Daily Archives: February 14, 2017

Ethicists advise caution in applying CRISPR gene editing to humans – Washington Post

Posted: February 14, 2017 at 11:40 pm

Ethicists have been working overtime to figure out how to handle CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing technique that could potentially prevent congenital diseases but could also be used for cosmetic enhancements and lead to permanent, heritable changes in the human species.

The latest iteration of this ongoing CRISPR debate is a report published Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. The report, a series of guidelines written by 22 experts from multiple countries and a variety of academic specialties, presents a kind of flashing red light for CRISPR.

The report did not recommend an absolute prohibition of gene editing on the human germline if such interventions can be proved safe. This would involve genetic changes to eggs, sperm or embryos that would persist in an adult and could be inherited by future generations.

For some ethicists, that represents a slippery slope. At the conclusion of a gene-editing summit in Washington at the National Academy of Sciences in December 2015, scientists said that although some basic research could proceed, it would be irresponsible to use genetically modified germline cells for the purpose of establishing a pregnancy.

But the new report takes a slightly more permissive, forward-thinking position, saying that, if and when such interventions are proved safe which could be in the near future and if numerous criteria are met to ensure that such gene editing is regulated and limited, it could potentially be used to treat rare, serious diseases.

We say proceed with all due caution, but we dont prohibit germline, after considerable discussion and debate, said Richard Hynes, an MIT biologist and one of the leaders of the new study. Were talking only about fixing diseases.

The list of criteria for going down that road is a long one, said Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Washington. For example: The intervention would have to replace the defective, disease-causing gene with a gene already common in the human species. There would also have to be no simpler alternative for parents wishing to have a healthy child. And first and foremost, there needs to be more research to show that such modifications are safe and target well-understood genes, she said.

We are not even close to the amount of research that we need before you can move forward, Charo said.

What is less controversial, and already happening, is gene therapy that targets somatic cells, in which the changes are not heritable. Such interventions can help an individual patient but would not affect his or her offspring. However, some therapies that can be used to treat a disease could potentially be used for purely cosmetic or competitive purposes.

For example, gene therapy developed as a treatment for muscular dystrophy could potentially be exploited to make a healthy person more muscular. The committee came out strongly against any use of CRISPR for cosmetic enhancements. And the report argues that gene editing in humans should come only after broad public discussion.

This animation depicts the CRISPR-Cas9 method for genome editing a powerful new technology with many applications in biomedical research, including the potential to treat human genetic disease or provide cosmetic enhancements. (Feng Zhang/McGovern Institute for Brain Research/MIT)

Josephine Johnston, director of research at the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute, said the only thing potentially controversial in this new report is the openness to germline modification. Some bioethicists believe that's a bright line that should not be crossed, she said.

Eric Lander, president of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, said of the report, Its a very careful, conservative position thats just a little bit beyond an absolute bar. And I think thats the right place to go for now. They say you cannot do this unless you put double-stick tape on the slippery slope so that nothing can slip. Thats a pretty strong set of restrictions.

Neither Johnston nor Lander were part of the National Academy of Sciences committee that issued the report.

The report drew immediate criticism from a California-based non-profit organization called the Center for Genetics and Society.

This report is a dramatic departure from the widespread global agreement that human germline modification should remain off limits, said Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the center. It acknowledges many of the widely recognized risks, including stigmatizing people with disabilities, exacerbating existing inequalities, and introducing new eugenic abuses. Strangely, theres no apparent connection between those dire risks and the recommendation to move ahead.

CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. CRISPR-Cas9, as it is more precisely called, is a natural system developed bybacteria over the course of their long evolutionary history. The bacteria use their own gene-editing system to identify foreign genetic material that has been inserted into the bacterial genome by viruses. These invasive genetic passages are snipped away, and the genome repaired.

Early in this decade, a series of scientific papers described how this system could be exploited in the laboratory for genetic engineering. CRISPR quickly became the go-to method for gene editing, because it's easier and cheaper than previous methods. It can be used to modify the genomes of plants, animals and potentially humans, though experiments with human embryos have been limited so far because of ethical concerns and, in the United States, legal prohibitions.

