Here are five questions and answers on what it means:

– Why did Duterte do it? –

The ICC announced on February 9 a preliminary examination into allegations Philippine police have killed thousands of alleged users or dealers as part of Duterte’s anti-drug war that he launched after taking office in mid-2016.

Duterte had previously threatened to withdraw from the international body as a result of what he has called a politically slanted inquiry.

– Can ICC still investigate? –

Philippine lawyers say Duterte’s withdrawal will not stop any ICC inquiry.

“The withdrawal from the ICC only takes effect after a year from notification,” said Celeste Mallari, a professor at the University of the Philippines Law College’s Institute of International Legal Studies.

This means that the ICC can continue looking into any acts that took place since Duterte took office until the notification take effect.

– Is Philippines member of ICC? –

Duterte had previously said the Philippines had never fully ratified the statute that makes it a member of the ICC.

However, former chief Philippine government lawyer Florin Hilbay disagreed, saying the treaty was ratified by the Senate under then-president Benigno Aquino in 2011.

– Can Duterte stop probe? –

Duterte has previously ordered soldiers and police not to cooperate with any ICC inquiry. His officials have also said Manila can cite a provision that the ICC cannot assume jurisdiction over a country whose legal system is still functioning.

Mallari, the law professor, said the ICC might decide that the Philippine justice system is not working properly because the key agencies are under control of close allies of Duterte.

“It depends on their appreciation of how our system is working,” she said.

– Impact on Philippines? –

“I imagine this will be an international embarrassment for the Philippines,” said Hilbay, remarking that the country had once been seen as a regional leader in human rights.

Opened in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only permanent war crimes court and aims to prosecute the worst abuses when national courts are unable or unwilling.//AFP

Here are some of Hawking’s best known quotes:

– On why the universe exists –

“If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we would know the mind of God”

From A Brief History of Time (1988)

– On his illness –

“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus”

Interview with The New York Times (2004)

– On his life purpose – 

“My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all”

From Stephen Hawking’s Universe by John Boslough (1985)

– On God – 

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”

From The Grand Design (2010)

– On his celebrity status – 

“The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognised. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away”

Interview with Israeli TV (2006)

– On human imperfection – 

“Without imperfection, you or I would not exist”

From “The Universe With Stephen Hawking”, Discovery Channel (2010)

– On contact with aliens – 

“I think it would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low”

From “Naked Science: Alien Contact”, National Geographic Channel (2004)

– On artificial intelligence – 

“The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”

Interview with the BBC (2014)

– On death – 

“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first”

Interview with The Guardian (2011)//AFP

The outspoken leader, who is accused of stoking the killing of drug suspects with inflammatory statements, has fiercely pushed back since the Philippines became the first southeast Asian nation put under “preliminary examination” by the court’s prosecutors.

The ICC announced last month it was launching a study of the killings, which Philippine police put at 4,000 but rights groups say is actually triple that number.

Officially quitting the court requires a year’s notice and experts say pulling out does not preclude an investigation of the deaths, which have drawn international concern.

“It is apparent that the ICC is being utilised as a political tool against the Philippines,” Duterte said in a statement, adding the ICC examination was “unduly and maliciously created”.

“I therefore declare and forthwith give notice… that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of the Rome Statute effective immediately,” he added.

Opened in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only permanent war crimes court and aims to prosecute the worst abuses when national courts are unable or unwilling.

The Philippines, under previous President Benigno Aquino, ratified in 2011 the Rome Statute which underpins the ICC, giving the tribunal authority to investigate crimes on its soil.

Rights advocates and attorneys said quitting the court would not eliminate the possibility of a case before it.

“The Philippines’ intention to walk away from the International Criminal Court is unfortunate, but it doesn’t shut the door on the prosecutor’s scrutiny of the government’s horrendous track record of grave abuses,” said Param-Preet Singh of Human Rights Watch.

– ‘Unprecedented, outrageous attacks’ –

Celeste Mallari, a professor at the Philippines College of Law, said the court can “investigate any acts that have been done from the time the Philippines became a member of the ICC… until one year after we gave our notice of withdrawal”.

However, should the Philippines fully withdraw from the court it would not be the first to do so, as Burundi became the first ever nation to leave in October 2017.

In a wave of unprecedented defections, other African nations — Zambia, South Africa, Kenya and Gambia — have also made moves to quit or expressed interest to withdraw as they accused the court of being biased against Africans.

