The father of a Japanese student freed yesterday, eight months after being snatched by bandits in Iran, expressed relief and apologized for causing trouble, as Japan thanked Iranian authorities.
Iranian officials on Saturday announced the release of Satoshi Nakamura, a 23-year-old tourist, who was seized in October in the southeast.
They did not say when and where he was freed, but Japanese press reports said he was found across the border in Pakistan.
The hostage’s father, Kiyotaka Nakamura, said he received a call from his son at 11:30pm on Saturday and spoke to him for three or four minutes.
“When I see him, I want to tell him, ‘You really hung in there,’” Nakamura, wearing a business suit, told reporters in the family’s hometown of Osaka in western Japan.
He said that his son’s voice sounded cheerful.
“I asked him, ‘Are you alright?’ He replied, ‘I’m alright both physically and mentally,’” Nakamura said.
“I felt relieved because what I heard was Satoshi’s voice just like I remembered it,” he said.
APOLOGY
“Please allow me to apologize for causing all the trouble and worries to you,” he said, referring to the public.
It is common in Japan to apologize for upsetting the social order.
Nakamura, a student at Yokohama National University, was abducted on Oct. 8 in a region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam in Kerman Province.
He had been traveling alone after teaching Japanese and English in Nepal with a volunteer group.
A SON FOR A SON
A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura, Iranian officials said.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Nakamura was freed on Saturday in Pakistan and was to be moved to Tehran yesterday under the custody of Iranian authorities.
In a report from Tehran, Kyodo said Nakamura had recently been kept at a local government facility in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS