Manila - A Filipino broadcast journalist was killed Monday in the southern Philippines in the sixth deadly attack against the media in the country this year, police said.

Aresio Padrigao, a commentator for local radio station DXRS, was shot to death by gunmen aboard a motorcycle in Gingoog town in Misamis Oriental province, 795 kilometres south of Manila.

Padrigao, a known critic of local government officials in Misamis Oriental, had just brought his child to school when the assailants attacked him.

General Santos City, Philippines  - Two soldiers were killed when a landmine struck a convoy of army vehicles in the southern Philippines, the military said Sunday.

The convoy was returning to camp from a civic mission when the incident occurred Saturday in Maasim town in Sarangani province, 1,125 kilometres south of Manila.

Colonel Edgar De Leon, an army battalion commander, said the explosive was placed on top of a concrete culvert and detonated as the convoy passed.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Islamic militants freed a kidnapped humanitarian worker after holding her hostage for two months in the southern Philippines, police said Saturday.

Millet Mendoza was among five workers of non-governmental organizations abducted September 15 by Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila.

The other hostages, including the programme coordinator of an NGO serving poor communities in Basilan, were freed separately ahead of Mendoza.

Manila - Senior bishops of the influential Philippine Roman Catholic Church on Friday warned that a proposed law that aims to curb the country's runaway population growth would be a threat to life and family.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged legislators not to pass the Reproductive Health bill without fixing "fatal flaws" that make it unacceptable.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Three civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, were killed and nine were taken hostage by Muslim separatist rebels in two attacks in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.

The civilians were slain when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked a military outpost Thursday in Midsayap town in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, said the town's police chief, Inspector Renante Cabico.

Cabico said the victims were among 150 people caught in the crossfire between the MILF guerrillas and army troops.

Manila  - A senior Iraqi diplomat on Friday urged the Philippines to lift a four-year travel ban to his country to allow more Filipinos to work there amid a massive reconstruction effort.

Adel Mawlood Hamoudi al-Hakimh, Iraq's charge d'affaires in Manila, said there were about 15,000 Filipinos working for companies in Iraq despite the ban.

He said more foreign workers were needed as Iraq implements a new phase of its reconstruction in 2009.

"For the new phase we are planning to do in 2009, we will be needing thousands of foreign workers," al-Hakimh said. "That's why we are so in need of Filipino help and experience."