Russia in 2016 dealt the ICC another blow by withdrawing its signature from the Rome Statute.

Duterte, who is buoyed by high popularity ratings in the Philippines, has fiercely defended the drug war as a battle to bring safety to the nation’s 100 million people.

On Wednesday he repeated that defence, citing “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on his person as well my administration”.

“The acts allegedly committed by me are neither genocide nor war crimes. The deaths occurring in the process of legitimate police operations lacked the intent to kill,” he added.

But even as early as October 13, 2016, when Duterte had only been in office less than four months, the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that she was “deeply concerned” over reports of extra-judicial killings of over 3,000 alleged drug users and pushers.

Adding pressure on Manila, in February, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva raised the country’s human rights record, with Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson calling on the Philippines to accept the visit of a UN Special Rapporteur.

Philippine officials had initially said in February that the country was ready to cooperate but asked for fairness.

Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque also said they would refuse a visit by one such rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who had previously been pressing to investigate the killings.

But Roque has also said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the case because the tribunal was intended as a “court of last resort” and the Philippine courts were fully functioning.

The black French bulldog was in a pet carrier during the flight Monday from Houston to New York.

United said it took responsibility for the death, saying pets should not be placed in the overhead storage compartments.

“This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred,” the airline said in a statement, adding that it expressed its “deepest condolences to the family.”

Passenger Maggie Gremminger, 30, who was seated behind the pet owner, said the owner was told to put her dog in the compartment after boarding with two kids including an infant, according to The New York Times.

“The pet owner was very adamant that she did not want to put the pet carrier up above,” Gremminger said, according to the Times.

“She was saying verbally, ‘My dog is in here, no, this is my dog.’ The flight attendant, in response, really just continued to ask her to put it above because it was a hazard where it was, it was a safety emergency, someone could trip.”

This was the latest in a string of PR nightmares for United.

Last year a male passenger was dragged kicking and screaming from an overbooked plane in Chicago, and cell phone footage of the incident went viral.

And the response from the company behind the vending machines? It was simply not his day.

Graphic designer Mitchell Law first opened 40 boxes with all kinds of small stuff ending up with a hairdryer as his biggest win. Then he tried another 90 boxes and had to be content with two lunch boxes as his best prizes.

Ready for the next round: Law (right) with a friend watching a worker restocking the boxes in the vending machine at KLIA2.

“Every box had a prize. I got a lot of other small prizes like plastic brick toys, playing cards, phone rings and selfie sticks which I’ve given to my friends.

“I’m not even angry or mad because I’m just trying it for fun. I don’t think my luck is that bad but I just find it really funny,” said the 31-year-old who is based in Cambodia.

He had tried his luck with the machine by a company known as Bee Bae at the KLIA2.

Law also said that he did not clear the entire machine as highlighted by other online portals and newspapers.

At its maximum capacity, there are 150 mystery boxes in the vending machine.

Users will first insert RM10 into the machine and select a box of their choice where they would find a card stating the prize that they won. They would then have to contact the number stated on the box to collect the prizes or opt to have them delivered.

Asked if he would do it again, Law laughed and said yes and that he would also have a Facebook live session when he opens the boxes.

Law’s posting on Facebook about his unlucky experience has since gone viral with more than 12,000 shares and more than 5,000 comments.

When contacted, Bee Bae managing director Aki Lim said the company has since checked with its staff at KLIA2 and confirmed that Law had opened the boxes in two batches but did not clear the entire machine.

“I guess he was just unlucky. We have 150 mystery boxes in every round and there will be several big prizes in every round.

“There are prizes in every box, from small prizes such as USB charging cables right up to better prizes such as the Sony PlayStation 4. We also update our Facebook page regularly with photographs of big prize winners,” he said.

Lim added that Bee Bae currently has nine such vending machines in the Klang Valley and Penang since it began operations in October last year.

He stressed that a vending machine is only a form of entertainment and not gambling machines.

Among the big prizes offered by Bee Bae are the flagship smartphones by Apple, Samsung and Oppo, gaming consoles and electrical appliances.

The concept of mystery box vending machines is a hit in Japan and Taiwan and is now gaining popularity in Malaysia.

It is learnt that the drop rate for a good prize is around 5%.

