From Voice of America:

Myanmar President Win Myint announced Tuesday an order to grant amnesty to about 8,500 prisoners. The move coincides with Myanmar’s traditional New Year.

A spokesman said the amnesty includes 51 foreigners as well as 36 people listed as political prisoners by the Thailand-based watchdog group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The president’s order does not cover two Reuters journalists who are facing trial for possessing secret official documents. The reporters were covering the brutal military campaign in Rakhine state that has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims across the border into Bangladesh since last August.

Win Myint was a political prisoner himself under the previous regime after he boycotted the National Convention in December 1995 along with other members of the National League for Democracy.