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.

A clan whose chiefs are on trial for the Philippines' worst political massacre secured big wins in local elections this week, results showed Friday, deepening fears that justice may never be served.

Leaders of the Ampatuan family and their gunmen are accused of massacring 58 people, including 32 journalists, in the southern province of Maguindanao more than three years ago in a bid to quash a rival's challenge to become governor.

A southern Philippine town plans to hold funeral rites for the world's largest saltwater crocodile and then preserve its remains in a museum to keep tourists coming and prevent their community from slipping back into obscurity, the town's mayor said Monday.

The 1-ton crocodile was declared dead Sunday a few hours after flipping over with a bloated stomach in a pond in an eco-tourism park in Bunawan town, which had started to draw tourists, revenue and development because of the immense reptile, Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said.

Hundreds of thousands of mostly barefoot Roman Catholic devotees joined a raucous procession through the streets of the Philippine capital Wednesday in an annual ritual to demonstrate faith and seek miracle cures for illnesses and a good life.

Police estimated about 500,000 people left from the parade grounds of Manila's Rizal Park for the daylong march that sees a statue of Jesus Christ pulled through the city's central district.

Celebratory gunfire killed a four-year-old boy and more than 200 others were injured by powerful firecrackers in typically rowdy New Year celebrations in the Philippine capital, officials said Tuesday.

A bullet hit the boy in the back as he was playing outside his home in Manila's suburban Mandaluyong district, said the city's police chief Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina.

Philippine officials Monday reported more injuries from fireworks as the emergency services braced for a night of thunderous and sometimes deadly merrymaking to usher in the new year.

Injuries linked to firecrackers have risen to 186 since the Christmas weekend, including 33 with eye injuries and six victims who had limbs amputated, the health department announced.

Milan, Paris, London, New York and... Manila. It's hardly the center of the fashion world but more than 2,000 models have taken to the catwalk in a Philippine shopping mall to claim a new world record.

A total of 2,255 men, women and children, from strutting seasoned professionals to stumbling first-timers, took part in the record for the most models to walk down the runway at a single event.

The leaders of the Philippines' biggest Muslim rebel group arrived in Manila on Sunday for a historic visit aimed at ending one of Asia's longest and deadliest insurgencies.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad Ebrahim and other senior rebel figures emerged from their remote bases in the country's south to oversee the signing of an accord on Monday that outlines a roadmap for peace by 2016.

Four people were killed as another tropical storm swept across the Philippines on Wednesday, triggering landslides in the mountainous north and dumping more heavy rain on the flood-battered capital.

Tropical Storm Kai-tak hit the northeast of the main island of Luzon before dawn, dumping up to 35 millimeters (1.4 inches) of rain an hour on a vast farming region, the state weather bureau said.

Philippine authorities warned Monday an intensifying storm could bring more misery to the flood-battered capital and surrounding areas, where nearly half a million were in evacuation centers.

While flooding that covered 80 percent of Manila last week had largely subsided, vast areas of mainly rice-growing provinces to the north were still under water that in some places remained neck-deep.