DAVAO, Philippines – Incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he would seek an early start to peace talks with communist rebels and free detained guerrilla chieftains when he takes office in end-June.

He also offered safe passage for Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the insurgency who fled to European exile nearly 30 years after the failure of initial attempts to end one of Asia’s longest armed insurgencies.

Duterte is betting on his close friendship with Sison, his former university teacher, to bring a swift political settlement to a rebellion that has killed about 30,000 people by official count and impoverished vast swathes of the country.

“I will… give him (Sison) a safe-conduct pass,” the soon-to-be president told a midnight news conference in his southern hometown of Davao.

He said Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Tiamzon, the detained alleged leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing the New People’s Army, would also be let out to take part in the peace talks.

Incumbent President Benigno Aquino revived peace talks soon after taking office in 2010 but shelved them in 2013, accusing the rebels of insincerity in efforts to achieve a political settlement.

The talks got bogged down after the communists demanded the release of scores of their jailed comrades whom they described as “political prisoners”, which the Aquino government rejected.

Duterte, who met a rebel emissary in Davao 10 days ago, said he would also be sending out two members of his cabinet to Norway for preparatory meetings with the exiled rebel leaders.

Norway had acted as go-between in failed peace talks between the Aquino government and the rebels.

“I have commissioned them to go to Oslo… to go there for the framework and agenda that (we) will talk about,” Duterte added.

He said the two cabinet emissaries would then “maybe accompany Jose Maria Sison home”.

Should his emissaries be able to hammer out an agreement, “then I will release all the political prisoners,” Duterte said – the rebels’ term for their jailed comrades.

The rebels have hailed Duterte’s earlier offer for a ceasefire, as well as to allow the rebels to nominate their allies to four positions in his cabinet.

However they have also urged him to release all detained rebels that they said numbered more than 500.

KATHMANDU – Gasping for breath and clad in trekking boots, more than 150 local and foreign runners took part Sunday in the world’s highest marathon in the snow-covered foothills of Mount Everest.

The annual Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon, which began in 2003, is meant to mark the anniversary of the first summit of the peak by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953.

Runners kicked off the race at 07:00 am local time, with the trail taking them from Everest base camp at a height of 5,364 metres (17,598 feet) to the finishing line about 2,000 metres below in the town of Namche Bazaar.

About 130 foreign runners, including from Britain, United States, China and Australia, joined another 30 from Nepal.

Local soldier Bed Bahadur Sunuwar took first place, completing the 42-kilometre run in four hours and 10 seconds.

“The route is very challenging but amazing too. I feel proud to be the winner,” the 29-year-old said.

The air at base camp contains only half as much oxygen as at sea level, leaving many runners gasping for breath on even the slightest incline along the narrow, rocky mountain paths.

“It is a difficult and exciting to race at this altitude. My muscles will hurt once the adrenaline wears off,” said Poland’s Robert Celinski, 43, taking part in his fourth race.

“The Nepali runners are very good. But next year, I hope to win,” he said.

Organisers hailed the large number of participants as a further sign of the recovery of Nepal’s mountaineering industry after two years of tragedy on the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) peak.

“The earthquake dampened the race last year, but we have seen a significant increase in the number of participants this year,” said organiser Bikram Pandey.

Only 55 took part last year and it was postponed until October after a massive earthquake hit the Himalayan nation in April, killing nearly 9,000 people and triggering a deadly avalanche on Everest base camp.

An avalanche on Everest in 2014 also claimed the lives of 16 Nepali guides and forced a shutdown of the mountain.

But hundreds of mountaineers have reached the summit in recent weeks, as this year’s spring climbing season drew to a close.

MANILA – Philippine police have killed three drug suspects in a shootout, officials said Sunday, the latest such deaths after the election of tough anti-crime firebrand Rodrigo Duterte as president.

A spate of recent criminal killings by police has spiked fears of a extra-judicial crackdown in the country after incoming leader Duterte vowed to stamp out crime by all means necessary.

Police were called to the home of a suspected drug dealer on the tiny island of Banacon in central Philippines before dawn Saturday when gunfire broke out between the suspect and police, leaving the accused and three associates injured.

The accused drug trafficker Rowen Secretaria and two unidentified men were pronounced dead after being taken to hospital, while the fourth was treated for gunshot wounds, local police officer Roel Lagora told AFP.

“The armed men shot at the raiding team several times, prompting the latter to defend themselves and return fire,” Lagora told AFP by telephone, reading an official account of the incident.

Filipino police have killed 12 other drug suspects across the country in the past week, while unknown gunmen murdered two other men linked by police to illegal drugs.

Duterte has warned security forces will kill tens of thousands of criminals and ignore human rights, part of a campaign pledge to eradicate the scourge of drugs that many voters rated as their top concern.

The soon-to-be leader, who is also the sitting mayor of the southern city of Davao, has been accused of backing vigilante death squads that have murdered more than a thousand people in Davao, including more than 100 minors.

Civil rights groups have criticised Duterte for his threats, describing his proposed methods as illegal and unconstitutional.

Police have denied suggestions they are implementing Duterte’s campaign promises before he takes office on June 30, insisting earlier this month that the first eight suspects were killed in self-defence.

Banacon lies about 20 kilometres (12 miles) off the coast of Cebu, the country’s second-largest city after the capital Manila.

The newly elected Cebu mayor, Tomas Osmena, told AFP earlier this month he would pay police bounties of 50,000 pesos ($1,060) for each criminal they killed, and 5,000 pesos for wounding them.

Osmena could not be reached for comment by AFP on Sunday, but on his Facebook page he described the operation against Secretaria, whom he called “the biggest drug lord” in two Cebu districts.

“This is just one of four operations being conducted this weekend. Will report the others tomorrow,” Osmena wrote.