Manila  - The Supreme Court's swift action to punish several appellate court justices involved in a multimillion-peso bribery scandal has boosted anti-corruption efforts in the Philippines' graft-ridden judiciary.

After two months of investigation, the high tribunal on Tuesday dismissed from service Court of Appeals Associate Justice Vicente Roxas for multiple violations of the canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct.

The decision was hailed as a warning to erring magistrates.

"This should now instill fear in the hearts of those in the legal system that the Supreme Court will not take lightly any act that will smear the integrity of the legal profession and our justice system," House Speaker Prospero Nograles said.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - A homemade bomb was found Thursday near a government building in a southern Philippine city amid tight security on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, police said.

The explosive device, made with 3 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, was concealed in a black plastic bag left in a vacant lot in front of the local legislative building in Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.

Manila - The Philippines on Wednesday dispatched a three-member team to mediator Malaysia to explain the collapse of peace talks with Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern region of Mindanao.

Secretary Jesus Dureza said the team, headed by presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon, would explain the official status of the peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Malaysia has been brokering the peace negotiations between the 12,000-strong MILF and the Philippine government, which started in 1997.

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 - 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.