This story has been updated.

Further Reading:

Scientists debate an unnerving gene-editing technique

Pondering what it means to be human on the frontier of gene editing

New gene-editing trick discovered just in time for J-Lo's CRISPR TV series

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Ethicists advise caution in applying CRISPR gene editing to humans - Washington Post

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Elon Musk: Automation Will Force Governments to Introduce Universal Basic Income – Futurism

Posted: at 11:40 pm

In Brief

Recently, Elon Musk had the chance to share his thoughts onuniversal basic income (UBI)at the World Government Summit in Dubai. At the Summit,Musk had the opportunity to talk about the future, and the challenges the world will face in the next hundred years including artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and the job displacement expected to come with it.

When asked about the challenges civilization is set to face in the near future,Musk began,deep artificial intelligence, or artificial general intelligence, where you can have artificial intelligence that is much smarter than the smartest human on Earth. This is a dangerous situation.

I think we need to be very careful in how we adopt artificial intelligence and that we make sure that researchers dont get carried away. Sometimes what will happen is a scientist will get so engrossed in their work that they dont really realize the ramifications of what theyre doing.

Musk also relayed concerns thatautonomous technology will impact jobs. Twenty years is a short period of time to have something like 12-15 percent of the workforce be unemployed, he said, pointing out the extent of how automation will disrupt car-based transportation.

Displacement due to automation isnt just limited to transportation. Musk argues that the government must introduce a UBI program in order to compensate for this. I dont think were going to have a choice, he said. I think its going to be necessary. There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.

Musk believes, however, that the issue goes deeper:

As the UBI discussion continues, various nations and institutions have already begun their own pilot programs to test the model. In a couple of years or less, there might be enough data from these experiments for us to consider just how effective a solution to unemployment UBI is.

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President Trump Wants to Send Humans Back to the Moon by 2020 – Futurism

Posted: at 11:40 pm

The Economic Development of Space

Former President, Barack Obama is a big advocate of science. During his term, he was a vocal supporter of the burgeoning commercial space industry and supportedprivate and government efforts to send humans to Mars by 2030.

We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of Americas story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time, Obama said in an open letter he wrote last year.

Under Obama, the future of space exploration was bright. So where do all these new policies and initiatives supporting distant space exploration stand under Donald Trumps presidency? Based on a report by Politico, it looks like its back to low-Earth orbit.

In the report, Trump advisers expressed support for sending humans back to the Moon, almost five decades after the US managed to achieve this great feat. The focus, they said, should be the large-scale economic development of space, which means limiting space exploration to the area betweenour planet and the Moon, called the cislunar region.

The direction the administration follows is a more entrepreneurial approach to space, and theyre pretty aggressive about it. Theres a strong focus on leveraging space to create new industries and jobs, with the goal of creating a lucrative space economy, and staking what Trump calls a de-facto claim on the moon.

Trump is bent on dominating space, but his teams approach is centered on privatizing the whole endeavor, calling it the biggest and most public privatization effort America has ever conducted. Following this, theyre targeting private rockets to shuttle civilian astronauts to the Moon by 2020.

While this plan doesnt completely shut down efforts for commercial space flight (in fact, theyre likely to benefit from it), the feasibility of the timeline raises concerns. Two of the biggest private spaceflight companies are barely ready to achieve this goal. Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rockets, scheduled to bring astronauts into space next year, are far from perfect and are already suffering delays. And Elon Musks SpaceX is still reeling from two consecutive rocket explosions. Theres also the matter of the administration wanting to claim property rights on the Moon, which would violate the UN Outer Space Treaty.

All things considered, one glaringly absent element in this whole effort to make America great again in space is the science. This kind of approach to space exploration will be counterintuitive for a scientific field that thrives on continued innovation and discovery. This could ultimately put missions for long term space exploration to a disappointing halt, and put important exploratory initiatives like the James Webb Space Telescope (scheduled for 2018), the next Mars rover (slated for 2020), or sending a lander to Jupiters Europa on the back burner.

