CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court overturned a decision naming Hamas a terrorist organization Saturday, a ruling coming after months of increasing hostility to the blockaded rulers of the Gaza Strip.

The Urgent Matters Appeals Court cited a lack of jurisdiction as the reason for annulling the earlier court's ruling.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, welcomed the court's ruling, saying it would have "positive consequences on the relationship between Hamas and Egypt."

Egypt initially declared the group a terrorist organization in February. That ruling further isolated Hamas, which once found open support under Egypt's toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Egypt's new government recently has begun clearing a buffer zone along its border with Gaza Strip in an attempt to destroy a cross-border network of tunnels that Hamas considers a lifeline.

In recent months Egypt has appeared increasingly hostile to Hamas, which it has blamed for violence in the country's restive Sinai Peninsula. The secretive movement, founded in Gaza in 1987 as an offshoot of the region's Egyptian-originated Muslim Brotherhood, faces a growing cash crunch and has yet to lay out a strategy to extract Gaza from its increasingly dire situation.

There was no immediate government reaction to the court's decision.

An Egyptian court banned Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and designated it a terrorist organization in January. In 2014, a similar ruling in the same court banned all Hamas activities in Egypt and ordered the closure of any Hamas offices, though the order apparently was never carried out. It wasn't immediately clear how — or if — Saturday's ruling would affect those previous decisions.

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Dozens of demonstrators gathered at Rio de Janeiro's heavily polluted Guanabara Bay, demanding that officials clean it up before it is used as a 2016 Olympic sailing venue.

Amid whistles of disapproval and shouts of "shame!" demonstrators held a beachside protest, their boats symbolically kept on the shore as they waved their oars in the air.

They launched their protest at noon to coincide with low tide, when the dirtiness of the water is most evident.

"Brazilian authorities promised a series of improvements to the bay but just a little more than a year ahead of the Olympic Games have done virtually nothing," said Mario Moscatelli, a university professor and biologist, who called the protest.

Athletes training for next summer's Olympic Games have complained about the condition of the water, where animal carcasses, sewage and tons of dead fish have been found floating.

From the shore, the demonstrators displayed examples of the trash extracted from the bay, including an intact toilet.

Moscatelli called the continued high levels of pollution the result of a "lack of leadership."

At the time of Rio's candidacy to win the Games, city officials promised to clean up 80 percent of the bay's waters, but so far they have managed only to clean about 50 percent.

Next year's Games are set to take place August 5-21.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand is eager to show its newfound toughness on human trafficking, taking reporters on patrols and tours of former camps, cooperating with neighboring countries and the U.S., and arresting dozens of officials — including a high-ranking officer in the military that now controls the country. The junta even had a "National Anti-Human Trafficking Day."

The Southeast Asian country is trying to dissuade Western governments from leveling economic sanctions, but it has a daunting enemy: history.

"Thailand remains major center for human trafficking." Those words were emblazoned on a huge headline in a Thai daily newspaper printed nearly three years ago. The country's answer was largely to ignore the problem, until recent events made that impossible.

The discovery of 36 bodies at abandoned traffickers' camps near Thailand's southern border with Malaysia has intensified international pressure on Thailand to crack down on smugglers. So has a subsequent crisis involving thousands of migrants who were stranded at sea by their traffickers — and whose boats were pushed back by Thai officials. Those migrants, mainly Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya migrants from Myanmar, are just part of a human-trafficking problem that also includes Thai fishing boats that have used slave labor.

Last June, Thailand and Malaysia were put on a blacklist in a U.S. State Department assessment on human trafficking, a downgrade that can jeopardize its lucrative seafood and shrimp industries. The European Union also threatened Thailand with a ban on seafood import by the end of the year unless it drastically changes its policies on illegal and unregulated fishing.

A new State Department assessment is due this month, and Thailand is pushing for an upgrade with efforts that included its first-ever Anti-Human Trafficking Day on Friday. The opening ceremony at the prime minister's Government House was followed by discussion about the problem and an awards ceremony for a journalist, police and officials who have helped expose human trafficking problems.

