Southern Philippines blasts kill four

A grenade explosion in a market in the southern Philippines town of Jolo has killed three people and wounded at least twenty others.

The island of Jolo is where Muslim rebels have been holding a group of mainly foreign hostages for more than three weeks.

Police say that, at about the same time, a bomb exploded in a restaurant in nearby Zamboanga city, on the island of Mindanao, killing one person. Six others were wounded. Police blamed the Muslim separatist group, the Abu Sayyaf, which is holding the hostages, but our correspondent says similar attacks are a common occurrence in the restless southern Philippines. Negotiations for the release of the hostages on Jolo are expected to start in the next few days.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service