The United Nations Sunday urged Myanmar to ensure that journalists can report "without fear" during crucial general elections later this year as the former junta-ruled nation marked World Press Freedom Day in Yangon.

The call comes amid international concerns that Myanmar is backtracking on media freedoms won since the country began emerging from outright military rule in 2011, after a slew of journalist arrests and the death of a freelance reporter in army custody last year.

Authorities in Thailand uncovered a mass grave in an abandoned jungle camp Friday believed to contain the remains of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, a grisly find in a region notorious for people-smuggling routes.

The discovery was made at a remote camp in Sadao district, in Songkhla province bordering Malaysia, and comes as Thailand's junta cracks down on human trafficking following accusations that officials have been complicit in the trade.

The Myanmar soldier, wearing his crisp green uniform, rifles through a box of T-shirts for a souvenir of his time in the country's fledgling legislature -- a deeply controversial position in the former junta-run nation on the cusp of key elections.

With a quarter of parliamentary seats and an effective veto on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's presidential hopes, unelected military men have a major role in the country's delicate political transition, regardless of the result of landmark polls later this year.

The United States on Monday voiced alarm over rare clashes between the Myanmar military and insurgents in Rakhine state believed to have caused hundreds of civilians to flee their homes.

Unrest between the military and Arakan Army (AA) -- a group that hails from Rakhine but has previously focused on fighting in Myanmar's conflict-riddled north -- has flared in recent days, raising fears that it could complicate the country's delicate nationwide peace process.

Myanmar's military has arrested five people after a rare clash with insurgents in Rakhine state, state media said Wednesday, potentially complicating efforts to reach a nationwide ceasefire with numerous rebel groups.

The quasi-civilian government wants to declare an end to civil wars that have plagued ethnic minority border regions for decades. Last month it signed a draft peace accord which was hailed as a historic step forward.

Sixteen Myanmar soldiers died in a major offensive to flush rebels from a strategic hill-top in the northeastern region bordering China, state media said Thursday, as fighting with ethnic insurgents nears its tenth week. 

Scores of soldiers and ethnic Kokang rebels have died since conflict erupted in the remote region of Shan state on February 9, while tens of thousands of people have fled across the frontier into China.

Ten farm workers were killed and two injured after a truck plummeted off a hillside in southern Myanmar, state media said Wednesday, as road accidents surge during the Buddhist New Year holidays.

The truck bound for a small village in the Irrawaddy delta region with 18 people aboard hurtled off the road at around 3 am Tuesday when the driver lost control, according to the state-run Myanmar language Mirror newspaper.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday refused to rule out a boycott of looming elections as she cast doubt over the likelihood of key changes to a charter that bans her from running for president.

Her country is bracing for elections later this year seen as a vital test of democratic reforms in a nation that was until recently straitjacketed by decades of junta rule.

Myanmar's President Thein Sein held rare talks Wednesday with influential allies and rivals including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she intensifies efforts to lift a constitutional ban on her presidential bid.

The long-awaited talks in the capital Naypyidaw, which follow a similar meeting of key political figures in October, come as the country braces for elections seen as a key test of reforms in the former junta-run nation.

Rescuers are searching for more than 20 miners buried by a landslide at a jade mine in remote war-torn northern Myanmar that killed at least nine people, state media reported Wednesday.

The latest fatal accident to hit the country's secretive gems industry occurred when a huge mound of loose earth that miners were combing through beside the mine in Hpakant town, Kachin state, partially collapsed in the early hours of Monday.