Hostage

Briefs, February 3, 2013

3 Feb 2013

As a police stand-off with a man accused of holding a five-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker entered its fifth day, authorities were saying little except that their talks with the 65-...

5:26AM

Algeria survivors and dead arrive in Tokyo

26 Jan 2013

Haneda Airport officials used black umbrellas to shield those getting off the government plane from the glare of cameras. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida stood alongside officials from engineering...

4:28AM

Japan confirms two more Algeria dead

23 Jan 2013

Tokyo on Wednesday said it had confirmed the deaths of two more Japanese in last week’s hostage seige at an Algerian gas plant, taking the country’s total toll to nine, with one still unaccounted...

11:03PM

Survivors of hostage ordeal in Algeria return home to Japan and Philippines

22 Jan 2013

At least seven Japanese and six Filipinos died during the four-day hostage crisis at an Algerian gas plant, it emerged yesterday, as survivors returned to Asia recalling their horrific ordeal.

6:43AM

15 burned bodies found at Algeria gas plant:source

19 Jan 2013

Algerian special forces on Saturday found 15 burned bodies at the desert gas plant attacked by al Qaeda-linked fighters, a source familiar with the unfolding hostage crisis there said.

8:02PM

Survivor Alexandre Berceaux and others tell of terrifying ordeal

19 Jan 2013

Many of them had explosives wrapped around their necks. Others hid, petrified, under beds, in gaps above ceilings or wherever they could for nearly two days.

4:29AM

Opinion

Attempts to diversify China's reserves have been a disaster

4:45AM

Howard Winn

China is like the EU; provinces are its member states

5:26AM

Hostage-taker has jail term increased

A man who held his ex-girlfriend hostage for nine hours and held a cutter to her neck had his jail term increased. Yiu Man-chun, 46, who was given 18 months for false imprisonment and wounding,...

7:08AM

Crucial questions that were never answered

Key questions have not been answered despite two costly probes into the Manila hostage killings.

4:28PM

I heard blood dripping, says hijack survivor

A survivor shot by the gunman in the Manila bus tragedy told an inquest that he heard blood dripping and victims breathing during a period of silence following the shooting rampage.

7:15AM

Hijack survivor recalls attack, shot by shot

A survivor of last year's hostage tragedy in Manila, who hid under her seat during the shootings on board a tour bus, yesterday gave a full account of the killings that claimed the lives of eight...

7:15AM

Extreme measures

So, the Security Bureau is now (at the time of writing) telling us that the Philippines is two colour warnings more dangerous to travel to than Indonesia, where bomb attacks are a threat, and...

9:24AM

Man held after trying to take hostage at airport

A man has been detained by police in Chengdu after attempting to force his way into the city's international airport armed with a starter's pistol.

5:48AM