Kidnappers make ransom demand

Kidnappers make ransom demand

MALAYSIA: Armed raiders who kidnapped six foreign workers from a Malaysian resort on Borneo this week have made a demand for an undisclosed ransom to secure the release of their hostages, local media reported Saturday.

An unidentified person, believed to be a local speaking in Malay, used a cellular phone to contact the police, the resort operator and the family of one of the hostages after the tiny riverside Borneo Paradise Resort in eastern Sabah state was hit by the band of 10 gunmen last Sunday.

Malaysian police chief Norian Mai confirmed the ransom demand. "There has been contact for ransom of the hostages," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times. He declined to comment further.

Police had earlier said the kidnapping of the three Indonesian and three Filipino workers was carried out by local criminals or "pirates" who may have had foreign help. -- AFP

;AP; ANPAi..r.. Highlight-USA-alQaeda Al-Qaeda may have sought anthrax JP/2/HIGH

Al-Qaeda may have sought anthrax

THE UNITED STATES: Operatives linked to the al-Qaeda network may have been working to acquire anthrax in Southeast Asia for use in terrorist attacks, a U.S. official said Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government had indications of an anthrax effort in that region but declined to describe them. It was not clear how advanced the work might have been.

The CBS television channel first reported Thursday that Hambali, a senior operative who was the link between al-Qaeda and its affiliate in Southeast Asia, described to interrogators al- Qaeda's renewed anthrax work.

Al-Qaeda's interest in anthrax as a weapon is long known, but officials say they have not found any links to the October 2001 anthrax mailings in the U.S. Traces of anthrax were found in labs in Afghanistan after U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in late 2001, U.S. officials have said. -- AP