A family accused of massacring 57 people for political gain in the Philippines plotted the killings over dinner, a court heard today.

Prosecutors in the Philippines filed charges today in the biggest and bloodiest murder case in the country’s history after the apparently politically motivated massacre of 57 people.

A member of a powerful political clan in the Philippines accused of leading the massacre of 57 journalists and members of a rival's family pleaded not guilty on the first day of his trial.

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.

Police in the Philippines say 11 more bodies have been recovered from a mass grave in the country’s south, raising the number of massacre victims to 35.