Philippine government and Muslim guerrilla negotiators are drafting a preliminary peace agreement that can be signed this year, but the insurgents say they will not disarm until a final pact is concluded in a few years.

A top Indonesian al Qaida operative wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings has been arrested in Pakistan, foreign intelligence sources said today.

Benigno Aquino III is today preparing to become the next Philippines president based on an almost-complete vote count in landmark elections.

Islamic clerics have called on Filipino Muslims not to support former President Joseph Estrada’s bid to return to power in elections in May.

An 80-year-old Irish priest who was kidnapped and held hostage for a month in the southern Philippines has returned to the country and says he wants to resume his missionary work.

Elderly priest Fr Michael Sinnott made an emotional return to Ireland today for the first time since his month in captivity at the hands of Philippine rebels.

Three suspected Muslim separatist rebels have been charged in connection with the kidnapping of an Irish priest in the Philippines, the national police chief said today.

A KIDNAPPED Irish priest freed after over a month in captivity in the Philippines has vowed to remain in the Asian islands and continue his work.

A kidnapped Irish priest freed after more than a month in captivity in the Philippines today vowed to remain in the Asian islands and continue his work.

An elderly Irish priest released after 32 days in captivity in the Philippines today told how he hiked through jungles, survived raging seas and slept in a swamp under a tarpaulin before his release.

IRISH priest Fr Michael Sinnott, who was being held hostage by rebels in the Philippines, was released last night.

GUNMEN in the Philippines have kidnapped three more people, raising renewed fears for the safety of abducted Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott.

MAJOR concerns remain about the wellbeing of Fr Michael Sinnott despite the release of a video by his kidnappers in the Philippines at the weekend, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin.

The Philippine government rejected a US$2m (€1.3m) ransom demanded by the kidnappers of an Irish priest Michael Sinnott in the country's volatile south and said today that efforts would continue to safely secure his freedom.

The elderly Irish priest snatched by a kidnap gang in the Philippines is believed to be alive and has received vital medicine for a heart problem, it emerged today.

KIDNAPPED Irish priest Michael Sinnott is in critical condition due to malnutrition and lack of medicine for his heart condition.

FEARS are growing about the wellbeing of kidnapped Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott, who is entering his third week of captivity in the Philippines today.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs has discounted speculation that kidnapped Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott has died in captivity.

THE Philippine military said yesterday it knows where a kidnapped elderly Irish priest is being held on a remote southern island and contact had been made with his abductors to get the hostage lifesaving medicine.

The Philippine government today asked a large Muslim rebel group to help secure the freedom of an ailing Irish priest kidnapped by outlaws, as troops surrounded a jungle logging area where he was being held.

Troops and navy gunboats in the Philippines tried to encircle suspected Muslim militants to pressure them into releasing kidnapped priest Michael Sinnott, a military general said today.

An ailing 79-year-old Irish missionary dragged away at gunpoint from his southern Philippine residence is probably in the hands of Muslim militants seeking a ransom, officials said today.

Fears were growing today for the health of an elderly Irish missionary who was dramatically kidnapped in the Philippines by armed raiders who burst into his home.

Suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines today, killing at least three people and wounding more than two dozen others.

A home-made bomb planted by suspected Muslim rebels exploded prematurely in a market in the southern Philippines today, killing a would-be attacker and wounding 15 civilians, officials said.

Security officials said suspected Islamist guerrillas have hurled two grenades near a crowded town plaza where a beauty contest was being held in the southern Philippines, killing at least one person and wounding 32 others.

Fishermen found body parts, combat boots and other debris today that were believed to be from a C-130 military transport plane that crashed after taking off in the southern Philippines with nine crew members on board.

Muslim guerrillas killed four soldiers and three militiamen in an ambush on a military convoy today in the volatile southern Philippines, officials said.

A top al-Qaida-linked militant, long wanted by the US and Philippine authorities for deadly terror attacks, has been killed in a clash with troops in a major blow to his brutal rebel group, the military said today.

At least 5,000 villagers have fled their homes in nearly a week of sporadic clashes between Muslim guerrillas and pro-government militiamen in the southern Philippines, rebels and officials said today.

A car bomb exploded in a public market in a southern Philippine town early today as a convoy carrying a provincial governor was passing, killing five people and wounding 10 others.

The death toll in a market bomb blast in the Philippines has risen to 13, with 52 injured.

A key suspect in terror attacks that killed 42 people in the Philippines last year has been arrested with two associates, a senior military official in the country said today.

The West must stop associating Islam with violence, poverty and indignity, top officials from three southeast Asian nations have stressed.

Authorities in Thailand have arrested a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Islamic terrorist group that is linked to al-Qaida and was blamed for the Bali nightclub bombings.

A bomb exploded today at a crowded market, killing at least 13 people, in the latest deadly attack in the southern Philippines, officials said.

A bomb blast at a market in the southern Philippines today killed at least five people, the police said.

Filipino officials now believe 13 people were killed in the blast and 34 injured in the southern Philippines.

At least six people have been killed today in a large explosion in the southern Philippines.

A POWERFUL bomb hidden in a backpack exploded yesterday at an airport in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 100, including three Americans, authorities said. The government called it a “brazen act of terrorism.”

A POWERFUL bomb hidden in a backpack exploded yesterday at an airport in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people and wounding 147, authorities said.

A powerful bomb hidden in a backpack killed at least 17 people today when it ripped through a crowd outside an airport in the southern Philippines.

Several people were killed today when a powerful explosion ripped through the waiting area of an airport in the southern Philippines.

At least 16 people were injured today in the southern Philippines when a bomb exploded as police tried to defuse it.