Suu Kyi wins court battle

In a small but significant legal victory, detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has won the right to repair the crumbling house in which she is held - overcoming opposition from her brother.

Suu Kyi has been detained in her family home on Yangon's University Avenue since 2003 and has long wanted to renovate the crumbling roof.

But her brother, Aung San Oo, who lives in the United States, successfully applied for a court order to block the work, claiming that half the house belonged to him.

The Mizzima News website reported that the Rangoon city development committee issued a written order last week giving permission to the 64-year-old Nobel laureate to repair the house.