Six workers kidnapped from Sabah
Six workers kidnapped from Sabah
MALAYSIA: Gunmen have kidnapped six workers, three Filipinos and three Indonesians, from a beach resort in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, police said on Monday.
About 10 men armed with modern weapons, some wearing camouflage fatigues, forced the six into a boat and took them away late on Sunday, Inspector General of Police Norian Mai told a news conference.
The raid appeared to be the work of local bandits seeking ransom, although Sabah, on the north of Borneo island, has been targeted in the past by militants from across the Sulu Sea in the strife-torn southern Philippines.
"We believe the kidnapping was done by a local group, and not a foreign group, whether from the southern Philippines or Indonesia," Norian said.
Police were conducting sea and air searches, he said.
Norian said the six workers were taken from the Borneo Paradise Resort, which runs a summer camp for children. There were no guests at the resort, at Kuala Sungai Sabahan on Sabah's east coast, at the time of the raid. -- Reuters
;AFP;HHR; ANPAi..u.. Vietnam-media-attack Two Vietnamese reporters attacked JP/11/ASEAN1
Two Vietnamese reporters attacked
VIETNAM: Two reporters for state-run newspapers in Vietnam were detained and one was attacked by a local official while investigating complaints that a cooperative was misusing government funds, one of them said on Monday.
Nong Huyen Son of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs' Lao Dong-Xa Hoi newspaper and Ho Xuan Dung from Phap Luat, the justice ministry's mouthpiece, were assaulted on Saturday in Dong Thap province.
The two Ho Chi Minh City-based journalists had originally traveled to the southern province's Tan Phu Dong commune to report on the flour-making industry there.
However, while speaking to local people they were told that the Tan Phu Dong Flour Processing Cooperative, whose management they had hoped to interview, effectively existed in name only, Son told AFP.
Instead of advising farmers and helping them find markets for their products, it was used as a vehicle by the management and commune officials to receive poverty relief funds or preferential credits from the government.
That money was then lent to farmers at very high interest rates, angry locals told Son.
After being held for around three hours they were released but their papers, identification cards and their two motorcycles were confiscated, Son added. -- AFP
;REUTERS; ANPAu..r.. Airlines-Singapore-threat Flight canceled after bomb threat JP/11/ASEAN3
Flight canceled after bomb threat
SINGAPORE: Police were investigating a bomb threat that forced Singapore Airlines to cancel a flight to London on Monday, airline officials said.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ318, due to leave at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Jakarta time) with 127 passengers, was rescheduled because of the threat, said airline spokesman Rick Clements.
"It was a bomb threat," he said.
The airline said passengers would be transferred to another flight due to leave later on Monday.
Singapore Airlines and its unit Silk Air have already installed bullet-proof reinforced cockpit doors and use sky marshals armed with stun guns on flights deemed high risk.
Singapore stepped up security after the Sept. 11, 2001 hijack attacks on the United States and tightened it again after last October's devastating bomb blasts on the resort island of Bali in neighboring Indonesia.
The last known bomb threat against Singapore Airlines involved a flight bound for Los Angeles in October last year. -- Reuters