Manila - Seventeen people, including a 7-year-old girl, were killed in a running gunbattle between police officers and suspected robbers in the Philippine capital, a police report said Saturday.

Manila  - The Philippines' inflation rate eased to 9.9 per cent in November as price increases of food and fuel products slowed down, the government said Friday.

The National Statistics Office said the November inflation rate was lower than the 11.2-per-cent rate posted in October. The inflation rate in the same month a last year was 3.2 per cent.

"The continued deceleration in the annual rates of the heavily weighted food, beverages and tobacco index, together with those of fuel, light and water and services resulted to the downward trend," the agency said in a statement.

"The inflation rate for food alone continued a downward trend as it settled at 14.5 per cent in November from 15.6 per cent in October," it added.

Manila  - A policewoman was killed in an attack by communist rebels in a central Philippine city, a provincial police chief said Thursday.

Senior Superintendent Manuel Felix said police officer Jane Tacadao died from gunshot wounds late Wednesday when communist rebels attacked a police convoy in Victorias City in Negros Occidental town, 480 kilometres south of Manila.

Felix said three other policewomen were injured in the firefight, which lasted for about 30 minutes.

Police officers recovered two backpacks and a rifle grenade left behind by the fleeing rebels.

More government troops have been dispatched to the area to pursue the rebels.

Manila  - A town mayor in the northern Philippines and three of his security escorts were killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen, police said Thursday.

Raul Dela Cruz, 61, mayor of Rizal town in Cagayan province, 345 kilometres north of Manila, died while being rushed to hospital, according to Senior Superintendent Moro Virgilio Lazo.

Dela Cruz suffered gunshots to the head and body during the attack Wednesday evening along a highway in Solana town, said Lazo, the provincial police director.

Three of the mayor's security escorts died on the spot when the gunmen opened fire at the government bus they were riding in, he added.

Four other passengers were wounded in the ambush.

Manila  - A Filipino broadcast journalist was shot dead in the eastern Philippines in the seventh deadly attack against media in the country this year, police said Wednesday.

Leo Mina was shot in front of the local radio station in San Roque town in Northern Samar province, 585 kilometres south-east of Manila, on Tuesday evening.

Regional police direction Abner Cabalquinto said Mina had just exited the station when unidentified gunmen opened fire at him.

He said police were looking into the possibility that communist rebels could be behind the murder, noting that Mina was very vocal against the guerrillas' extortion activities in the province.

Manila  - Five soldiers were killed when communist rebels exploded a landmine during an ambush in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

Two soldiers were wounded in the blast Tuesday in the village of Ganayon in Lianga town in Surigao del Sur province, 885 kilometres south of Manila.

Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, Army spokesman, said the soldiers were on their way back to headquarters when they were ambushed by the communist rebels.

"Government troops also lost five firearms, ammunition, a laptop, cellular phones and personal belongings," he said.

Four of the slain soldiers died on the spot, while one was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, Brawner said.