1.   However agonizing the pain would have been to the victim, its apparent chief purpose was not the sadistic pleasure of the torturer but to underscore the ransom request.

2.   Like the Philippine government, the U.S. will not honor ransom requests, state department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz said.

3.   The police withheld some details of the theft, they said, so they could be sure any ransom request was authentic.

4.   There has been no ransom request, Nishihata said.