China to deport US woman held since 2015

BEIJING • A Chinese court has sentenced an American woman to 31/2 years in prison and deportation on espionage charges, a rights group said yesterday. Her lawyer expects her to be released soon.

Sandy Phan-Gillis was detained in March 2015 at the Macau border after visiting mainland China with a trade delegation from the Texas oil capital Houston. She was accused of espionage and stealing state secrets to pass to a third party, according to previous reports from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which cited government sources.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Myanmar investigates producer of porn film

YANGON • Myanmar police said yesterday they have launched a criminal investigation into what producers describe as the first high-definition pornographic movie ever filmed in the socially conservative country.

Social media exploded this week when a trailer for the two-hour erotic movie, entitled The Violet Of Myanmar, was posted on Facebook by the production company Art of Myanmar.

But the firm's Facebook page was taken down two days later and police yesterday said they had opened an investigation into the production company.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE