Claire Cozens, press and publishing correspondent
(Thursday, 08 April 2004 )
Two Japanese journalists and an aid worker have been taken hostage in Iraq and threatened with death unless Japan withdraws its troops, according to local reports.
The Arabic satellite television station, Al-Jazeera, today showed the two abducted men and one woman and identified them as two journalists and an aid worker.
A spokesman for Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Shinichi Yano, told the Associated Press the government was still trying to confirm the reports.
According to a report on Japanese television the ministry has set up an operations rooms to gather information.
(From the Guardian, 08 April 2004)