MANILA - SECURITY forces have foiled a plot by Al-Qaeda-linked militants to set off bombs in Manila and other major Philippine cities with the arrest of an alleged conspirator, the national police chief said on Friday.

Suspected militant Guiamaludin Edsrafil - wanted for multiple murder and attempted murder for his alleged role in bombings in the country's troubled south - was arrested on Tuesday in southern Cotabato city possessing some components for making bombs, police Director General Jesus Verzosa said.

MANILA - PHILIPPINE health officials have found no cases of the Ebola-Reston virus in two pig farms and slaughterhouses despite earlier reports that the disease had been discovered, an agricultural official said on Friday.

The search has been narrowed to two farms and a quarantine was still being maintained until all animals had been tested and the source of the suspected outbreak found, said Dave Catbagan, head of the Bureau of Animal Industries.

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA'S Health Ministry confirmed on Friday the country's eighth human case of virulent bird flu since 2005.

The ministry said in a statement with the UN's World Health Organisation that a 19-year-old man from Kandal province, south-east of the capital Phnom Penh, was confirmed to have the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in laboratory tests on Thursday.