Seventeen members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf...

Seventeen members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group were sentenced to death for kidnapping nurses from a hospital in the southern Philippines three years ago.
Only 13 of the defendants were present in a heavily guarded court house on Basilan island, where a clerk read the 41-page ruling that included a narration of a kidnapping spree that began with the mass abduction of more than 50 pupils, teachers and a priest in 2000, as well as three Americans and 17 Filipino tourists a year later.
The four other convicts, sentenced in absentia, escaped during a mass jailbreak from the Basilan provincial prison early this year. Prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron said the rebels separately abducted 25 Basilan farmers to help them carry weapons and equipment, but later beheaded 12 of them.
A few of the convicts, their heads bowed, were teary eyed but the others showed no emotion when the verdict was handed down in the packed courtroom.
One of them, Bashir Mandangan, who was seen clutching prayer beads inside the courtroom, expressed defiance, raising his fist and shouting, "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great).
"No problem," he told reporters when asked to react to the verdict. "They can kill me 10 times, tell that to your government." Police and soldiers armed with assault rifles used three Simba armored personnel carriers to block roads leading to the courthouse in Isabela, capital of Basilan.
They frisked pedestrians and shooed away those on motorcycles. U.S.-backed offensives have dislodged the guerrillas from their jungle lairs on Basilan.
Philippine officials now consider the group a spent force, down from about 1,000 guerrillas four years ago to about 300, although it has been linked to several recent terror attacks.