CAIRO — Russian officials and experts flew to Egypt's Sinai on Sunday, a day after a Russian passenger airliner crashed in the largely desert peninsula killing all 224 people on board.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov along with a team of investigators boarded a plane from a military airport in eastern Cairo to the site of the crash, sources at Cairo airport said.

A Russian rescue team boarded another plane heading to Sinai to join the search for bodies of the victims, they added.

Some 163 bodies have been transported to a major mortuary and several hospitals in Cairo, the government said on Sunday.

A massive search operation is underway for the remaining victims at the crash site in a remote desert interior of Sinai, the government added.

Egyptian authorities said the tragedy was probably caused by a technical fault, ruling out the possibility that it was a result of a terrorist act in the turbulent peninsula.

In recent months, the Egyptian army has stepped up a campaign against militant insurgents in Sinai, which borders the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Israel.

A Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State extremist militia claimed to have downed the Airbus A321, which crashed shortly after departing from the Sinai resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh heading to the Russian city of St Petersburg.

But experts expressed doubts as to the claim, saying that shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile systems, which the group apparently used to shoot down an Egyptian military helicopter last year, could not have reached the Russian plane's reported cruising height of 31,000 feet prior to its plunge.

The Dubai-based carrier, Emirates, said on Sunday it was suspending its flights over Sinai, becoming the world's third airlines to take the move.

An Emirates official told dpa that the halt was temporary until the cause of the Russian airliner is determined.

On Saturday, Lufthansa of Germany and Air France announced redirecting their flights to avoid the airspace over Sinai for safety reasons.

TV footage of the ill-fated Russian plane showed a badly damaged tail still carrying the logo of the Metrojet carrier, and wreckage scattered over the crash site.

By Ben Blanchard and Andrea Shalal
Reuters

WASHINGTON — China's naval commander told his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war in the South China Sea if the United States did not stop its "provocative acts" in the disputed waterway, the Chinese navy said on Friday.

Admiral Wu Shengli made the comments to U.S. chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson during a video teleconference on Thursday, according to a Chinese naval statement.

The two officers held talks after a U.S. warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of one of Beijing's man-made islands in the contested Spratly archipelago on Tuesday.

China has rebuked Washington over the patrol, the most significant U.S. challenge yet to territorial limits China effectively claims around its seven artificial islands in one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

Angry China Shadows US Warship Defying Beijing in South China Sea

"If the United States continues with these kinds of dangerous, provocative acts, there could well be a seriously pressing situation between frontline forces from both sides on the sea and in the air, or even a minor incident that sparks war," the statement paraphrased Wu as saying.

"(I) hope the U.S. side cherishes the good situation between the Chinese and U.S. navies that has not come easily and avoids these kinds of incidents from happening again," Wu said.

Speaking earlier, a U.S. official said the naval chiefs agreed to maintain dialogue and follow protocols to avoid clashes.

Scheduled port visits by U.S. and Chinese ships and planned visits to China by senior U.S. Navy officers remained on track, the official said.

"None of that is in jeopardy. Nothing has been canceled," said the official.

Unplanned Encounters

Both officers agreed on the need to stick to protocols established under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or CUES.

"They agreed that it's very important that both sides continue to use the protocols under the CUES agreement when they're operating close to keep the chances for misunderstanding and any kind of provocation from occurring," the U.S. official said.

Indeed, Wu said he believed the Chinese and U.S. navies had plenty of scope for cooperation and should both "play a positive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea."

A U.S. Navy spokesman stressed Washington's position that U.S. freedom of navigation operations were meant to "protect the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law."

Chinese warships followed the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, as it moved through the Spratlys on Tuesday. The U.S. Navy is operating in a maritime domain bristling with Chinese ships.

While the U.S. Navy is expected to keep its technological edge in Asia for decades, China's potential trump card is sheer weight of numbers, with dozens of naval and coastguard vessels routinely deployed in the South China Sea, security experts say.

China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Next week, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Vietnam and Singapore, while Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan will attend a meeting of Southeast Asian defense ministers in Malaysia that U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is also due to attend.

Court Setback

Separately, China suffered a legal setback on Thursday when an arbitration court in the Netherlands ruled it had jurisdiction to hear some territorial claims the Philippines has filed against Beijing over the South China Sea.

The court said additional hearings would be held to decide the merits of the Philippines' arguments. China has not participated in the proceedings and does not recognize the court's authority in the case.

Manila filed the case in 2013 to seek a ruling on its right to exploit the South China Sea waters in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone as allowed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China, facing international legal scrutiny for the first time over its assertiveness in the South China Sea, would neither participate in nor accept the case at the arbitration court, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Friday.

Liu told reporters the case would not affect China's sovereign claims in the seas.

The Philippine government welcomed the court decision.

Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, Manila chief's lawyer in the case, said the ruling represented a "significant step forward in the Philippines' quest for a peaceful, impartial resolution of the disputes between the parties and the clarification of their rights under [the U.N. convention]."

By Chris Taylor
Reuters

NEW YORK — When Sara Davis Buechner began her transition from man to woman, she knew there were going to be emotional hurdles, like dealing with her family.

But there were financial costs, too. And she knew they were going to be forbidding.

Medical procedures like facial electrolysis cost USD$20,000 (712,000 baht). There was a year of therapy, required at the time to make sure Buechner, a renowned pianist, was a suitable candidate for transition – at USD$80 (2,800 baht) a session.

Since American options were just too pricey, Buechner opted for surgery in Thailand. The tab? USD$10,000 (360,000 baht), including flights.

This was in the early 2000s, and none of those costs were covered by insurers. She sold one of her two pianos, a Yamaha, to help foot the bill. "I emptied all my accounts," Buechner remembers. "And I consider myself one of the lucky ones."

Buechner was more than willing to pay those high bills, because it was the culmination of something she had known since childhood: She was female, despite having been born as David.

Transgender issues are more openly discussed these days, such as Caitlyn Jenner's transition from Olympic athelete Bruce Jenner. But the costs of transition can be overwhelming, especially for a population that is already marginalized.

The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, for instance, lists menus of procedures for both male-to-female transitions and female-to-male that total well over $100,000, or 3.6 million baht..

Meanwhile, corporations have been slow to help. According to the 2015 Employee Benefits Survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, just 5 percent of employers offer gender reassignment health care coverage to their staff.

That is up since 2011, when only 2 percent of companies did so. But progress has so far only been incremental.

Among larger companies, the numbers are more encouraging. One-third of Fortune 500 firms now offer healthcare coverage including transgender surgery and related medical costs, according to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index report.

In addition, the provisions of Obamacare – as well as state-specific laws in places like California, New York and Oregon – have been pushing plans towards transgender-inclusive health coverage, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

"The policy environment is changing for sure," says Jody Herman, a scholar of public policy at UCLA's Williams Institute. "The way anti-discrimination laws are being interpreted is moving in the direction of saying that exclusions to trans-related healthcare are not acceptable."

Lost Work

The costs of transition are not just medical, though. Buechner started losing recital engagements when venues found out about her personal story. She also had trouble booking any new ones.

When she applied to become a music teacher at more than 30 U.S. colleges, she didn't get a single response. (She is now an associate professor at Vancouver's University of British Columbia.)

No wonder so many transgender Americans are economically vulnerable. Fifteen percent report making less than $10,000 a year, according to the Center for American Progress, quadruple the average poverty rate.

The No. 1 tip from financial advisers: Start financial preparations early.

"Plan ahead, know what your costs are going to be, and what your insurance will cover and what it won't," says Paula Heichel, a financial adviser with Wells Fargo Advisors in Washington, D.C. who has counseled transgender referrals on their finances. "These cost are not to be taken lightly, and you have to be able to pay as you go."

Indeed, with a long enough timeline, it might be worth the effort to seek employment at one of the 418 major U.S. companies which offer at least one transgender-inclusive employee health plan (here). Otherwise, the costs could be very significant indeed.

"Just imagine, you have to take every stitch of clothing you own and put it in the garbage," Buechner says. "The best analogy I tell people is, 'What if you moved to Bolivia tomorrow, how much would it cost to start a totally new life?'"

"The costs are enormous. Start counting."

By Antoni Slodkowski and Soe Zeya Tun
Reuters

YANGON — An opposition lawmaker and two other people were attacked with machetes and injured on Thursday, in the first serious violent incident in campaigning for Myanmar's historic Nov. 8 election, his campaign manager said.

Naing Nan Lynn, a lower house lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, who is running for a seat in the regional assembly in Yangon, was attacked while campaigning around 9:30pm by three men with machetes.

The attackers were being held at a police station. Their motives were unknown.

"One of the guys came out and started yelling at the car. He returned with two other men with machetes and attacked the people around the campaign truck," Aung Myo Oo, an NLD campaign manager who witnessed the attack, told Reuters.

"The candidate suffered serious injuries after being hit on his head and his arm." The three injured people were taken for treatment Yangon General Hospital.

The attack will likely raise security concerns ahead of a rally by the NLD's charismatic Suu Kyi, who typically draws massive crowds, planned for Sunday at the heart of Yangon, the country's commercial capital and its largest city.

The NLD leader and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, has criss-crossed the country without major incidents, galvanizing crowds with a message of sweeping change, faster reforms and a state respectful of ethnic minorities.

Tensions have been running high in the run up to the poll, in which the NLD is expected to trounce the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, and the but the attack is the most serious case of election-related violence so far.

Myanmar's junta ceded power to a semi-civilian government four years ago after ruling for 49 years.