Elephant poaching in Burma is on the rise amid an increasing demand for ivory and other products made from elephant parts, such as its skin, which is used in traditional medicine.

The European Union clashed on Tuesday with the visiting leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, by publicly supporting an international mission to look into alleged human rights abuses by the country’s security forces against Rohingya Muslims.

Malaysia’s national human rights panel on Tuesday said it was disturbed by more than 600 deaths at immigration detention centres and prisons over the last two years, and called for immediate reform.

A growing number of Rohingya women and girls fleeing Burma are becoming victims of human traffickers who sell them to Rohingya men as brides.

Burma’s national police chief has taken personal charge of an investigation into the killing of a prominent lawyer and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party, police sources said, after leaks and conflicting comments by officers about its progress.

Thailand’s Foreign Minister, Don Pramudwinai, has spoken for the first time in defence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is increasingly being accused worldwide of ignoring the plight of Burma’s Muslim minority in Arakan State.