Japanese firm FutureLeap claims it has just the thing for in-the-mood couch potatoes with a virtual reality system so realistic you’d swear that cyber date just whispered sweet nothings in your ear.

The company showed off its high-tech romance gear at the three-day Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality exhibition in Tokyo.

At FutureLeap’s booth, a young model kneels on a fluffy carpet as she tosses balloons in the air, blows bubbles and flirts with a man wearing VR headgear who is sitting some two metres (6.5 feet) away.

He reaches out to touch her shoulder and gets nothing but air. When she whispers into the device though, he can feel the sensation of her breath on his ear.

Most virtual reality romance games feature an animated companion rather than a real person, said company employee Tomoyuki Takahashi.

But in this case, “you feel the real sensation as if you were together alone with a woman who is just your type,” he said.

“This type of realistic sensation will become the main trend in virtual reality technology.”

Other companies have even moved away from offerings that require a VR headset.

LiveCartoon CEO Shohei Tsuji, covered head to toe in motion sensors, demonstrated the company’s newest product by showing off his best dance moves while a pretty female anime character mimicked his steps on screen.

The system, Tsuji said, could be used by retailers who want to interact with customers by having the cutesy character engage passersby while the person who controls the character remains out of sight.

“With this system you can have animated characters talking directly to customers,” he said.

Dr Wee said on Thursday that the decision was made to address the shortage of raw materials faced by the Malaysian furniture industry.

He added that the decision was made by the Cabinet before Hari Raya following complaints from the furniture industry and exporters.

Dr Wee said this in a press conference after attending the Permas state seat Hari Raya open house hosted by Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

He said that the shortage of raw materials was highlighted during a meeting with the Muar Furniture Association and Malaysia Furniture Council recently as one of the two main factors affecting the furniture industry.

He said some RM200mil to RM300mil of raw rubberwood is exported yearly to countries such as Vietnam and China, adding that this was hurting the Malaysian furniture industry.

“We sell the raw materials to other countries to process and sell back to us. So by keeping the raw materials in our country, we are able to add value to our industry, address the shortage and create more opportunities,” he said.

The three-day visit is Xi’s first since becoming leader in 2013 and comes at a time when there are growing fears that Beijing is threatening semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s freedoms.

High-profile pro-democracy campaigners including Joshua Wong and young legislator Nathan Law were arrested Wednesday night for causing “public nuisance” after staging a protest outside the convention centre that will host some of the anniversary events, a stone’s throw away from the hotel where Xi will be staying.

More than 20 activists remained in custody Thursday morning as supporters gathered at the police station where they were being held.

“They want to prevent people like Joshua Wong and Nathan Law from going onto the streets,” said fellow activist Derek Lam who was among supporters waiting outside.

The area around the convention centre has been cordoned off by giant water-filled barricades and police have said they are taking “counter terrorism security measures” to ensure Xi’s safety.

Animosity towards Beijing has grown in recent years, particularly among young people.

The failure of mass rallies in 2014 to win democratic reform has sparked a new wave of “localist” activists, keen to emphasise Hong Kong’s own identity, with some calling for a full split from the mainland.

Since the return to China in 1997, the city has been governed under a “one country, two systems” deal that gives it rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary.

But there are now concerns Beijing is trampling the agreement by interfering in a range of areas, from politics to education and media.

Chinese authorities and local officials insist Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status is intact, but have railed against calls for self-determination or independence.

Party atmosphere

Although young activists have promised to continue protesting during Xi’s visit, other residents said they would celebrate his trip to Hong Kong.

Stages were set up in squares opposite the convention centre for music and dancing with excited crowds gathering ahead of his arrival.

“It should be an honour to get the number one person in China to come to a very small city,” said one 38-year-old man at the gathering who gave his name as Mr Fan.

“He’s offered three days to Hong Kong — it’s a luxury,” he added, saying that things were better in the city than under British rule.

Xi’s visit will culminate in the inauguration of new city leader Carrie Lam, who was appointed by a pro-China committee.

She has promised to heal divisions but has already alarmed critics by saying children should be instilled with Chinese identity from a young age and suggesting that independence activists could face punishment under the law.

