Manila  - Philippine shares rose 3.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - One soldier was killed and five were injured in a botched attempt to rescue a kidnapping victim in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokeswoman said Friday.

The fighting erupted Thursday when troops conducting an operation to rescue a kidnapped employee of a lending firm encountered Muslim separatist rebels in Sumisip town in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho said.

Beijing  - China might convert more naval vessels to patrol disputed areas of the South China Sea to counter illegal fishing and "other countries' unfounded territorial claims," state media said Thursday.

China faces new "challenges and complications" in the South China Sea, the official China Daily quoted a senior fisheries official as saying, pointing to recent claims by the Philippines and Malaysia to disputed islands and a standoff with a US naval surveillance ship.

Manila  - The Philippine military said Thursday that it was pulling back troops away from Muslim militants holding captive three international Red Cross staff on a southern island after the kidnappers threatened to behead one of the hostages.

A leader of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels also promised to a Philippine Red Cross official to free one of the hostages if government forces move away from their encampment in Indanan town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - Three international Red Cross staff held captive by Muslim militants in the southern Philippines are still alive and unharmed after deadly clashes between their captors and government troops, a local Red Cross official said Wednesday.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said all reports from Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, indicate that none of the hostages were hurt in the fighting since Monday.