Japan in Dark as Iraq Hostage Deadline Nears
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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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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 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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A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said worked with Japanese forces in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its forces from the country within 48 hours.
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The 48-hour deadline for the execution of a Japanese hostage being held in Iraq, has passed, as the Koyodo newsagency reports that a body has been found in Tikrit.
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The Islamic militant group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi said in a video shown on the Internet it had taken a Japanese citizen hostage in Iraq and threatened to execute him if Tokyo does not withdraw its troops from Iraq in 48 hours.
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BAGHDAD : The clock was ticking down for two French hostages whose Islamist abductors have served Paris with an ultimatum to lift a ban on Muslim headscarves in schools, while Iraq&#39;s government continued efforts to end the chaos prevailing in the country.
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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 body found in Iraq cannot be confirmed as that of a young Japanese man taken hostage and the corpse has been sent to Qatar for identification, Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shuzen Tanigawa said.
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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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Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi  said Wednesday he would not withdraw troops from Iraq despite a  threat by a militant group to behead a Japanese hostage within  48 hours unless Tokyo pulled its forces out.
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CAIRO -- Video posted yesterday on a militant Islamic website 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.
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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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The organization of &quot;Qaida al-Jihad in the Mesopotamia&quot; which is led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it had kidnapped one member of the Japanese forces in Iraq and threatened to execute him if Tokyo will not withdraw its forces from Iraq within 48 hours.
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A Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq earlier this week has been killed by his abductors after the Japanese government refused to meet their demands to withdraw its troops from the region, Kyodo News agency reported early Saturday.
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TOKYO - Japan insisted yesterday it would not bow to the demands of militants in Iraq who threatened to behead a young Japanese unless Tokyo pulls its troops from the country within 48 hours.
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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.