A Beijing-backed framework for what would have been the city’s first public leadership election sparked the protests of 2014 after it said candidates must be vetted.

Since then, the debate on promised democratic reforms has stalled with Lam saying she is unsure the time is right to revisit it.

Lam has said she wants to focus on livelihood issues instead, in a city where the wealth gap is at a record high and many cannot afford decent housing, fuelling tensions.

Xi is due to fly out of Hong Kong on Saturday, after Lam’s inauguration.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, whose penname derives from her daughter’s nickname “mushroom”, was arrested in October 2016 for critical Facebook posts about politics and the environment.

Vietnam’s one-party state keeps a tight clamp on dissent and routinely jails activists, bloggers and lawyers who speak out against the communist regime.

A court clerk confirmed Quynh’s trial started Thursday morning, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Quynh’s mother, who was allowed to briefly see her daughter Wednesday for the first time since she was detained, said she has little hope for a verdict of not guilty.

“My daughter has done nothing wrong, but they have been so brutal and repressive,” Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan said.

AFP was banned from attending the trial in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, and photos on Facebook showed the courthouse heavily guarded by police.

Quynh was a vocal critic of Vietnam’s human rights record, civilian deaths in police custody and the government’s handling of a toxic leak that killed tonnes of fish last year.

She was arrested in Nha Trang on October 10 as she was visiting a fellow activist in prison.

She was charged under Article 88 of Vietnam’s criminal code and held incommunicado with no access to lawyers until June 20, according to her attorney Nguyen Kha Thanh.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged authorities to release the 37-year-old blogger this week, calling the trial “outrageous”.

“The scandal here is not what Mother Mushroom said, but Hanoi’s stubborn refusal to repeal draconian, rights-abusing laws that punish peaceful dissent and tarnish Vietnam’s international reputation,” Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director said in a statement Wednesday.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have all called for Quynh’s release.

She received an International Woman of Courage Award from the US State Department in March, which Vietnam said was “not appropriate and of no benefit for the development of relations between the two countries”.

In 2015, Quynh was awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year by a Sweden-based international advocacy group.

The office of Switzerland’s attorney general (OAG) confirmed that three people were arrested in the western canton of Vaud last Friday and Saturday, suspected of violating “the prohibition of groups like Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and similar organisations.”

They were also suspected of participating in a “criminal organisation”, it said.

A fourth man — reportedly a taxi driver suspected of being an Islamic State recruiter — was arrested in Geneva on June 14. There was no apparent link with the other three, according to the OAG.

Swiss authorities have not revealed the identities or the nationalities of those arrested.

In the most dramatic case, police swooped on a car outside a busy mall in Aubonne, Vaud on Saturday, in what one onlooker said looked like a scene straight out of an “American movie”.

“It was surreal,” the witness told the 20 Minutes daily, describing how heavily-armed police had blindfolded and taken the driver away.

Other witnesses told the paper that police had also taken away his passenger, a woman wearing a headscarf and with a child on her lap.

But the OAG stressed Wednesday that all of those arrested were men, without explaining how the woman in the car figured in the case.

It also denied reports that those arrested had been in possession of explosives, insisting in a statement that “no traces of explosives have been found until now.”

OAG information chief Andre Marty did however tell the Le Temps daily that the Aubonne arrests were made because it was believed the suspects “might pose an immediate danger.”

Police had first arrested another person in Vaud on Friday, and Marty said investigators were now seeking to determine the connection between the three.

The man arrested in Geneva earlier this month was  not believed to have any connection with those arrested in Vaud, he said, insisting it would be “a complete exaggeration to talk about the dismantlement of a terrorist network.”

Swiss authorities are currently investigating some 60 cases linked to suspected jihadist terrorism, the OAG said, stressing that most of those cases revolve around the spread of jihadist propaganda over the internet.

“Nothing justifies alarmism,” it said.

Prosecutors said there was “sufficient evidence to charge six individuals with criminal offences” including manslaughter by negligence, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office.

Barry Devonside, whose 18-year-old son Christopher died in the tragedy, was with other relatives when the charges were announced.

“Everybody applauded when it was announced that the most senior police officer on that particular day will have charges presented to him,” he said.

