Japan Scrambles to Win Hostage&#39;s Release
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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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Japan's government said it was trying to confirm news reports that the Islamic militant group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi had taken a Japanese citizen hostage in Iraq and threatened to behead him.
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Japanese leaders struggled on Thursday to make contact with Islamic militants in Iraq who took a Japanese traveler hostage as the 48-hour deadline approached for the young man's threatened beheading. Tokyo stood firm in its refusal to meet the kidnappers' demand to withdraw troops from Iraq.
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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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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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Jordan&#39;s King Abdullah II on Thursday pledged efforts to help release the Japanese hostage in Iraq as soon as possible, Jordanian TV reported.
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TOKYO, Japan -- Rescuers are trying to free a young girl trapped in a van beneath a landslide following Japan&#39;s deadliest earthquake in a decade.
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Japan has confirmed that the headless body found in Baghdad on Saturday is of the Japanese being held captive in Iraq. An armed group in Iraq had on Tuesday threatened to behead Shosei Koda, 24, within 48-hours unless Japan pulled its troops out of Iraq.
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Japan sought international help on  Thursday for a Japanese man held hostage in Iraq, with less  than 24 hours to go for a deadline set by his captors to behead  him unless Tokyo pulled out its troops.
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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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The troubled negotiations over whether to build the world&#39;s largest nuclear fusion facility in France or Japan have finally come to a head.
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threat by a militant group to behead a Japanese hostage within 48 hours unless Tokyo pulls its forces out. &quot;We cannot tolerate terrorism and we will not give in to terrorism,&quot; Koizumi told reporters on Wednesday.
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A Japanese citizen taken hostage in Iraq has been executed, the Kyodo news agency reported Saturday. Shosei Koda, 24, was kidnapped last week, by the group linked to al-Qaida-affiliated militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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An armed group in Iraq has taken a Japanese traveler hostage and threatened to kill him unless Tokyo withdraws its Self-Defense Forces troops from the country within 48 hours, government officials said in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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Japan has sent two diplomats to a forensic medical facility in Iraq to see if a head and body found in Baghdad was that of a Japanese man taken hostage.
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Japan has made little progress contacting the kidnappers of one of its citizens or determining where the man is being held, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.