Freelance fashion photographer Muhammad Fadli Bin Abdul Rahman, 26, was in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for work. Fadli was travelling with his friend Nur Qistina Fitriah Ibrahim, 37, also known to family and friends as Fifi. Nur is a transgender person who has legally changed the name but has not undergone a sex-change operation to become a woman.

Speaking to The Straits Times, Nur’s 34-year-old younger sister, who wanted to be known only as Madam Rozy, said: “Fifi has not undergone gender reassignment surgery, so her personal documents still state her gender as male. We are a very close-knit family and are very worried for her.”

Fadli and Nur landed in Abu Dhabi on Aug 8, and were arrested at the food court of a shopping mall the next day.

An official court document in Arabic said two Singaporean men were caught wearing women’s clothes in public, and for behaving indecently. Cross-dressing, homosexuality and being transgender are crimes in the UAE.

Madam Rozy said Nur gone on holiday to the UAE about four times before and came home safely each time. She said: “We have a family WhatsApp group and Fifi often sends us messages whenever she’s away. This time, she suddenly went silent and this was out of character. A few days later, we received a voice message from her saying she had been arrested. I was shocked.”

Fadli’s brother, Muhammad Saiful Bahri Bin Abdul Rahman, 32, who works in the property management sector, said his brother was wearing “a normal white shirt”. Fadli sent his family a picture of himself, just before he got arrested.

Saiful said his family was informed about his brother’s arrest by Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) last week. Then on Monday, they were told that Fadli had been sentenced to a year’s jail on Sunday (Aug 20).

Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, in an e-mail to the family seen by The Straits Times, said: “I’m sorry to hear about this. Rest assured that our consular and mission colleagues will do their best to assist your brother. I understand that they are already in contact with you and your brother. Please let me know if you need further assistance.”

Both Singaporeans were not represented by a lawyer in the Abu Dhabi court, Saiful said. “My brother was not present in court, and nobody from the Singapore embassy was there either, so he could not have defended himself.”

The Straits Times understands they can both file an appeal 15 days after the judgment, on Sept 4.

Local activist Vanessa Ho, who shares an apartment with Fadli, said she is trying to get a lawyer in Abu Dhabi to represent the two Singaporeans.

Ho said: “We found that the American embassy has a very good handbook about detention in Abu Dhabi. It says citizens have a right to make a phone call home but Fadli has not contacted anyone.”

In a post on LinkedIn, non-government organisation Detained in Dubai’s chief executive Radha Stirling wrote: “The UAE has built a tolerant, cosmopolitan image, but the laws continue to reflect the conservative, traditional values of the society. It is not uncommon for visitors to be confused about what is or is not acceptable behaviour.”

MFA, in response to queries, said it is aware of this case and is rendering consular assistance. “We are also assisting the family gets legal advice,” said an MFA spokesman

Wisma Putra said in a statement that the prime minister will be undertaking a working visit to Washington at the invitation of Trump.

“At the invitation of the President of the United States of America, Donald J Trump, the Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Tun Razak will undertake a working visit to Washington, DC on Sept 12, 2017. Malaysia and United States of America looks forward to celebrating the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties, which have been enhanced under the Prime Minister’s leadership to a comprehensive partnership based on shared interests. The two leaders are expected to discuss areas of mutually beneficial cooperation, including national security, the global fight against terrorism and extremism, and trade and investment that will benefit our nations and our peoples,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The White House in a statement said: “President Trump looks forward to celebrating the 60th anniversary of United States-Malaysia bilateral relations and discussing ways to strengthen and broaden our bilateral relationship and expand regional cooperation with one of America’s closest partners in Southeast Asia.”

Hosted by the English-language Vientiane Times newspaper and supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme Asia, ANN plans to cement a number of initiatives to meet the world’s growing interest in and demand for news from Asia.

“Asia’s landscapes are changing rapidly, whether it is regional security, politics, technology innovation or lifestyle,” said ANN executive director Pana Janviroj. “ANN members are working together on quality reporting for our readers and viewers around the world.”

Thonglor Duangsavanh, director general of Lao Press in Foreign Languages and editor-in-chief of the Vientiane Times, said the meeting in Laos underscores his newspaper’s commitment to working with other Asian media.

The Vientiane Times is also arranging for ANN members to get a better understanding of developments in Laos. It has organised briefing sessions on the new rail networks linking Southeast Asia and China and on next year’s “Visit Laos Year”.

