Aussie faces murder count

AN AUSTRALIAN man has been charged with murdering a teenage girl in the Philippines.

Reports say local police launched a search for the man after witnesses claimed to have seen him with the 17year-old victim before she was found dead.

The man was arrested in central Dumaguete City, in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is understood to be providing consular assistance to an Australian man in connection with the incident.