But a short time later, the government announced that the country's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, had ordered the sentence commuted to 1 1/2 years under house arrest.

VOA: standard.2009.08.11

He served as CNN's senior White House correspondent from 1999 to 2005, when his duties included reporting on the Iraq war and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

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But there is little prospect that the group's senior leaders, currently under house arrest, will face justice.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan and the Taliban

"All he has said is that he's not going to continue the moratorium on drilling, " White House senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday.

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