WASHINGTON DC, USA – US President Donald Trump – who has himself been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct – on Friday, March 30, designated April 2018 "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month" amid a national debate over the issue.

"Sexual assault crimes remain tragically common in our society, and offenders too often evade accountability," said a proclamation from Trump released by the White House. "These heinous crimes are committed indiscriminately: in intimate relationships, in public spaces, and in the workplace."

"Too often, however, the victims of assault remain silent. They may fear retribution from their offender, lack faith in the justice system, or have difficulty confronting the pain associated with the traumatic experience," it continued. 

"My administration is committed to raising awareness about sexual assault and to empowering victims to identify perpetrators so that they can be held accountable."

At least 20 women have publicly accused Trump of engaging in sexual assault or harassment prior to becoming president. The White House has maintained that the women are lying.

Last month, Trump described allegations that he kissed a receptionist without her consent as "Another False Accusation" in a post on Twitter, calling instead for coverage of "the story of the women taking money to make up stories about me. One had her home mortgage paid off."

Since former film mogul Harvey Weinstein's dramatic downfall over allegations ranging from harassment to rape, the #MeToo campaign has seen a deluge of accusations topple men from powerful positions in a number of industries including Hollywood, the media and politics.

In February, allegations of domestic abuse led two Trump staffers to resign. The Republican leader came under fire for lamenting the "shattered" lives of those accused, saying the allegations could be false.

The 2016 presidential campaign that launched Trump to the White House saw the unearthing of an infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which the real estate tycoon bragged about groping women.

"I don't even wait," Trump says in the clip. "And when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything. Grab them by the pussy." 

Trump dismissed his lewd comments as "locker room banter." – Rappler.com

If you were born with a rare form of blindness, there is now a treatment for you that may restore your eyesight. That’s because gene therapies became a clinical reality in 2017. Yet many people with rare diseases that could be treated in this way may never benefit from these therapies because they are too expensive for drug companies to develop, or too costly for the patient or health service to afford. Is witnessing a starry night worth an eye-watering $425,000 per eye?

There are fewer things more harrowing than news that your child suffers from a rare genetic disorder that will consign them to a disabled, progressively worsening or possibly very short life. For example, spinal muscular atrophy is a debilitating, muscle-wasting disease caused by death of neurons (nerve cells) in the spine. The neurons are meant to produce a protein that is necessary for their survival, but in these patients, the levels of this protein are low to nonexistent. And the lower the level of this protein, the more the patient suffers.

The most severely affected are unable to sit and may even die before their second birthday without mechanical support for their breathing. Yet, almost a year ago, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of a new drug, nusinersen, for the treatment of this disease. Nusinersen tricks the spinal neurons into using another gene to produce the protein, allowing the patient to survive.

Many doctors have rightly called the drug a miracle. There are severely affected children who received nusinersen in clinical trials and are now at school, enjoying ball games in the playground.

Hope arrived for other rare diseases, too. Genetically engineered skin stem cells restored about 80% of the skin of a 7-year-old who had suffered from blisters and open wounds from birth due to a genetic disorder. Two drug companies received approval for groundbreaking gene therapies for childhood leukemias. Another gene therapy designed for so-called bubble boy syndrome also hit the market, followed recently by a fourth for an inherited form of blindness.

Besides fixing the genomes of embryos, editing the genome of an adult has now also been attempted to fix small but devastating genetic errors.

Lifetime costs

The cost of these treatments, though, ranges from about $500,000 to $1.5 million. And over a lifetime, drugs like nusinersen can be even more expensive: $750,000 in the first year followed by $375,000 a year after that – for life.

As these prices suggest, it’s expensive to get a gene therapy drug to the market. It takes many years from drug design to approval. Even if the drug is approved by the regulators, costs might be so high, and patients so few, that it ultimately makes no commercial sense for drug companies to make and sell such drugs.

So far, 4 gene therapies have been pulled off the market, the last one being the $1-million gene therapy, Glybera, used to treat a rare inherited disorder called lipoprotein lipase deficiency. Approved in 2012 and apparently sold to just one patient, it was eventually dropped in 2016.

Crowdfunding

So, what does the future hold for gene therapy treatments and the patient’s purse? Since 2015, drugs companies have started adopting pay-only-if-it-works approaches. Previous false starts illustrated the need to find new ways for patients to access specialist drugs and for payers to afford this new form of medicine. This needs a very clear definition of what “it works” means, by when and, crucially, for how long. Often, in these desperate situations, emotion can get in the way of reason, making the value of a day of life very difficult to price.

Could a crowdfunded, open-source model work? One young girl, Mila Makovec, was diagnosed with a unique mutation causing Batten’s disease (a disorder of the nervous system). An American doctor, based in Boston, believes he has designed a nusinersen-like drug for Makovec that appears to be working when tested in the lab. The owners of the nusinersen technology have given the Boston doctor the freedom to use it for Makovec.Crowdfunded money has helped manufacture the drug and test it in animals, and now Makovec is being dosed with this experimental drug.

This is the apex of personalising medicine: a unique drug, probably suitable only for a single patient, ever. However, in the 6 months that I’ve been following Makovec’s story, the costs have more than doubled. So far, this new drug has cost more than $1.6 million.

Approving an entire class of drugs

These successes and challenges have forced researchers, pharmaceutical companies and organisations, such as the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to re-evaluate payment models for personalised medical treatments. One group of experts even called for approving an entire class of drugs and extrapolating between trials, drugs and possibly even diseases, helping to bring the cost down.

