Manila  - The Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels should hammer out a new ceasefire to end military offensives that have displaced thousands of civilians in the country's troubled south, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said Tuesday.

The military's operations in the southern region of Mindanao aim to arrest three commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who led a series of attacks in August 2008, killing dozens of civilians and soldiers.

Manila  - Remittances from overseas Filipinos posted a better-than-expected 13.7-per-cent growth in 2008 despite the worsening global economic crisis, the government said Monday.

Central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said remittances totaled 16.42 billion dollars in 2008, slightly higher than the bank's forecast of 16.3 billion dollars for the whole year.

Remittances in 2007 were 14.44 billion dollars, Tetangco said.

Manila  - Three suspected robbers were killed in a shootout with police officers in the Philippine capital on Monday, a police official said.

A bystander was wounded in the firefight in Sikatuna village in the Manila suburban city of Quezon, but was already in safe condition after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

Chief Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula, a district police director, said gunmen opened fire at police officers who responded to reports of suspicious men in the area.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Five people were wounded when an improvised bomb exploded in a southern Philippine town, a regional military spokesman said Saturday.

The explosion occurred late Friday in front of a gymnasium in Maitum town in Sarangani province, 990 kilometres south of Manila, Major Randolph Cabangbang said.

Manila - Philippine security forces have arrested two Muslim militants with alleged links to a pair of Indonesians wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings, an official said Thursday.

Eduardo Ermita, chief of the Philippine anti-terrorism council, said Mokasin Dilna, a leader of the militant al-Khobar group, which has been accused of bombings and extortion, was arrested on January 29 in Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.

Omar Venancio, a close associate of senior members in the Philippines of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was arrested January 7 in Cotabato City,

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Government security forces foiled a bomb attack on a southern Philippine city with the detonation of an improvised explosive planted near a pharmacy, a military commander said Thursday.

Colonel Domingo Gobway said the bomb, fashioned from a 60-millimetre mortar shell attached to a mobile telephone, was discovered late Wednesday along a busy street in Cotabato City, 930 kilometres south of Manila.