ANN, a 17-year-old organisation and the world’s largest and most active media alliance of its kind, is set to re-launch a website in the fourth quarter of this year, along with its global e-newsletter edited out of offices in Delhi and Bangkok.

Selected members will also launch a database service out of Singapore shortly, and ANN is stepping up cooperation in video sharing and co-production via Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.

ANN members exchange news and photos on a daily basis, carry commentaries from member media, and organise new-media workshops for journalists and public conferences. The alliance works closely with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Programme Asia.

ANN holds two key meetings annually, one among editors-in-chief and another among the news editors.

Participants in the Vientiane meeting will discuss ongoing collaborations and pan-Asian news topics to be pursued together, Pana said.

The ANN has as members the Korea Herald, China Daily, China Post, Gogo in Mongolia, Yomiuri Shimbun and the Japan News in Japan, Dawn in Pakistan, the Statesman in India, the Island in Sri Lanka, Kuensel in Bhutan, the Kathmandu Post in Nepal, the Daily Star in Bangladesh, Eleven Media in Myanmar, The Nation in Thailand, the Jakarta Post in Indonesia, the Star and Sin Chew Daily in Malaysia, the Phnom Penh Post and Rasmei Kampuchea in Cambodia, the Borneo Bulletin in Brunei, the Straits Times in Singapore, and the Vietnam News, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Vientiane Times.

In a world of connected societies, border demarcation has been essential. When countries share a border, territorial disputes arise over tracts of land or water that are claimed by different independent countries.

China, the most populous nation on the planet, has 16 unique land neighbours, with 22,147km of land borders. It has border dispute with some of its neighbours including the biggest outstanding border conflict with India.

Both the countries have been involved in a stand-off along part of their 3,500km shared border. The two nations fought a war over the border in 1962 and disputes remain unresolved in several areas.

Since June this year both the countries are locked in a border confrontation after India opposed China’s attempt to extend a border road through a plateau known as Doklam in India and Donglang in China. Bhutan, meanwhile, claims that Doklam is in its territory.

India has the second longest land border in Asia with a total land borders of 13,889 km and its shares borders with 7 countries.  Its biggest land border is with Bangladesh. However its border with Pakistan often remains tense. India-Pakistan border, particularly the line of Control which divides both countries in Kashmir, is one of the most heavily militarised frontiers in the world.

With 8082 km of land border, Mongolia’s frontiers are relatively open and peaceful. Mongolia is followed by Pakistan (7,257 km), Myanmar (6,522 km), Laos (5,274 km) Thailand (5,673 km), Vietnam (4,616 km), Bangladesh (4,413 km) and Nepal (3,159 km) in having the longest land border.

Five Asian countries Japan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Taiwan have no land border with other countries.

The attack in the village of Amchide, near the Nigerian border, was confirmed on Wednesday by a member of the self-defence force who requested anonymity, as well as by a security source in the capital, Yaounde.

“I was in my sector when I heard a large explosion in another part of the town,” the self-defence source said.

“We saw that a boy had blown himself up in the middle of a group from the security committee,” he said.

Two people were killed immediately, while two others died from their wounds later, he added.

Attacks attributed to Boko Haram fighters have flared in northern Cameroon in recent weeks after months of relative calm, often targeting self-defence groups set up to respond to the jihadist threat.

On August 5, a similar attack in the village of Ouro-Kessoum, also near the Nigerian border, killed eight people, following a double suicide attack nearby in July that killed 15.

Boko Haram’s bloody eight-year armed insurgency, initially focussed on northeast Nigeria, has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million.

The United Nations on Tuesday warned against the group’s surging use of children, mainly girls, as human bombs.

Since the beginning of the year, 83 children have been used to carry out bomb attacks in northeast Nigeria, Unicef said, four times as many attacks as in all of 2016.

Local media showed severe flooding had left cars underwater and people swimming in Macau’s city streets, with the territory’s mega-casinos running on back-up generators.

Three men aged 30 to 65 died, the Macau government said, while two people were missing. One of the men died after being injured by a wall that blew down, another fell from a fourth floor terrace and the last was a Chinese tourist hit by a truck.

Apple Daily showed footage of people swimming through muddy water in what are usually roads, and being swept off their feet by winds.

The sprawling Venetian casino resort was on back-up power and without air conditioning or proper lighting, according to one source.

Scaffolding at a construction site partialy collapses during the passing of Typhoon Hato at Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, China, 23 August 2017. // EPA PHOTO

One employee of Sands, which owns the Venetian and the Parisian, said power had been out across the whole of Macau but was beginning to return.

