Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that unprotected male-to-male sex was fuelling the spread of HIV and AIDS in Asia, where the epidemic could worsen amid a lack of services to gays.

"Men who have sex with men have been identified as one of the most at-risk populations for HIV/AIDS," the Manila-based WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific said in a statement ahead of a meeting in Hong Kong.

"Asia is believed to have the world's largest number of men having sex with men, estimated at 10 million," the office added.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Government troops rescued a kidnapped 7-year-old boy and killed one of his captors Tuesday in the southern Philippines, a Marine commander said.

Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero said the boy was kidnapped by two motorcycle-riding gunmen in front of his house in Isabela City in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila.

Guerrero said the suspects fired at a nearby marine checkpoint as they tried to escape along with their victim, but Marines chased them into a nearby village.

Manila  - Amid grim prospects of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos losing their jobs because of the global economic downturn, the government is banking on sending more workers overseas to help ease a projected rise in unemployment at home.

The government has even started reviewing deployment bans to risky destinations such as Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria to find alternative jobs for retrenched Filipino workers.

Manila  - The Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels should hammer out a new ceasefire to end military offensives that have displaced thousands of civilians in the country's troubled south, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said Tuesday.

The military's operations in the southern region of Mindanao aim to arrest three commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who led a series of attacks in August 2008, killing dozens of civilians and soldiers.

Manila  - Remittances from overseas Filipinos posted a better-than-expected 13.7-per-cent growth in 2008 despite the worsening global economic crisis, the government said Monday.

Central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said remittances totaled 16.42 billion dollars in 2008, slightly higher than the bank's forecast of 16.3 billion dollars for the whole year.

Remittances in 2007 were 14.44 billion dollars, Tetangco said.

Manila  - Three suspected robbers were killed in a shootout with police officers in the Philippine capital on Monday, a police official said.

A bystander was wounded in the firefight in Sikatuna village in the Manila suburban city of Quezon, but was already in safe condition after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

Chief Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula, a district police director, said gunmen opened fire at police officers who responded to reports of suspicious men in the area.