The Philippine Supreme Court opened a hearing yesterday on an autonomy agreement with Muslim rebels, as tensions remained high with the discovery of a homemade bomb at a southern school.
Under tight security, the court began hearing arguments from the government and opponents of the accord, who said it was unconstitutional and would lead to the partition of the Philippines.
The court threw out a government motion to postpone the proceedings, court spokesman Midas Marquez said.
The military said yesterday it found a bomb at the back of an elementary school in M’lang Township in North Cotabato Province, where troops had earlier dislodged about 1,000 Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas from 15 predominantly Christian villages in a three-day offensive.
Mayor Lito Pinol said the bomb was made from a 60mm mortar round and a cellphone as a trigger, resembling an improvised bomb that went off prematurely in the same town on Thursday and another that was disarmed at the bus terminal in the nearby town of Kidapawan.
Regional military spokesman Major Armand Rico said the bombs could be retaliation by the rebels for the military offensive.
Neither town had been occupied, but the guerrillas are active nearby. Police said a man arrested in connection with Thursday’s explosion admitted to being a rebel, but guerrilla spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the claim.
Military chief General Alexander Yano said the security situation in the southern Mindanao region remained “volatile and fluid.”
He said the rebels could be reconstituting their forces to “launch similar atrocities in other areas” of the region.
The latest violence came at a crucial juncture in peace negotiations between the government and the 11,000-strong rebels, who have waged a decades-long rebellion for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation’s south.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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