“Because many guests come in the summer, a lot of them have been stuck in the major resorts and casinos,” the employee said.

“All transportations — air, ground, sea — have halted, so customers who have checked out cannot leave yet.”

Electricity was still down at the Grand Lisboa Wednesday afternoon, with the casino and restaurants there out of action, a staff member told AFP.

Residents took to social media to complain about city-wide power and mobile phone network outages.

People walk past an uprooted tree on a public housing estate after the passing of Typhoon Hato in Heng Fa Chuen, Hong Kong, China, 23 August 2017.  // EPA PHOTO

Brian Chan, 31, said authorities had failed to give enough notice of the impending storm and were not properly prepared, describing the territory as “totally lost” in the typhoon.

The water supply was also limited, authorities said, and 50 flights cancelled from its international airport.

By evening, parts of Macau were still without power.

“Some have no tap water supply. The city looks like after an attack,” Harald Bruning, editor of the Macau Post Daily, told AFP, describing it as the worst typhoon he had experienced in 30 years.

Hurricane winds and heavy rain had earlier hit Hong Kong, leaving an 83-year-old man dead after he fell into the sea, police said, and more than 80 injured.

The typhoon shut down the stock market and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the worst storm the city has seen for five years.

 – ‘Flying trees’ –

Meteorologists raised the Hong Kong’s most severe Typhoon 10 warning as the storm hit, only the third time in the past 20 years.

The typhoon passed as close as 60 kilometres (37 miles) and made landfall at noon (0400 GMT) in the southern mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.

Thousands of people were evacuated Tuesday in parts of south China in preparation for the typhoon’s arrival, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Hato sent metres-high waves crashing into Hong Kong’s shorelines with flooding knee deep in some areas.

A man wades through floodwaters on a street after heavy rains brought on by Typhoon Hato in Hong Kong on August 23, 2017.  // AFP PHOTO

Swathes of marine rubbish washed up on beaches and in coastal residential areas, including white globs of palm oil which have been coming ashore since a massive spillage at sea earlier this month.

Gusts of up to 207 kilometres per hour brought flying debris, tearing down trees and scaffolding and smashing skyscraper windows.

Fallen trees cut off roads to parts of the territory.

More than 400 flights were cancelled, with flag carrier Cathay Pacific axing most of its departures until 5:00 pm (0900 GMT).

The airline said it had begun to reschedule the flights with some taking off Wednesday evening.

As the storm moved away, the observatory gradually reduced its warning signal to a Typhoon 1, the lowest level, although it said there would still be strong offshore winds and the rain continued.

Hong Kong is regularly besieged by typhoons between July and October, but direct hits are rare.

The city saw its strongest storm in 1962 when the eye of typhoon Wanda passed over and gusts of 284 kilometres per hour were recorded.

It killed 130 people and destroyed thousands of residential huts, leaving 72,000 people homeless.

A man tries to walk along the prominade in Tsim Sha Tsui against winds from Typhoon Hato as dark skies hover over the Hong Kong island skyline on August 23, 2017.// AFP PHOTO

“In Myanmar we can’t afford much to bring students to the real world experience,” beamed Hla Hla Win, a teacher and tech entrepreneur taking virtual reality into the classroom.

“If they’re learning about animals we can’t take them to the zoo… 99 per cent of parents don’t have time, don’t have money, don’t have the means,” she added.

Few countries in the world have experienced such rapid discovery of technology than Myanmar which has leapfrogged from the analogue to the digital era in just a few years.

In this photograph taken on August 11, 2017, a man wears a VR goggles as he watches some of the 360? 4K video footage that a specialized company recorded at the ancient city of Bagan and its crumbling 700-year-old buildings. // AFP PHOTO

During the decades of outright junta rule, which ended in 2011, it was one of the world’s most isolated nations, a place where a mobile phone sim card could cost up to $3,000.

For half a century its paranoid generals cut off the country, restricting sales of computers, heavily censoring the Internet and blocking access to foreign media reports.

But today phone towers are springing up around the country and almost 80 per cent of the population have access to the Internet through smartphones, according to telecoms giant Telenor.

 – Budding startups –

Tech startups are emerging around the commercial capital Yangon, many seeking to improve the lives of rural people, most of whom still live without paved roads or electricity.

“The increase in activity from last year till now — new startups, more people determined to become entrepreneurs and working in the tech sector in general — is significant,” said Jes Kaliebe Peterson, CEO of community hub Phandeeyar.