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Sweden’s ‘Feminist’ Government Defends Veiling in Iran After Attacking Trump – Breitbart News

Posted: at 11:58 am

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Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lvin recently attackedU.S. President Donald J. Trump for having men in his top team. However, when her colleagues visited Iran they refused to take a stand against legally enforced female subjugation.

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There were 11 women on thetripled by Prime Minister Stefan Lofven this weekend, according to Expressen, and they were all photographed in headscarves almost all of the time, apart from at events in the Swedish Embassy.

It is illegal for women to go out in public without wearing headscarves in Iran, where thousands of undercover agents and morality police patrol the streets to check for violations. Women found to have their hair or bodies inadequately covered can be publicly admonished, fined, or even arrested.

The veil is a symbol of the oppression of women in Iran, and it is not only customary, but legislated oppression of women, Swedish Liberals Party leader Jan Bjrklund told Aftonbladet.

It is very unfortunate that the Swedish ministers are appearing in pictures, now in circulation, with the veil on.

However, Ann Linde, the Minister for European Union Affairs and Trade from the Social Democrat party, defended the move, arguing they could not violate Iranian law.

Its their law, unlike in Saudi Arabia where it is not required by law to wear a veil. I will go to Saudi Arabia next month and then I will of course not to wear the veil, she said.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and writer, attacked the Swedish government for double standards, posting the image of the female ministers mocking President Trump alongside the picture of them wearing veils in Iran on Facebook.

Women in the Swedish government should have condemned an equally unfair situation in Iran, she wrote.

By not showing any opposition to the law of compulsory veiling when visiting Iran, she added, the Swedish government show[s] the Iranian leader that men are more equal and more important!

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Anti-Castro Cuban-American lawmakers see a champion in Trump – The Ledger

Posted: at 11:58 am

By Gisela Salomon, The Associated Press

MIAMI Cuban-American lawmakers from Florida helped shape U.S. relations with the island for years until they found themselves on the outside during a historic thaw in relations.

But they could be getting the upper hand on Cuba policy again under President Donald Trump with a possible return to an earlier, more hard-line U.S. stance toward relations with Cuba's government.

"We have had more conversations with high-level Trump officials than we had in eight years of the Obama administration," said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, one of a handful of Republican members of Congress from Florida who long had an outsized role on U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba.

What Diaz-Balart and other Cuban-American lawmakers hope is that their renewed access to the U.S. government under Trump's leadership will help them reverse the steps taken by President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro to normalize relations between the two countries.

"Everything is going to be very different," predicted Rep. Carlos Curbelo, another Miami-area Republican who said he felt shut out under Obama.

The congressional delegation from South Florida, home to the largest number of Cuban-Americans in the nation, was long able to help craft U.S. policy toward the island. They had hoped to continue isolating the Castro government and both Democrat and Republican politicians went along, at least in part.

Diaz-Balart recalled that under President George W. Bush he and other Cuban-Americans persuaded the administration to grant travel visas and asylum to Cuban doctors working overseas, helping drive a brain drain from the island.

"When something came up, we could call and they responded to us immediately," he said.

But that changed under Obama, who Diaz-Balart said refused to meet with him as the administration used executive orders to lift some restrictions on travel, trade and investment and ended the so-called "wet-foot, dry foot" policy that allowed Cubans to stay and apply for legal residency if they reached U.S. soil.

Diaz-Balart and other Cuban-American lawmakers want U.S. policy to return to where things were before December 2014, citing what he says is the Castro government's "brutal oppression." Curbelo agrees about the return to earlier policies but does not oppose the easing of restrictions on travel that allow Cuban-Americans to more easily visit family back home.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, another Florida delegation member, declined to speak to The Associated Press but recently forwarded a letter to the Trump administration calling for a policy focused on "freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights" that enforces sanctions written into U.S. law. Sen. Marco Rubio, who also declined an interview request, has criticized what he calls Obama's "failed Cuba policy," and recently said he expected Trump would reverse the previous administration's order halting the asylum program for doctors.

