Manila - Philippine share prices surged 2.28 per cent on Wednesday on the back of Wall Street's overnight gains and prospects of lower oil prices.

Manila - Eleven people were killed when two passenger buses collided along a highway in the eastern Philippines on Tuesday, police said.

Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday rejected appeals for the government to scrap an unpopular sales tax to ease spiraling food and fuel prices.

In her annual state of the nation address in Congress, Arroyo said removing the 12-per cent value-added tax (VAT) would dampen investor confidence, weaken the economy and further hike prices.

"Take away VAT and we strip our people of the means to ride out the world food and energy crisis," she said in her speech, which many had hoped would offer relief for the high prices.

Manila - A 50-year-old man drowned and two people were missing in the aftermath of a typhoon that pummelled the northern Philippines at the weekend, the government said Monday.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council said about 6,000 people were forced to flee their homes because of floods brought by Typhoon Fung Wong, which headed for Taiwan Sunday.

The provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and La Union were badly hit by the typhoon, which damaged several roads and bridges and caused flashfloods and landslides.

The weather bureau said Monday that Fung Wong, with maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 160 kph, was located off the eastern coast of Taiwan.

Manila - Thousands of protestors took to the streets in the Philippines Monday ahead of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's annual speech to Congress.

The protestors, undeterred by rain and tight security, marched near the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City in metropolitan Manila, where Arroyo was to deliver her state of the nation speech later in the day.

They carried placards that read, "Raise wages," "Oust Gloria" and "Gloria resign."

Manila - Peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels have hit a new snag just one week after the two sides announced a breakthrough in a contentious issue that has stalled the talks for months, officials said Saturday.

The negotiating panels for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government held an informal meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and Friday to finalize an agreement on the ancestral domain issue.