Philippine authorities said Monday they had abandoned hope of finding alive seven people missing from a ferry which sank last week with dozens on board, after three days of searching in strong currents.

Rescuers recovered two bodies from the sea and rescued 61 others after the Lady of Mount Carmel went down Friday off the coast of central Masbate island, more than 300 kilometers southeast of Manila.

Philippine navy divers battled strong ocean currents Sunday in a desperate hunt for seven missing passengers of a ferry that sank with dozens onboard.

The Lady of Mount Carmel ferry mysteriously went down in calm weather on Friday about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from central Burias island, killing two women passengers. Officials said 61 of the 70 people aboard the vessel had been rescued.

Ships and helicopters were scouring seas in the central Philippines for survivors of a ferry that sank early Friday with about 60 people aboard. Two people have died, and 41 have been rescued, officials said.

The inter-island ferry left Pio Duran port in Albay province and sank three hours later at about 5 a.m. near Burias Island, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away across a strait. Coast guard and navy vessels and helicopters were called in to conduct the search and rescue, aided by local fishermen.

Muslim rebels in the Philippines said Wednesday they had protested at the arrests of four guerrillas, warning it could affect talks aimed at ending the decades-long insurgency

The arrests come amid diminishing confidence within the Moro Islamic Liberation Front over the government's sincerity in trying quickly to seal a deal to end the rebellion which has left an estimated 150,000 people dead since the 1970s.

Two U.N. peacekeepers suffered injuries in shelling on Thursday in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone between Israel and Syria, a U.N. peacekeeping spokesman said.

"The two suffered minor injuries from the fallout of heavy weapons fire in the area," U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Kieran Dwyer told Agence France Presse.

Philippine aviation authorities shut down one of the country's busiest airports on Monday after a passenger jet overshot the runway when landing during a rainstorm, officials said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said Davao International Airport in the south of the country would be closed until Monday evening while authorities removed the Cebu Pacific Airbus A320 plane.

A 5.6 quake rattled the southern Philippines early Monday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, a little over a day after another quake in the same region injured 10.

USGS said the quake struck at a depth of 43 kilometers (27 miles) 17 km northwest of the President Roxas district on Mindanao island at 4:08 am (2008 GMT Sunday).

The United States on Saturday reaffirmed its commitment to a defense treaty with the Philippines, which is currently embroiled in a territorial dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.

The pledge came as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met his Philippine counterpart Voltaire Gazmin on the sidelines of an annual security forum in Singapore set to be dominated by Beijing's growing might.

Three people were killed in a mysterious explosion in a luxury apartment building in the Philippine capital, a government minister said Saturday, as officials lowered the death toll from the blast.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said authorities were still trying to assess what had triggered the blast but that initial investigations found no evidence of a bomb.

Four children aged 3 to 12 were feared dead after a landslide struck the house where they had sought refuge during a rainstorm in the southern Philippines, a police official said Friday.

The disaster occurred in a remote part of the southern island of Mindanao late Tuesday, said deputy police chief Inspector Rustom Romina.