Crisis intensifies for Japan govt as one of two IS hostages 'slaughtered'

Tokyo

JAPAN'S hostage crisis took a horrifying turn for the worse over the weekend when an on-line video posted by the Islamic State (IS) purported to show freelance journalist Kenji Goto, one of two hostages held by the Islamic State, holding a photo of the decapitated body of his fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa and pleading for his own life and freedom.

Islamic State militants who captured the two men meanwhile switched their demand for a US$200 million ransom for their prisoners' release to demanding the release of an Iranian woman who was arrested after she failed to blow herself up in deadly hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital of Amman in 2005.

A video posted briefly on You Tube Saturday showed a person who identified himself as Mr Goto holding a photograph which he said showed "my cellmate Haruna slaugh…