Gunmen kidnaps six forest workers in Philippines

MANILA: Gunmen have kidnapped six forestry surveyors in the violence-stricken southern Philippines, the military said Sunday, the latest in a number of attacks against environmental workers there in recent years.
The six were en route to study a government forestry program in a remote mountainous area of Compostela Valley on the island of Mindanao when they were snatched Friday, the military said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction, although various armed groups are known to operate in the area, including communist guerrillas and private security personnel who work for illegal loggers and miners. “Our concern is the safe release of the civilians,” regional military spokesman Lt. Gen. Rainier Cruz said, as he deployed troops to help local police track down the victims, who work for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Filipino nabbed in bomb that killed 2 US soldiers
Philippine police say they have captured a suspected Muslim rebel bomber believed to be involved in a 2009 land mine attack that killed two US Special Forces soldiers and a Filipino marine in a volatile southern province.
Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita, Sulu provincial police chief, says Miraji Bairulla did not resist when government forces served a warrant for his arrest Sunday in Indanan town. Bairullah, who uses the rebel name “Mahang,” is a bomb expert of the rebel group the Moro National Liberation Front, according to Orbita.
Orbita says the suspect was among militants who placed a land mine that hit a passing Humvee and killed two U.S. soldiers and a Filipino marine in Indanan on Sept. 29, 2009, in Sulu, where Muslim militant groups are active.