International

Philippines postpones self-rule vote in restive Muslim region

AFP

The Philippine government said Friday it will postpone elections key to ending decades of sectarian bloodshed in a troubled Muslim region, with the pandemic and a stalling peace process blamed for the delay.

The vote was a key provision in a 2014 peace agreement aimed at ending a conflict estimated to have claimed 150,000 lives and was due to take place next May in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

But former rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group appointed to lead a transitional government have said they needed more time before elections to a local legislature can go ahead and the vote will instead be held in 2025.

“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed… (the bill) yesterday resetting the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to 2025,” his spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.

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The law grants Duterte the authority to appoint members of the 80-member transition authority whose terms would end with the 2025 election, Roque said.

Former MILF rebels have warned that the failure of the peace process would likely draw disillusioned Muslim youths in the region towards the more hardline Islamists still waging an armed campaign in the southern Philippines.

But restrictions imposed because of the pandemic and the transitional government’s inability to draw up an election code had left them with little choice but to delay the poll, Georgi Engelbrecht, senior analyst for the Brussels-based peace monitor International Crisis Group, told AFP last month.

“The extension is not the most perfect solution but nonetheless it’s a start,” he said.

A report by the monitor warned in April that the process of decommissioning the MILF’s 40,000 fighters was “sputtering”, with fewer than a third having laid down their weapons.

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And the Duterte government “has been slow to distribute to them the economic packages meant to entice them to cooperate”, it added.

Violence has also persisted despite the peace deal, with radical Islamic groups setting up shop in what remains the poorest part of the country.

In May 2017, hundreds of pro-Islamic State foreign and local gunmen seized Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city.

The Philippine military wrested back the ruined city after a five-month battle that claimed more than a thousand lives.

An insurgency first emerged in the mainly Catholic Asian nation in the early 1970s as a bid to set up a separate Muslim state in the Mindanao region, though the rebels later scaled down their goals to autonomy.

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An earlier peace treaty between Manila and a rival Muslim rebel faction had created a self-ruled area in 1996, but it was hampered by a lack of funding and corruption while the MILF fought on.

The new entity is better-funded and slightly larger. The national government retains police powers.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.

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“I am an artist who has taken a step into politics to bring peace to my country,” Álvarez told reporters while surrounded by supporters.

International

FBI: Man who attacked Michigan synagogue died from self-inflicted gunshot

The man who died during Thursday’s attack on a synagogue in the United States suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the FBI.

FBI agent Jennifer Runyan told reporters that the suspect, identified as 41-year-old Lebanese citizen Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, shot himself at some point during the confrontation.

“At some point during the shooting, Ghazali suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Runyan said during a press conference.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the suspect’s identity.

Authorities said Ghazali drove a truck into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, located in the state of Michigan, on Thursday.

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According to Michael Bouchard, sheriff of Oakland County, synagogue security personnel noticed the vehicle and confronted the suspect with gunfire.

Investigators said it would be premature to speculate about the motive for the attack, although reports indicate Ghazali recently lost relatives during Israeli strikes in Lebanon earlier this month.

“It would be irresponsible for me to speculate about his motive,” Runyan said.

Ghazali arrived in Detroit in 2011 on a spouse visa for U.S. citizens and obtained American citizenship in 2016, according to reporting by The New York Times.

He was the father of two teenagers, divorced from his wife in 2024, and had recently been working as a waiter.

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The newspaper also reported that Ghazali attended a memorial service in the nearby city of Dearborn for relatives killed in the recent conflict, alongside other grieving family members from the Lebanese town of Machghara.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said the incident is being investigated as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.

A source from Michigan’s Lebanese-American community told CBS News that several of Ghazali’s relatives had been killed roughly ten days before the attack, leaving him deeply devastated.

International

Mexican Navy Ships Deliver Third Shipment of Humanitarian Aid to Cuba

Two logistics support vessels from the Mexican Navy — the ARM Papaloapan and the ARM Huasteco — docked again on Friday in the bay of Havana carrying a third shipment of humanitarian aid for Cuba.

The vessels had previously arrived on the Caribbean island on February 28 with a second cargo that included 1,200 tons of food, sent to help alleviate the country’s ongoing crisis, which has worsened following the U.S. oil restrictions affecting fuel supplies to the island.

Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Josefina Vidal confirmed the new shipment in a social media post.

“Two ships carrying a third shipment of aid from the Government and the people of Mexico for the Cuban people are now arriving at the port of Havana. Thank you Mexico for your solidarity with Cuba,” she wrote.

Previous aid shipments

During the second shipment, the Papaloapan transported 1,078 tons of beans and powdered milk, while the Huastecocarried 92 tons of beans and 23 tons of assorted food products collected by social organizations with support from the government of Mexico City.

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In recent months, Mexico has become the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Cuba, sending around 2,000 tons of supplies, mostly staple foods and hygiene products, in the two shipments prior to Friday’s delivery.

The first shipment alone included 814 tons of food.

Cuba praises Mexico’s support

Hours before the ships arrived, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel highlighted Mexico’s support during a televised appearance, describing the country as “a friendly and brotherly nation that has shown tremendous solidarity,”particularly praising Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Díaz-Canel also addressed reports suggesting that Mexican donations were being resold in state-run stores, dismissing them as a “disinformation campaign” promoted by right-wing groups.