Suu Kyi meets Karen ethnic rebels

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met yesterday with Karen ethnic minority rebels in her first significant foray into politics since her election to public office a week earlier.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who won her first-ever seat in parliament in April 1 by-elections, held about two hours of talks with delegates from the Karen National Union in Yangon.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader described the meeting as a "significant event" that would help to foster national reconciliation.
She added: "As the NLD's goal is to have true democratic unity, we believe all ethnicities should be included in this process together."
The talks came a day after the KNU delegates met Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw for the first time.
Myanmar considers the group -- whose leadership is based in Thailand -- to be an illegal organisation.
Its armed wing has been waging Myanmar's longest-running insurgency, battling the government since 1949 in the eastern jungle near the Thai border.
The KNU signed a pact with the new reform-minded government in January this year in a move that raised hopes of a permanent end to one of the world's oldest civil conflicts.