Islam in the Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte received a draft law by the Moro rebel group on July 17, in an important step to broker peace in the southeast Asian country.        

Philippine troops engaged Islamic State-linked militants in pitched clashes on Thursday around the southern city of Marawi as the military deployed tanks to secure vital installations in a battle that has become a major test for President Rodrigo Duterte’s government.

An explosion went up outside a post office in Rome, reported the Independent.

The blast damaged a car nearby but no injuries have been reported.  

The Italian investigators said it may have been caused by a letter bomb.  The device was homemade and placed between two cars in a car park in central Rome. 

More to follow. 

Unknown persons late on Tuesday threw an explosive device at the Sasa Hotel in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Nobody was injured during the incident, but the blast caused material damage.

Nearly 160 inmates escaped after suspected Muslim rebels attacked a jail in the southern Philippines before dawn on Jan. 4, and at least six people were shot dead as pursuing government forces traded fire with gunmen, officials said.

The Philippines' most wanted Islamist militant, whose death at the weekend could boost peace efforts in the country's south, was killed by his own bodyguards in pursuit of a bounty offered by the United States, the head of the military said on May 4.

A senior Turkish diplomat has been appointed as chair of a key intergovernmental body aimed at resolving a centuries-old conflict in the Philippines, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has announced.