The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed virtually on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Thomas Andrews, a former U.S. congressman from Maine who is the U.N. special investigator on Myanmar, called for free and fair elections but expressed concerns about the denial of the vote to Rohingya Muslims and others based on race, ethnicity or religion.

Kyaw Tint Swe, Myanmar's minister for the office of the state counsellor, also said the militant group — the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, known as ARSA — and another insurgent group, the Arakan Army guerrilla force, have used Bangladesh as a sanctuary in their separate campaigns against the government.

U.N. ambassador Bob Rae says Canada and the Netherlands will be making a joint submission to the International Criminal Court based on the legal issues that arise from the solders' confessions.

The reports said the men were taken to The Hague in the Netherlands, where they could appear as witnesses or face trial.

Gambia filed the case last fall on behalf of the 57 Muslim countries in the Organization of Islamic Co-operation under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

David Lah was jailed for holding church services in defiance of a ban on gatherings during the outbreak.

Hpakant is a rough and remote area in Kachin state, 950 kilometres (600 miles) north of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon.

The miners were collecting stones in the jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin state when a "muddy wave" caused by heavy rain buried them.

In a unanimous 17-0 decision on Thursday, the International Court of Justice rejected Myanmar's argument that the deaths of the Rohingya were part of an "armed military conflict."