IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Japan

Girl escapes from 2-year confinement

Japanese police have caught a 23-year-old man wanted for allegedly abducting a teenage girl who escaped and ran for freedom after being held captive in his apartment for nearly two years. Police said on Monday that the girl, now aged 15, escaped from suspect Kabu Terauchi's apartment in downtown Tokyo on Sunday while he was out shopping and called home from a pay phone. She disappeared two years ago from her hometown in Saitama, near Tokyo.