More hostages threatened with death if their country doesn't.......

.... remove their troops from Iraq? No. NO? Oh, it appears these are French citizens and since France is not part of the Coalition, there are no French troops in Iraq. "Two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq have pleaded for Paris to meet their captors' demands and reverse a ban on Muslim headscarves for girls in public schools".

"Al-Jazeera reported the men were captives of the same group that claimed to have kidnapped an Italian journalist and killed him after Italy refused to withdraw its troops from Iraq."

Now, I'm really confused.

I suppose that they will be released soon, after hearing this statement by Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin:

"France is the country of the French revolution, of human rights," de Villepin said.

Here is the full story from CNN (its also on Reuters).