Peace activist taken hostage

A Sri Lankan peace activist became the latest victim of a wave of kidnappings in the southern Philippines blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants, officials said today.

Omar Jalil, 36, from the non-partisan group Nonviolent Peaceforce, which has been monitoring a decades-old Muslim separatist uprising in the Philippines, was taken by nine gunmen from his residence in coastal Lamitan town on Basilan island early today.

The Filipino caretaker of the house managed to escape unharmed as the gunmen opened fire.