Around the World: Philippines

Hostages freed by gunmen

A group of tribal armed men yesterday surrendered themselves to the authorities and freed more than 40 civilians detained at a hilly hide-out in the southern Philippines, ending the four-day hostage crisis peacefully. Elsewhere, in Isabela city, dozens of suspected Islamic militants knocked down a concrete wall and barged into a jail in the volatile southern Philippines yesterday, freeing 31 inmates in a nighttime attack that sparked a gunbattle in which two people were killed, officials said.