Japan looks for int&#39;l help to free Japanese hostage
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TOKYO - Japan sought international help Wednesday to secure the release of a Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq and pledged to do its utmost to gain his freedom after refusing to bow to the kidnappers&#39; threat to behead him unless Japan withdraws its
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Italian intelligence officials who secured the release of two hostages in Iraq are working with their British counterparts to try to free Kenneth Bigley, the captive Briton.
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TOKYO Japan warned North Korea on Friday of a &quot;serious response&quot; if it was not more forthcoming on the status of Japanese people it kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Japanese officials tried Thursday to contact the Iraqi militants holding a Japanese hostage, as the 48-hour deadline for his threatened execution approached.
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A Japanese minister arrived in Jordan on Thursday to seek the release of a hostage in Iraq, less than 24 hours before a deadline set by his captors, who have threatened to behead the youth unless Japan withdraws its troops.
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Japan scrambled Wednesday to win the release a 24-year old Japanese man taken hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq, dispatching high level diplomats to the middle east and
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TOKYO - The beheading of a Japanese hostage and the closely fought US presidential election have injected new caution into Tokyoâs deliberations on whether to extend its historic troop dispatch to Iraq.
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Japan's government was still in the dark  about a Japanese held hostage in Iraq on Thursday, less than 24  hours before a deadline set by his captors, who have threatened  to behead the young man unless Japan withdraws its troops.
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Video posted Tuesday on a militant Islamic Web site showed what it claimed was a Japanese captive kidnapped by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group and threatened to behead him within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops from Iraq. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rejected the demand.
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Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi&#39;s militant group threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said worked with Japan&#39;s forces in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from the country within 48 hours.
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A Japanese hostage has been beheaded in Iraq, Japanese officials said on Sunday, but Tokyo vowed it would keep its troops in the country on their reconstruction mission.
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Poland&#39;s ambassador to Baghdad met with Iraqi security officials Saturday to seek help in freeing a Polish woman hostage in Iraq, Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said.
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Turning the tables on Tokyo, North Korea  has called on Japan to investigate the case of one of its  nationals who went missing in 1991 while working in Russia,  saying it presumed Japan had abducted him.
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The Japanese government is checking  whether a body found by the U.S. military between Tikrit and  Baghdad in Iraq is that of a Japanese hostage, an aide to  Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said early on  Saturday.
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Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's  militant group threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said  worked with Japan's forces in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw  its troops from the country within 48 hours.
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Japan scrambled on Friday to check a  report that an Asian body had been found in Iraq after a  deadline expired for the beheading of a Japanese man whose  captors had demanded that Tokyo withdraw its troops.
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The beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq renewed pressure on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to withdraw his country&#39;s troops, as the opposition blamed his pro-US policy for the slaying.