Iraqi kidnappers have issued a new video of the three Romanian journalists and American they are threatening to kill, extending the deadline to yesterday for Romania to withdraw its troops from Iraq, al-Jazeera television said.
The militants said in the video they would begin killing the hostages at 6pm yesterday unless their demands were met.
The video showed the Romanian journalists -- two men and a woman -- sitting in handcuffs with pistols pointing at their heads. The woman, Marie Jeanne Ion, a reporter for Prima TV, could be seen talking to the camera and clutching her hands as if she were pleading.
Al-Jazeera did not broadcast Ion's voice, but its presenter said the Romanians appealed to their president to withdraw the troops, and to the Romanian people to protest to save their lives.
The video then showed Moh-ammed Monaf, an Iraqi American who translated for the Romanians, sitting alone.
A pistol was pointed at Monaf's head, which had a scarf wrapped tightly around it in the style of a turban.
Monaf pleaded to US President George W. Bush and the American people to save his life, the presenter said.
Al-Jazeera did not say how it received the tape or when.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
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