There is merit in this proposal; it opens the doors of hope for the handfuls of patients, or even unique patients like Makovec, that would otherwise be impossible to treat and condemned to premature, painful death. History, however, teaches us that there is no such thing as a safe family of drugs. In 2006, a phase one clinical trial for an experimental drug called TGN1412 caused an adverse reaction in the participants, all six of whom ended up in intensive care, fighting for their lives. Although TGN1412 was not a gene therapy, the story serves as a somber reminder of things could go wrong and how experiments in cells and animals do not always prepare us for what may happen in a human. – The Conversation | Rappler.com

Sterghios Moschos, Associate Professor in Cellular and Molecular Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

WASHINGTON DC, USA – The White House has instructed the State Department to freeze over $200 million in funds earmarked for "recovery efforts" in Syria, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, March 30.

The report – which came a day after Trump declared in a speech that the US would be quitting Syria "very soon"– is another indication the president wants to disengage from the country.

Officials told Agence France-Presse that Trump's aside in his speech was not a slip, but that for several weeks he had been pushing back against the idea of a long or medium term US commitment to stabilizing eastern Syria.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump called for the spending freeze after reading a news report that said the US had committed the funds for recovery efforts in Syria, which has been wracked by a more than 7-year civil war.

The US has more than 2,000 military personnel in eastern Syria as part of international efforts to defeat the Islamic State group, an extremist organization that once controlled swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Speaking in Ohio on Thursday, Trump indicated that with the war against IS winding down, he wants American involvement in Syria to do likewise.

"We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now," he promised.

Trump did not say who the others were who might take care of Syria, but Russia and Iran have sizable forces in the country to support President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

His eagerness to quit the conflict flies in the face of a new US Syria strategy announced in January by then secretary of state Rex Tillerson – who has since been sacked.

Tillerson argued that US forces must remain engaged in Syria to prevent IS and Al-Qaeda from returning and to deny Iran a chance "to further strengthen its position in Syria."

In a speech at Stanford University, he also warned that "a total withdrawal of American personnel at this time would restore Assad and continue his brutal treatment against his own people."

But Tillerson has gone after being dismissed in a tweet. And Trump, who increasingly makes foreign policy announcements without seeking the advice of US generals or diplomats, wants out.

"We spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. And you know what we have for it? Nothing," Trump declared, promising to focus future US spending on building jobs and infrastructure at home. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Following the unification of Grab and Uber's operations in the country, a lawmaker suggested to bring in Indonesia's top ride-hailing service, Go-Jek.

This would promote competition in the Philippine market, House Deputy Minority Leader and Makati City 2nd District Representative Luis Campos Jr said in a statement on Saturday, March 31.

"To counteract the merger and reestablish competition, we may have to encourage other large suppliers such as Go-Jek to come in right away," said Campos.

Go-Jek, based in Jakarta, is the most popular ride-hailing and logistics services app in Indonesia.

"No matter how you look at it, the combination of the regional businesses of Uber and Grab not only reduces but effectively eliminates competition in the Philippine ride-hailing market," the lawmaker said.

On March 26, Uber announced it sold to Grab its Southeast Asia operations. In return, Uber will get a 27.5% stake in Grab's business.

By April 8, Uber drivers would have migrated to Grab. (READ: As Uber gives up Philippine operations to Grab, what now for commuters?)

Campos added he would have preferred that Uber, Grab, and Go-Jek were competing against each other in the Philippines. "Three players are better than two. But if we can't have 3, two is better than one," he said.

Go over Uber-Grab deal

Campos also said that lawmakers are counting on the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to pore over the Uber-Grab deal. (READ: [OPINION] How the looming Grab monopoly will impact on Filipino commuters)

"Assuming the deal qualifies as a covered transaction, then we expect the anti-trust body to perform its duty in ensuring that businesses compete and that consumers benefit," he said. 

PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement that if the parties meet the new threshold for reviewing merger and acquisition transactions, they "should notify at the PCC within 30 days after signing their definitive agreement."

Campos argued that in ideal markets ruled by anti-trust regulators, "a business combination that gets rid of the competition may not be permitted until a substitute challenger comes in." 

He added that anti-trust regulators "may also compel the unloading party to sell its business to two separate buyers, instead of dealing with a lone acquirer." – Michael Bueza/Rappler.com

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un has met Olympics chief Thomas Bach in Pyongyang, thanking him for helping to bring about a "dramatic thawing" of tensions on the Korean peninsula, the country's state media said on Saturday, March 31.

Last month's Winter Olympics in South Korea triggered a fast-moving rapprochement that will see Kim sit down with the South's President Moon Jae-in in late April — with a US summit with President Donald Trump planned for May.

Bach arrived in the country on Thursday and his visit, which concluded Saturday, was the result of an invitation extended by Pyongyang in January.

The isolated, nuclear-armed regime rarely hosts foreign dignitaries but recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomacy, with Kim making his first foreign trip as leader to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and inviting him to visit Pyongyang.

Kim told Bach that the Olympics – which saw competitors from the two Koreas march together at the opening ceremony and field a joint women's ice hockey team – "opened a new chapter of concord between the north and the south", the official KCNA news agency said.

"He said that the once frozen north-south relations greeted a dramatic thawing season with the Olympics as a momentum and it was totally attributable to the efforts of the IOC which offered an opportunity and paved a path for it," KCNA reported.

The two men held discussions about the development of sport in the North and attended a women's football match. 

North and South Korea plan to hold a summit on April 27.

Trump is then due to meet Kim before the end of May for talks on Pyongyang's denuclearization.

