Philippines Kidnapping

Three former Philippine police officers and six others have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of mysterious disappearances in the country's massive cockfighting industry, authorities said Friday, with dozens of victims feared dead.

Four gunmen have been killed on a Philippine tourist island as President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military on Sunday to kill remnants of an ISIS terrorists group behind a foiled mass kidnapping attempt there.

Islamic terrorists who specialise in kidnapping for ransom have reported killing a German sailor and abducting her elderly male companion from their yacht off the southern Philippines, the military said on Monday.

The Philippine military says it has killed 70 Abu Sayyaf militants and captured 32 others in a major offensive that began in July against the group, which is accused of kidnapping sailors from neighboring countries for ransom.

Abu Sayyaf pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crewmen as military offensives restricted the militants' mobility, a confidential Philippine government report said.

Indonesia called Monday on Malaysia and the Philippines to do more to secure their "unsafe" waters after the weekend abduction of sailors by suspected Islamist militants.

The family of a Canadian hostage who was executed by an Islamist militant group in the Philippines said on Tuesday they supported the Canadian government's policy of not paying ransom in kidnapping cases.

Philippine boxing legend Manny Pacquiao expressed shock today at President Benigno Aquino's claim that ISIS planned to kidnap him, and said the alleged plot should not have been made public.

Three foreign men and a Filipina kidnapped last month in the southern Philippines have appeared in a video posted online, making demands for the Islamic militants who abducted them.

Gunmen seized a retired Italian priest in the strife-torn southern Philippines, authorities said Today, the latest abduction blamed on an infamous Islamic militant group that specialises in kidnappings-for-ransom.

Two Germans freed after being held for six months in the southern Philippines by a militant group that threatened to behead one of them if ransom was not paid were flown to Manila on Saturday under the care of their embassy, a Philippine military spokesman said.

Two Germans kidnapped by Islamic militants in the Philippines are safely back at their Manila embassy, officials said Saturday after a harrowing six-month ordeal in which they endured threats of beheading and seemingly routine cruelty.

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in the Philippines holding two Germans said on Friday they had received some of the ransom they had been demanding and would not kill one of the Germans as they had threatened to.

The Philippine military says soldiers attacked a Muslim militant hideout on southern Basilan island, triggering a clash that killed three Abu Sayyaf members believed to have been involved in the 2011 kidnapping of an American woman and her teenage son. Two government militiamen were killed and two others were wounded.

A policeman was killed and a second kidnapped after heavily armed gunmen opened fire at a diving resort off Malaysia's Borneo island, a security official said on Sunday.

Three former Philippine police officers and six others have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of mysterious disappearances in the country's massive cockfighting industry, authorities said Friday, with dozens of victims feared dead.

Four gunmen have been killed on a Philippine tourist island as President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military on Sunday to kill remnants of an ISIS terrorists group behind a foiled mass kidnapping attempt there.

Islamic terrorists who specialise in kidnapping for ransom have reported killing a German sailor and abducting her elderly male companion from their yacht off the southern Philippines, the military said on Monday.

The Philippine military says it has killed 70 Abu Sayyaf militants and captured 32 others in a major offensive that began in July against the group, which is accused of kidnapping sailors from neighboring countries for ransom.

Abu Sayyaf pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crewmen as military offensives restricted the militants' mobility, a confidential Philippine government report said.

Indonesia called Monday on Malaysia and the Philippines to do more to secure their "unsafe" waters after the weekend abduction of sailors by suspected Islamist militants.

The family of a Canadian hostage who was executed by an Islamist militant group in the Philippines said on Tuesday they supported the Canadian government's policy of not paying ransom in kidnapping cases.

Philippine boxing legend Manny Pacquiao expressed shock today at President Benigno Aquino's claim that ISIS planned to kidnap him, and said the alleged plot should not have been made public.

Three foreign men and a Filipina kidnapped last month in the southern Philippines have appeared in a video posted online, making demands for the Islamic militants who abducted them.

Gunmen seized a retired Italian priest in the strife-torn southern Philippines, authorities said Today, the latest abduction blamed on an infamous Islamic militant group that specialises in kidnappings-for-ransom.

Two Germans freed after being held for six months in the southern Philippines by a militant group that threatened to behead one of them if ransom was not paid were flown to Manila on Saturday under the care of their embassy, a Philippine military spokesman said.

Two Germans kidnapped by Islamic militants in the Philippines are safely back at their Manila embassy, officials said Saturday after a harrowing six-month ordeal in which they endured threats of beheading and seemingly routine cruelty.

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in the Philippines holding two Germans said on Friday they had received some of the ransom they had been demanding and would not kill one of the Germans as they had threatened to.

The Philippine military says soldiers attacked a Muslim militant hideout on southern Basilan island, triggering a clash that killed three Abu Sayyaf members believed to have been involved in the 2011 kidnapping of an American woman and her teenage son. Two government militiamen were killed and two others were wounded.

A policeman was killed and a second kidnapped after heavily armed gunmen opened fire at a diving resort off Malaysia's Borneo island, a security official said on Sunday.