| MORE than 50 inmates, including many suspected members of a Muslim extremist group, used a smuggled pistol to escape from a southern Philippine prison today, officials said. At least eight were killed by pursuing police. Provincial spokesman Christopher Puno said 53 of 137 inmates at the Basilan provincial jail, including many members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, escaped and fled into nearby hinterlands. At least eight were killed and eight others have been recaptured, said Senior Inspector William Gadayan, police chief of Isabela city, the capital of Basilan. He said three guards were injured in the breakout, one seriously... |