Zamboanga City, Philippines - Philippine troops have tracked down Muslim militants holding captive an ailing Italian Red Cross employee on a southern island, officials said Wednesday. Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62, was sighted with a group of Abu Sayyaf rebels in the jungles of Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

"Our troops know where they are," Puno said, but he declined to give details on when the sighting occurred and the exact location.

Governor Abdusakur Tan added that Vagni, who was reportedly in need of immediate medical attention due to a hernia injury, was still alive.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Muslim militants killed one of two hostages they seized in a southern Philippine province last week, a regional marines spokesman said Monday. Captain Neil Torres said government troops recovered on Sunday the body of Cosme Aballes, one of two people seized last Friday by Abu Sayyaf rebels in the outskirts of Lamitan City in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila.

Torres said the head of the victim was nearly torn from his body when the government troops recovered him.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - A Philippine court on Wednesday ordered the release of seven people arrested for allegedly providing support to Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers.

The suspects - three police officers, two village captains and two alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group - were freed two days after police filed criminal charges of kidnapping for ransom and illegal detention against them.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Philippine police on Monday filed criminal complaints against seven people, including three police officers, for allegedly providing support to Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers.

The suspects, who also included two village captains and two civilians, were among dozens of people rounded up last week on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on suspicion of being supporters of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Two people were killed when an improvised bomb exploded outside a fast-food restaurant in a southern Philippine city, a provincial police chief said Saturday.

Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar said eight more people were injured in the explosion that occurred late Friday in Isabela City in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila.

Macapantar said a man and a woman passing by when the bomb exploded had died.

"They were killed on the spot," he said.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - The Philippines succumbed on Saturday to the demand of Muslim militants holding captive three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) personnel and agreed to pull out troops near the area where hostages were being held.

The Abu Sayyaf rebels have given the government until the end of the month to pull out troops surrounding the redoubt in Indanan town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, or said they would behead one of the hostages.