Heavy rains battering the southern Philippines left at least six people dead and eight others missing, authorities said Sunday, sparking fears for typhoon survivors still living in makeshift shelters.

Four people were crushed to death in their homes on the southern island of Mindanao after landslides struck the mountain town of Tarragona on Saturday, local police said.

A UK-based children's charity has asked the Philippines to investigate the suspected recruitment of child workers for sex trafficking in a region devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan, an aid official said Saturday.

Plan International said it was concerned about five high school girls who were recruited after the November 8 typhoon in Basey and Marabut, two impoverished coastal towns on the island of Samar that sustained heavy damage and casualties.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino Thursday sought Norway's help in reviving failed peace talks with Maoist guerrillas, a senior presidential aide said, nearly a year after peace talks hosted by Oslo fell apart.

Aquino met Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende in the Philippine capital after the visiting diplomat said Norway remained committed to mediating negotiations between Manila and the National Democratic Front in a bid to end the decades-long insurgency.

Millions of barefoot devotees packed the Philippine capital's streets Thursday for one of the world's biggest Catholic parades, honoring an ancient statue of Jesus Christ they believe has miraculous powers.

Chanting "Viva, Viva Senor Nazareno! (Long Live Mister Nazarene)", frenzied pilgrims climbed over one another in the suffocating heat to touch the Black Nazarene during the ebony-hued wooden statue's slow procession.

The Philippine government is to triple the size of a special forces military unit that operates against Islamist militants responsible for deadly bombings and kidnappings of Westerners, officials said Tuesday.

The Light Reaction Battalion is to be built up to regiment size, Philippine Army chief Lieutenant-General Noel Coballes said, an increase from about 500 soldiers to as many as 1,500.

Schools reopened Monday in badly damaged central Philippine towns for the first time since one of the world's strongest storms ever to hit land killed thousands two months ago.

Crowding into makeshift classrooms built from tarpaulins and plywood, the children -- many of them still traumatized -- sat quietly as teachers tried to engage them in friendly banter.

Eight fishermen including two boys have been shot and beheaded in a gruesome attack at sea off the troubled southern Philippines, police said Saturday.

The victims were among a group of fishermen who went missing after being attacked in the Moro Gulf off Mindanao island on December 26, said regional police spokesman Ariel Huesca.

A suspected bomb attack left six dead while a separate grenade blast wounded five as violence marred New Year celebrations in the Philippines, authorities said Wednesday.

A blast from what is believed to be an improvised bomb caused the deaths in the town of Sumisip on the volatile southern island of Basilan two hours before midnight Tuesday, police said.

More than 160 people have been injured by fireworks in the Philippines as they prepared to welcome the New Year, the government said Saturday.

A 14-year-old boy who lost his right hand and an elderly man with a ruptured eyeball were among the worst injured so far, Assistant Health Secretary Eric Tayag said.

Philippine anti-drug police said on Thursday they had arrested three people connected to Mexico's feared Sinaloa drug cartel while they were storing narcotics.

The two Filipinos and one Filipino-Chinese were arrested in a raid on Wednesday on a cock-fighting farm in Lipa City, 75 kilometers (47 miles) south of Manila, after weeks of intelligence operations by local and US anti-narcotics personnel.