the civilian-led administration was inaugurated in march and has taken steps towards democrat sgrags. it held dialogue with the pro-democracy leader and released some political prisoners. she gave a cautious welcome to the prospect of myanmar chairing asean, although she called for more progress towards democracy. the united states has indicated that it may be ready to improve ties with myanmar, and that could include the lifting of sanctions dependent on continued reform such as the release of more political prisoners. and now our reporter from nhk jakarta bureau joins us with an analysis. is the asean leaders' decision to award myanmar the role of xharm a sign they approve of the progress towards democracy? >> yes. most asean nations have been positive by myanmar taking the chairmanship of the bloc. they took into consideration opposition from the united states and europe, but recently myanmar has taken steps to promote democracy that enabled a asean to give it the chairmanship with confidence. there's a sense of crisis among asean members. they believe myanmar cannot remain alone o

where are we now in the invest sgrags investigation?ederal authorities. the secret service has been brought in because of their expertise in electronics surveillance. the district attorney that normally would be involved, in fact, they're investigating the police to find out what they knew, when they knew it. the university handed over all their records. the university knew this seven years ago when they did their own investigation. they tried to get out ahead by terminating bernie fine's contract here with the university. even espn which had this tape back in 2002, almost ten years ago, they're coming out with a statement. so everybody's playing catch-up and, meanwhile, we're here at the carrier dome. the first home game for the syracuse team since bernie fine was fired. the top coach told all his players to stay focused, but right now, they are doing so under the shadow of what is a very public investigation. christine? >> very. deb feyerick, thank you. >>> the sentencing of dr. conrad murray only hours away. convicted of involuntary