During the presidential campaign, Trump was critical of the opening with the Castro government and said Obama wasn't paying enough attention to human rights on the island. He promised to re-evaluate the agreements with Cuba and cancel those he doesn't think serve U.S. interests. He named several anti-Castro Cuban-Americans to his transition team, but has not yet said publicly whether he intends to reverse specific policies of his predecessor.

Some supporters of the opening with Cuba see reason for optimism. James Williams, head of Engage Cuba, a corporate-backed bipartisan group that supports improving ties to the island, said Trump may not want to reverse what he sees as the "positive progress" of the past three years.

"We have seen more positive progress in Cuba over the last two years than the last 55 years combined," said Williams, adding that a thorough review of current policy should show the Trump administration the advantages of moving toward normalization.

Diaz-Balart and Curbelo said the meetings they and others have had with officials from the new administration, as well as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's confirmation hearings, have given them hope that Obama's executive orders restoring relations with Cuba would be reversed. "Without a doubt, the days of those orders are numbered," Diaz-Balart said.

Even though Ros-Lehtinen and Curbelo did not endorse Trump, some think they, like Diaz-Balart and Curbelo, will have significant influence on the new administration.

"They are going to be the guides of the policy toward Cuba," said Sebastian Arcos, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

Frank Mora, who was deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere under Obama, agreed: "Trump is going to go back to handing the foreign policy of the U.S. toward Cuba to the Cuban-American legislators."

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Russ Boehm: This year, it’s tough being a Boulder County Democrat – Longmont Times-Call

Posted: at 11:58 am

It must be tough being a Democrat in Boulder County this year. Friends and acquaintances I've known for years show signs of stress in most conversations expecting I guess that sooner or later the "T" name will be dropped, triggering their launch into attack mode.

The Democratic Party and congressional representatives certainly don't help much. Every move made by the new POTUS is labeled unconstitutional; the White House office's occupancy is declared to be illegitimate; the smallest decision is based on a nefarious plot on the planet and all its correct thinking inhabitants; and every cabinet candidate is not only bad but in fact is the worst deplorable, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you just name it. Yep, Republithugs are unredeemable.

Going back to a more reasonable time when President Obama was first elected, he had 11 of his 15 Cabinet secretaries in place after his first week. Trump had two. Five of the past six presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama had nearly their entire Cabinet installed by their second week in the White House. President George H.W. Bush faced delays, but he had the advantage of retaining three of Reagan's Cabinet secretaries. So, Sen. Schumer, let's get on with it. I mean thanks to Sen. Harry Reed (D) inventing the nuclear option, Republicans really don't need Democrats to approve appointments any more. If it's good for the goose ...

Another thing, I think President Obama had a clear message when dealing with Republicans griping and hassling him about carrying out his agenda. First it was the stimulus package in 2009. Then it was the debt ceiling in 2013. His message: Elections matter. I won; you lost. Deal with it.

OK, it's a paraphrase. Here's the full Obama quote:

"You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don't break it. Don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country's about."

So Democrat friends, you're better than this. You had faith in President Obama; listen to his advice. President Trump won, your candidate lost. Get over yourselves. The people of the United States voted for change, not an echo of the past eight years of failed policies. If they were successful, Hillary would be in office. She's not and could not even muster a concession speech. That's called arrogance. It's not very attractive, and neither are those waiving signs with epithets regarding neighbors they disagree with.

Let's talk about and work on the issues we agree on.

We all agree that we want clean air and water; a reasonable amount of open space between cities; a good education of our choosing for our children; freedom to worship the God we choose; and the right to choose our life, have liberty from government oppression and regulation, and pursue our happiness with no intention of forcing the unwilling to participate.

