NGO retracts report Japanese journalist threatened with death in Syria

PARIS (Reuters) - Media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders has retracted and apologised for a report it issued last week saying Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda had been threatened with execution in Syria.

The Paris-based Reporters group had said on Dec. 22 that it had received information that an armed group holding the journalist hostage had started a countdown for an unspecified ransom to be paid and had threatened to execute or sell him to another group if their demands were not met.