International New York Times
03 April 2014
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- 2 Women are Kidnapped from a Resort in Malaysia
2 Women are Kidnapped from a Resort in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Gunmen kidnapped a Chinese tourist and a Filipino hotel worker, both women, from a beach resort on an island off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, the Chinese and Malaysian authorities said Thursday, spurring an international manhunt.
The abductions, which occurred late Wednesday, appeared to be the work of insurgents from the nearby islands of the southern Philippines who have been fighting the Philippine government for years, security experts said. The kidnapping risked complicating ties between China and Malaysia, already strained over the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The women were taken from the Singamata Reef Resort, a diving and snorkeling retreat built on stilts on Singamata Island off the coast of Sabah, a state on Borneo, in eastern Malaysia.
… But Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that he had spoken with a Chinese consular official in Malaysia on Thursday, and that “apparently both the Malaysian and Chinese sides are trying to downplay this event while showing their concerns.”
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