South-east Asia’s most-wanted terrorist and two other senior militants were killed today in a US-backed air strike in the Philippines, military chiefs said.

Hundreds of followers of a jailed former Muslim rebel leader battled government troops for a second day today on the Philippines’ southern Jolo island, in clashes that have killed 14 soldiers and wounded 16 others.

A bomb explosion at a basketball game in the southern Philippines today killed up to 10 people and wounded at least 40 others, including the town mayor, who authorities said was the likely target of the attack.

The British stepfather of a girl kidnapped in the Philippines has arrived in the south-east Asian country.

The military in the Philippines say they are closing in on rebels who have kidnapped six-year-old Eiman Grant.