

YANGON: An American imprisoned in a trial with Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi looked forward to being deported from the military-ruled country Sunday after a U.S. senator secured his release in an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief.

Sen. Jim Webb was also allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi — the first foreign official permitted to see the Nobel laureate since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday.

The impending deportation indicates “good relations between the two countries and hope (that) these will grow,” Yettaw’s lawyer Khin Maoung Oo said. Webb echoed the sentiment.

“It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future,” Webb said in a statement from his Washington office.

Webb said he would accompany American John Yettaw on a military flight to Bangkok on Sunday.

Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi’s lakeside house in Yangon, was being held at Insein prison, notorious for torture of political prisoners and ordinary criminals. Yettaw’s lawyer said his client, who suffers from epileptic seizures and other ailments, had been well treated.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, and a global groundswell of international pressure to release the 64-year-old opposition leader has kept the impoverished military-ruled country under sanctions in recent years.

The regime has shown no sign it will release Suu Kyi before next year’s general elections, which critics say will perpetuate the military’s decades-old rule, but Webb’s visit appeared to show the junta is sensitive to international censure.

Suu Kyi was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house in Yangon for her 40-minute meeting with Webb. She was later driven back to her rundown, lakeside home.

Webb described his talk with the democracy icon as “an opportunity … to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world.”

Earlier Saturday, Webb held talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the reclusive military council chief who had never met a senior U.S. official.

Webb may have been given the green light for the meetings to mitigate the torrent of international criticism against Myanmar following her trial. In July, authorities barred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from meeting with Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.