Khajornsak said the around-the-clock test would wait until Malaysian authorities confirmed the Bukit Kayu Hitam border checkpoint was ready for the trial.

The trial run would see both border checkpoints operate around the clock for cargo transport and logistics, rather than the usual 5am to 11pm hours. It was scheduled to kick in on Friday, with the aim of making 24-hour operations permanent on January 1, 2019 if the trial was successful.

Meanwhile Thailand’s National Security Council has requested the Foreign Affairs Ministry to check with their Malaysian counterparts to help confirm whether the trial run would take place, said the deputy governor.

“Songkhla province has had no update from the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry about Malaysia’s response,” he said. “If they cannot yet give a confirmation, it means they are still waiting for the government’s policy. We cannot just operate 24 hours a day on one side anyway.”

The top American diplomat made a flying visit to Beijing to brief China’s leadership on Tuesday’s historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

He also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Pompeo appeared with Wang in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for a brief press conference, where the two discussed the prospects for cooperation on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

But while the two world powers have worked together to pressure Pyongyang, their relations have been been fraught by tensions on other issues.

One particular sore spot has been the massive trade imbalances between the two countries, a bone of contention for Trump.

“Our deficit with China is still too high,” Pompeo warned, adding the issue was a key concern for the US president, who will decide Friday whether to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese imports.

“We hope the US will meet the Chinese half way and use a win-win, instead of lose-lose approach,” Wang said, urging Washington to refrain from “creating further obstacles to our cooperation”.

Taiwan tensions

The two sides also aired grievances over security issues, with Wang saying he had “expressed grave concerns” over recent US actions on Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province.

Beijing has consistently opposed moves by the Trump administration to strengthen ties with the self-ruled island, which split from the mainland in 1949.

Two days after the US opened a de facto embassy in Taipei, Wang said he had urged the US to “stop official exchanges and all military links with Taiwan”.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said Taiwan came up in Pompeo’s meeting with Xi.

“Xi expressed his hope that the United States will handle sensitive issues, including the Taiwan issue and economic and trade frictions, in a prudent way to avoid serious obstruction to bilateral ties,” Xinhua said.

On North Korea, Xinhua quoted the Chinese leader as saying that Beijing was committed to seeing “denuclearisation of the peninsula and its peace and stability”.

The news agency said Pompeo brought a message from Trump conveying his appreciation for Xi’s “important advice and help over the Korean Peninsula issue”.

The issue of the South China Sea was also addressed by Pompeo at his press conference with Wang.

Pompeo said he had “reaffirmed our concern with respect to China’s efforts to build and militarise outposts in the South China Sea, endangering the free flow of trade, and threatening the sovereignty of other nations and undermining regional stability”.

Beijing has transformed reefs and islets in the resource-rich region’s waters into artificial islands capable of hosting military facilities.

China had pledged it would not militarise the area, where it has overlapping claims with Vietnam and the Philippines, among others.

But the US has accused Beijing of breaking that promise by deploying a range of military hardware including anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles and electronic jammers across the region.

The victims — 59 men, eight women and four children, including a baby — came from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, joining hundreds of thousands like them trying to reach Germany in 2015 at the height of Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II.

The “iPal” was among a slew of new tech unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show Asia in Shanghai this week, offering education and company for lonely children and peace of mind for adults.

The humanoid device stands as tall as a five-year-old, moves and dances on wheels and its eyes keep track of its charges through facial recognition technology.

Parents can also remotely talk to and monitor the children through the iPal, which is linked to a smartphone app that allows them to see and hear everything.

“The idea for this robot is to be a companion for children,” said Tingyu Huang, co-founder of AvatarMind Robot Technology.

“When a child sees it, he or she will think of the robot as a friend, as another child in the family.”

In this picture taken on June 13, 2018 iPal robots by Avatarmind are exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia in Shanghai on June 13, 2018. A Chinese firm has a created a companion for children with few or no siblings in a country that limits births: “iPal” stands as tall as a five-year-old, speaks Chinese and English, gives math lessons and tells jokes. // AFP PHOTO

Their 9,000 yuan ($1,400) did not dampen interest from buyers watching a performance of several iPals dancing in unison.

“They’re pretty cute. I was just thinking my own two-year-old daughter would love one,” Mike Stone, a buyer from Australia said.

China’s young working parents often face the burden of taking care of children or elders without help from a large extended family, as the impact of the country’s decades-long one-child policy lingers. The limit was raised to two children in 2016.

“I don’t think the robots can replace parents or teachers,” Huang said. “But iPal can be a complementary tool to relieve some of their burden.”

