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."
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS