Headline News 2014 April 3

China closely following kidnapping of national: FM China says it's closely following the kidnapping of a Chinese national in Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah. The Foreign Ministry says the Chinese consulate in Kuching has initiated an emergency response and sent officials to the area. A massive hunt is underway in the region for a group of armed men who abducted a Chinese tourist and a Filipino resort worker. The two women were taken at a resort in Sabah Wednesday night The Philippine authorities have also been coordinating with Malaysia on the case. Chile leader evacuates as second big quake strikes A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake has rocked northern Chile, just over 24 hours after an 8.2 tremor killed six people and destroyed thousands of houses. A tsunami alert in Chile and Peru was again issued, but was later lifted. The quake is the strongest of several aftershocks following Tuesday's tremor. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was among those evacuated on Thursday as she was visiting the affected area. So far there have been no reports of damage from the latest quake. 4 killed, 16 wounded in U.S. Army base shooting A soldier has opened fire at the U.S. Army base of Fort Hood in Texas, killing three people and wounding 16 others before killing himself. Base commander Mark Milley has confirmed that the shooter had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "Within 15 minutes, first responders from the military police and the emergency services responded to the scene, engaged the shooter, and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In regard to the investigation, at this time there's no indication that this incident is related to terrorism, although we're not ruling anything out and the investigation continues." The shooter, identified by media as 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, was an Army specialist who had served in Iraq and was being treated for mental health issues. President Barack Obama said he's heartbroken over the incident while Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called it a terrible tragedy. It's not the first shooting rampage at Fort Hood. Late in 2009, an Army psychiatrist opened fire at a soldier readiness center on the base, killing 13 and wounding 30 others. Malaysia 'will not give up' on search for MH370: PM Malaysia's prime minister says his country will not give up on the search for missing flight MH370. Najib Razak made the statement as he visited the search hub in Perth, Australia. "I know that until we find the plane, many families can't start to grieve. I can't imagine what they must be going through, but I can promise them that we will not give up." Najib met search crews at Pearce air force base and then held talks with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who also promised his country will continue the search as best as they can. Planes and ships have been scouring the southern Indian Ocean, where the jet is believed to have crashed. But so far not a single piece of debris from the Boeing 777 has been found. Number of Syria refugees registered in Lebanon over 1mn: UN The United Nations says the number of refugees who have fled Syria and registered in Lebanon has surpassed one million. UN refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres says Lebanon has now become the country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world. Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon's resident population. About 9.5 million people in Syria have been displaced since the war began in 2011. Pakistan's Musharraf survives assassination bomb attempt Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who is on trial for treason, has narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb went off shortly before his convoy was due to pass. The bomb was planted on Musharraf's route from an army hospital to his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. Nobody was injured and there have so far been no claims of responsibility. The Taliban have vowed to kill Musharraf and security threats have prevented him from appearing at all but two of his treason hearings. Seoul: drone from N. Korea flew over presidential palace South Korea says a drone found last week crashed near the border with the North apparently had flown over the presidential palace in Seoul. Seoul's defense ministry says nearly 200 aerial photographs were recovered from a camera carried by the drone, including some taken directly above the presidential Blue House. But the ministry says the aircraft would not have been able to carry a bomb. South Korea's military has been criticized for apparently failing to spot or stop the unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace and flew over its capital. South Korea believes it was launched by the North for surveillance purpose.