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According to a new video released by the Islamic barbaric group ISIS, which also identifies itself as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a Japanese Christian man who had traveled to Iraq in an attempt to rescue a friend who was captured by the terrorist organization has been beheaded. As previously reported, Kenji Goto, 47, who became a Christian in 1997, told reporters last year that he felt compelled to do what he could to help rescue Haruna Yukawa, 42, after he was abducted in August near the city of Aleppo. Yukawa had been through a number of difficult...

A senior State Department official on Saturday claimed that there is “nothing religious” about the Islamic State’s reported execution of a Japanese hostage. Rick Stengel, an under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, took to Twitter to condemn the killing of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa, who has been held for ransom by the terror group along with Japanese freelance reporter Kenji Goto. “Brutal criminal murder of Japanese citizen #Haruna Yukawa by the terrorist group #Daesh,” Stengel tweeted after IS released video of the killing. “Nothing religious about it.” Stengel’s apparent refusal to acknowledge that IS’s radical Islamic...

Islamic State militants have affirmed through their Internet radio station that the group killed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough accidentally revealed the first name of a previously unidentified hostage being held by ISIS. Watch

FOX News reported that ISIS announced the hostages were dead. A tweet from a Twitter account linked to ISIS said the hostages had been killed “because of Japan’s choices.” The tweet, on the same one that previously posted the countdown clock, warned that a new video was “being sent to production.”

Japanese hostages freed in Iraq have been billed for plane tickets home Tokyo-AP -- It's been anything but a heroes' welcome for two Japanese aid workers and a photojournalist who were held hostage for a week in Iraq. Not only did they receive a chilly welcome home, a Japanese official says the three have been billed 21-thousand-dollars for their plane tickets home and other expenses.They were accused of behaving recklessly for going to a country that Japan has repeatedly warned residents to avoid.A government official says the three are being treated the same as other Japanese civilians who get in...

Almost unnoticed by the American press, the aftermath of Japan’s hostage crisis in Iraq is developing in a direction which may have permanent and serious positive implications for American foreign and military policies. Prime Minister Koizumi’s response to the kidnapping of the first three Japanese taken hostage in Iraq marked a watershed in Japan’s posture for dealing with external threats. Prime Minister Koizumi simply refused to “go Spanish” in the face of terror threats against his citizens. As the Wall Street Journal notes (link requires subscription), Japan had previously embraced the notion that the lives of hostages must be paramount....

TOKYO - The Japanese government was investigating a news report that two more Japanese had been abducted in Iraq (news - web sites), an official said Thursday. The Kyodo News service report said an unidentified Japanese organization had received an e-mail saying the two were abducted Wednesday. The Japanese were possibly on their way to cover the emergency landing of a U.S. military helicopter in a southern Baghdad suburb, the report said, suggesting they were journalists. A foreign ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government was looking into the report but had not confirmed the reported abduction....

Breaking - in Japanese...Kyodo News. Reports that two more Japanese may well have been taken hostage by terrorists in Iraq. Reported to have happened to a person named "Yasuda Junpei" and a person named "Watanabe". Said they were NGO (non governmental organization) employees in Iraq. Appears to be, if true, that one is Junpei Yasuda, a Japanese photojournalist.Reports were that two of them were near the site of a downed US helicopter. After taking some photos, it was reported their vehicle was stopped. An email claiming they are in enemy custody has just come in. Local eyewitness in the area...

TOKYO, April 13 (Reuters) - Japan has not verified the facts about the fate of three Japanese civilians taken captive in Iraq, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday. Fukuda told a news conference that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had told the cabinet it was not possible to prejudge the situation, given a variety of information. Fukuda added that Japan was making every effort for the rescue of the three hostages, but that it was not possible for the government to give a detailed explanation of the situation.

We'll kill hostages, one by one, rebels vow By Paul McGeough, Chief Herald Correspondent in Baghdad April 12, 2004 - 1:21AM Anguish ... Ayako Inoue, left, weeps with other relatives of the three Japanese hostages, below. Photo: Reuters/Eriko Sugito One of the three Japanese being held hostage in Iraq will be executed at an unspecified time today - and the other two within 12 hours - unless Tokyo agrees to new demands, says an Iraqi go-between who claims to have seen them alive yesterday.False hopes for the safety of the three were raised earlier when word spread from the Middle...

TOKYO, April 12 (Reuters) - Japan has put three C-130 transport planes on stand-by in Kuwait so it could use them to airlift three Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq, a Japanese Defence Ministry source said on Monday. "We are putting on stand-by three C-130 transport planes that are in Kuwait now," a Defence Ministry source told Reuters. He said the Japanese air force planes could be used to evacuate the three Japanese hostages as well as other Japanese nationals who would need the government's help to flee the war-torn country. Japan was stunned and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was confronted...

no other details breaking....

Being reported on the norning broadcast on Sky.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arabic television station Al Jazeera has denied a Japanese news agency report which quoted it as saying that three Japanese hostages held in Iraq had been released. "We did not issue such a report," an Al Jazeera official told Reuters, referring to a report by Jiji news agency. Japanese TV earlier said the three Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq were safe near the Iraqi town of Falluja, but government officials could not confirm the report and it was unclear when they would be released. Al Jazeera said on Saturday that Iraqi militants holding the hostages would...

Breaking. Sorry, its just a quick English synopsis of the Japanese news (link).Chunichi News in Japan (Nagoya daily newspaper) is reporting from Middle East sources that one of the Japanese *hostages* taken by a new Islamic terrorist group two days ago, MS. NAHOKO TAKATO, is reported to have made contact in Baghdad recently, before the kidnapping of her and two other Japanese, with an affiliate terrorist organization "Army of Muhammand". The casts in some doubt the actual situation surrounding this Islamic terrorist "kidnapping" the other day and the subsequent demands that Japan withdraw its Self Defense forces from Iraq in...

Al Jazeera: Japaneese hostages to be freed within 24 hours. Reuters quoting Al Jazeera. More to come.

A senior Japanese official headed emergency meetings in Amman, Jordan, yesterday to co-ordinate efforts to rescue three nationals kidnapped in Iraq. Their abductors have threatened to burn the three alive if Japan does not pull its troops out by a deadline today. Senior Vice-Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa said no effort would be spared by Tokyo to free the hostages, who were snatched by a previously unknown Iraqi group. Diplomats said Mr Aisawa entered back-to-back meetings with a 10-strong emergency taskforce of senior Japanese diplomats and security officials. He would not say whether any contact had been made with the hostage-takers....

KUWAIT, April 10 (Reuters) - A Kuwait-based aide to Iraq's top Shi'ite religious leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, denounced the kidnapping of three Japanese citizens as a "terrorist" act and demanded their immediate release. A hitherto unknown group in Iraq on Thursday released a video showing what it said were three Japanese hostages including a woman, blindfolded and with a gun to their heads, and vowed to "burn them alive" if Japanese troops did not leave Iraq within three days. "We demand those kidnappers to set them free immediately for the sake of Iraq's interests. Islam is free of such terrorist...

OKYO, April 10 (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi appealed on Saturday for the release of three Japanese hostages in Iraq as protesters called for Tokyo to withdraw its troops to save the captives' lives. "The three Japanese hostages are private individuals, and friends of Iraq...The people of Japan and I strongly demand for an immediate and safe release of the three hostages," he said. The video message comes with less than 24 hours to go until a deadline set by the kidnappers, who have threatened to burn the hostages alive if Japanese troops do not pull out of...