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Tag - kidnappings

 
 

KIDNAPPINGS

According to a court ruling, Tomu Fujinuma transported a high school student from Thailand to Myanmar in January 2025 after the boy was kidnapped from Miyagi Prefecture, and forced him to take part in fraud at a scam hub in Myanmar.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Crime & Legal
Jan 20, 2026
Man found guilty of sending student to Myanmar for fraud
A judge said that transporting the student, including by ship, to a place from which he could not return by himself was ¡°a malicious act.¡±
A view of metal beds in a room after gunmen attacked a government girls¡¯ boarding school in Nigeria¡¯s Kebbi State on Nov. 17.
WORLD
Nov 26, 2025
24 Nigerian girls freed after school kidnapping
Nigeria has suffered a string of abductions of schoolchildren since Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls in 2014, sparking international outcry.
Open lockers and scattered personal belongings are seen inside a dormitory at St. Mary¡¯s Catholic School in Papiri, Nigeria, on Friday, after 315 students and teachers were seized in Nigeria's second mass school abduction in a week.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2025
Gunmen seize 315 in latest Nigerian mass school kidnapping
The two abductions and a church attack have happened since Donald Trump threatened to intervene in what he called the killing of Christians by radical Islamists in Nigeria.
Fidaa al-Eissa hangs a rug to dry on the rooftop of her home, surrounded by the wreckage left by the civil war, in the Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus on Feb. 21.
WORLD
Jun 30, 2025
¡®She¡¯s not coming back¡¯: Alawite women snatched from streets of Syria
The overthrow of Bashar Assad in December after 14 years of civil war unleashed a furious backlash against the Muslim minority community to which he belongs.
A gold miner holds up a piece of gold along the Madre de Dios River near Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
May 6, 2025
Mining murders show Peru¡¯s struggles with illegal gold rush
Skyrocketing gold prices are creating a further incentive for illegal mining activities in the country.
U.S. President Joe Biden hugs Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, as he and other prisoners freed from Russia arrive at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland late Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 3, 2024
Prisoner deals stoke fears of perverse ¡®incentive¡¯ to grab Americans
Hostile governments like Russia and Iran are often involved, and practical alternatives are hard to come by, experts say.
Supporters of the second retrial request for the so-called Iizuka incident hold up signs in the city of Fukuoka on Wednesday criticizing the Fukuoka District Court's decision to reject it.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2024
Japan court rejects retrial for 1992 murder of two girls
The defense is set to appeal against the latest decision. So far, no decision has been made in Japan to grant a retrial of a convict already executed.
U.S. police speak to a Chinese exchange student near the site where he was found in the mountains near Brigham City, Utah, on Sunday after being reported missing.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 2, 2024
Chinese student found in U.S. woods after ¡®cyber kidnapping¡¯ scam
Cyber kidnappers have been targeting foreign exchange students recently, and in particular, Chinese foreign exchange students, Riverdale police said.
Demonstrators at a rally near the U.N. headquarters in support of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, a group working to advocate for hostages kidnapped from Israel, in New York on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 26, 2023
Qatar envoys pressing Hamas to release civilian hostages: sources
The talks are limited to civilians, with Hamas describing captive soldiers as strategic assets the group aims to exchange for concessions from Israel.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2023
Chinese students in Japan coerced into staging own kidnappings
Believing that a Chinese fraud group is behind the scams, Japanese police are increasing vigilance while working together with the Chinese Embassy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Apr 9, 2019
Uganda tries to calm fears after kidnapped U.S. tourist and guide are rescued and ransom paid
President Donald Trump asked Uganda to find the abductors of a U.S. tourist and her guide to reassure guests of security, even after the East African nation¡¯s leader said the incident is isolated and that the parks are safe.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø
Aug 1, 2018
Japanese journalist missing in Syria likely man in IS-style video: government
The government says the man in a video released by apparent militants is likely Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who is believed to have been kidnapped in Syria in 2015.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 30, 2018
¡®He looked like a terrorist!¡¯ Rural India joy ride ended in rumor-fueled mob attack and lynching
In the tiny hamlet of Murki in the hinterlands of south India, Inspector V.B. Yadwad surveyed a pile of bricks and stones in a ditch where he and other police officers had been attacked earlier this month while trying to save a group of five men on a road trip from a violent mob.
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2018
Move forward on the abduction issue
The government needs to devise a strategy for Japan to explore a settlement of the abductions issue while being proactively involved in the efforts to denuclearize North Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2017
Beheaded bodies of Vietnamese sailors abducted by Abu Sayyaf militants found in southern Philippines
Philippine soldiers have found the beheaded bodies of two Vietnamese sailors abducted a year ago by the Islamist militant Abu Sayyaf group near the restive southern island of Basilan, an army spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2017
Veteran negotiator Richardson offers to go to North Korea to free three Americans and Canadian
Veteran former U.S. politician and diplomat Bill Richardson offered on Friday to visit North Korea to secure the release of three detained Americans and a Canadian after U.S. university student Otto Warmbier was brought back in a coma.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 24, 2016
Seven Indonesian sailors kidnapped in Philippines: Jakarta
Seven Indonesian sailors have been taken hostage in the Sulu Sea in the southern Philippines, Indonesia¡¯s foreign minister said on Friday, the latest in a string of abductions in the waters between the two Southeast Asian neighbors.
WORLD
Jul 19, 2015
Czech Foreign Ministry says five nationals are missing in Lebanon
Five Czechs and their Lebanese driver are missing in Lebanon, a spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
WORLD
May 2, 2015
Nigeria frees 234 more women, children from Boko Haram¡¯s Sambisa stronghold: army
AFP-Jiji
WORLD
Apr 14, 2015
One year on, hope fades for kidnapped Nigeria girls
A year after his daughters Amina and Zainab were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants with more than 200 other girls from their school dormitories in the Nigerian town of Chibok, Yakubu Maina fears he may never see them again.

Longform

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan¡¯s landscape that they often go unnoticed.
Why Japan¡¯s utility poles won¡¯t be disappearing anytime soon

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