Bach has hailed the reconciliatory mood, saying previously that the Olympic spirit "brought two sides together" and the two neighbors sent a "powerful message of peace" to the world. – Rappler.com

LOS ANGELES, USA – Unarmed Californian Stephon Clark was shot 8 times – mostly in the back – by police in Sacramento, according to a private autopsy released Friday, March 30, that said he lay dying for several minutes.

The Clark family attorney, celebrated civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, said the examination showed no entry wounds in the front of his body, demonstrating that the 22-year-old could not have been a threat to police.

The news has sparked outrage among activists who vowed to take to the streets for a fourth day of protests that have severely disrupted life in the city, although violence and arrests have been minimal.

Crump told reporters Clark was "slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances" after being chased to his backyard in the California capital by officers who fired 20 rounds.

The review was conducted by high-profile pathologist Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner in San Joaquin County, who is highly regarded for his work on football-related concussion.

Omalu said in a statement he found "four entry wounds in the lower part of Stephon's back; one in the side of his neck, with an exit wound elsewhere in his neck; one in the back of his neck; one under an armpit entering from the side, with an exit wound on the other side of his body; and one in the outside of a leg."

The incident was triggered by an emergency 911 phone call late on March 18 stating that a man was smashing car windows in the neighborhood.

Clark appeared to fit the suspect's profile and officers chased him, backed by a helicopter equipped with infrared cameras.

'He wasn't facing the officers'

Clark – who police say remains the prime suspect – was recorded by the helicopter and police body-cams running through the neighborhood before entering his backyard.

The officers burst into the yard with weapons drawn and confronted the father-of-two before opening fire.

The officers – one of whom is black – were put on leave but days of disruptive protests followed the incident, which has revived a recurring debate over police abuses against African Americans.

"The proposition that he was facing the officers is inconsistent with the prevailing forensic evidence," Omalu told a news conference in Sacramento.

"He was facing the house, with his left to the officers. He wasn't facing the officers. His left back was facing to the officers."

Omalu said it took 3 to 10 minutes for Clark to succumb to his injuries, emphasizing that "it was not an instant death."

Sacramento's Black Lives Matter chapter announced an evening protest at City Hall as news of the autopsy sparked a fresh wave of anger in the area, where 16 people – 3 unarmed – have died in confrontations with law enforcement in the last two years.

"Outside autopsy released and the first shot was in his left side WHICH MEANS HE WAS GOING INTO HIS HOUSE AND NOT CHARGING OFFICERS," the group said in a Facebook post.

"The remainder shots were IN HIS BACK!!!! We need to HIT THESE STREETS TO!!! NIGHT!!"

Earlier in the day, the group's leader Tanya Faison was quoted by the Sacramento Bee newspaper as saying she "can't predict how the community is going to react" to the news. – Rappler.com

PARIS, France – Thanks to a laser-equipped mini-microscope developed by a French start-up, scientists have discovered a previously undetected feature of the human anatomy that could help explain why some cancers spread so quickly.

Nobody was looking for the interstitium, as the new quasi-organ is called, because no one knew it was there, at least not in complex form revealed in a study published this week.

As with many breakthroughs in medicine and science, it was – to paraphrase Louis Pasteur's oft-quoted dictum – a case of chance favoring the prepared. 

In 2015, a pair of doctors at New York's Beth Israel Medical Center, David Carr-Locke and Petros Benias, found something unexpected while using the high-tech endoscopic probe to look for signs of cancer on a patient's bile duct.

There on a screen, clear as day, was a lattice-like layer of liquid-filled cavities that did not match anything found in the anatomy chapters of medical school textbooks.

"These have no obvious correlate to known structures," they noted dryly in the journal Scientific Reports.

And then the mystery deepened.

The doctors showed the images to a pathologist, Neil Theise, who used a thinly sliced fleck of tissue removed from the patient to prepare the kind of glass slides scientists have been peering at with microscopes for centuries.

But the novel layer of tissue simply wasn't there – or at least it wasn't visible.

Sacha Loiseau, founder and director of Mauna Kea Technologies, which made the camera-equipped probe that had revealed the phantom tissue, explained why.

"The classic microscope on a lab bench magnifies dead tissue from a biopsy that has been dehydrated and treated with chemicals," he told Agence France-Presse.

The meshwork of liquid bubbles visible in the patient's body, in other words, had pancaked in the slides like a collapsed building, leaving hardly a trace.

A 'highway of fluid' 

"This made a fluid-filled tissue type throughout the body appear solid in biopsy slides," Theise said in a statement.

"Our research corrects for this to expand the anatomy of most tissues."

The probe bundles some 30,000 optic fibers topped by a camera barely bigger than the head of a pin. Lasers light up the tissue, and sensors analyze the reflected pattern.

"We have reinvented the microscope so that it can be inserted into the body of a patient to observe living tissue in its natural environment," said Loiseau.        

The result is a virtual, in-vivo biopsy.

The newly found network of fluid-filled pockets – held in place by collagen proteins, which are stiff, and more flexible elastin – may act like a shock absorber preventing tissue tear as organs, muscles and vessels go through their daily motions, the researchers said.

Once they knew what to look for, the scientists found interstitium throughout the body: below the skin's surface, lining the digestive tract, in the lungs and urinary tract, and even surrounding arteries and veins.

Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue, it turned out, were in fact interconnected and fluid-filled compartments.

Described as a "highway of moving fluid," the meshwork "may be important in cancer metastasis," the study suggested.

