Manila - The Philippine military kept mum on Saturday on the continuing efforts to rescue three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers seized by Islamist militants earlier in the week.

First Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho, spokeswoman for the armed forces' Western Mindanao Command, said the military will no longer provide updates regarding the kidnappings of Swiss Andreas Notter, 38; Eugenio Vagni, 62; and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, 44.

The three had just visited the provincial jail on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila on Thursday when suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels blocked the path of their vehicle and seized them.

Bangkok - The owner of Thailand's popular Farang restaurants was shot and killed while sitting in of one of his eateries early Saturday, local media on the island of Phuket reported.

Chid Raknang, also known by his nickname Kit, had recently opened a Farang restaurant in the capital Bangkok after two other ventures blossomed on the resort island.

The former head chef at a five-star hotel offered food one reviewer recently called "a real shining light among places to eat in Phuket."

Police said a drive-by gunman riding a motorbike killed Chid at around 1 am. The name of his restaurants, Farang, caused some amusement locally because it translates into English as the somewhat derogatory word for white foreigner.

Wellington  - A mother tipped off police to arrest her son on a rape charge after seeing her kitchen knife, which he allegedly used in the attack, in a photograph released by investigators, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Police released a photograph of the knife and a tea towel found near the scene of the attack on a 22-year-old Dutch tourist to the local Southland Times, which posted it on its website.

Hanoi - Police in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday broke up a major counterfeit drug ring, officials said Friday.

"We have never broken such a big case before," said Lt Col Vu Hong Nam of the Ho Chi Minh City police.

Nam said Mai Cong Phu, 56, was arrested Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City while transporting a batch of counterfeit drugs for sale. Police found hundreds of kilograms of contraband in Phu's home, as well as drug-manufacturing equipment.

Police Lt Col Tran Si Quang, the lead investigator on the case, said agents had been tracking Phu's operation for a year to develop information. He said Phu had been selling at least 20 kilograms of counterfeit drugs a day, including pills and intravenous drugs.

Beijing - China's authorities Friday announced successes in the fight against counterfeit money in an attempt to counter the general public's rising uncertainty about money security.

State media reported on a series of arrests and trials. A 56-year-old man, who had owned counterfeit money with a face value of 830,000 yuan (121,000 dollars) was facing trial in the city Yiwu in the eastern Chinese Zhejiang province, the official China Daily newspaper reported.

However, the story said the man transported false banknotes from southern China into Zhejiang, indicating that his arrest had taken place a while ago.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Muslim rebels of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group were behind the kidnapping of three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on a southern Philippine island, the military said Friday.

First Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho, a regional military spokeswoman, said that based on initial field reports, it was the group of Abu Sayyaf commander Alpader Parad that seized the ICRC staff on Thursday on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.