– 16 mins ago (AP)
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's new president has appointed a nine-member advisory board that includes an economist who is close to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
U Myint, the economist, said the body — not yet officially announced in the state mass media — is made up of three members each for economic, political and legal affairs.
President Thein Sein is a former general and was prime minister under the former ruling junta. He is now the leader of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won a huge majority in last November's general election that critics dismissed as rigged in favor of the army.
U Myint, a retired senior economist for the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, has advised Suu Kyi on economic affairs.