In this photograph taken on August 7, 2017, Nyi Lin Seck uses a special viewer to watch 360?4K video that he just finished recording while documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan. // AFP PHOTO

Virtual reality is the latest advance to cause a stir, with a handful of entrepreneurs embracing tech for projects including preserving ancient temple sites to shaping young minds of the future.

The Phandeeyar incubator works with more than 140 startups. Among them Hla Hla Win’s virtual reality social enterprise 360ed which is using affordable cardboard VR goggles attached to smartphones to break down barriers in Myanmar’s classrooms.

She founded the non-profit last year after 17 years working in the woefully underfunded education system in a bid to bring learning to life.

“I see it as an empathy machine where we can teleport ourselves to another place right away,” she told AFP.

And it’s not just school children who benefit from stepping into places they could only ever dream of visiting.

360ed has used virtual reality to help Myanmar teachers attend training courses in Japan and Finland and is working on setting up deals with schools in India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.

“With VR there’s no divider, there’s no distance,” Hla Hla Win said.

 – Mapping the past –

While 360ed is thinking about the future, Nyi Lin Seck is obsessed with the past.

In this photograph taken on August 5, 2017, two tourists watch as a drone carrying a 360?4K video camera flies low documenting the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan. // AFP PHOTO

Some 600 kilometres (372 miles) north of Yangon, the budding tech entrepreneur and founder of 3xvivr Virtual Reality Production launches a large drone into the skies above Bagan, one of Myanmar’s most famous tourist sites.

The drone, which carries a 360-camera, circles one of the many ninth-to-thirteenth century temples that dot the landscape of what was once a sprawling ancient city.

The data it records allows those with virtual reality headsets to explore the temples, their crumbling centuries-old walls so close it feels like you can touch them.

A former head of the local TV station, Nyi Lin Seck says he makes most of his money providing virtual reality footage for hotels and luxury apartments.

But after an earthquake damaged the Bagan site last year, he vowed to use the tech to preserve a digital replica of Myanmar’s archaeological treasures.

“A lot of artworks on the pagodas collapsed and were lost. Using this technology, we can record up to 99 per cent of the ancient art,” he says.

In this photograph taken on August 6, 2017, Nyi Lin Seck shows some of the 360?4K video camera footage he took of the crumbling 700-year-old walls of the ancient city of Bagan to women and children residing in a Buddhist monastery located nearby. // AFP PHOTO

Trump faced bipartisan outrage after blaming “many sides” for violence at the rally in Charlottesville that took the life of an anti-fascist protester.

Re-reading his statements following the clashes at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, he railed at reporters for misrepresenting his remarks — but omitted the equivocation that had sparked the backlash in the first place.

“The very dishonest media… and I mean truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media, they make up stories. They have no sources in many cases. They say a source says there is no such thing,” he said.

US President Donald J. Trump (C) addresses the crowd during a campain rally in at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 22 August, 2017. // EPA PHOTO

“But they don’t report the facts. Just like they don’t want to report that I spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemned the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists and the KKK.”

Trump dedicated around half an hour of his 78-minute speech in Phoenix, Arizona, to attacking the “sick people” in the news media, before turning his fire on his own side.

Speculation had been building that Trump would use the rally to formally endorse a challenger to incumbent moderate Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake, in a shot across the bow of skeptical Republicans.

He mocked both Flake and fellow Arizona Republican senator John McCain, implying McCain had sabotaged Republican healthcare reforms, but elaborately avoided mentioning either by name.

– ‘Something positive’ –

Veering off script, Trump shied away from issuing a pardon for Joe Arpaio — a former sheriff in Arizona who was convicted of willfully violating a court order to stop targeting Hispanics in immigration roundups.

But he gave strong hints that he was preparing a future pardon, saying: “I think he’s going to be just fine, okay? I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had earlier told reporters there would be “no discussion” of Arpaio at the rally.

Trump voiced optimism over improvements in relations with North Korea following an escalation in aggressive rhetoric on both sides concerning Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

“I respect the fact that he is starting to respect us. And maybe — probably not, but maybe — something positive can come about,” Trump said of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, although the president repeated his opinion that he had not gone far enough in his condemnation of Kim.

The speech came at the end of a trip to Arizona the White House hopes will re-energize core supporters cooling to Trump’s crisis-riddled presidency and build momentum for a controversial border wall.

The president began his day in Yuma, touring a US Border Patrol operations base, where he chatted with border agents. He traveled to Phoenix for the raucous campaign-style rally in the evening, introduced to the crowd by Vice President Mike Pence.

