Cotabato City, Philippines  - One man was killed while three were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in a beach resort in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the explosion occurred late Sunday in the Besana Beach Resort in Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Ponce said the bomb, made from a 60-millemetre mortar, exploded in an empty cottage adjacent to the cottage occupied by the victims.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Eight Muslim secessionist rebels were killed in separate clashes in two towns in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said Friday.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce said government troops did not suffer any casualties in the fighting in Pikit town in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, and Datu Piang town in nearby Maguindanao province.

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.

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.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Two pro-government militiamen were killed in an attack by suspected Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines, a regional army spokesman said Thursday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the victims were aboard a trishaw when suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels fired at them in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Wednesday.

Two other militiamen were wounded in the attack, Ponce said.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Three government anti-drug agents were killed in an attack Monday in the southern Philippines, the military and police said. Three agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were also wounded in the ambush in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a local army spokesman, said the agents were on a mission to raid a suspected safe house of a notorious drug pusher in the town when they were attacked.