Japan executes prisoners
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Japan hangs three prisoners in the country's second round of executions in less than two months.
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A group threatened to execute a Japanese hostage in Iraq unless Japan pulls out its forces, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday that the Japanese troops would remain in the country.
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A group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it would behead a member of Japan&#39;s forces it had captured in Iraq if the Japanese government did not withdraw its forces from the country within 48 hours.
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Iraq executed 13 men convicted of murder, kidnapping and other crimes, the government said Tuesday.
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Japan was checking a media report on  Friday that an Asian body had been found in Iraq after a  deadline expired for the beheading of a Japanese youth whose  captors had demanded that Tokyo withdraw its troops.
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Japan sought international and Iraqi help  for a Japanese man held hostage in Iraq on Thursday, less than  24 hours before a deadline set by his captors to behead him  unless Japan withdraws its troops.
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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 withdraws its troops.
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Saudi Arabia executed two drug smugglers, an Iraqi and a Pakistani, on Saturday, the first executions this year in the conservative kingdom, the Interior Ministry said.
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A Chinese man is sentenced to death and another to life in prison, for murdering a Japanese family in 2003.
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Sky News and Reuters are both reporting at this hour that Japanese AQ hostage 24-year-old Shosei Koda, has been decapitated by the terrorists who held him in Iraq.
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TOKYO - Mamoru Takuma, convicted for murdering eight children at an Osaka elementary school in 2001, has been executed, informed sources said Tuesday.
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severed head of a man found in Baghdad were of Koda. Newspapers reported his killing. Japan on October 23, killing at least 36 people and forcing 100,000 from their homes.
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Iraqi authorities executed 13 men by hanging Tuesday after they were convicted of murder and kidnapping, lining them up in hoods and green jumpsuits with their hands bound behind their backs.
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Nine people were found dead in two rented cars yesterday, with the windows sealed from the inside and charcoal burners at their feet, in what Japanese police are calling modern Japan&#39;s largest suicide pact.
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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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A Japanese civilian taken hostage in Iraq by militants has been killed, Kyodo News agency reported Saturday, citing a member of Japan's ruling party. But national broadcaster NHK said the government was still trying to confirm the information.
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A man convicted of murdering eight children in a frenzied knife attack at a primary school three years ago was hanged in Osaka yesterday, in Japan&#39;s first execution for a year.