Myanmar leader making landmark White House visit

Former general Thein Sein (tane sane) on Monday becomes the first Myanmar president to be welcomed to the White House in almost 47 years, crowning a dramatic diplomatic rehabilitation for his nation after years of international isolation.

But activists are angry about President Barack Obama hosting Thein Sein, and lawmakers are wary. The Myanmar leader has led the shift from decades of direct military rule but has stalled on some reform commitments and failed to stop bloody outbursts of ethnic violence.

Thein Sein meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill would have been all-but-impossible before he took the helm of a nominally civilian government in 2011.

Obama made history with an unprecedented U.S. presidential visit in November to the country also known as Burma.