Kidnappers freed two Japanese hostages in Baghdad yesterday, a day after a captured US soldier was paraded in a video tape aired on an Arab television channel.
A news cameraman saw freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, 30, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, a former member of the Japanese military with ties to a civic group, being handed to a Japanese delegation at the Um al-Qura mosque in apparent good health.
Insurgents have kidnapped more than 40 foreigners this month as US-led forces battle rebels in towns such as Fallujah in the Sunni Muslim heartlands of central Iraq and try to snuff out a revolt by a radical Shi'ite militia in the south.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The turmoil has prompted the US military to close highways north and south of Baghdad indefinitely yesterday, soon after US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to stamp out violence in Iraq.
But guns fell silent in Falluja, west of Baghdad, where air strikes and clashes have frequently punctuated a shaky truce.
"For the first time in days, Fallujah is completely calm," said one resident in the battered city of 300,000.
Senior civilian and military representatives of Iraq's US-led administration had taken part in peace talks on Friday.
A senior official of Iraq's US-led administration said talks were to resume yesterday morning, though it was not immediately clear whether they had begun.
A senior US military official said a bridge to Fallujah's main hospital had been opened to traffic, but no overall deal had been reached with the estimated 1,000 to 2,000 fighters in the town. "Sitting on the fence is not an option," he declared.
The captors of US Private Keith Maupin, seized after an attack on a road convoy last week, released a videotape that showed him surrounded by masked gunmen.
Maupin, one of two missing US soldiers, identified himself in a soft voice on the videotape.
The two freed Japanese hostages said they had been well treated during their three days of captivity.
"We had a good meal every day," Yasuda said. "I don't know the place where we were. We were caught around Abu Ghraib [on the outskirts of Baghdad] and after that we were blindfolded and changed houses every day."
Most hostages have been released, including three other Japanese freed on Thursday.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS