MANILA, Philippines

Government, rebels sign preliminary peace pact

Muslim rebels and the Philippine government overcame decades of bitter hostility and took their first tentative step toward ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies with the signing of a preliminary peace pact that provides both hope and challenges.

The framework agreement creates a roadmap for a final peace settlement. It grants minority Muslims in the southern Philippines broad autonomy in exchange for ending more than 40 years of violence that has killed tens of thousands of people and crippled development.

It was signed Monday in Manila’s Malacanang presidential palace by government negotiator Marvic Leonen and his counterpart from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Mohagher Iqbal. Also witnessing the historic moment were President Benigno Aquino III, rebel chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim — who set foot in the palace for the first time — and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country helped broker the deal.

LOS CABOS, Mexico

Hurricane Paul strengthens as it nears Baja California

Hurricane Paul rapidly strengthened into a major Category 3 storm in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico on Monday, prompting a hurricane warning for a swath of Baja California’s western coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Paul’s maximum sustained winds had ratcheted up to 120 mph as of 8 p.m. EDT Monday.

Forecasters said Paul was expected to approach the western coast of the southern Baja peninsula by late Tuesday and be near or over the central Baja peninsula on Wednesday. The hurricane was expected to begin weakening Tuesday, the hurricane center said.

Paul is on track to bypass the heavily populated tourist areas of Los Cabos at the tip of the peninsula, and the capital, La Paz, on the eastern Gulf of California.

WASHINGTON

Supreme Court will decide Arizona voter law in 2013

The Supreme Court will weigh in on the controversy over voter fraud and decide early next year whether Arizona can require residents to show proof of their citizenship before they register to vote.

The justices agreed to hear Arizona’s appeal of an anti-fraud provision that was adopted as a ballot initiative in 2004, but was struck down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Without this provision, “Arizona is forced to accept what amounts to an honors system as to whether the applicants are citizens or not,” said the state’s Attorney General Thomas C. Horne. He was referring to the federal “motor voter” law that allows people to register to vote in federal elections by filling out a card and simply signing a certification that they are indeed citizens eligible to vote.

PIERRE, S.D.

McGovern in hospice care near his home and family

Former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to President Richard Nixon in a historic landslide in 1972, has moved into hospice care near his home in South Dakota, his family said Monday.

“He’s coming to the end of his life,” his daughter, Ann McGovern, told The Associated Press. She said that her father has suffered several health problems in the last year.

George McGovern, 90, became a leader of the Democrats’ liberal wing during his three decades in Congress. He turned his focus in recent years to world hunger.

His daughter said he has moved in the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, where he moved in August to spend more time near his family. He had been splitting his time between homes in Mitchell, S.D., and Florida.

— From news service reports