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In this May 5, 2015 photo, forensic police officer collects items left at an abandoned migrant camp …

"Today, we have to admit that this has been a problem in Thailand for a long time," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said as he opened the event with an hour-long speech.

"The government is focusing on preventing and suppressing human trafficking and is determined to get rid of men who sell men, so that they no longer have a place to stand on our soil — no matter how influential they are or if they are government officials," said Prayuth, who took power from a civilian government in a May 2014 coup.

Yet even Friday's event raised questions about Thailand's seriousness. The journalist who was honored reported on trafficking from the country's inland north, not the south and the sea, where the crisis has been most immediate. Weeks earlier, when a Bangkok television reporter drew broad attention to the issue by getting on a migrant boat to shoot video, Prayuth obliquely referred to her as a troublemaker.

Human-rights activists and others have long accused Thai authorities of collusion in the trafficking industry — claims that police, military and government officials have long denied. But as the migrant camps, graves and boats drew global attention, pressure grew on the government to respond.

In a widening human-trafficking investigation, more than 50 people have been arrested in a month, including local politicians, government officials, police, and, in the past week, a senior-ranking army officer. About 50 police officers in the southern provinces were also removed from their posts and investigated for possible involvement in trafficking syndicates.

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In this May 5, 2015 photo, border patrol police officers dismantle an abandoned migrant camp on Khao …

The junta-appointed legislature passed a new anti-human trafficking law that mandates harsher penalties, and human trafficking-related court cases will get a shortcut in the judicial system to prosecute suspects more quickly.

Thai police took journalists on several treks into the tropical jungle along the Thai-Malaysia border to witness the exhumation of graves and watch as the officers dismantled abandoned wooden shelters by hand.

Thailand's sudden clampdown prompted some human smugglers to abandon boats that were filled with migrants. Thousands of migrants reached shore — mostly in Malaysia and Indonesia — but an unknown number are believed to remain at sea.

Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia all rejected the ships as the crisis began, and all have been conducting some measure of damage control with the media.

Two days after Malaysia confirmed 28 migrant camps and 139 suspected graves on its side of the border with Thailand, more than 60 reporters were taken on a three-hour trek to an abandoned camp where a forensic team had exhumed a body. Further requests to visit other migrant camps have been rejected, though police say they have now recovered 49 bodies from the gravesite the media visited.

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In this May 29, 2015 photo, the HTMS Angthonga of the Royal Thai Navy is anchored near a deep sea po …

Under international pressure, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to take migrants in temporarily. Thailand did not, but insisted it will give humanitarian assistance to the boat people.

"It's not that Thailand isn't helping. It's good that everyone is helping, but Thailand has also provided help and our hands are full already," deputy government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told The Associated Press, adding that the country already gave shelters to 140,000 refugees, mostly in camps along the Myanmar border.

Last month Thailand called a regional conference and brought together senior government officials from 17 countries and international organizations to discuss the swelling tide of boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh in Southeast Asia. But one moment from the event reflected the at times muddled nature of Thailand's cooperation.

The U.S. had for days been seeking Thai approval to conduct surveillance flights to look for migrants — approval that Malaysia had quickly granted. Thailand's foreign minister announced to reporters that the OK had been given, shortly after a U.S. diplomat told journalists that America was still waiting.

On the same day as the Bangkok conference, the Royal Thai Navy flew about 140 journalists to the southern island of Phuket to see a naval ship that would be used as a floating base to give food, water and medical treatment to migrants at sea. The navy flew a helicopter and a light patrol aircraft in a circle for cameramen to record the footage during the two-hour choreographed tour.

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In this May 29, 2015 photo, Thai navy officers load food and water supply onto the HTMS Angthong of …

Critics say Thailand must do more to show it is serious about fighting human trafficking if it is to get off the U.S. blacklist and avoid the EU seafood import ban.

