MALAYSIA

Two ailing Malaysian seamen held hostage by Filipino Muslim militants for eight months were found on Thursday aboard a boat adrift off the southern Philippines. Tayudin Anjut, 45, and Abdurahim bin Sumas, 62, were abandoned by the Abu Sayyaf gunmen before dawn near their coastal forest hideout on the remote island of Pata, a military statement said. They were receiving treatment at a military hospital in the area. Regional military commander Maj Gen Carlito Galvez said a Philippine Navy patrol boat found the pair, eight months after they were abducted along with three other crewmen of a tugboat that was boarded by gunmen near the maritime boundary between the two countries.