as the visiting U.N. aid chief praised humanitarian and community groups for leading the aid response. The leader of the military government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was back in the capital Naypyidaw after a rare foreign trip to attend a summit in Bangkok of South and Southeast Asian nations, where he also met separately with the leaders of Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and India.

Min Aung Hlaing reaffirmed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the junta's plans to hold "free and fair" elections in December, Myanmar state media said. Modi called for a post-quake ceasefire in Myanmar's civil war to be made permanent, and said the elections needed to be "inclusive and credible", an Indian foreign affairs spokesperson said on Friday. Critics have derided the planned election as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies. Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run Myanmar, leaving the economy and basic services, including healthcare, in tatters, a situation exacerbated by the March 28th quake. (Reuters)