Scientists have long known that half the fluid in the body is found within cells, and about 14 percent inside the heart, blood vessels and lymphatic system.

The remaining fluid is "interstitial", or between the cells, and the new study argues that the interstitium should be considered as an organ in it's own right – indeed, one of the largest in the body.

Organ or not, "this finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic too," said Theise. – Rappler.com

UNITED NATIONS – The UN Security Council heard fears of a further escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip during emergency talks on Friday, March 30, despite a failure to agree a joint statement on deadly clashes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also called for an "independent and transparent investigation" and reaffirmed "the readiness" of the world body to revitalize peace efforts, a spokesperson said.

Kuwait requested the meeting to discuss the unraveling situation in Gaza, where Palestinians said Israeli fire killed 16 people in the conflict's deadliest single day since the 2014 Gaza war.

"There is fear that the situation might deteriorate in the coming days," said assistant UN secretary general for political affairs, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, urging maximum restraint.

Britain and the United States expressed regret that the timing of the meeting – the first night of Passover – meant Israeli officials could not attend. Leading ambassadors sent deputies in their place.

"It's vital that this Council be balanced in its approach," a US diplomat told the meeting. "We should have found an arrangement for all parties to participate tonight," he added.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of life today," the diplomat added. "Bad actors who use protests as a cover to incite violence endanger innocent lives," he added. 

"The risk of escalation is very real," the French representative said. "There is the possibility of a new conflict in the Gaza Strip."

In a written statement before the meeting, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, blamed Hamas for the violence.

"While Jews around the world gathered with their family at the Seder table to celebrate the Passover holiday, the Palestinians sunk to a new deceitful low so that they could use the UN to spread lies about Israel," Danon later said. 

"This shameful exploitation of our holiday will not succeed in stopping us from speaking the truth about the Hamas terror-gatherings that aim to destabilize the region," he concluded.

The violence broke out as tens of thousands of Gazans marched near the Israeli border to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled since the creation of Israel.

Israeli troops used tear gas and live fire to force back Palestinians who approached the heavily fortified border fence. 

Israeli tank fire and an air strike also targeted three Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip after what the military said was an attempted shooting attack against soldiers along the border that caused no injuries.

The health ministry in Gaza said 16 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and more than 1,400 were injured, including 758 by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas.

Palestinians accused Israel of using disproportionate force. The Israeli military said the protests were used as cover by militants to either break through the border or carry out attacks. – Rappler.com

BAGUIO, Philippines – Black Saturday, observed this year on March 31, is the traditional time when young men undergo that rite of passage known as  pagtutuli (circumcision). 

In the provinces, these young men would gather along the riverbanks or seashore, masticate guava leaves and fall in line as a man wielding a labaha (razor) would cut the foreskin of the sexual organ. Then the boys would spit the guava on their penises and bathe on the river or sea. 

In the cities, barangays or health centers would organize their circumcision programs on Black Saturday with the surgical procedure done by nurses or doctors. 

All Filipinos are expected to go through circumcision as those who refuse to do so would be stigmatized and ridiculed by their peers. 

A 2002 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, penned by Dr Xavier Castellsague et al, stated that 93% of all Filipino men were circumcised with 42% of them having undergone the procedure before they were 10 years old, and 52% from 10 to 14 years old. 

While the tradition remains strong in the country, there are some who have opted to seek a reversal of their circumcision.

Philippine urologist Ulysses Quanico, during a recent forum organized by Forum on Family Planning and Development in Cebu, said that he had patients who availed of "uncircumcision" or foreskin restoration.

Foreskin restoration involves recreating the skin on the penis that had been lost to  circumcision or injury. Quanico said that he had performed foreskin restoration on at least two of his patients. 

Quanico, who is an officer of Health Information Network, did not specify his patients' reasons for foreskin restoration, but said the most common reason cited is an uncomfortable erection. 

Quanico also said that common penile restoration procedures he did among Filipinos were taking out bolitas or penile implants. 

Bolitas are traditionally made of ivory, jade, or metal balls but some Filipinos have experimented on plastic bolitas by melting spoons, toothbrushes, deodorant ballers and even rosary beads. 

Unsanitary placement of bolitas could cause infection, inflammation or worse on the male organ, Quanico said.

While foreskin restoration is not widely availed of in the Philippines, the procedure is said to be as old as the practice of circumcision. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – No one will be safe from the sacking spree of National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde, who said that even one-star police generals under his supervision will be relieved of their posts if they fail to curb crime in their respective areas.

"We can assure you na even kung talagang merong pagkukulang yung mga district dirctors satin (that even if district directors lack) we will not hesitate [to sack them]. Also even the chief PNP, sinabi niya (he said) we will not hesitate to relieve even the district director," Albayalde said in a press briefing on Tuesday, March 27.

The district directors Albayalde referred to are all one-star police general positions. 

(READ: Crimes, except homicide, in the Philippines down by 21.8% in 2017)

What are district directors? District directors are positions special to Metro Manila. They are police commanders higher than city police chiefs and directly below the NCRPO director.

They hold one-star ranks as police generals, heading a cluster of cities or one big metropolis.

Examples of one-city police districts are the Manila Police District and the Quezon City Police District. (See the commissioned officers of the NCRPO here.)

The last time Albayalde sacked a district director was in September 2017. Northern Police District director Chief Superintendent Roberto Fajardo was relieved of his post following the controversial killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos.

