A Philippine court on Thursday sentenced nine people to jail for a fire that killed 162 people at a disco in 1996, in a decision that highlighted the country's painfully slow justice system.

Survivors and anti-crime groups welcomed the ruling, but were anguished that it had taken so long and expressed fears that some of those found guilty had fled the country, with a court official admitting the whereabouts of the nine were unknown.

A potential witness in the trial over the Philippines' worst political massacre has been killed, police said Wednesday as the government struggled to secure justice for the 2009 murder of 58 people.

Tuesday's attack brings to four the number of would-be witnesses in the ongoing trial to be killed, with no one yet convicted nearly five years on.

An American man has been extradited to the Philippines to stand trial for the murder of a retired British policeman, the Filipino justice department said Tuesday.

Timothy Noah Kaufman is accused of murdering Joseph Balmer and his Filipina girlfriend, said Daniel Daganzo, head of the international operations division of the department's National Bureau of Investigation.

An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded late Sunday on a pedestrian overpass in the restive southern Philippines, wounding eight people, local authorities said. 

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack in the town of Kabacan on Mindanao island where various Muslim extremist groups are active.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday warned of the dangers of outright conflict in Asia, as China squares off against rival claimants over disputed territories, but vowed that Washington would remain anchored in the region.

In a speech at Brisbane's University of Queensland, Obama insisted that his "pivot" of U.S. policy back to Asia was real and here to stay.

Fifteen people were killed in heavy fighting between government forces and al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippine jungle on Friday, the military said.

Close to 100 ground troops with helicopter support engaged some 300 Abu Sayyaf insurgents in Talipao town on Sulu, said Colonel Allan Arrojado, the army commander on the island.

Survivors of the strongest typhoon ever to hit land descended on mass graves Saturday to mark one year since the storm devastated the central Philippines and condemned millions to deeper poverty.

Super Typhoon Haiyan claimed more than 7,350 lives as it swept in off the Pacific Ocean, with its record winds and once-in-a-generation storm surges flattening entire towns.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Friday defended the pace of rebuilding in communities ravaged a year ago by Super Typhoon Haiyan, insisting that thorough reconstruction takes time.

Haiyan, the strongest storm ever to make landfall, killed or left missing more than 7,350 people as it flattened mostly poor areas in large swathes of the central Philippines.

The U.S. Navy has cancelled visits to the Philippine port of Subic amid public anger over accusations that a U.S. Marine killed a Filipino on the city's outskirts, officials said Monday.

Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose said the visits of three U.S. ships to Subic this month had been cancelled, while the head of the Subic freeport said nine such visits scheduled for this year had been called off.

Abu Sayyaf insurgents killed six soldiers in the southern Philippines on Sunday despite a new army offensive against the al-Qaida-linked group, a military spokeswoman said.

The soldiers were patrolling in the strife-torn island of Basilan when they were attacked by about 20 heavily-armed fighters.