"Thailand needs to show that they are consistent with law enforcement," said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher of Human Rights Watch. "The arrest (of an army officer) showed that no one will be left untouched this time, but at the same time, it also made us question why have they allowed this to happen for years.

"Thailand has been accused of having the culture of impunity of state officials in the past, but this crisis offers a first chance to break that culture," he said.

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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker and video journalist Papitchaya Boonngok in Bangkok and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.

Six Singapore primary school students and one teacher were among 16 people so far confirmed killed by an earthquake that rocked Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu, government authorities said on Sunday.

Malaysian officials said the death toll from the earthquake that struck on Friday morning had risen to 16, from an earlier 13, with two still missing.

The Singaporean students were part of a school excursion to the popular climbing destination, which was jolted by a 6.0-magnitude quake just as the 4,095-metre-high (13,435-foot) mountain was crowded with hikers.

The tremor triggered thunderous landslides that obliterated sections of trail on the peak, located in the state of Sabah on Borneo island.

Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam confirmed the bodies of six students had been identified.

Singapore's government also has said a teacher and a Singaporean adventure guide perished, while another student and a teacher remained missing.

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A Malaysian rescue team carries an injured Singaporean student after an earthquake near Mount Kinaba …

Malaysian officials have said the students were aged 12 and 13.

"Looking at the photos of these children -- such young lives, full of promise, snuffed out," Shanmugam said in a Facebook posting, calling the episode "Singapore's tragedy in Sabah".

Malaysian police say the dead or missing also include several Malaysians, and one each believed to be from China, Japan and the Philippines.

But they were yet to provide a detailed breakdown, saying the poor state of some remains made identification difficult.

Mohammad Farhan Lee Abdullah, police chief of the town of Ranau near the mountain, said body parts had been found on sections of the mountain, suggesting the awesome power of the landslides.

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Members of a Malaysian rescue team listen to their radios at the Timpohon gate checkpoint after an e …

"They are in parts probably because of rocks and boulders falling on them but we need to do forensics first," Mohammad Farhan said.

Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said some of the Singaporean students were taking a route to the summit known as the Via ferrata, Italian for "iron road", that traverses a steeply sloping rock face.

"Initial investigations show that the worst-hit area was at Via ferrata. There were many boulders that came down there," Masidi Manjun, tourism minister for Sabah state, told reporters.

- Climber criticised rescue effort -

Rescuers Saturday had escorted down to safety 137 hikers who were stuck on the mountain for up to 18 hours by the rockfalls.

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Young injured Singaporean students resting after an earthquake in Kundasang, a town in the district …

But an Australian climber accused Malaysian authorities of a slow and chaotic response.

"(Official rescue crews) were looking rather lost really, and it was the mountain guides who did most of the work attending to the injured, strapping people into stretchers, getting ready to take them down the mountain," Vee Jin Dumlao told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The whole government emergency response was a farce," she said, asking why hikers were not reached by helicopter.

Officials have said poor visibility made a helicopter mission dangerous.

Sabah state tourism minister Masidi Manjun said on Twitter: "It's easy to pick on weaknesses of S&R effort and I'm sure they are many. Now is not the time to blame."

Dozens of aftershocks have followed the main quake, including a Saturday afternoon 4.5-magnitude temblor.

Friday's quake was one of Malaysia's strongest in decades but there have not been any reports of major damage, nor any casualties outside of those at Mount Kinabalu.

Climbing has been suspended for at least three weeks so authorities can make repairs and assess safety risks.

Around 20,000 people complete the relatively easy climb each year.

Mount Kinabalu is sacred to the local Kadazan Dusun tribe.

Officials and social media users have blamed the quake on a group of 10 apparently Western men and women tourists who last weekend snapped nude photos at the summit and posted them on the Internet, saying the act angered tribal spirits.

Masidi said two Canadians had been detained but declined to identify them or say what charges they may face.