The current district directors are:

• Northern Police District - Chief Superintendent Amando Empiso
• Southern Police District - Chief Superintendent  Tomas Apolinario
• Eastern Police District - Chief Superintendent  Reynaldo Biay
• Quezon City Police District - Chief Superintendent  Guillermo Eleazar
• Manila Police District - Chief Superintendent Joel Coronel

Why the warning? Albayalde's statement comes a day after he announced the sacking of Caloocan City police chief Senior Superintendent Jemar Modequillo for failing to crack down on riding-in-tandem shootings.

The hardline stance was necessary, Albayalde said. Out of 77 incidents between December 5, 2017, and March 14, 2018, only 9 have been solved.

When the PNP was taken out of President Rodrigo Duterte's intense anti-illegal drugs campaign, it declared a war against riding-in-tandem shooters. – Rappler.com

BEIJING, China (UPDATED) – Kim Jong Un is committed to sending North Korean teams to the next two Olympics, the IOC chief Thomas Bach said on Saturday, March 31, after a rare meeting with the leader of the nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang.

Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, also said the IOC will make a proposal for a "potential joint march" and other shared activities between the North and South Korean teams at the Tokyo games.

Last month's Winter Olympics in South Korea saw competitors from the two countries march together at the opening ceremony and field a joint women's ice hockey team.

The Winter Games triggered a fast-moving rapprochement that will see Kim sit down with the South's President Moon Jae-in in late April — with a US summit with President Donald Trump planned for May.

Bach told reporters after landing in Beijing that his talks with Kim on Friday had been "very open and fruitful".

"They announced (to) us that they will definitely participate in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as well at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022" and all editions of the Youth Olympic Games, Bach said.

"And this commitment was fully supported by the supreme leader of DPRK," he said, using the official abbreviation for the country.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Kim thanked Bach for helping to bring about a "dramatic thawing" of tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Bach arrived in the country on Thursday and his visit, which concluded Saturday, was the result of an invitation extended by Pyongyang in January.

The isolated regime rarely hosts foreign dignitaries but recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomacy, with Kim making his first foreign trip as leader to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and inviting him to visit Pyongyang.

Kim told Bach that the Olympics had "opened a new chapter of concord between the north and the south", KCNA said.

"He said that the once frozen north-south relations greeted a dramatic thawing season with the Olympics as a momentum and it was totally attributable to the efforts of the IOC which offered an opportunity and paved a path for it," the agency reported.

Bach told reporters the IOC "will continue to support the athletes from DPRK to prepare well" for the next Olympic Games.

"The IOC will make a proposal for a potential joint march, for potential other joint activities for Tokyo and maybe also for Beijing, at the appropriate time," he said.

The two men also held discussions about the development of sport in the North and attended a women's football match. 

North and South Korea plan to hold a summit on April 27.

Trump is then due to meet Kim before the end of May for talks on Pyongyang's denuclearization.

Bach has hailed the reconciliatory mood, saying previously that the Olympic spirit "brought two sides together" and the two neighbors sent a "powerful message of peace" to the world. – Rappler.com

BANGKOK, Thailand – The governor of Thailand's Chiang Mai province has sued a local magazine for posting a "blasphemous" painting on Facebook of ancient kings wearing pollution masks as part of a campaign to protest the city's hazardous smog.

All matters touching on the monarchy are highly sensitive in Thailand, a country where kings have been worshipped as near dieties and are protected by one of the world's harshest royal defamation laws.

The broadly-interpreted crime of lese majeste – which can carry decades-long sentences – has cemented a culture of self-censorship across the kingdom's academic, media and arts circles when it comes to royal affairs. 

The risks of testing those boundaries were on display Friday when an English-language magazine faced legal action for posting an image on social media of three statues of ancient kings – a Chiang Mai landmark – in pollution masks.

The painting, which was the work of a local high school student, was posted on Citylife Chiang Mai's Facebook page to promote a rally urging authorities to tackle a toxic haze that plagues the northern city annually.

The province's governor called the artwork a "blasphemous act" and dispatched an official to file charges against the outlet under Thailand's Computer Crime Act. 

The cyber-crime law, which carries up to five years in prison for uploading false content to the web, is routinely used against perceived critics of the monarchy on social media, though it is not as harsh as the lese majeste law that carries up to 15 years per offence.

"I assigned my official to file a complaint with police yesterday that the picture may have violated the Computer Crime Act as it's inappropriate," Chiang Mai governor Pawin Chamniprasart told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

"The statues of three kings are very sacred and respected by Chiang Mai residents, they were our ancestors," he added.

In an official letter to police, the governor said the painting "may affect Chiang Mai's image and its tourism, causing the city economic instability." 

Chiang Mai is one of Thailand's largest cities and a major hub for travellers exploring the country's lush and mountainous north.

But it also struggles with dangerous levels of air pollution during crop-burning season. 

Police confirmed they were investigating the case, while the magazine announced that its 'Right to Breathe' protest had been cancelled.

In a Facebook post the teenage artist behind the painting said it was "a shame that people are hurt by a picture and not the polluted air that they are breathing in."

Freedom of expression has been severely restricted in Thailand ever since a 2014 coup installed an ultra-royalist junta that has stamped out dissent and hounded monarchy critics.

Prosecutions under lese majeste and Computer Crime Act have shot up under their rule, often netting social media users. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said on Saturday, March 31, that rule of law "thrives" in the country, as it rejected a comment from a United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur that the Philippine government, under President Rodrigo Duterte, has become authoritarian.

“Democracy in the Philippines is vibrant and strong. All the branches of the government are functioning and the rule of law thrives,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said in a statement on Saturday.

