Cotabato City, Philippines  - A leftist activist was killed by unidentified gunmen in a southern Philippine city, a police report said Tuesday.

Eleazar Billanes, a spokesman for the leftist South Cotabato People's Alliance, was shot on Monday by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Koronadal City in South Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

He received several gunshot wounds and was killed instantly as he walked home from a public market, the report said.

Manila - Two Chinese tourists drowned while scuba diving in the central Philippines, police said Monday.

The victims - Pang Chi Lung, 44, and Cheung Joanne Wai, 28 - were with four other tourists during the dive off Olango Island, Cebu province, 585 kilometres south of Manila, on Sunday.

But Pang and Cheung failed to surface after 30 minutes, a police report said.

The other divers went back for the two missing tourists, but failed to locate them.

Manila  - Government troops arrested a suspected Muslim militant after an armed skirmish in the southern Philippines, a regional military commander said Monday.

Major General Reynaldo Mapagu said the suspect, Giovanni de Ocampo, is a former communist rebel who recently joined a unit of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in the Philippines.

Manila  - Four children were killed Monday when fire gutted their home south of the Philippine capital, a provincial police chief said.

Senior Superintendent Jesus Gatchalian said the victims, aged 5 to 9, were sleeping when the fire broke out in their house in Padre Garcia town in Batangas province, 90 kilometres south of Manila.

Gatchalian said the father, who survived the accident, was not able to save the children because the flames spread swiftly. The mother was not at the house at the time of the accident.

Davao City, Philippines  - A pro-government militiaman was killed in a clash with communist rebels in the southern Philippines, an army spokeswoman said Monday.

Captain Ma. Rosa Cristina Manuel said the fighting erupted Sunday when troops encountered an undetermined number of guerrillas in Baganga town in Davao Oriental province, 1,005 kilometres south of Manila.

Manuel said more troops have been dispatched to the area to conduct pursuit operations.

Zamboanga City, Philippines  - Three people were killed when pirates attacked a trawler in the southern Philippines, a local official said Sunday.

The pirates also took captive two crewmen from the trawler during the attack in the sea off Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, late Thursday.

Rasheed Sakkalahul, the province's deputy governor, said the pirates opened fire at the fishing boat, boarded the vessel and killed three crewmen.