Former South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officer David Duckenfield, who was the match commander on the day of the crush, was charged with “manslaughter by gross negligence.”

“We will allege that David Duckenfield’s failures to discharge his personal responsibility were extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to the deaths of each of those 96 people who so tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives,” said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

It said he could not be charged with the manslaughter of Tony Bland — the 96th casualty — as he died almost four years later.

Former officer Norman Bettison was charged with four offences of misconduct in public office relating to “telling alleged lies about his involvement in the aftermath of Hillsborough and the culpability of fans.”

Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the charging decision but told parliament it would “be a day of mixed emotions” for the families.

“I think that is an important step forward,” she said.

No charges for ambulance services

Other officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster, along with SYP solicitor Peter Metcalf, were charged with intending “to pervert the course of public justice” by allegedly attempting to cover-up the police’s culpability in the crush at the FA Cup semi-final.

Graham Mackrell, former secretary at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, whose Hillsborough ground hosted the match, faces three charges over safety failings at the stadium.

Two investigations into the disaster produced files on 23 suspects for prosecutors to consider criminal charges.

The disaster occurred on April 15, 1989 during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, in Sheffield, northern England.

Following the publication of a report by the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012, which concluded that police had sought to cover up their failings, two separate probes were launched.

Operation Resolve looked at the lead-up to the tragedy and the day of the match.

More than 170 allegations of police misconduct were probed by the investigations.

Assistant Commissioner Robert Beckley, who led Operation Resolve, said it had submitted files containing over 35 million words for consideration.

The CPS decided against charging six officers over their conduct in planning for the match due to lack of clarity of their roles, and also three ambulance service employees over the emergency response.

The CPS was “critical of the overall (emergency) response but is unable to quantify the effect that any failings had on the victims,” it said.

Sheffield Wednesday also escaped charges as “there are no longer any directors or other individuals who form the company and therefore no-one who could represent it in the dock, give instructions to answer any criminal charge or enter a plea.”

The defendants, except Duckenfield, will appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on August 8.////AFT

India’s shipping ministry said a private terminal run by Danish sea transport giant A.P. Moller-Maersk at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai had been affected.

Maersk earlier tweeted that the attack had impacted “multiple sites and business units”, without confirming which ones.

“It (JPNT) has been informed by the private terminal operator that this disruption is a consequence of a worldwide disruption being faced by them because of a cyberattack,” said the statement.

“While the terminal operator is taking steps to address the issues disrupting the operations, it is anticipated that there could be bunching of in-bound and out-bound container cargo,” it added.

The series of cyberattacks began in Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday, hitting government and corporate computer systems across the world as the virus spread to western Europe and across the Atlantic.

Several multinational companies said they were targeted, including US pharmaceutical giant Merck, Russian state oil giant Rosneft, British advertising giant WPP and the French industrial group Saint-Gobain.

The first reports of trouble came from Ukrainian banks, Kiev’s main airport and Rosneft, in a major incident reminiscent of the recent WannaCry virus.

Some IT experts identified the virus as “Petrwrap”, a modified version of the Petya ransomware which hit last year and demanded money from victims in exchange for the return of their data.

However global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said they thought it was not a variant of Petya ransomware “but a new ransomware that has not been seen before”.

India’s shipping ministry said it was “alive to the situation and are taking steps to ensure minimum disturbance to trade, transporters and more importantly local citizens”.

The cyberattacks recalled the WannaCry ransomware outbreak last month which hit more than 150 countries and a total of more than 200,000 victims.

The helicopter assault comes a day after Maduro announced the arrests of five opponents he accused of plotting against him to clear the way for a US invasion.

The beleaguered president, who for weeks has been thundering about alleged coup attempts against him, said the helicopter was flown by a pilot who worked for a former minister.

Around 15 shots were fired at the Interior Ministry, Maduro added.

“I have activated the entire armed forces to defend the peace,” he said in remarks from the Miraflores presidential palace.

“Sooner or later, we are going to capture that helicopter and those that carried out this terror attack.”

No one was hurt in the incident, he said.

The government identified the helicopter pilot as a former member of Venezuela’s main police force, known as the CICPC.

