Manila  - Twelve factory workers were killed and five injured when a boiler at a Styrofoam packaging plant exploded in the Philippines, police said Wednesday.

The explosion occurred Tuesday evening as night shift employees worked at the factory in Santa Maria town in Bulacan province, just north of Manila.

The town's police chief, Superintendent Marcos Rivero, said five workers died on the spot while others were trapped under concrete and steel debris as the blast destroyed the factory.

Manila - Australia on Tuesday pledged to provide 100 million Australian dollars (71.3 million US dollars) for road improvement projects in the central and southern Philippines.

Australian Ambassador Rod Smith said the money will be used to repair and maintain more than 1,000 kilometres of provincial roads in 10 provinces in the regions of Visayas and Mindanao.

The funds will be given over a five-year period starting this year, he added.

Manila  - The Philippines' inflation rate fell to 6.4 per cent in March as prices of food and other basic commodities eased, the government said Tuesday.

The March index was down from 7.3 per cent in February and was the same level as in March 2008, the National Statistics Office said.

The office said inflation decelerated "as slower annual inflation rates were registered in the indices of all commodity groups," such as food, electricity and fuel.

Manila - Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged the Philippine government to investigate and dismantle an alleged "death squad" that has killed more than 800 people in the past decade in one of the country's most prosperous cities.

The New York-based rights watchdog warned that police officers and local government officials appeared to be involved in the targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals and even street children in Davao City, 990 kilometres south of Manila.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Philippine police on Monday filed criminal complaints against seven people, including three police officers, for allegedly providing support to Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers.

The suspects, who also included two village captains and two civilians, were among dozens of people rounded up last week on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on suspicion of being supporters of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Three people were killed and seven wounded Monday when gunmen attacked a truck owned by a rubber plantation cooperative in the southern Philippines, police said.

The ambush occurred in Lantawan town in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, said Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, provincial police commander.

Macapantar said four of the wounded were in critical condition and rushed to hospital in Isabela City.

He said police still have no suspects and were investigating the ambush.