Japan’s ruling party today approved its final draft of a proposed revision of the country’s pacifist constitution that would drop a clause outlawing war and give the military a greater role in international security.

A Japanese woman kidnapped by Iraqi militants last month said she backed Tokyo’s rejection of her captors’ demands that it withdraw its troops from Iraq or see her burned alive.

THE families of three Japanese nationals kidnapped in Iraq and threatened with execution, tearfully begged the government to pull its troops out of the country as Tokyo reiterated there would be no withdrawal.

SOME 6,000 people staged a rally against sending Japanese troops to Iraq yesterday, a day before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was expected to give the final go-ahead for the dispatch of the core group of ground troops.