Japan Extends Deployment.

Tokyo on Dec. 9 approved an extension of its troop deployment in Iraq for up to a year, a decision opposed by most voters, who want to end the nation's riskiest military mission since World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a close ally of President Bush, has expended considerable political capital to support the US-led war in Iraq and sent about 550 troops to the southern Iraqi city of Samawa. The mandate for the current one-year deployment expires on Dec. 14. (Five Japanese - two diplomats, two journalists and a young backpacker who was beheaded - have been killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led war. Another five Japanese civilians were kidnapped in April and militants threatened to kill three of them unless Japan pulled out its troops, but all were released unharmed.