Six people were killed and more than two dozen wounded when a bomb exploded at a restaurant in the southern Philippines, police and local officials said Saturday.

Police said the improvised explosive device went off around midnight (16:00 GMT Friday) at a popular restaurant in the southern port city of Cagayan de Oro.

The majority-Catholic Philippines told Muslim teachers Tuesday to remove their veils inside classrooms, in part to promote better relationships between teachers and pupils.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the move was part of reforms to make schools more sensitive to religion.

Seven people were killed when communist insurgents attacked a rural army outpost in the southern Philippines, the military said on Saturday.

Six rebels and a pro-government militiaman were killed while another militiaman was wounded during the five-hour gunbattle on Friday, said the military, adding the attack only ended after they deployed helicopter gunships.

The Philippines expects to be removed from a U.S. air safety blacklist this year, opening a lucrative market for its carriers, an aviation regulator said Thursday.

John Andrews, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), said he was very confident the upgrade would occur following a similar decision by the European Union last week.

Seven children and four other hostages caught up in a decades-old southern Philippines clan war have been freed in a straight swap by the feuding families, the military said Tuesday.

The hostages, aged as young as two, were snatched last week in tit-for-tat kidnappings on the remote southern island of Basilan, a hotbed of Muslim guerrillas and other militants that the government does not fully control.

The Philippines said Sunday it was aiming swiftly to sign a final peace deal with Muslim rebels to end a rebellion that has killed tens of thousands, following a major breakthrough in talks.

Chief peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the government could reach a final deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) within weeks after both sides agreed on a wealth-sharing formula late Saturday.

The Philippine government has resolved a key hurdle in peace talks with Muslim rebels, it announced early Sunday, bringing it closer to ending an insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

After six days of negotiations, Manila said it struck a compromise on sharing local revenues with a Muslim self-rule area in the Mindanao region that is expected to be led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Fresh fighting between Philippine troops and a renegade group of Muslim rebels left seven people dead Saturday amid peace talks aimed at ending a decades-old rebellion, the military said.

The gunmen, who oppose the main Islamic rebel group's negotiations with Manila, ambushed an army truck on the main southern island of Mindanao, regional military spokesman Colonel Dickson Hermoso said.

A Saudi princess was to be released from U.S. jail on bail Thursday after being charged with enslaving a Kenyan woman, forcing her to work in abusive conditions and withholding her passport.

Meshael Alayban, 42, one of six wives of a grandson of the Saudi King Abdullah, paid a $5 million bond and surrendered her passport, the Orange County, California district attorney's office said in a statement.

Five Philippine soldiers and three rogue Muslim rebels have been killed in clashes ahead of the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending a decades-old rebellion, the military said Sunday.

The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a splinter guerrilla group, ambushed an army truck and attacked an army camp on Saturday, said regional military spokesman Major-General Romeo Gapuz.