Phillippines Authority

Three former Philippine police officers and six others have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of mysterious disappearances in the country's massive cockfighting industry, authorities said Friday, with dozens of victims feared dead.

The Philippines has denied entry to an elderly Australian activist for being a "threat to public order" and would deport him, officials said on Thursday, the latest action against foreigners accused of protesting against the government.

Fourteen people were wounded in a pipe bomb blast in Manila, Philippine police said Saturday, but authorities dismissed any link to an Asian leaders' meeting under way in the capital.

With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

Three former Philippine police officers and six others have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of mysterious disappearances in the country's massive cockfighting industry, authorities said Friday, with dozens of victims feared dead.

The Philippines has denied entry to an elderly Australian activist for being a "threat to public order" and would deport him, officials said on Thursday, the latest action against foreigners accused of protesting against the government.

Fourteen people were wounded in a pipe bomb blast in Manila, Philippine police said Saturday, but authorities dismissed any link to an Asian leaders' meeting under way in the capital.

With funeral parlors overwhelmed, authorities in a flood-stricken southern Philippine city on Monday organized the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people who were swept to their deaths in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.