A fire at a clothing store in the southern Philippines has killed 17 employees, most of whom were women who were asleep and trapped on the top floor, officials said.

A GROUP of Irish bachelors who went to the Philippines in search of wives returned home yesterday with the mission partly accomplished.

A GROUP of love-hungry Irish farmers are hoping to plant the seed of romance when they fly out to the Philippines today to find themselves a wife.

Landslides and floods have killed about 80 people in the southern and central Philippines, following several days of rain, officials said today.

At least 21 people died when a passenger bus smashed into a house crowded with mourners attending a wake for a relative, police said today.