Manila - A US Marine whose rape conviction was overturned by the Philippines' appeals court has left the country as protesters denounced the reversal, the US Embassy said Friday.

Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 24, has been under the custody of the US Embassy in Manila since he was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison in December
2006.

Cotabato City, Philippines - Eight Muslim secessionist rebels were killed in separate clashes in two towns in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said Friday.

Colonel Jonathan Ponce said government troops did not suffer any casualties in the fighting in Pikit town in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, and Datu Piang town in nearby Maguindanao province.

Manila- The World Health Organization (WHO) vowed on Friday to intensify the fight against malaria in Asia and the Pacific amid growing signs of the disease developing greater resistance to commonly used drugs.

The Manila-based WHO Western Pacific Office expressed concern over the situation in the Thai-Cambodian border where a strain of malaria that is increasingly resistant to artemisinin, the most effective drug available to fight the disease, has proliferated.

Manila - The Philippine Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the rape conviction of a US Marine sentenced in 2006 to life in prison in the alleged assault of a Filipino woman, which provoked protests and outrage in the former American colony. The Court of Appeals ordered the immediate release of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 24, who has been in the custody of the US embassy in Manila since he was convicted in December 2006.

Manila - One Philippine soldier was wounded in a clash with communist rebels while providing security for US troops building a farm road in an eastern province, a military spokesman said Thursday.

The firefight erupted Wednesday when troops encountered the guerrillas while on patrol in Barcelona town in Sorsogon province, 390 kilometres south-east of Manila.

Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres said the troops were part of forces providing security for US soldiers constructing a one-kilometre farm road in nearby Juban town at the time of the clash.

Manila  - Government troops clashed with Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker on a southern Philippine island, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Brigadier General Gaudencio Rosales said the fighting erupted Wednesday when Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels tried to break out of a cordon set up by government forces in Talipao town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.