His visit to the Republican state aimed to tout the benefits of a border fence, turn up the heat on reluctant allies and demonstrate the president’s determination to realise a central campaign pledge.

Trump made the case that a wall along the 2,000 mile (3,200 kilometre) desert-scarred frontier would stem the flow of migrants from the south.

Yuma “was once one of the least secure border areas in America (and) is now one of the most secure areas because of these investments in border security,” a senior administration official said ahead of Trump’s trip.

– ‘Oppose Nazis’ –

Trump had insisted that Mexico will pay for the wall — estimated to cost about $22 billion.

Having failed in that bid, he has turned to equally reticent Republicans in Congress to get US funding.

With his plan running into political quicksand, Trump needs to generate public pressure on reluctant lawmakers to support him.

In Phoenix, Trump told the rally crowd his message for “obstructionist” Democrats was that he was building the wall “if we have to close down our government.”

Thousands of pro and anti-Trump activists had lined up under a blistering sun in Phoenix hours before Trump’s arrival, many wearing the stars and stripes, hoping to get into the conference centre.

Facing a line of supporters stretching several hundred yards (metres), opponents of the president brandished placards including some that depicted him with a Hitler mustache.

“Things to do today: laundry, put out trash, oppose Nazis,” said one sign.

A series of demonstrations backing immigrants and denouncing racism were planned in the centre of Phoenix, a Democratic enclave in a state Trump narrowly won in the election.

Police fire tear gas at demonstrators trying to escape repeatedly pepper sprayings by advancing officers after a rally by President Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center on August 22, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. // AFP PHOTO

A failure on the wall would be another setback for a president who has seen his message overshadowed by controversy and his agenda thwarted by legislative missteps.

A string of aides have departed the White House during Trump’s seven months in office, including his chief of staff, two communications directors, a chief strategist and a press secretary.

Meanwhile, Republicans have become more vocal in their condemnation and polls show that Trump’s approval rating stands at 35 per cent — a historical low level for a president in his first year in office.

The commercial was made for the Miyagi Prefecture and starred its official mascot, the anthropomorphized rice ball Musubimaru, alongside gravure model and actress Mitsu Dan.

Dan is known in the entertainment industry for having an overall sexy aura and sultry voice, which was played out to maximum effect in entire commercial.

Members of Miyagi’s Prefectural Assembly and women’s advocacy groups have criticized the commercial for being excessively suggestive, according to Tohoku News via SoraNews24.

In the opening scene, Musubimaru appeared to be bored while lying on the floor. Dan starts to gently stroke the mascot’s head and eventually whispers in a sexy manner “Miyagi, I-cha-u?”

In Japanese pop culture, slowly spelling out the syllables of a word would often connote something sexual. This is further amplified by Dan’s wordplay. “Miyagi ichau” would generally mean “Let’s go to Miyagi.” However, “ichau” also means “to ejaculate” depending on the context.

Musubimaru’s nosebleed reaction to Dan’s whisper also does not help to dissipate the sexual innuendo. A nosebleed in Japanese pop culture often refers to a person having sexual thoughts.

In another scene, Dan is seen stroking the head of a flying turtle. She asks, “Can I get on top of you?” With this, the turtle visibly blushes and it’s head grows in size. Apart from the visual innuendo, there is more wordplay involved.

The Japanese word for “glans” is a combination of “kame” for “turtle” and “gashira” for “head.” Therefore, “kamegashira” which means glans, can also be literally read as “turtle head.”

Due to the complaints, the Miyagi Regional Promotion Council announced that they will be taking down the video after a promotional event on August 26 in Sendai. Dan is expected to make an appearance.

You may watch the commercial below on the Cool Miyagi Summer 2017 YouTube channel. So far, it has garnered almost four million views.

The 17-year old Kayin girl, Nyo Nyo Aye, was found dead with two bullet holes in the back of her head, and her employer reported the case as a suicide at the police station.

The employer sent the body to her relatives near the border along with US$ 150.22 on August 8.

“The DSI is performing DNA test to determine whether the gun used in the ‘suicide’ was handled by her or not,” said legal advisor Ko Ko Naing of the AAC.

“The mother of the deceased and her elder sister are temporarily staying at the AAC’s office as they do not dare to stay in their village. Although the Myanmar embassy in Thailand said they will help with the case, no help has been provided yet,” said Ye Min, head of the AAC.

Nyo Nyo Aye had worked in Lopburi for over three years and was left-handed. Many people familiar with the case have pointed out that the bullet wounds are on the right side of her head.