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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi ‘sounds strong’ but is isolated, son says

Kim Aris tells the Guardian chance to speak with detained Nobel laureate was ‘public relations’ move from military leaders

Myanmar’s former democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be in good physical and mental health but is living in near-complete isolation, her son has said after the first call with his 81-year-old mother in more than five years.

“She still sounds certainly all there mentally, and physically she sounds strong,” Kim Aris said. “I don’t think she has anybody outside of the military or the police around her, so essentially she’s been held in solitary confinement from what I gather.”

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© Photograph: Tian Macleod Ji/AP

© Photograph: Tian Macleod Ji/AP

© Photograph: Tian Macleod Ji/AP

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India slashes cost of cancer drugs after court rules mark-ups are ‘extortion’

Case filed in 2022 by patient unable to afford medicine leads to cap on drug prices for millions who face ruin if diagnosed

The Indian government has moved to reduce the price of cancer drugs after a retired bank clerk took her case to the supreme court.

From next month, 137 cancer drugs in India will be cheaper as the government tries to tackle the tragedy of poorer patients either forgoing treatment, selling land or falling into debt to meet the high cost of some medicines, which are making large profits for hospitals and pharmacists.

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© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

© Photograph: Rupendra Rawat/Alamy

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Aung San Suu Kyi’s son speaks to detained former Myanmar leader for first time in five years

Kim Aris says ‘hearing her voice again means more than words can express’ amid loosening of detention restrictions

The son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to speak to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years.

“Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris said in a post on Facebook on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Spokesperson for the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Spokesperson for the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Spokesperson for the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar/AFP/Getty Images

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Indian court orders release of two leaders of Cockroach movement

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in jail after defying restrictions on protests in Delhi amid government crackdown

An Indian court has ordered the release of two leaders of India’s Cockroach movement who were jailed last week amid a mounting state crackdown on youth-led protests.

The two leaders of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) movement, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, had spent a week in Delhi’s Tihar jail after being arrested by Delhi police last week.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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