The UK yesterday made it clear that it would not deal with Islamic extremists in Iraq holding engineer Kenneth Bigley, despite a dramatic appeal from the hostage begging Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene and save his life.
Bigley's Thai wife, Sombat Bigley, added her voice yesterday to his family's desperate appeals to the Tawhid and Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group to spare the life of the 62-year-old engineer from Liverpool.
Bigley was snatched from his Baghdad home one week ago, along with two US colleagues who have since been executed. His captors have been demanding the release of women detained in US-run Iraqi prisons.
"My name is Sombat Bigley. I am Ken Bigley's wife. We have been married for seven years and I love him very much," Sombat Bigley said in an emotional appeal, made in her native Thai language and videotaped in Bangkok.
"I plead for your mercy now and beg that you release Ken so that I may be with him again and so that he may also be reunited with his family in England," she said, visibly shaken.
But in London, a spokesman for Blair -- who had been hoping that Iraq would fade from the headlines as he prepares for a looming general election -- said there was no change to Downing Street's uncompromising line.
"We're following the situation very closely, and our feelings are very much with Ken Bigley and his family," the spokesman told reporters.
"The government is doing all it can to secure his release, [but] we have no intention of negotiating with terrorists," the spokesman said.
Bigley appeared in a fuzzy video seen yesterday on the Internet, in which he appealed to Blair: "I need you to be compassionate as you always said you were and to help me to live..."
"I don't want to die ... Please, please release the female prisoners ... I need your help, Mr Blair. You are now the only person on God's earth that I can speak to," he said.
There was no word from Blair himself, while his wife, Cherie Blair, attending a senior citizens' event, only said: "Like everyone in Britain, my heart goes out to the Bigley family."
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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