World News 30-09-2004 Caged Hostage Begs For His Life who: Kidnapped British civilian Kenneth Bigley what: Begs Tony Blair to save his life in video released by captors where: Iraq when: Yesterday snippet: "Ken Bigley, the British engineer who has been held hostage in Iraq for two weeks, appeared in chains on a video last night begging for his life," says The Guardian, "but saying for the first time that his kidnappers did not want to kill him." Mr Bigley was kidnapped in Baghdad on September 16th with two American civilians, both of whom have been beheaded by their captors, who are demanding the release of all Muslim women held in Iraqi jails. "Tony Blair is lying. He doesn`t care about me," sobs the 62-year-old inside his cage, quoted by the BBC today. "My life is cheap. He doesn`t care about me." "They don`t want to kill me," he says of his captors. "They could have killed me a week ago, two weeks ago." "It was another masterful piece of theatre by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man blamed for the kidnapping," says The Scotsman`s diplomatic correspondent, Gethin Chamberlain. "Mr Bigley`s words could have come straight out of a script written for him by Zarqawi; there are many in Downing Street who will suspect that they did." Meanwhile, at the Labour Party`s annual conference in Brighton, the prime minister told a Muslim fringe meeting that if Mr Bigley`s captors made contact, "that is something we would immediately respond to". But a Downing Street spokesman stressed that the PM would neither negotiate with, nor make deals with the terrorists. [... more]

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