Pope Francis will travel to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January for his second trip to a continent where evangelization is a big priority for the Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The 77-year-old Argentinian will visit Sri Lanka from January 12 to 15, before heading to the Philippines -- Asia's largest Catholic country -- until January 19.

Islamic militants on Monday massacred 21 people, including one child, who were travelling to a village feast in the southern Philippines to mark the end of Ramadan, the military said.

About 50 Abu Sayyaf gunmen opened fire on two vehicles in the remote town of Talipao on Jolo island, killing 21 people and wounding 11 others, regional military spokeswoman Marine Captain Rowena Muyuela told Agence France Presse.

Sixteen people, including children, were killed when Islamic militants opened fire on two vehicles in a remote southern Philippine town on Monday, the military said.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen opened fire on the vehicles in Talipao town before dawn in what appeared to be an ambush related to a clan feud, said local marine commander Brigadier-General Martin Pinto.

A baby girl born early Sunday has officially pushed the population of the Philippines to 100 million, highlighting the challenge of providing for more people in the already-impoverished nation.

A false tsunami alarm left one person dead and prompted hundreds of others to flee their homes in the Philippines, where natural disasters are frequent, a civil defense official said Wednesday.

The cause of the sudden panic that hit Candelaria 88 kilometers (55 miles) south of Manila and other impoverished towns is still being investigated, said Henry Buzar, head of the area's disaster management council.

An Australian convert to Islam arrested in the Philippines for allegedly urging people to join "jihad" in Iraq and Syria was deported to his homeland Wednesday, but police said he would not be charged.

An escalation of fighting between the Philippine army and a breakaway Muslim rebel group in the country's south killed 18 people in a single day of violence, the military said Tuesday.

Seventeen members of the rebel Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and one soldier were slain in the day-long violence Monday in the strife-torn southern island of Mindanao, Brigadier General Eduardo Pangilinan, the area's military commander, said.

The death toll is still rising and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power five days after Typhoon Rammasun's rampage through the Philippines, authorities said Monday.

Reports of fatalities from the typhoon, which struck the archipelago on July 16, continued to come in from isolated areas, bringing the number of dead to 97, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement.

Muslim guerrillas opposed to peace talks with the Philippine government tried to overrun army outposts in the strife-torn south Monday, killing one soldier and wounding a number of civilians, the military said.

Three rebels of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) group were also killed following the attack on Mindanao island, said Colonel Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the military unit in the area.

Suspected militiamen have beheaded a Philippine worker in Libya after singling him out because he was not a Muslim, the Philippine Foreign Department said Monday.

Department spokesman Charles Jose said this reinforced the government's order to all Filipinos to evacuate the country because of the worsening security situation.