Abu Sayyaf upholds hostage deadline

Separatist fighters in the southern Philippines have said they will stick to a deadline to behead one of three Red Cross workers they have taken hostage unless government troops withdraw from its stronghold.The Abu Sayyaf group has said it will behead one of the hostages they are holding on Jolo island by 1400 local time (0600GMT) on Tuesday if the military does not meet its demands."The decision of the group is to behead if there will be no pullout," Abu Ali, an Abu Sayyaf commander, told the Associated Press."There will be no extension of the deadline for the pullout and we have no plan to release any hostage if there will be no pullout."The three aid workers - Mary Jean Lacaba, a Filipino national, Andreas Notter, a Swiss national and Eugenio Vagni, from Italy – were seized on January 15.Government officials say the group's demand is "physically impossible", and that the troops cannot be moved within the 24 hours they have been given.Al Jazeera's Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said that both sides appear to have given up on reaching a compromise."The government is saying it is logistically impossible to comply with this demand, and the Abu Sayyaf are saying that it is all or nothing," she said.