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Syria

MLB pitcher Yu Darvish throws a curveball of sensibility into the Yasuda hostage controversy

And now a lesson in Internet civility from the American League strike-out leader of 2013.

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Jumpei Yasuda also explains why he said he was a South Korean man named Umaru in a video filmed by is captors.

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Japanese journalist missing since 2015 appears in terrorist video: “Please send help immediately”

Journalist Jumpei Yasuda, missing for three years, was seen in a terrorist hostage video pleading for help, but under a different name and nationality.
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Japan announces plans to take in 300 Syrian refugees over the next five years

 

Efforts will double the number of refugees taken in previously.

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Syrian children using Pokémon Go to bring attention to their situation

These honest pleas for help have caught all of our hearts.

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Japanese student suspected of planning to join Islamic State fighters in Syria

A Japanese university student has been questioned by police about plans to go abroad to join the Islamic State militant group. The 26-year-old man, who is living in Tokyo on a leave of absence from Hokkaido University, was planning to leave Japan for Syria on Tuesday, but had his passport confiscated by police on Monday. He was questioned on suspicion of “preparing or plotting to wage war against a foreign state in a personal capacity”.

The man is thought to have responded to an advertisement in a second-hand bookshop in Akihabara, Tokyo, which asked for people willing to travel to Syria.

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