Cotabato City, Philippines  - Five people were wounded when an improvised bomb exploded in a southern Philippine town, a regional military spokesman said Saturday.

The explosion occurred late Friday in front of a gymnasium in Maitum town in Sarangani province, 990 kilometres south of Manila, Major Randolph Cabangbang said.

Manila - Philippine security forces have arrested two Muslim militants with alleged links to a pair of Indonesians wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings, an official said Thursday.

Eduardo Ermita, chief of the Philippine anti-terrorism council, said Mokasin Dilna, a leader of the militant al-Khobar group, which has been accused of bombings and extortion, was arrested on January 29 in Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.

Omar Venancio, a close associate of senior members in the Philippines of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was arrested January 7 in Cotabato City,

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Government security forces foiled a bomb attack on a southern Philippine city with the detonation of an improvised explosive planted near a pharmacy, a military commander said Thursday.

Colonel Domingo Gobway said the bomb, fashioned from a 60-millimetre mortar shell attached to a mobile telephone, was discovered late Wednesday along a busy street in Cotabato City, 930 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila  - Three communist rebels were killed Thursday in a pre-dawn clash with government troops in a northern Philippine province, an army spokesman said.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres said one soldier was also wounded in the firefight in the village of Galintuha in Maria Aurora town in Aurora province, 150 kilometres north-east of Manila.

Manila - The Philippine Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an American soldier convicted of rape in 2006 should be detained in a local facility instead of the US embassy, where he has been staying since his conviction.

The high tribunal, voting 9-4, ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs to negotiate for the transfer of US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 23, to a detention facility that is under the control of Philippine authorities.

Manila - The Philippine military ruled out force for the time being to rescue three staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) being held captive by Muslim militants on a southern island, an armed forces spokesman said Wednesday.

Brigadier General Gaudencio Pangilinan said the aim of the military was to rescue Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba "without any violence."