In Asia, a wide number of women now use contraception, the trend which is seen as contributing towards containing the ever expanding world population. Within the region, the highest levels of contraceptive use are found mainly in the Eastern and South Eastern regions, with an estimated high of 83.4 per cent in China. In all, countries in Asia have contraceptive prevalence levels of 50 per cent or more. The lowest level of contraceptive prevalence in Asia was in Pakistan at 38.5 per cent in 2015.

Worldwide 64 per cent of ‘married and cohabiting women used modern or traditional methods of contraception in 2015 – a significant rise from 36 per cent in 1970’, according to the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs data. The number of women using contraceptive is expected to increase all across Asia except China and South Korea where the rate is expected to drop by almost 2 per cent and 1 per cent respectively by 2030.

However data shows a stark disparity in the range of percentage of women taking recourse to contraceptive methods in Asia. Cambodia had the lowest prevalence rate in Asia in the 1970 but has seen a significant increase in the use of contraceptives in last four decades. In 1970 the percentage of women using contraceptives was 0.6 which saw an increase to 57.9 in 2015. It is expected to reach 67.2 per cent by year 2030.

A meagre 1.8 per cent of women were using contraceptives in 1970 in Nepal which saw an increase to 52.4 per cent in 2015. Only 1. 8 per cent of Bhutanese women used contraceptives which increased to 67.8 per cent in 2015. It is estimated to reach 72.8 per cent by 2030.

In Laos, 53.6 per cent of women were estimated to be using contraceptive methods in 2015 which is projected to go up to 63 per cent by next decade. Myanmar which has a wide disparity between rural and urban population in the choice of contraceptive methods went from 2.6  per cent in 1970 to 52 per cent in 2015 and is expected to reach 61.1 per cent by 2030.

Although Pakistan has seen resistance on birth control policies, the country has updated its commitment to implement family planning methods. The percentage of women who will use contraceptives by 2030 is estimated to be 52.8. Bangladesh has also seen an increase in the use of family planning methods and is expected to reach 68 per cent by 2030.

Singapore has been far ahead of other Asian countries in 1970 with 55.5 per cent women using contraceptives in 1970. It saw an increase to 66 per cent in 2015 and is expected to rise to 67.5 per cent by 2030. Japan was at 54.2 per cent in 1970 and saw an increase to 56.5 per cent in 2015. it is expected to go up to 60.1 per cent by 2030.

India, the first country in the world to launch a national programme for family planning has seen a surge in number of women using contraceptives to 67.8 per cent in 2015. It is estimated to rise by 1 per cent  by 2030. In the South Asian region, Sri Lanka has been ahead of its neighbours at 30.3 per cent in the 1970 to an increase of 71.6 per cent in 2015.

Indonesia has jumped from 6.6 to 62.9 per cent in 2015. Vietnam and Malaysia have seen a rise to 76.8  per cent and 56.1 per cent respectively. Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia are expected to see a rise by 61, 76 and 60 per cent respectively by 2030.

At 78.7 per cent in 2015, South Korea has been ahead of other Asian countries and is expected to drop to 77.3 per cent by 2030. However China, despite 2 per cent drop by 2030, will still have the highest levels of contraceptive use.

According to the UN the region can save billions of dollars if family planning is implemented properly as it would bring down unintended pregnancies and avert unsafe abortions. Contraception use also prevents new infections in women, men and adolescents and reduces maternal mortality

A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency’s black operations, Haspel, 61, was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the top US espionage body, after he named current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state.

Haspel is widely respected in the intelligence community as a disciplined, non-political field agent who took on hardship positions and unsavory jobs. From that she rose to manage the global clandestine network before becoming deputy director one year ago.

But her history during the US “war on terror,” overseeing interrogations in CIA black sites later exposed as torture, has already set back her career once and could stand in the way again.

Several senior politicians said they would challenge her over torture, ensuring a likely heated debate when she goes up before the Senate Intelligence Committee for confirmation in the coming weeks.

“The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history,” said Republican Senator John McCain, who himself was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

“Ms Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program during the confirmation process.”

“Ms Haspel’s background makes her unsuitable to serve as CIA director,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.

‘Secret Thailand prison’

Haspel would be the first woman ever to run the CIA. She joined in 1985 and served as chief of station in several posts around the world.

In 2013, she was named to head the National Clandestine Service. But she was quickly replaced after political questions were raised over her role in post-9/11 interrogations.