Malacañang was responding to the statement of Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations or UN’s Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, who is among the hundreds of people the Duterte administration wants officially tagged as terrorists under the Human Security Act.

Corpuz said at a human rights event in Milan, Italy, that “the new government has become very authoritarian.”

“It controls the parliament. It filed an impeachment case against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It has imprisoned another woman who is a senator. So it’s going against the different institutions, government branches that should balance the executive,” Corpuz said, according to an ABS-CBN report.

Medialdea said the comment shows Corpuz is “detached with the realities happening in the Philippines.”

“The executive branch respects the separation of powers and the independence of the other co-equal branches and doesn’t meddle with their affairs,” Medialdea said.

Corpuz is among the 649 people that the Philippine government wants to declare as terrorists in a petition now pending before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC). (READ: Malacañang on Corpuz' terrorist tag: UN must carefully select rapporteurs)

The Department of Justice filed the petition against communists after the Duterte administration terminated what was once a promising peace process with Asia's longest-running insurgents.

Human rights groups have slammed the petition as a "virtual hit list."– Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – After broadcast journalist Karen Davila spoke up about her son's surfing accident in Siargao, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Saturday, March 31, that he "will make sure the budget is released” for puclic safety-related projects in the island.

Alvarez was referring to the lack of medical facilities to address emergencies of locals and tourists in Siargao, which is becoming a popular island destination in Mindanao among domestic and foreign travelers.

“Surigao del Norte Governor Sol Matugas, Congressman Francisco Jose Matugas, and I are already taking steps to address the infrastructure problems she (Davila) cited, such as the lack of first aid and medical facilities to deal with emergencies and health issues faced by locals and visitors.I will make sure that the budget is released for these projects,” Alvarez said in a statement.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Davila complained that when her son figured in a a surfing accident, there was no life guard on call, and no first aid clinic in main town General Luna, where all the main surf spots are located.

She said that the hospital nearest to General Luna is in Dapa, a 45-minute drive away.

“While there was a doctor and a nurse on duty, very helpful and attentive – there were no medicines,” Davila said. 

‘Backyard operators’

Alvarez said it is the job of the local government unit to ensure that “tourist facilities in their respective areas are properly maintained.”

“Beach resorts should always have lifeguards on duty and surfing and diving instructors should have proper training and possess  the requisite certification. LGUs in coordination with the Department of Tourism should conduct regular inspections of the facilities of tourist destinations to ensure public safety at all times," he said.

Alvarez said the main surfing spot Cloud 9 should have adequate lighting, “otherwise there should be no nighttime surfing to prevent any untoward incident.” 

Siargao is also facing problems in waste management. Tourists and locals are doing their own cleanup initiatives meanwhile. (READ: DENR orders 49 Siargao businesses to address environmental violations) 

In her Facebook post, Davila also complained about "backyard operators" or those offering tour services, such as transportation and surfing lessons, without the proper accreditation.

Davila said her son’s surfing trainer appeared to be unlicensed. Her son suffered significant bruises and cuts on his chest after hitting the rocks in a beginner's surf spot.

Davila said she was told by another surf trainer that her son wasn’t taken further out the sea where there are lesser rocks. – Rappler.com

TOKYO, Japan – Japanese whaling vessels returned to port on Saturday after catching more than 300 of the mammals in the Antarctic Ocean without facing any protests by anti-whaling groups, officials said.

A fleet of five whalers set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, as Tokyo pursues its "research whaling" in defiance of global criticism.

Three of the vessels, including the fleet's main ship, the Nisshin Maru, arrived in the morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, a port official said.

The fleet caught 333 minke whales as planned without any interruption by anti-whaling campaigners, the Fisheries Agency said in a statement.

Japanese whalers have in the past clashed at sea with animal rights campaigners, particularly the Sea Shepherd activist group, which last year announced it had no plan to make offshore protests this season.

Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling Commission moratorium on hunting, but exploits a loophole that allows whales to be killed for scientific research.

Tokyo says the slaughter is necessary for in-depth knowledge of whale behaviour and biology, but it makes no secret of the fact that whales killed in the hunts often end up on dinner plates. – Rappler.com

– Rappler.com

MINGORA, Pakistan – Malala Yousafzai visited the Swat valley Saturday for her first trip back to the once militant-infested Pakistani region where she was shot in the head by the Taliban more than five years ago.

"I left Swat with my eyes closed and now I am back with my eyes open," she told Agence France-Presse, referring to how she was airlifted out in a coma after the attack in 2012.

"I am extremely delighted. My dream has come true. Peace has returned to Swat because of the invaluable sacrifices rendered by my brothers and sisters," she said at a school outside Mingora, the district's main town, where she was escorted by the Pakistani military.

The brief trip by the 20-year-old Nobel laureate is a highly symbolic moment for Pakistan, which regularly touts Swat as a success story in its long battle with extremism as it defends itself against accusations by the US and others that its northwest remains a safe haven for militancy.

The visit – on which she was accompanied by her father, mother, and two brothers – was kept tightly under wraps.

After flying by army helicopter from Islamabad, she met with friends and family before visiting the all-boys Swat Cadet College Guli Bagh, some 15 kilometers outside Mingora.

Officials had earlier said she would address students there, but she stayed only a few minutes to take photographs before leaving again to return to Islamabad. 

Mingora is where Malala's family was living and where she was attending school on October 9, 2012, when a gunman boarded her school bus, asked "Who is Malala?", and shot her.

She was treated first at an army hospital then airlifted to the British city of Birmingham. 

