Philippine police commandos have killed an Abu Sayyaf commander linked to last year’s kidnapping of Red Cross workers and gunned down two other militants in a clash that erupted while they were looking for a Malaysian militant.

Emergency rule was imposed on two Philippine provinces today as security forces found more bodies from one of the worst incidents of election violence in the nation’s history, taking the death toll to 46.

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.