China’s robot market is also catching onto needs from a growing population of elderly “empty nesters” who prefer to grow old at home rather than at a nursing home.

AvatarMind will soon launch another robot that can talk to seniors, remind them to take their pills and call the hospital when they fall.

Beijing has invested money and manpower in developing AI as part of its “Made in China 2025” plan.

A Chinese firm unveiled the country’s first human-like robot, which can hold simple conversations and make facial expressions, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last year.

The iPal is the latest humanoid robot to be marketed for family use, following in the footsteps of the diminutive, wisecracking “Pepper” companion released by Japan’s SoftBank in 2015.

The ministry urged the public not to purchase the illicit products. It said because they were not registered, their origins are unclear and they weren’t tested to assess their efficacy or negative health effects on users.

“The products make you have sex many times,” part of the statement read.

The ministry warned that legal action would be taken against anyone importing, selling or distributing PLUS FORT or similarly unregistered products.

Pov Pisey, a Facebook vendor, said she had sold the Developed Sex supplement since 2016 when buyers asked for such products.

“All products like this have negative effects. Even using hand lotion can be harmful,” she said.

Health Ministry spokesman Ly Sovann could not be reached for comment.

“Rest? Papa rested enough in jail. Now we have to continue working – people are waiting, people have given us the mandate. If we don’t implement (policies), the people’s support would be in vain,” he said in a Hari Raya clip uploaded on his Facebook page.

Anwar was responding to a question from his daughter Nurul Nuha about his plans now that he is a free man, who suggested that he “rest first”.

“If we only think of our own comfort, we are not different from the old regime,” he told Nurul Nuha.

“We have to continue just a little more,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah later joined the conversation and said things have become more difficult after Pakatan won GE14.

“Things are tough after Pakatan won as we have to fulfil all our pledges. But with the support of the Rakyat, we will be able to do it,” she said.

“Good. Just like what we have done all along,” Anwar said, hugging his wife and daughter.

The video starts with a scene of Dr Wan Azizah looking at an empty chair at home.

“1998-2004, 2015-2017” appears on the scene, signifying the years Anwar was not there to celebrate Hari Raya with the family.

The video also features Anwar having a family dinner and ends with Hari Raya Aidilfitri wishes from the entire family.

National broadcaster ABC published a leaked photo of the 2007 incident and cited a defence source as saying it was more a “twisted joke” than evidence of genuine neo-Nazism.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said displaying a Nazi flag was “absolutely wrong”.

“Completely and utterly unacceptable,” he told reporters. “It was reported (to officials) in 2007, that incident, and the flag obviously was removed and the personnel involved were disciplined,” he told reporters.

“But the incident, it was wrong … it was absolutely wrong, and their commanders took action at the time.”

The defence department said in a statement to AFP that “neither the flag nor its use are in line with defence values”.

“The flag was briefly raised above an Australian Army vehicle in Afghanistan in 2007. The commander took immediate action to have the offensive flag taken down,” it said, adding that it was later destroyed and those involved cautioned.

“Additionally, steps were taken to reinforce education and training for all personnel who witnessed the flag.”

Australian forces have been active in Afghanistan in various roles since 2001, when the conflict there began. Around 900 were in the country in 2007, predominately in Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces.

The photograph has emerged as the actions of Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan come under intense scrutiny.

Earlier this month, elite troops were accused of committing war crimes in a secret defence report obtained by local media that described a “complete lack of accountability” from top military brass.

The investigation, reported by Fairfax Media, quoted special forces insiders saying some Australian troops engaged in the “unsanctioned and illegal application of violence on operations” with “a disregard for human dignity”.

In response, Australia’s former spy chief David Irvine was appointed last week to conduct a third inquiry into the nation’s special forces in two years.

Some 300 Australian defence personnel remain in Afghanistan.

Pompeo said Washington remained committed to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearisation of North Korea, after the joint statement from the US-North Korea summit in Singapore drew criticism for lack of detail on the key issue.

“We believe that Kim Jong Un understands the urgency… that we must do this quickly,” he said of the effort to have North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons.

Washington’s top diplomat is in Seoul to brief his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Tuesday’s historic talks — the first between sitting leaders of the two countries — after which a triumphant President Donald Trump said the world can “sleep well”.

Following the summit, Trump said the US would halt its “provocative” joint military drills with South Korea as long as negotiations are ongoing with the North, an announcement that caught Seoul by surprise.

But the US-South Korea alliance remains “as robust as ever”, Seoul’s foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha said at a press conference with Pompeo and Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono.

Pompeo is scheduled to fly to Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart after the meetings in Seoul.

Nigerian-born Ike Iloputaife’s nightmare, which has grabbed headlines, began last month when he took his borzoi (Russian wolfhound) dogs for their daily early-morning walk in his San Diego neighborhood.

A woman took a picture of him, saying he was a “stranger” on her street, and shared it with police following a burglary in the neighborhood.

The photograph was used by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department to identify Iloputaife as a “person of interest” in the burglary investigation.

Iloputaife said he was on vacation when the press release bearing his picture was released and was informed by a neighbor that he was a crime suspect on his return home.

“This is my first encounter with law enforcement,” he told the local KPBS radio station in an interview this week recounting his ordeal. “I don’t know how they handle things in general, but they haven’t handled it well in this case.”

He added that it was clear the color of his skin played a key role in him being photographed by a neighbor and then sucked into a criminal probe.

‘Color of my skin’

“In this person’s head I became a person of interest because of my skin color,” he wrote on the Nextdoor app, which hosts social networks for neighbors. “Asking to call the police on a black person in this highly charged political and cultural environment can be a danger for the black person.”

Iloputaife came to the United States in 1981 to study aerospace engineering and ran a bed-and-breakfast in Provence, France, for more than two decades before returning to the US last year.

He said although San Diego police have apologized to him for the mishap, he would like authorities to issue a press release to help clear his name.

Contacted by AFP, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department appeared red-faced over the incident, saying there was no harm intended and that detectives were simply doing their job after the neighbor flagged Iloputaife to police.

“While we understand this caused unnecessary strife for Mr. Iloputaife, it was not done intentionally nor with any malintent,” the department said in an email.

“We are sorry for any strife this may have caused Mr. Iloputaife and have begun working on steps to streamline this process to avoid a similar oversight in the future.”

The case comes on the heels of several similar racially-charged incidents across the United States in which people of color have been reported to police over seemingly harmless acts.

Last month, a white woman called police in Oakland, California, over a black family holding a barbecue in a park, claiming they were using the wrong grill.

In April, two black men waiting for a friend were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks after a manager at the outlet called police.

A student at Yale University was also interrogated by police in May after a fellow white student found her sleeping in a common room at a dormitory.

Such incidents have sparked outrage on social media and prompted various hashtags including “DogWalkingWhileBlack,” “WaitingWhileBlack” and “BBQing While Black.”

The resolution deplores Israel’s use of “excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force” against Palestinian civilians and calls for protection measures for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

At least 129 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during protests near the border with Gaza that began at the end of March. No Israelis have died.

Presented by Algeria and Turkey on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries, the measure won a decisive 120 votes in the 193-member assembly, with 8 votes against and 45 abstentions.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley dismissed the resolution as “one-sided” and accused Arab countries of trying to score political points at home by seeking to condemn Israel at the United Nations.

“For some, attacking Israel is their favorite political sport. That’s why we are here today,” Haley told the assembly.

An amendment presented by the United States that condemned Hamas for “inciting violence” along the border with Gaza failed to garner the two-third majority needed for adoption.

Arab countries backing the measure turned to the General Assembly after the United States used its veto in the Security Council to block the resolution on June 1.

Unlike the Security Council, resolutions adopted by the assembly are non-binding and there is no veto.

UN chief to propose protection

The resolution tasks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with the drafting of proposals for an “international protection mechanism” for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

These could range from setting up an observer mission to a full-blown peacekeeping force, but action on any option would require backing from the Security Council, where the United States has veto power.

“We are asking for a simple thing,” Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the assembly. “We want our civilian population to be protected.”

Turkey’s Ambassador Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu defended the resolution, saying it was “about taking sides with international law” and showing the Palestinians that the world “does care about their suffering.”

Taking the podium, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon assailed the measure as an “attempt to take away our basic right to self-defense.” He warned ambassadors that by supporting the resolution “you are empowering Hamas.”

France was among 12 EU countries that backed the resolution, but Britain abstained along with Italy, Poland and 13 other EU member-states. Russia and China voted in favor.

Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Togo joined the United States and Israel in voting against the resolution.

The US amendment condemning Hamas received 62 votes in favor, with 58 against and 42 abstentions. The United States sought to challenge the ruling requiring a two-thirds majority for approval but that was defeated in a separate vote.

“We had more countries on the right side than the wrong side,” Haley said in a statement,

The General Assembly last held a similarly contentious vote on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in December, when it rejected President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there.

Haley had warned at the time that Washington was “taking names” of countries that supported the resolution. That vote was 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions.

Backed by Arab countries, the Palestinians had lobbied to win as many votes on the Gaza resolution as those cast in support of the measure condemning the US decision on Jerusalem.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in Gaza and the United Nations has warned that a fourth conflict could be easily ignited.