Manila - Philippine police forces were placed on heightened alert Tuesday, the eve of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, a spokesman said.

All police units were told to initiate preventive measures against terrorist activities by local groups, Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said.

"Based on historical data, some terrorist organizations have been known to launch activities to commemorate some dates and occasions that are significant to their organization," he said.

Manila - The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed one justice and suspended another for two months over a bribery scandal at the country's second highest court.

Court of Appeals Justice Vicente Roxas was dismissed after he was found guilty of grave misconduct, dishonesty, undue interest and conduct prejudicial to the interest of service.

Associate Justice Jose Sabio was suspended for two months for misconduct and conduct unbecoming, while three justices were reprimanded for not taking appropriate action.

"This is a wake-up call for all our justices," Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told reporters in announcing the high tribunal's decision.

Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday ruled out resuming stalled peace talks with the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group amid escalating violence in the troubled southern region.

"We will not negotiate with a gun pointed to our head," Arroyo said in a message marking the signing of a peace agreement with a separate Muslim rebel group in September 1996. "Innocent civilians should not be terrorized for crass political gain."

Manila - Rescuers on Tuesday dug up four more bodies from the rubble of two weekend landslides that struck a mining village in the southern Philippines, bringing the death toll to 20.

Nineteen people were still missing in the landslides in Masara village in Maco town, Compostela Valley province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, Mayor Voltaire Rimando said.

Rimando said 23 people were also injured in the landslides, which struck Saturday and Sunday after days of continuous heavy rains.

About 45 homes built on the foothills of a mountain were destroyed when tons of mud and boulders crashed into Masara.

Manila - The Philippine government on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the killings of six civilians during an air assault on Muslim separatist rebels in a southern province.

The civilians, including children and a pregnant woman, were on their way to an evacuation area when their motorboat was hit Monday by rockets fired from a military helicopter gunship.

Manila - The chief of the Philippines' Armed Forces warned Monday that Muslim rebels might resort to terrorism amid an intensified military offensive against them in the southern region of Mindanao.

The military launched the offensive against two factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after the rebels attacked several towns in Mindanao last month, killing nearly 200 people and displacing more than 500,000 residents.