Torchbearers 'kiss' with their torches to pass the Olympic flame in front of a military fence on the road leading to the border truce village of Panmunjom during the PyeongChang 2018 Torch Relay in Paju on January 19, 2018. North and South Korea have agreed to march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony, in the latest sign that the crisis on the peninsula may be easing. Pic/AFP

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided on a pool of clean athletes who are eligible to be invited by the global body to take part in the Winter Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018. After weeks of intensive evaluation and consideration of each individual athlete from Russia, an independent Invitation Review Panel has concluded on a pool of clean athletes who can be invited to PyeongChang 2018 as an Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR), reports Xinhua news agency. The invitations will be issued only at an OAR meeting on January 27 in PyeongChang, before which the list of the invited athletes cannot be published.