Russ Boehm is a 49-year Longmont resident and retired IBM engineer.

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Israeli government awards the Israel Prize to 96-year-old retired Olympic gymnast and Holocaust survivor gnes Keleti. – Jewish Chronicle

Posted: at 11:58 am

gnes Keleti. (Wikimedia Commons)

Agnes Keleti, 96, who hid from Nazi oppression during the 1940s and went on to win Olympic medals in Helsinki and Melbourne during the 1950s, has been awarded the Israel Prize for Sport and Physical Culture.

Keleti, who was born in Hungary and would have been expected to compete for Hungary in the 1940 Olympics had war not intervened, immigrated to Israel in 1957 for the Maccabiah games.

The committee stated in its recommendation that Keleti is a special, powerful, and brilliant woman. A trailblazer, leader, and paragon for all of her pupils in Israel and worldwide, who has made history and lives among us - highly respected in the world of sport and still considered one of the greatest gymnasts in history.

Not content with being a fierce competitor on her own part she collected 10 Olympic medals for gymnastics she has also shared her gift with others, training gymnasts and guiding generations of athletes and coaches.

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Israeli government awards the Israel Prize to 96-year-old retired Olympic gymnast and Holocaust survivor gnes Keleti. - Jewish Chronicle

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President Trump Just Renewed the War on Drugs – MERRY JANE – MERRY JANE

Posted: at 11:58 am

President Donald Trump will take a ruthless approach to people who violate the nations drug laws.

Last week, Trump told law enforcement officials from all over the country that his administration intends to get tougher through the War on Drugs than ever before.During a meeting with the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the president told those in attendance that his projected $21.6 billion wall along the U.S. / Mexico borderand the tenacity of Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kellywould be all it would take the stop the drug cartels.

Its time to stop the drugs from pouring into our country. And, by the way, we will do that, Trump said. And I will say this: General, now Secretary, Kelly will be the man to do it, and we will give him a wall. And it will be a real wall. And a lot of things will happen very positively for your cities, your states, believe me.

President Trump then went on to inform the roomthat his plans to ramp up the drug warwere already in progress.

The wall is getting designed right now, Trump added. A lot of people say, oh, oh, Trump was only kidding with the wall. I wasnt kidding. I dont kid. I dont kid I dont kid about things like that, I can tell you. No, we will have a wall. It will be a great wall, and it will do a lot ofwill be a big help. Just ask Israel about walls. Do walls work? Just ask Israel. They workif its properly done.

So while many had hoped the new administration would take a more progressive approach to dealing with the illicit drug trade, it appears the U.S. is now on the verge of regressing to a time when hammer-fisted policies were king. Apparently, Trump is under the impression that he iscapable of doing what no other president before him has been able to do since President Nixon declared a War on Drugs more than four decades ago.

Unfortunately, Trumps new lease on the drug war may be devastating for the legal cannabis industry.

Last week, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions --a man who remains staunchly opposed to the concept of legal marijuana --was confirmed as the new Attorney General of the United States. There is now a great deal of concern that Sessions may soon cancel out the Obama Administrations hands off approach to legal weed, which is outlined in the Cole Memo, and force any business engaged in the cultivation and sale of marijuana to close its doors.

For the most part, however, the cannabis industry does not seemstoo concerned about encountering the wrath of AG Sessions, mostly because they believe the industry generates too much money for the Trump Administration to even consider such action.

But policy expertssay the cannabis industry couldn't be more wrong.

Your industry is small by any metric of American capitalism, said John Hudak of theBrookings Institution. You are a speck of dust in a clutter of dirt of American capitalism The president is planning to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If you think that hospitals, doctors and the pharmaceutical industry are small enough to be shaken down by the president, but the cannabis industry is too big to face the same challenge from the president, once again, youre insane.

