| Maoist guerrillas killed seven soldiers in the northern Philippines on Friday, a military official said, even as the new government attempts to restart peace talks with the communist National Democratic Front. "Our troops were leaving a poor community where they had met village leaders for a medical mission when they were ambushed by dozens of rebels", Colonel Eliseo Posadas told reporters. President Benigno Aquino III, who took office last week, has promised to resume talks with rebel groups to end two long-running insurgencies in the country, which have killed more than 160,000 people and stunted economic growth in resource-rich areas outside Manila since the late 1960s. The communist rebels have said before negotiations can resume about a dozen rebel leaders have to be released from detention and they want to locate three more who they suspect were abducted by government agents. |