Hostage beheading, US polls inject caution into Japanese debate on ...
676847
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.
100629
Japan and North Korea held a second day of talks Sunday in a dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by the North decades ago. Japan seized the occasion to express concern North
109380
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.
662131
A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to behead a Japanese hostage in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan&#39;s contingent would stay put.
82544
Japanese officials say a decapitated body found in Baghdad wrapped in an American flag is that of a Japanese man kidnapped by Islamic militants.
67506
LIVERPOOL, England  - Hundreds of Britons held a  candlelit vigil on Tuesday for a hostage threatened with  beheading in Iraq amid reports that his abductors had killed a  second U.S. captive.
49760
Japan&#39;s Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has urged the captors of Shosei Koda in Iraq to set him free. In an interview to Aljazeera&#39;s correspondent in Tokyo on Wednesday, he said, &quot;Koda is a civilian who
74354
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
90820
Japan raced against the clock yesterday to free a young Japanese hostage in Iraq but had little reason for hope less than a day before the deadline set by al-Qaida-linked militants for his killing.
471283
Relatives pleaded Monday for the release of two Americans and a Briton held hostage as a deadline loomed for their beheading. In Baghdad, gunmen assassinated two clerics from a powerful Sunni Muslim group opposed to the US presence in Iraq.
496607
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.
152500
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
219934
TONY EASTLEY: The Japanese Government says it will continue its mission in Iraq, despite the beheading of one of its citizens. The troop deployment is unpopular in Japan, but surprisingly, the political fallout
71839
Japan has been appealing for international help to secure the release of a Japanese man kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq and threatened with death.
388874
Japan is racing against the clock to secure the release of a young Japanese man kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq, with less than 24 hours to go before a deadline for his execution.
701233
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.
169435
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday condemned the beheading of a young Japanese backpacker in Iraq and vowed that Japan would not withdraw its troops from the US-led coalition.