Muslim guerillas in Philippines kill 10

•MANILA • Muslim guerillas killed 10 civilians in the Philippines over Christmas, the military said yesterday.

Guerillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters launched two attacks on Christmas Eve in two villages - one in Mindanao and another in Pigcawayan town, 900km south of Manila.

The raids have stoked fear in Mindanao, where Christians are the majority, but which the country's Muslim minority claims as their ancestral homeland.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Head of China Telecom under probe for graft

BEIJING • The head of China Telecom, one of the nation's big three telecoms firms, is under investigation for "severe disciplinary violations". The term is normally a euphemism for graft.

News of the probe into Mr Chang Xiaobing, 58, was given in a statement on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the watchdog of the ruling Communist Party.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Search for Myanmar jade miners called off YANGON • Rescuers in northern Myanmar called off their search for workers feared buried in a jade mine landslide in war-torn Kachin state, police said yesterday, with no missing people or bodies recovered.

A police officer said rescue efforts were called off because the risk of further landslides was too great. Locals reported that as many as 50 people might have been buried. Officials disagreed, saying only three men had been reported missing.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Afghan militia beheads four ISIS fighters

JALALABAD (Afghanistan) • Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said yesterday.

The killings in Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar highlighted the increasingly brutal violence of the fight between ISIS and its rival groups, ranging from local militias to the Taleban.

REUTERS