Burmese light candles, offering New years prayers at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar ( also called Burma) April 17, 2009. Today marked the first day of the new year in the Burmese calendar after 4 days of celebrating the water festival, it is traditional for all Burmese to go to the temples and offer prayer for good fortune in the new year. Eleven US women senators produced a joint letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to press the Burmese regime to abandon plans for a general election in 2010, saying they were based on a 'unilaterally drafted constitution that violates international law.' The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has reaffirmed his concern over the current situation in Burma and once again called on the military junta to release all the political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.