She oversaw the CIA’s black site prison in Thailand in 2002, where, according to numerous reports, key Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were brutally interrogated, slammed against walls, and repeatedly waterboarded.

She later was helped destroy videotapes taken of the detainee interrogations.

The CIA has always maintained that what it did was legal, the interrogations authorized by president George W. Bush and ruled lawful at the time by the Justice Department.

Torture has since been explicitly outlawed by the government, and despite Trump’s endorsement of it, there have been no reports of the US intelligence agencies returning to the practice.

Haspel is appreciated by many in the intelligence community, a number of whom said she will be a good change from the highly political Pompeo.

“She is capable, smart, very experienced, well respected by the agency rank and file, and a great person, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Cipher Brief website.

“I think it’s much better to have intelligence professionals serving in senior intelligence positions.”

Former CIA Clandestine Service director John Bennett said she took on “some of the most demanding and least rewarding assignments in the War on Terror, not because she sought them out, but because she felt it was her duty.”

– Russia expertise –

Besides her record on torture, Haspel will be pressed on the CIA’s views of Russia, which Pompeo seemed to downplay in deference to Trump, who has labelled stories of Russian interference in the 2016 election “fake news.”

Having once served as deputy director of the CIA’s Russia group, Haspel, her defenders say, knows her stuff.

“Ms. Haspel ‘grew up’ in the CIA during the Cold War. She will have no illusions about the nature of the Russian state or the KGB-trained autocrat who runs it,” said Bennett.

Haspel is “a far cry from the current partisan director. She isn’t one to play politics, won’t be soft on Russia,” said Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff.

Two packages left at residents’ doorsteps detonated Monday, killing a 17-year-old and injuring two others. Another package exploded on March 2, killing a 39-year-old man.

Police believe the attacks were related. All of the cardboard packages were hand-delivered, not sent through the mail.

Investigators have so far not announced any significant progress in identifying a suspect. A reward for information leading to an arrest was raised from $15,000 to $65,000.

“What we do know is that the individual or individuals that are involved in this, these suspects, they do have a certain level of skill,” the police chief, Brian Manley, told Fox News.

“To be able to construct a device like this and then deliver that device to your target, without having it explode either during construction or during delivery, does take a certain level of sophistication,” Manley said.

A task force of some 100 personnel from multiple agencies has been assembled for the case, including criminal profilers and evidence experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and explosives specialists from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

“We will be here… until we resolve this and make sure there are no other explosive devices in the city,” FBI special agent Christopher Combs told a late afternoon news conference.

The ATF said it is looking for pieces of the explosive devices at the crime scenes and will attempt to reconstruct the packages in a laboratory in California.

– False alarms –

As the investigation continued, police received some 265 calls from worried residents reporting suspicious packages. All were false alarms, according to Manley.

“We’re not going to leave any stone unturned, and we’re going to follow up every lead,” the chief said.

The attacks came as the world’s attention was focused this week on Austin’s annual South by Southwest (SXSW) gathering — a series of festivals featuring celebrities from the media and entertainment worlds.

Festival organizers said their security staff were on high alert.

“The substantial security operation already in place for SXSW has been instructed to be extra vigilant,” a festival spokesperson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Austin’s African-American community was pondering a potentially troubling connection in the first two attacks.

The Washington Post newspaper reported that one of the people killed was the stepson of a former pastor at a historic African-American church in Austin, while the other was the grandson of a close friend of the same pastor.

“Somebody knew the connection,” the retired pastor, Freddie Dixon, told The Post.

“It’s not just coincidental.”

The Austin police chief acknowledged the possible link and said investigators were following up.

“One of the key things we’re trying to understand is is there a connection between all of these victims,” Manley said.

“We’re just not going to ignore the fact that the three victims that were targeted specifically, that we know of, were people of color,” he added.

“That does not indicate that it was a hate crime, but we’re not going to rule that out.”

Trump told troops at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station near San Diego that the new group would be able to encapsulate the “tremendous amount” of work the military and government are doing in space-related defense.

“My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea,” Trump said.

“We may even have a space force… We have the air force, we’ll have the space force, we’ll have the army, the navy.

“Maybe we’ll have to do that. That could happen,” he said.

Since taking office, Trump has frequently touted his support for the US military and placed high-ranking generals in top White House and cabinet posts.

Last year some legislators pushed a bill in Congress that included a provision to establish a new branch of the military dubbed the Space Corps.

