Cotabato City, Philippines  - Police on Saturday foiled a bombing in the southern Philippines with the discovery of an improvised explosive outside a church, a town police chief said.

Chief Inspector Franklin Anito said the improvised bomb was recovered at dawn in front of a local Christian church in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Passers-by alerted the police about a suspicious plastic bag left outside the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) church in downtown Kabacan, Anito said.

"Bomb experts immediately went to the area and discovered the explosive device," he said. "The device was successfully defused."

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 28  -- Donovan McNabb tossed four touchdown passes Thursday and the Philadelphia Eagles breezed to a 48-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Bryan Westbrook started the rout with three first-half touchdowns, two on passes from McNabb and one on a 1-yard run.

McNabb completed 27-of-39 passes for 260 yards and Westbrook added a franchise-record fourth score on a 9-yard, third-quarter run in the first Thanksgiving Day contest in Philadelphia since 1940.

Westbrook finished with 130 all-purpose yards (110 yards on 22 carries and three catches for 20 yards).

Manila  - Philippine troops have overran a communist rebel camp used by the guerrillas to make homemade bombs in the country's troubled south, an army commander said Friday.

One soldier was wounded in the raid on the mountain camp in Monkayo town, Compostela Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, on Thursday, according to Major General Jogy Leo Fojas.

Fojas said troops swooped down on the area after military intelligence confirmed reports of civilians that guerrillas were holding camp there.

He said materials used in making improvised bombs and landmines were seized from the camp after the guerrillas abandoned the encampment.

Manila - Malaysia said Thursday it was withdrawing its troops from an international peacekeeping mission in the troubled southern Philippines amid stalled peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said Malaysia's troops were pulling out of the southern region of Mindanao as scheduled on November 30.

He said Malaysia, which has led the international monitoring team (IMT) in Mindanao since 2004, would consider rejoining the mission if the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) make progress in peace negotiations.

Manila - The Philippines' economic growth slowed down in the third quarter of 2008, expanding by only 4.6 per cent from 7.1 per cent a year ago, the government said Thursday.

The third quarter performance brought the average gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first nine months to 4.6 per cent, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

Gross national product, which includes income from abroad, including remittances of overseas Filipinos, expanded only 6.5 per cent in the July-September period from 9.1 per cent a year ago.

Manila - The Philippines on Thursday condemned the series of terrorist attacks in India's financial capital of Mumbai that killed 101 people and injured 287.

"The entire Filipino nation and Filipinos around the world mourn with the families of those who died and were hurt because of the Mumbai attacks," said deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez.