Burma rose 12 places in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, amid larger global trends over the past year indicating “that media freedom is under threat now more than ever,” according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which has compiled the index annually since 2002.

According to the Burmese military chief’s office, the base in Mansi had been a major hub for smuggling timber and cattle to “a neighbouring country”.

A coalition of 422 civil society and environmental groups are calling on the government to halt all proposed coal and large-scale hydropower projects, citing a raft of negative impacts on vulnerable local communities.

The body of a police officer who drowned after his boat capsized while chasing illegal loggers on a river in Sagaing Division earlier this week was recovered on Wednesday.

The officials, based on a tipoff, searched the boat on the Irrawaddy River and found around 10 tons of timber in a hidden compartment.

As the NLD government steps up efforts to protect Burma’s forests, officers in the Pegu mountain range face off with increasingly violent loggers.