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Sh170m heroin recovered in war on drugs at Coast – The Standard (press release)

Posted: at 11:58 am

Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa, flanked by religious leaders, outside Bamburi Police Station in Mombasa County yesterday, where suspected drug traffickers arrested over the weekend were taken. [photo: Maarufu Mohamed/Standard]

At least nine people were arrested and heroin worth Sh170 million confiscated as the police intensified the war against drugs at the Coast.

Besides the 17 kilogrammes of heroin, the officers also recovered Sh18.4 million in cash from some of the suspects in night raids in several estates, including Nyali and Kisauni in Mombasa County as well as Kanamai in Kilifi County on Saturday and Sunday.

Coast region, particularly Mombasa, has been on the spotlight since late last month when the Government launched the anti-narcotics war.

The war was upped by the extradition of the Akasha brothers, alongside and Indian and a Pakistani, to the US to face drugs-related charges. And on Saturday, two retired South African soldiers were arrested when the police raided a hotel and an apartment in Mombasa.

However, lawyer Cliff Ombeta said Marc Anthony Faivelewitz and Barend David Nolte are innocent. He said they entered Kenya two weeks ago and were to work as bodyguards to one (Vijaygiri) Goswami.

Ombeta claims the two entered Kenya legally, on tourist visas, on the invitation by Goswami, the Indian national who was extradited to the US alongside Gulam Hussein of Pakistan, Baktash Akasha and Ibrahim Akasha to face drug trafficking charges.

ALSO READ: SA, Seychelles nationals held in narcotics crackdown

The South Africans were arrested at Nyali Beach hotel. They are said to have been in the process of obtaining new visas to enable them offer security services in Kenya.

Two Seychellois men, Nelson Vivian George's Domingeuz and Nedy Conrad Rodney Micock, were also arrested in a raid on an apartment in Nyali estate, Mombasa. Their legal status in Kenya was not clear with claims they have been deported.

The police have claimed four of the suspects are partners in international crime and have been on the list of wanted criminals for years. There are reports the arrests were as a result of combined efforts between officials from different security agencies and Interpol.

Ombeta admitted there are arrest warrants against the Seychellois but not the South Africans. Tanzanians were also among those arrested. The law student, identified as Wendy Kinyua, is said to have been found with a lot of cash at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa where she was reportedly trying to board a plane to Nairobi. The police have since linked her to the Seychellois Micock.

Yesterday, Shanzu Senior Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache gave the police five days to investigate the suspects. The prosecution said more people are set to arrested.

"The suspects should be detained in Nyali to allow the police complete investigations. They should, however, be treated fairly, given food and clean water," said Mochache.

Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa and head of the Anti-Narcotic Unit Hamis Massa said they will not relent until all drug dealers are arrested and prosecuted. Those nabbed in the Kanamai raid are Swaleh Yussuf Ahmed Kendereni and his in-law Farida Omar Said. They two are said to be key distributors.

ALSO READ: SA, Seychelles nationals held in narcotics crackdown

Also arrested was Kendereni's wife Asma Abdalla Mohamed who led detectives to Bamburi where 15 kilogrammes of heroin were found in a store belonging to Farida. Kendereni was among those taken to court yesterday. Rashid Athuman and Athuman Salim, found in Kendereni's company during the raid, were also arrested.

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Death of a businessman: How the Philippines drugs war was slowed – Reuters

Posted: at 11:58 am

(Note: Strong language in seventh paragraph)

By Karen Lema and Martin Petty

MANILA When Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte summoned his security chiefs to an urgent meeting one Sunday night last month, his mind was already made up.

His military and law enforcement heads had no idea what was coming: a suspension of the police force's leading role in his signature campaign, a merciless war on illegal drugs.

There was only one reason for the U-turn, three people who attended the Jan. 29 meeting told Reuters. Duterte was furious that drugs-squad cops had not only kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman, they had strangled him to death in the headquarters of the Philippines National Police itself.

"He was straight to the point - 'I am ordering you to disband your anti-drug units, all units'," said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who was at the meeting in the presidential palace.

Duterte decided that the much smaller Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) would take over the drugs crackdown, with support from the military.

