April 11 — DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview with a man claiming to have visited leaders of guerrillas holding three Japanese prisoners on Sunday, who said they told him they would kill the hostages within 24 hours.
A man described as Muzhir al-Duleimi, head of the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Iraqi People, told a correspondent for Al Jazeera in Baghdad that previous reports that the hostage-takers were about to free the Japanese had been untrue.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20040411_80.htmlMeanwhile:
Cheney Monitors Hostage Crisis From Tokyo
TOKYO (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney was pledging U.S. support to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in pressing ahead with plans to double Japan's noncombat forces in Iraq despite the furor over the abduction of three citizens, U.S. officials said Sunday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3965614,00.htmlNOTE: The Guardian post above is DIFFERENT than it was earlier this morning. Earlier, it mentioned organized protests in Japan on Cheney's visit, but that reference is gone now. I wish I would have pasted that text earlier, so you only have the word of what I read this morning to go on.