But the military itself has resisted, saying it does not need to create another force and its attendant bureaucracy.

“At a time when we are trying to integrate the department’s joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congressman Michael Turner in a letter last July.

It would be “premature to add additional organizational and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead,” he added.

The idea was finally dropped from the Pentagon’s funding bill by the end of last year, but it retains some support in Congress, where advocates say the US is facing significant strategic vulnerabilities in the face of Russian and Chinese pushes into space warfare.

Republican Representative Mike Rogers told a February 28 conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that a separate space corps could be carved out from the air force within “three to five years”.

He said China and Russia have become “near peers” to the US in space capabilities, and the US is not pushing hard enough to stay ahead.

“That’s unacceptable that we have allowed that to happen, particularly in a day and age when it is essential to have those space capabilities to fight and win wars,” he said.

The honey hunters, as they are known, are rag-tag groups of villagers who head to remote corners of the jungle every year in search of the rare nectar, hidden in towering tualang trees.

“This is the real thing,” said Abdul Samad Ahmad, 60, who has been harvesting honey in this way for more than 20 years.

“There’s a lot of nutrition in this honey. You can make it into medicine, for your cough or cold.”

Like New Zealand’s manuka honey, also hailed for its supposed medicinal qualities, Malaysian tualang honey is expensive, fetching 150 ringgit ($38) a kilo — a huge amount for people from poor, rural communities.

But the generations-old practice faces myriad threats, from environmental destruction and falling bee numbers to a lack of interest among the young.

The die-hard hunters remain optimistic — for them, there is no greater buzz than climbing trees 250 feet (75 metres) tall to gather honey made by bees gorged on sweet nectar from exotic jungle flowers.

– ‘Sting until your body is swollen’ –

The honey-collecting season in northern Malaysia’s Greater Ulu Muda forest runs from February to April, when giant honey bees arrive from other parts of Asia to make their hives in the trees that stretch high above the rainforest canopy.

On a recent trip, Abdul Samad and six others travelled far into the forest, boarding two small boats and sailing across a lake to reach a tualang. They nailed branches up its trunk a few feet apart to create a makeshift ladder, replacing old ones from the previous year.

As night fell, after layering up and donning thick jackets, the group lit vine roots twisted together to create a smoking torch.

They clambered up the tree, hitting the torch against the trunk as they approached a hive. A flood of embers showered below, and a team member called out to the bees: “Come down, black sweet, come down.”

A swarm of bees rushed out, chasing the sparks of light — granting the hunters precious moments to cut through the hive and fill a bucket with chunks of honeycomb.

The men worked through the night, slowly moving around the tree’s many hives and only stopping just before dawn, having collected 43 kilograms (94 pounds) of honey.

The hunters were stung numerous times but continued working, insisting they are used to the pain.

One of the group, Zaini Abdul Hamid, said he and his fellow hunters are not aware of any deaths resulting from the risky pastime, “but if you’re in the wrong place, at the wrong time, the bees will sting you until your body is swollen”.

– Vanishing forests –

Demand for tualang honey exceeds its limited supply, and the bounty is split equally among the group, who sell it in their village or to dealers from out of town.

None of those on the recent expedition were younger than 45, with some in their 60s, and they said younger people from their villages have no interest in taking up honey-hunting.

“They’re not brave,” said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, while Zaini lamented that the younger generation “prefer to play with their gadgets — we asked them to come, but they’re not interested”.

The hunters said it was common to see four to five groups from a single village harvesting from tualang trees in the 1960s, but these days there are far fewer.

The number of bees in the Ulu Muda forest also appears to have fallen in recent years, with heavy logging regularly reported and some blaming the destruction of their natural habitat.

The problem may also be global. Experts have long been sounding the alarm about declining honey bee populations worldwide, blaming climate change and disease as well as habitat destruction.

No comprehensive studies have been done on bee populations in Ulu Muda, but Makhdzir Mardan, a bee expert from Universiti Putra Malaysia, said that on an expedition into the forest in 1983 he had spotted 128 hives on a tree, while now you could expect to find 40 at most.

As they trekked deeper into the jungle, the honey hunters mourned the loss of the bees’ habitat, particularly the flowers they feed on.

“The places where the bees look for food are disappearing,” said Mohamad Khairi Mohamad Arshad, 50. “If there aren’t a lot of flowers, then the bees will not come.”//AFP