It was a stunning turnaround by Duterte, who had until then stood unswervingly behind his police force through months of allegations that its officers were guilty of extra-judicial killings and colluding with hit men in a campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 7,600 people, mostly drug pushers and users, in seven months.

The blunt-spoken president had repeatedly defied calls from United Nations, the United States and the European Union to rein in his war on drugs, calling them stupid and 'sons of bitches'. Duterte's aides were used to his mercurial style, but they were taken aback that the killing of one foreigner would be enough to stop him in his tracks.

One explanation is that relations with South Korea are of huge importance to the Philippines for development aid, tourism, overseas employment and military hardware.

But security officials said it was the audacity of the killing of Jee Ick-joo and the attempt to use the war on drugs as a cover for kidnap and ransom that triggered his decision.

"It's all about the Korean. That it happened at all, it's really that (which) pissed him off," Lorenzana told Reuters.

PDEA Director General Isidro Lapena, who was also at the meeting, hadn't seen it coming either. He said in an interview that the president had lambasted the police force and told them that the "deactivation" and purge of its anti-drugs unit was now as important as the drugs war itself.

Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa told Reuters that Duterte had been "really mad" about the incident and, after the meeting, the president publicly denounced the police force as "corrupt to the core".

"SO OBVIOUS"

The president's legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said the president, a former prosecutor, makes decisions strictly on the basis of the letter of the law. Activists' allegations of summary executions had no supporting evidence, he said, yet to Duterte, Jee's killing was irrefutable, audacious and embarrassing.

"The committing of that crime was so obvious," he said.

Worried that the incident would dent the Philippines' image in South Korea, Duterte sent Panelo to Seoul to apologize to acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Seoul is Manila's biggest supplier of military hardware, donating or selling fighter jets, patrol boats, frigates and trucks.

About 1.4 million South Koreans visited the Philippines in the first 10 months of 2016 - a quarter of all tourists arrivals - lured by beaches, golf and the sex industry. Korean tourists spend an average $180-$200 daily, and their overall spending is triple that of U.S. visitors.

South Korea is the Philippines' fifth-largest source of development aid and in 2015 invested $520 million in areas like power, tourism and electronics manufacturing.

About 55,000 Filipinos work in South Korea and the Philippines attracts Koreans studying English, over 3,700 of them last year.

A South Korean diplomat in Manila said there were no threats or pressure on the Philippine government over the killing of the businessman, but Seoul wanted a guarantee of safety for its citizens and a secure investment climate.

Hoik Lee, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, said South Koreans felt increasingly unsafe in the country.

The chamber's membership has grown from 20 firms in 1995 to 500 companies now, including Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hanjin and LG, but Lee estimated that the Korean community has shrunk by about a third to 100,000 people since 2013 despite the bright economic outlook in the Philippines.

"Police should protect us not kill us," Lee said. "That is why we are very upset and very shocked."

The number of Koreans murdered in the Philippines averages about 10 each year, accounting for a third of all Korean nationals killed overseas, according to Seouls foreign ministry.

However, South Koreans are perpetrators of crime as much as they are its victims in the Philippines, says the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, which has a Korean desk handling cases of kidnappings, murder, robbery, theft, extortion and fraud, mostly in Korean communities, where mafias operate.

For a Graphic on Tourism in the Philippines, click: here

For a Graphic on South Koreans in the Philippines, click: here

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL The U.N. Security Council denounced North Korea's weekend missile launch, urging members to "redouble efforts" to enforce sanctions against the reclusive state, but gave no indications of any action it might take.

CARACAS Venezuela's powerful vice president on Tuesday called his blacklisting by the United States on drug charges an "imperialist aggression" in the first bilateral flare-up under new U.S. President Donald Trump.

ANKARA Turkey-backed rebels have largely taken control of Syria's al-Bab from Islamic State militants, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Tuesday, but a war monitoring group said the jihadists still controlled most of the town.

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Death of a businessman: How the Philippines drugs war was slowed - Reuters

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