China's President Xi Jinping was in the Maldives Monday beginning a three-nation tour of South Asia with a historic visit to an island paradise gaining a new reputation as a hotbed of militant Islamists.

Media outlets in the Maldives have raised nearly $2 million to help Gaza residents affected by massive destruction caused in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, a fundraising organiser said Saturday.

The United Nations expressed concern Tuesday over the disappearance of a Maldivian journalist and urged the government to ensure that reporters could operate without fear.

Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, a 28-year-old reporter with the Minivan News website, went missing on August 8.

Israeli holiday makers were evacuated from their Maldivian resort after one of them tore up an anti-Israeli placard equating the Nazi Swastika to the Israeli flag, officials said Wednesday.

Some 30 Israeli surfers were moved out to safety from Thulusdhoo island, near the capital island Male, as residents of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim archipelago protested the pulling down of anti-Israeli placards.

The Maldives has said it acted alone to expel a Russian national suspected by the U.S. of being one of the world's most prolific traffickers of stolen credit cards.

President Abdulla Yameen denied a claim by Moscow that the United States had abducted Roman Seleznev from the Maldives and taken him to the American territory of Guam. 

Moscow on Tuesday accused Washington of abducting a Russian national after a man suspected of being one of the world's most prolific traffickers of stolen credit card details was arrested in the Maldives.

The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday that Roman Seleznev had been detained at the weekend.

The Maldives held parliamentary elections Saturday on schedule, despite worries about the ability of the resort island's turmoil-hit elections commission to stage the ballot successfully.

Results were due to be announced Sunday from the vote in the Indian Ocean holiday paradise.

Parliamentary elections got under way in the Maldives Saturday despite the island nation's new president expressing doubts over whether the vote can be conducted, officials said.

An ally of President Abdulla Yameen had petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a delay of Saturday's polls, arguing that a depleted Elections Commission may not be able to conduct the vote.

Angry Chinese relatives tried to gatecrash Malaysia's tightly controlled daily media briefing on the missing plane Wednesday in chaotic scenes underlining the frustrations surrounding the 12-day search.

Shouting and crying, a handful of relatives of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 370 unfurled a protest banner reading "Give us back our families". They accused Malaysian authorities of withholding information and doing too little to find the plane.

The Supreme Court in the Maldives has sacked the country's elections chief and handed him a suspended jail term after he criticized judges during last year's chaotic contest to choose a president.

Less than a fortnight before parliamentary elections are due, Chief Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek and his deputy Ahmed Fayaz were dismissed for "disobeying and challenging" orders issued by the court in its role as "guardian of the constitution".