More than 100 former world leaders urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday to press Myanmar to release hundreds of political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a letter signed by former US Presidents George Bush Senior and Jimmy Carter, former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Ban is urged to return to Myanmar before the end of this year to try to secure the release of over 2,100 political detainees. The initiative is led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.