From Mona Lisa to Mickey Mouse, a Philippine guesthouse owner has pieced together over a thousand jigsaw puzzles, and on Thursday her collection was officially declared the world's largest.

"It was just a hobby at first. It takes away my stress," Gina Gil Lacuna, 61, told Agence France Presse as she was awarded her certificate of recognition by Guinness World Records.

Philippine police said they had charged four men Monday over the stabbing death of a U.S. diplomat's husband during a brawl just outside an exclusive compound in the nation's capital.

The father of three was walking into the compound early on Saturday morning when he saw security guards at its gates checking the identification of the suspects, who were inside a luxury sports utility vehicle, police said.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino will not quit smoking despite the country's top medical body publicly appealing for him to lead by example and kick the habit, his spokesman said Saturday.

The Philippine Medical Association called on Aquino to give up after noticing his frequent coughing, spokesman Edwin Lacierda told government radio.

The Philippines has moved closer to raising tobacco and alcohol taxes, the government said Wednesday after the Senate passed a bill aimed at weaning millions of smokers off the habit.

The Senate late Tuesday passed a bill that would raise 40 billion pesos (nearly $1 billion) in "sin taxes" each year, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a statement.

Asian leaders feuded on Monday over how to handle tense maritime territorial disputes with China, overshadowing talks at a regional summit meant to strengthen trade and political ties.

The leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations had hoped to present a united front on the South China Sea row as they hosted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and U.S. President Barack Obama for annual talks.

The Philippines has failed to curb the huge problem of human trafficking in recent years, despite high-profile government efforts and the country's removal from a U.S. watchlist, a U.N. envoy said Friday.

Poor law enforcement and crushing poverty meant many men, women and children were still being trafficked, both internally and overseas, said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.

Disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea could become violent but China and Southeast Asia are showing a sense of urgency in trying to ease tensions, the ASEAN chief said Tuesday.

Regional divisions about how to handle China on the issue prevented the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from issuing a joint statement after a July summit in Phnom Penh for the first time in its 45-year history.

The Philippines' top rebel leader warned Saturday a peace deal signed by his group could only end the armed conflict if the wider Filipino Muslim community supported it.

Under the pact the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would give up its quest for an independent homeland in the south in return for significant power and wealth-sharing in a new autonomous region there to be known as Bangsamoro.

The death toll from Typhoon Son-Tinh in the Philippines rose sharply to 24 Saturday as casualty reports from isolated central islands and the far-flung south flooded in, the government said.

Drowning and landslides were given as the cause of 11 deaths on small islands in the country's mid-section, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its latest tally.

Tropical Storm Son-Tinh has left at least six people dead and nine missing in the Philippines, the civil defense chief said on Friday.

The fatalities include one person hit by a tree toppled by strong winds and another who was crushed in a landslide spawned by heavy rains, said the disaster-monitoring council chief Benito Ramos.