Maduro called on the opposition MUD alliance to denounce the attack but one of its leaders, Freddy Guevara, tweeted there was not yet enough information to comment.

Guevara urged people to take part in anti-government rallies Wednesday — the latest in nearly three months of daily streets protests that have left 76 people dead.

Photos circulating on social media showed a helicopter flying over Caracas with a banner that read “350 Freedom” — alluding to a constitutional clause recently invoked by the opposition to assert the Maduro government’s lack of legitimacy.

The photos showed two people on the chopper, one with his face covered with a mask and the other with it visible.

Videos on social media showed a man who identified himself as a CICPC detective and said he was fighting tyranny, wants Maduro to resign and for Venezuela to hold early elections.

– Anti-US tirade –

==================

Earlier Tuesday, Maduro repeated claims of a US-backed coup attempt and angrily warned President Donald Trump that Venezuela would fight back against such a move.

“If Venezuela were dragged into chaos and violence… we would fight,” Maduro bellowed in a speech to supporters.

If a coup prevented his side fulfilling his contested reform plans, he said, “we would achieve it by arms.”

He said an armed intervention in his country would spark a crisis that would dwarf those caused by conflicts in the Middle East.

Addressing Trump, he said: “You are responsible for restraining the madness of the Venezuelan right-wing.”

The opposition regularly accuses Maduro of repressing and jailing opponents. Judicial NGO Foro Penal says there are 383 political prisoners in Venezuela.

Addressing a crowd over the weekend, Maduro said detainees would face military trial over an alleged coup plot, backed by Venezuelan opposition leaders and aimed at precipitating a US intervention in the country.

“I am not exaggerating when I say it would have involved the arrival of American ships and troops in Venezuelan waters, on Venezuelan soil,” Maduro said.

And on Saturday the head of the Organization of American States dug his heels in a war of words with Caracas, flatly rejecting its demand that he resign.

Maduro had suggested that Luis Almagro — who has criticised the Venezuelan government for violating human rights, interfering in elections and detaining political prisoners — step down in exchange for the country’s continued membership in the regional body.

Though Almagro dismissed that notion, the OAS General Assembly was unable to reach agreement on a plan to deal with the instability in Venezuela at a meeting in Cancun last week.

Deputy Director General of the Lao Railway Department under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Mr Sonesack N. Nhansana, told Vientiane Times yesterday that authorities in charge are working toward organising a bidding process to seek a consultant firm and contractor to carry out construction at the expected date.

To be developed under the phase II, the extended line will be built over a distance of 7.5km to link the track from the outlying Thanalaeng railway station in Hadxaifong district to Khamsavat village in inner Saysettha district.

Laos now has only 3.5 km of rail line linking its capital with Thailand’s Nong Khai province via the Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge. When the extension is complete, it will boast 11 km of track.

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith told the authorities in charge to work towards resuming construction of the extension in 2017 during his visit to Thanalaeng railway station in December 2016.

Mr Sonesack said finance was available to fund the project as Thailand had provided more than 203 billion kip (more than 900 million baht), of which 30 percent was in the form of a grant and 70 percent was a low-interest loan.

Once construction resumes, it would take about two years to complete the project, Mr Sonesack said.

He explained the project was previously suspended because Lao authorities wanted to study in detail how services of the 1-metre standard gauge Laos-Thailand track could be integrated with the 1.435-metre standard-gauge track width of the Laos-China railway, which is now under construction.

The authorities have now agreed that one of the stations planned for Vientiane as part of the 427-km Laos-China railway, which will link Vientiane to the Chinese border, will be built in Thanalaeng village so the two lines’ services are integrated.

Deputy Head of the Railway Management Division, Mr Khamphet Sisamouth told Vientiane Times previously that he was optimistic that once the extension was finished and operational, it would result in a significant increase in passenger numbers and tourist arrivals.

He justified that the planned railway station in Khamsavat village would be just 4km from the city centre (That Luang) and at 17km was shorter than travelling from That Luang to Thanalaeng railway station using the existing road network.

Thanalaeng railway station, the only station of Laos’ 3.5 km railway, handles 2,500 to 3,000 passengers a month, Mr Khamphet said, adding the station has registered growing numbers of passengers these days.

