Philippine troops suffered one of their worst losses in an offensive against al Qaida-linked militants on a southern island that left at least 23 soldiers and 20 guerrillas dead, officials said today.

Clashes between troops and suspected al-Qaida linked militants have killed at least 52 people on volatile southern Jolo island, the Philippines military said today.

Security forces tried to disrupt plots by al Qaida-linked militants to stage attacks but failed to track them, setting off an alarm that influenced a decision to postpone a pair of Asian summits, officials said today.

A BOMB stashed in a pack of clothes exploded on a ferry in the southern Philippines as it was loading passengers yesterday morning, injuring at least 30 people, including nine children.

A blind man fatally stabbed his blind friend whom he found by feeling his way through a disabled people’s home and identifying the victim by voice.

THE Philippine president said yesterday authorities had arrested four militants and seized 80 pounds of explosives, averting a “Madrid-level” terrorist attack.

A terrorist bombing on the scale of the Madrid attacks was averted in the Philippines with the arrests of four Abu Sayyaf members and the confiscation of 380 pounds of TNT, the president said in Manila.

The latest audio recording attributed to Osama bin Laden is not authentic, according to a report by a Swiss research institute.

Philippine police have arrested several alleged members of the Muslim guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf, suspected of bombings in the southern port city of Zamboanga.

A HOMEMADE bomb exploded near a Roman Catholic church last night in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, killing one person and injuring 12, police said.

A BOMB ripped through a bus in suburban Manila yesterday, killing at least three people and injuring 23 others.

At least three people were killed today when a bomb ripped through a bus in suburban Manila, the capital of the Philippines, police said.

TWO bombs exploded yesterday in the southern Philippines city of Zamboanga, killing six people and injuring at least 144.

A group of eight people are the prime suspects in the Bali nightclub bombing that killed almost 200 people, police in the tropical resort said today.

Muslim extremists beheaded at least two of six Jehovah’s Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines and dumped their heads in a public market, authorities said today.

Eight people selling Avon cosmetics door to door have been kidnapped by suspected guerillas on a remote island in the southern Philippines.

A Muslim extremist group has offered to hold final negotiations to release two Americans and a Filipino nurse they have held hostage for more than 11 months, a radio station reported today.

Thousands of people climbed to a Philippine hilltop today where three members of a Christian cult were nailed to crosses in a Good Friday rite of sacrifice for peace in the country’s war-weary south.

At least five people are dead and dozens more were injured following two explosions in the Southern Philippines.

The Philippine Army has killed five members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group in a gunbattle on Basilan island in the south of the country early today.

The US military has begun training the Philippine army as part of George W Bush’s so-called "war on terrorism".

Heavily armed Muslim rebels released 89 hostages today in exchange for safe passage through Philippine military forces that have besieged them for more than 24 hours.

Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines are seeking guarantees of a safe passage in exchange for 81 hostages.

Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines have threatened to kill 50 hostages unless they are given safe passage to escape an all-out offensive by the Philippine army.

A powerful bomb exploded in a downtown food plaza in the southern port city of Zamboanga today, killing at least six people and injuring 53, officials said.

Deadly street battles erupted in a southern Philippines town today as a self-styled ‘‘suicide squad’’ of Muslim extremists invaded a hospital and church, seizing patients, doctors and a priest.

A Muslim extremist group that snatched 20 people, including three Americans, from an island resort in the Philippines threatened today to kill all the hostages if the military moves attempt to rescue them.

The six-year-old girl who was kidnapped in the Philippines has had an emotional reunion with her British stepfather.

An American hostage held by Muslim terrorists in the Philippines is seriously ill, a spokesman for the rebel Abu Sayyaf group said today.