Sri Lanka president says he is 'victim' of Swiss kidnap claim
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said Thursday the alleged kidnapping of a Swiss Embassy staffer that triggered a diplomatic spat between Colombo and Bern had been concocted to discredit his election victory. A Sri Lankan national working for the Swiss mission in Colombo was arrested ...
Police re-arrest Saitama man over kidnapping of junior high school girl
Police re-arrested a 37-year-old man on Wednesday for allegedly kidnapping and keeping a Hyogo Prefecture junior high school student at his home in the city of Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, for about two months. The news of the re-arrest comes just several days after a similar ...
Suspect in kidnapping of 12-year-old Osaka girl tells police he 'saved a child who needed help'
The victim reportedly tells a police officer that she had “fled from a man’s house” after “becoming scared” and that there was another girl there.
Police arrest 35-year-old man after missing Osaka girl, 12, is found in Tochigi Prefecture
A 12-year-old Osaka girl, missing for a week, is taken into police custody after she ran away from a man whom she claims kidnapped her and confined her at his home in Tochigi Prefecture.
Dutch police arrest second suspect in case of family held in isolation for years
Dutch police said on Thursday they had arrested a second man on suspicion of "unlawful deprivation of liberty" in the case of a family that had lived in apparent seclusion on a farm for years. The first suspect was charged earlier on Thursday with unlawful ...
Austrian man believed to have held Dutch farm family captive for nearly decade
Dutch investigators suspect an Austrian man held a father and five adult children against their will for nearly a decade on a remote farmhouse before they were finally rescued, officials said on Wednesday. The 58-year-old man, identified by media as Josef B., was arrested after ...
Man, 64, arrested for kidnapping teenage girl in Kanagawa and demanding ¥20 million ransom
A 64-year-old man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly kidnapping a teenage girl near Tokyo and demanding ¥20 million (about $186,500) in ransom, police said. Isao Kimura is suspected of forcing a 16-year-old high school girl into his car in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Monday evening ...
The U.S. Department of State has removed Japan from its list of countries said to be showing a pattern of noncompliance with the so-called Hague Convention on cross-border parental child abduction. In an annual report released last week, the department noted Japan's legislative efforts to ...
French commandos die freeing French and unexpected U.S., Korean hostages in Burkina Faso
French commandos rescued four foreign hostages, including two French citizens, from a militant group in Burkina Faso, France's military said Friday, adding that two of the elite soldiers were killed in the night-time operation. French special forces carried out the raid under cover of dark ...
American kidnapped on Ugandan safari, with $500,000 ransom demanded
An American woman and her driver have been kidnapped at Uganda's most popular wildlife park by gunmen demanding a ransom of $500,000, police said on Wednesday. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and Ugandan driver Jean Paul were on a game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park ...
Japan's news outlets weigh in on Jumpei Yasuda's culpability in Syria kidnapping
Freelance reporter Jumpei Yasuda gave a three-hour news conference at the Japan National Press Club on Nov. 2 about his hostage ordeal, describing in detail how he was kidnapped after entering Syria in 2015 and then held for more than three years. He also ...
Canadian held captive in Syria says Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda doesn't deserve criticism
The reporter, who returned to Japan late last month after 40 months of captivity, has been slammed by some for putting himself in harm’s way.