“Passengers keep asking why we don’t extend the track into the city centre,” he added.

Work on Phase II of the railway began a few years ago, including construction of a container yard, dormitories for staff, and a rail operations office, as well as improvements to the signals.

More than 173 billion kip (650 million baht) provided by Thailand was spent on this work, of which 30 percent was given as a loan and the remainder was a low-interest loan.

IN A factory in the north of Perth, a group of elderly West Australians make and assemble sturdy wheelchairs, which are sent to needy kids around the world.

These people are retirees – many of them volunteers in their 70s – happy to do occasional manual work for a charity that can transform life for disabled children in developing countries.

Just this week another container load of wheelchairs was loaded and dispatched to Thailand. The destination is a famous clinic on the Thai-Myanmar border.

The container is the second sent this year to Kanchana Thornton, a Thai-Australian nurse who has been doing inspirational things for some of the region’s most needy kids for over a decade.

Kanchana runs the Burma Children’s Medical Fund, a facility that operates from the Mae Tao Clinic set up by Karen refugee Dr Cynthia Maung.

Some of these wheelchairs have in the past gone to poor Thai families, but most are now destined for remote villages in Karen State in eastern Myanmar.

Thailand has very serious wealth inequality, but levels of poverty and hardship are far worse in ethnic areas across the border.

Myanmar has a medical system that for years received one of the

lowest outlays on healthcare anywhere in the world, and a ratio of health workers well below the global average. In 2013, just over 3 per cent of Myanmar’s budget was allocated to health, while funding for defence was more than 20 per cent.

Spending on health has risen since the Thein Sein administration, but

it is still way below demand – the country had one of the highest rates of out-of-pocket (private) spending on health in the world (82 per cent of total health spending) in 2015.

Cities like Yangon and Mandalay have undergone a boom in recent years, thanks to improved relations with the West and a surge in foreign investment. But there has been

limited change in ethnic areas in the north, east and west – particularly those plagued by conflict.

‘150 kids die in Myanmar every day’

A year after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy took power in 2015, the Tatmadaw retains control of key ministries and is showing no sign of cooling military

campaigns that have displaced millions over the past 30 years. Her push for peace has made minimal progress – while the children of Myanmar pay a dreadful price for the military’s desire to crush their ethnic rivals.

Unicef, the UN’s agency focused on child welfare, sought to draw attention – prior to the second Panglong peace summit in May – to the plight of 2.2 million children suffering because of protracted crises in Rakhine, Kachin, Shan and Karen states.

Unicef’s deputy executive director Justin Forsyth met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander of the Myanmar Army, and visited camps for the displaced.

“Myanmar faces a real challenge in ensuring that children everywhere – not just in urban areas – gain from the country’s rapid development,” Forsyth said.

Families in IDP camps were

facing great hardship, he said. Many UN and non-government organisations were working hard to help these

people.

“But we need to solve some of the root causes of this problem.”

Forsyth said the 2014 census showed that up to 150 children under the age of five die every day in Myanmar, mainly from birth complications and infectious diseases. Nearly a third of all kids suffer

moderate or severe malnutrition.

Landmines are still a big problem. Nine of country’s 14 states and

divisions are contaminated with mines or remnants of war from past or ongoing conflicts. Unicef says every three days a person is a victim of

landmines, and on average, one of those three is a child.

AT the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, the lack of progress in the peace talks and lingering hardship in remote areas has surprised no-one. Ethnic groups have known for years that the military are indifferent to their

suffering, particularly near conflict zones.

Surveys by groups such as the Backpack Medics a decade ago indicated maternal and infant death rates as bad as areas in war-torn Africa. The figures have improved, but are still among the worst in Asia.

Nonetheless, there have been glimmers of hope. Kanchana, the BCMF director, is spending more time in Myanmar, meeting with

doctors and medical staff at various hospitals and clinics.

“People are much more open to discuss their situation,” she said. “They want to talk to you about getting help. Hospital doctors are also going to remote areas – on days off, to assess and treat patients.

“The medical profession is willing to talk, so we’re trying to work with them. And they’re happy to work with us.”

