Manila - The Philippine military denied on Wednesday that ransom was paid to secure the release of two of three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hostages seized by Islamic militants on a southern island.

Brigadier General Gaudencio Pangilinan, a military spokesman, said "no ransom or board-and-lodging fee" was paid for the release of Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba on April 2 and Swiss Andreas Notter on April 17.

Manila  - Former Swiss Red Cross hostage Andreas Notter headed home on Tuesday, four days after he walked free from Muslim militants who held him captive for more than three months on a southern Philippine island.

Notter, 38, left for Hong Kong where he would take a connecting flight to Geneva, bringing along a cane and a coconut shell as reminders from his captivity on Jolo island,
1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - The European Commission is ready to provide more aid to Myanmar but the hermitic South-East Asian country must open up to dialogue with donors on the needed development assistance, a senior European aid official said Tuesday.

Koos Richelle, director general of the commission's Europe Aid Cooperation, said there has been little progress in providing aid to Myanmar because of the military junta's refusal to discuss development programmes needed by the country.

Manila  - Muslim militants abandoned a farm worker they abducted during a raid on southern Philippine village as troops closed in on them, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

Government security forces found the hostage, Hernald Jace Delos Chavez, in the jungles of Al-Barkah town in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, on Monday evening.

Captain Neil Estrella said Abu Sayyaf rebels left Chavez behind as they fled government troops closing in on their hideout.

Manila - The Philippine military has tightened a security cordon around Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker, officials said Monday.

Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62, was one of three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on January 15. He is reportedly suffering from a hernia injury.

The rebels have freed Vagni's two colleagues, Swiss Andreas Notter on April 17 and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba on April 2.

Manila  - Five suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout when police raided their hideout to rescue a 23-year-old victim in a northern Philippine city, police said Monday.

The hostage was unharmed in the firefight on Sunday evening in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan province, 165 kilometres north of Manila, Superintendent Wilson Lopez said.

Lopez, operations chief of the provincial police, said commandos swooped down the suspects' safe house after receiving information that the hostage was being held there.