A Myanmar court sentenced two reporters to two months in prison on charges of defamation, in the latest ruling that raises concerns about press freedoms as the country emerges from military rule.

The Myanmar Post's chief editor Than Htaik Thu and reporter Hsan Moe Tun were charged in February 2014, after their weekly newspaper quoted a military lawmaker purportedly making comments about his colleagues in the parliament having low education.

Bloody conflict in a remote corner of northern Myanmar has spilled violently across the border with China, risking a rift with the mighty neighbor and threatening peace efforts with an array of rebels.

Myanmar's army is battling ethnic-Chinese rebels in the Kokang region of Shan state, with aerial bombardments and close-quarter combat, just as the quasi-civilian government is grappling to end decades of border insurgencies in fresh ceasefire talks that began Tuesday.

More than 50 people have been confirmed killed in a ferry accident off western Myanmar after rescue teams recovered more bodies from rough waters, police said Monday, as hopes faded of finding any survivors.

The "Aung Takon 3" sank late Friday after leaving the coastal town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state.

Myanmar expressed "sorrow" Monday after a bomb dropped across the border during clashes with rebel forces killed five farm workers on Chinese territory in an incident sharply condemned by Beijing.

It announced a probe into the blast, which went off in China's southwestern Yunnan province and prompted Beijing to send fighter jets to patrol the frontier, but stopped short of admitting responsibility for the incident after weeks of clashes between the Myanmar army and ethnic Kokang rebels.

Strong currents on Sunday hampered efforts to retrieve the bodies of victims of a ferry accident which killed at least 34 people off western Myanmar, as hopes dimmed for the missing.

The "Aung Takon 3" sank late Friday after leaving the town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state.

Beijing will "resolutely" protect citizens near its southwestern border, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday after a bomb dropped by a Myanmar warplane killed five people on Chinese territory.

China has sent fighter jets to patrol the border after the incident, in which a bomb hit a sugarcane field in Lincang in Yunnan province on Friday, killing five workers and injuring eight others.

China sent fighter jets to patrol its border with Myanmar after a bomb dropped by a Myanmar warplane killed four Chinese in southwestern Yunnan province, state media reported Saturday.

The bomb hit a sugarcane field in Lincang city on Friday, killing four workers and injuring nine others, China's official news agency Xinhua said.

Rescuers were frantically searching for survivors Saturday after an overloaded ferry sank in rough waters off the coast of western Myanmar killing more than 30 people and leaving at least a dozen more missing. 

The "Aung Takon 3" went down late Friday after leaving the town of Kyaukphyu on its way to Sittwe in western Rakhine state, police said.

The United Nations criticized Friday a crackdown on student-led protests in Myanmar this week, demanding that the demonstrators be released and that the country investigate reports of excessive police force.

Student-led rallies calling for education reform have twice been brutally suppressed in Myanmar in recent days.

Former U.S. president George W. Bush on Thursday hit out at a crackdown on student-led protests in Myanmar which have sparked international alarm, calling for the swift release of those arrested.

In a joint statement with his wife, ex-first lady Laura Bush, the former U.S. leader urged Myanmar to free student leader Phyoe Phyoe Aung, who is a part of a forum run by the Bush Institute.