For relatives of the three Japanese hostages in Iraq, hopes for their release Sunday morning quickly turned to frustration and gloom over a subsequent lack of solid information on what was happening to their loved ones as the day wore on.
"The situation has not changed. We know nothing about their safety," Shuichi Takato, 33, brother of 34-year-old hostage Nahoko Takato, told a news conference Sunday afternoon. "I ask people worldwide for cooperation in defusing the stalemate."
Naoko Imai, the 51-year-old mother of hostage Noriaki Imai, 18, said Monday: "We don't know what to believe. We were in joy at one time but suddenly fell into depression at another,"