Her near-miraculous recovery, and tireless career as an education advocate, have since turned her into a global symbol for human rights, and in 2014 she became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize when she was just 17.

Tearful homecoming  

The trip comes two days after Malala, currently a student at Oxford University in the UK, made her emotional return to Pakistan, where her surprise visit has been met with widespread joy and pride. 

She broke down in tears as she made a televised speech on Thursday, April 29, saying it was her "dream" to be back, and has vowed to Pakistani media that she will return permanently after she has completed her education.

However she has also been met with pockets of intense criticism. Malala is widely respected internationally, but opinion is divided in Pakistan, where some conservatives view her as a Western agent on a mission to shame her country.

There had been much speculation within the country over whether Malala would go to Swat during her visit.

The mountainous region, once a prized tourist destination famed for its pristine scenery, was overrun by the Pakistani Taliban in 2007.

The militants imposed a brutal, bloody rule, but the army drove them out in 2009. Recently restrictions on tourists visiting the area were lifted.

However security has remained fragile, as the assault on Malala 3 years after the military operation demonstrated. In February this year 11 military personnel were killed in an attack, and analysts have warned the militants still have a presence there.

Residents of the area have praised Malala to Agence France-Presse in recent days, crediting her with helping to generate improvements in education – especially for girls – in the deeply conservative region, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Earlier this month an all-girls school built with money from the Malala Fund opened in Shangla district northeast of Mingora, where her family lived before moving to the city.

"This is the kind of task which was impossible to achieve even over two decades," Shangla district councillor Altaf Hussain Gulab told AFP on Friday. "Malala made it possible in a period of just a couple of years."

"We have just one Malala today but after a decade or so, we will have Malalas everywhere," agreed Farman Ullah, a shopkeeper in Shangla. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Surigao del Norte Governor Sol Matugas has ordered local governments and beach resorts in Siargao Island to step up their emergency response and safety measures following a recent surfing accident involving the son of broadcast journalist Karen Davila. 

On Saturday, March 31, Davila shared on her Facebook page a statement from the provincial government of Surigao del Norte.

"The Provincial Government of Surigao del Norte is sad to hear about the unfortunate incident that happened to the son of Miss Karen Davila while having his surfing lessons in General Luna, Siargao Island," Davila's post read.  

According to the post, Matugas has already issued an executive order requiring all municipal mayors in Siargao Island to provide 24/7 medical assistance for the public through their rural health units (RHU), and to ensure sufficient supply of medicines.

Davila earlier shared in a Facebook post that her son suffered scratches and bruises during a surfing lesson in Siargao. 

Davila was upset that the surfing instructor who was assigned to her son disappeared after the accident. She also expressed shock at the lack of medical facilities and equipment in the immediate vicinity.

The provincial government has already organized a rescue team that will be on standby in frequently visited tourist areas in the island, including Cloud 9 in the municipality of General Luna. Davila and her family stayed in a hotel located at General Luna.

"This team will be able to provide immediate medical response in emergency situations to augment/reinforce the existing health care personnel and doctors of the rural health units in the locality," Davila's post on Saturday read. 

The rescue team is composed of trained personnel from Surigao del Norte's provincial health office and provincial disaster risk reduction management office.

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According to Davila's post, Matugas called on all municipalities and barangays (villages) to be proactive in coming up with measures to ensure the safety and comfort of tourists, in coordination with the provincial government and national government agencies.

The governor also reiterated her appeal for operators of beach resorts to provide security officers and to install CCTV cameras.

"First aid treatment should also be required from all resort operators and tourism-related establishments, including lifeguards, especially in establishments with swimming pools or along the beach, and they are to immediately coordinate with government rescue teams in any eventualities," the post read. 

Davila shared another Facebook post that shows a first aid team stationed inside Cloud 9. 

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On Saturday, House Speaker and Davao del Norte 1st District Representative Pantaleon Alvarez said he "will make sure the budget is released" for public safety-related projects in the island. – Rappler.com

GAZA CITY – Gazans buried their dead on Saturday, March 31, with calls for "revenge" a day after a major demonstration led to clashes that saw Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in the bloodiest day since a 2014 war.

But while anger seethed over Friday's events, only several hundred protesters returned to tents erected at different sites near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel to resume demonstrations planned to last 6 weeks in the blockaded enclave.

Gaza's health ministry said 10 people suffered wounds that were not life-threatening in low-level clashes along the border on Saturday.

Thousands attended funerals for 14 of those killed – two were buried on Friday – with mourners holding Palestinian flags and some chanting "revenge" and firing into the air.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, said 5 of those killed were its members who were participating "in popular events side-by-side with their people."

"Where are you, Arabs? Where are you, Muslims?" mourners chanted at one funeral, calling on the Arab and Muslim world to intervene.

A general strike was being held in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Minor clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Hebron, while a small protest was held in Nablus, both in the West Bank. 

In addition to the 16 Palestinians killed, more than 1,400 were also wounded Friday, 758 of them by live fire, with the remainder hurt by rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, according to the Gazan health ministry.

Israel defended its soldiers' actions, when troops opened fire on Palestinians who strayed from the main protest camp attended by tens of thousands and approached the heavily fortified fence cutting off the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military says it opened fire only when necessary against those throwing stones and firebombs or rolling tyres at soldiers.

It said there were attempts to damage the fence and infiltrate Israel, while alleging there was also an attempted gun attack against soldiers along the border. No casualties were reported among Israelis.

