Cotabato City, Philippines - Three people were injured Monday when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said.

Major Randolph Cabangbang said the explosion occurred while the Rural Transit Inc passenger bus was traveling on a highway in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Cabangbang said three bus passengers were injured in the blast and were treated in a nearby hospital.

Manila  - Five suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout when police raided their hideout to rescue a 23-year-old victim in a northern Philippine city, police said Monday.

The hostage was unharmed in the firefight on Sunday evening in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan province, 165 kilometres north of Manila, Superintendent Wilson Lopez said.

Lopez, operations chief of the provincial police, said commandos swooped down the suspects' safe house after receiving information that the hostage was being held there.

Manila - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Friday that it approved a total of 10.5 billion dollars in loans in 2008, the highest in its 42-year history.

The Manila-based bank said the rise in loans reflected the region's ever-increasing demand for assistance to deal with the impact of the global economic crisis.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Fourteen "high-risk" criminals escaped from a city jail in the southern Philippines, a jail official said Friday.

The detainees escaped from the Cotabato City jail, 930 kilometres south of Manila, late Thursday by overpowering the jail guards, according to city jail warden Inspector Panga Arab.

Arab said the escapees were facing murder, drug trafficking, robbery and illegal possession of firearms cases.

Manila  - A communist rebel was killed in a clash with government troops in an eastern Philippine town, a military report said Friday.

The report said the fighting erupted Thursday when patrolling troops encountered the guerrillas in a remote village in Esperanza town in Masbate province, 390 kilometres south of Manila.

The troops also recovered an assault rifle left behind by the fleeing rebels, it added.