The BCMF has set up an office in Hpa-an, the capital of Karen/Kayin State, to build local capacity and work with partners such as the Ananda Myitta Clinic in Hpa-an, Karen State, and Mawlamyine Christian Leprosy Hospital in Mon State.

On the Thai Burma border more than 100,000 Burmese flock to the Mae Tao Clinic every year, as it treats most patients for free – migrant workers in Mae Sot as well as refugees from border camps such as Mae La, plus poor Karen and others from many parts of Myanmar.

For the past 10 years, the BCMF has sent a vanload of sick children to hospitals such as Suan Dok in Chiang Mai for surgery, which has often been lifesaving. It pays the cost of logistics and operations then brings the kids and their parents back, once they have recuperated at the Fund’s ‘Patient House’ in Chiang Mai.

Dr Cynthia, the BCMF and Mae Tao staff moved recently to new buildings further from the city centre. The Bt300 fare to get there, from Mae Sot town, has reduced the number of outpatients. But demand for free and affordable medical care from people in Myanmar has not abated; facilities over the border remain very basic and clinics often lack proper equipment and drugs.

The BCMF is now a major part of the clinic’s services, with 22 staff, including foreigners, Karen and Burmese interns, who help raise over half a million dollars in funds every year – from the US, Australia, Switzerland and Thailand, as well as donors in the UK and all around the world.

It operates five vans, and “every van is full and there are waiting lists for patients” wanting treatment, Kanchana said. They also support surgical projects, such as Operation Smile, eye screening, health education and stationary for “jungle schools”, give out mosquito nets, and of course, distribute the wheelchairs from Perth.

The big news is some cases are being referred back to Myanmar. Adults with heart problems have been sent to a cardiac surgeon in Yangon, while “simple cases” go to the Leprosy Hospital in Mawlamyine.

“But we [BCMF] help pay with surgical costs,” she said.

Kanchana, it seems, has found her life’s calling. Born in Bangkok, she

did a nursing degree and graduate diploma in child and family health at Sydney’s University of Technology after moving Down Under at the age of 14.

In 2001, following stints working at some of the biggest hospitals in Sydney she returned to Thailand with her husband Phil. She then travelled back as an Australian Volunteer, a vocational scheme funded by the Australian government’s AusAID that helped send hundreds of professionals to positions of need in the developing world each year.  After a few years at the clinic, there were so many complicated long-term medical cases she felt compelled to stay.

She said at that time: “There are many kids that need operations and it’s hard to organise transport to Chiang Mai. I just asked for an extension [as a volunteer], thinking ‘What will happen to all these kids if I go back?’

“I don’t think it’s fair to give them hope and dump them when you can resolve their problems.”

Thai health officials were understanding, she said. “I think they realise the clinic takes a lot of burden of patients that would otherwise go to their hospital and would be a big cost for them. Staff at the hospitals in Chiang Mai have a good understanding of the patients’ situation, she said.

“It’s the Thai authorities who let it happen by letting me take these kids to Chiang Mai, to let these kids have a chance to have a healthy life. And it’s not a big burden to the local

hospitals.”

Life and death decisions are made on a regular basis. Sometimes it comes down to money. BCMF is estimated to have saved about 2,000 children’s lives, but Kanchana realises there is a limit to what they can do.

“If an operation is too complicated and costs a lot, we can’t do it. It’s all due to the funding. We talk to the doctors in Chiang Mai and if the

prognosis is good, we try to do it.”

Mae Tao founder Dr Cynthia has won many awards, but the BCMF head has also been recognised. In 2007, Kanchana received the Paul Harris Medal from Rotary for her distinguished service. Then last month, she won US$50,000 (Bt1.7 million) from The One, a humanitarian award by Rotary International District 3450 in Hong Kong – money she intends to spend on solar panels and equipment for clean-water for “jungle

clinics” in Ler Per Her and other remote villages in Karen State.

But seeing chirpy kids and happy families seems to give her the greatest lift. “A little help can change their life,” she said.

With the Tatmadaw seemingly set on maintaining its power and influence, the border clinic and its vital service for kids could remain busy for many years yet.