Palestinians accused Israel of using disproportionate force, saying its soldiers opened fire on protesters who did not pose a threat, while human rights groups questioned Israel's use of live fire.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an "independent and transparent investigation." (READ: UN Security Council hears Gaza restraint calls)

'Continue its aggression'

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas declared Saturday a day of national mourning and in a speech said he held Israel fully responsible for the deaths.

His spokesman on Saturday called on the United States at the UN Security Council to not provide "cover for Israel to continue its aggression against the Palestinian people."

An Israeli military spokesman said Friday's events were "not a protest demonstration" but "organized terrorist activity" by Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008.

"If it continues, we shall have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip against terrorist targets which we understand to be behind these events," Brigadier General Ronen Manelis told journalists.

The six-week protest is in support of Palestinian refugees and the timetable holds significance for a range of reasons that have added to tensions.

It began on Land Day, when Palestinians commemorate the killing of 6 unarmed Arab protesters in Israel in 1976, and as Jewish Israelis readied to observe the Passover holiday, which started at sundown on Friday.

Protests will continue until the United States opens its new Jerusalem embassy around May 14, a move that has provoked deep anger among the Palestinians, who see the city's annexed eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

May 14 will also mark 70 years since the creation of Israel, while Palestinians will mark what they call the Nakba, or "catastrophe," the following day.

The Nakba commemorates the more than 700,000 Palestinians who either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

'Lethal force' 

US President Donald Trump has harshly criticized the Palestinians in the past, but the State Department said only that it was "deeply saddened" by the loss of life and urged steps to lower tensions.

Human Rights Watch criticized Israel's actions.

"Israeli allegations of violence by some protesters do not change the fact that using lethal force is banned by international law except to meet an imminent threat to life," the New York-based group said, calling the number of killed and wounded "shocking."

Israel had deployed troop reinforcements along the border, including more than 100 special forces snipers, saying it would prevent attempts to break through the fence.

Protests along the border are common, often culminating in young Palestinian men throwing stones at Israeli soldiers who respond with tear gas along with rubber and live bullets.

But the "March of Return" protest that began on Friday is on a larger scale and intended to involve families with women and children camping in tent cities near the border for weeks. – Rappler.com

MOSCOW, Russia (UPDATED) – Russia demanded on Saturday, March 31, that Britain further slash its diplomatic presence as a crisis in ties between Moscow and the West escalated over a nerve agent attack on a former spy. 

The call came after 23 British diplomats were kicked out of Russia earlier this month and is seen as Moscow's retaliation to the mass coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomatic staff by the UK's allies.

It is the biggest wave of tit-for-tat expulsions between Russia and the West in recent memory and has seen relations plunge to new post-Cold War lows.

The crisis was triggered by the March 4 poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in an English city which Britain has blamed on Moscow, saying a Soviet-designed military grade nerve agent was used. (READ: Britain shared 'unprecedented' intelligence over spy attack)

On Friday, Moscow summoned British ambassador Laurie Bristow, giving London a month to cut the number of diplomatic staff in Russia to the same number Russia has in Britain. 

"Russia suggested parity. The British side has more than 50 more people," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Agence France-Presse (AFP).  

'Provocative action'

Bristow was summoned along with the heads of missions from 23 other countries who were told that some of their diplomats had to leave.

He was handed a protest note over the "provocativeand unfounded actions of the British side which instigated the unwarranted expulsion of Russian diplomats from a variety of states," the Russian foreign ministry said. 

In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said on Saturday: "We are considering the implication of the measures announced yesterday by the Russian foreign ministry."

The Foreign Office had said it regretted the most recent developments but insisted Russia was the culprit.

"This doesn't change the facts of the matter: the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable," it said.

Meanwhile, Britain said it was considering Moscow's request for consular access to Skripal's daughter Yulia, who was visiting from Russia when the attack took place.

The 33-year-old came out of critical care on Thursday and was "improving rapidly," according to Salisbury District Hospital.

She is now in a stable condition – with the BBC reporting that she was conscious and talking.

"We are considering requests for consular access in line with our obligations under international and domestic law, including the rights and wishes of Yulia Skripal," a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP.

Sergei Skripal, 66, who sold secrets to Britain and moved there in a 2010 spy swap, remains in a critical but stable condition.

Routine checks

Britain also acknowledged Saturday that border officials had searched an incoming Aeroflot flight from Moscow in what Russia blasted as a an act of "blatant provocation".

Britain said it conducts routine checks on aircraft to protect the UK from organized crime and people attempting to bring harmful substances into the country.

The crisis has seen more than 150 Russian diplomats ordered out of the US, EU member states, NATO countries and other nations. 

On Friday, Russia expelled diplomats from 23 countries– most of them EU member states – in retaliation against the West. 

France, Germany, Canada and Poland each said that Russia was expelling 4 of their diplomats. Other countries including Australia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania and Norway were also told to pull their envoys.

Russians set to leave US

In the United States, 171 people – 60 Russians diplomats who Washington alleges are "spies" and their families – were set to leave on two planes provided by the Russian government. 

US media showed footage of a Russian government plane on the tarmac at Washington's Dulles airport, apparently getting ready to take the expelled Russians home. 

Britain has said it is "highly likely" that Russia was responsible for the Skripal attack using the Novichok nerve agent, but Russia has angrily denied any involvement. 

Britain has suspended high-level diplomatic contact with Moscow, expelled 23 diplomats, and said it would not be sending any members of its royal family to the 2018 football World Cup hosted by Russia. 

Russia responded by expelling 23 British diplomats, closing a British consulate in Saint Petersburg and halting the activities of the British Council educational and cultural organization. – Rappler.com