Manila  - Philippine share prices rose 2.03 per cent on Thursday buoyed by increases in Asian stock markets and on Wall Street.

The Philippine Stock Exchange's 30-share composite index jumped 38.38 points to close at 1,924.30, from Wednesday's finish of 1,885.92.

A total of 1.31 billion shares valued at 2.76 billion pesos (56.90 million dollars) were traded.

Gainers outpaced losers 51 to 31, with 39 issues unchanged.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three people were injured when a bomb exploded in an amusement centre in a southern Philippine city, a regional military spokesman said Thursday.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce said the improvised explosive device went off late Wednesday inside the bathroom of the amusement centre in Cotabato City, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - The Philippines' inflation rate inched up to 7.3 per cent in February due to higher food and fuel prices, the government said Thursday.

The February index was up from 7.1 per cent in January and 5.4 per cent in the same month in 2008, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The NSO said the higher inflation was "mainly due to the upward price adjustments in the heavily weighted food items, particularly rice, meat, corn and eggs."

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Three children were killed in the southern Philippines when a mortar accidentally exploded while they were playing with it, a military report said Wednesday.

Five more children were wounded in the explosion that occurred late Tuesday in Buldon town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, the report added.

The children were playing with an 81-millimetre mortar, which accidentally exploded inside a rice mill building.

Manila  - A communist rebel leader accused of directing the guerrillas' extortion activities in the central Philippines has been arrested, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Eduardo Sarmiento, head of a regional communist party committee in the central region of Visayas, was apprehended on February 24 in Manila.

Brigadier General Guadencio Pangilinan said "high explosives" were seized from Sarmiento during his arrest by a joint team of police officers and army intelligence operatives.

Manila  - Thailand's armed forces chief on Tuesday invited the Philippine military to join annual multinational war exercises in Thailand with four other countries, including the United States.

General Songgitti Jaggabatara, chief of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, made the invitation during a meeting with his Philippine courterpat, General Alexader Yano.

Jaggabatara, who was in Manila for an introductory visit, said he was looking forward to the active participation of the Philippine armed forces in the annual Cobra Gold training.

The Philippines is currently a mere observer in the exercises, which are participated in by troops from Thailand, the US, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.