British hostage begs Blair for help

LONDON: British hostage Ken Bigley has pleaded for his life in a video that has raised hopes he was still alive and left London scrambling to contact the captors and verify claims he would soon be released.

.PM says he’s on it

LONDON: Prime Minister Tony Blair said that London was doing everything possible to secure the release of British hostage Kenneth Bigley who was abducted in Iraq earlier this month.

Powell wants int’l support

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has told AFP that he was “disappointed” in the failure of other nations to join the United States in declaring that genocide is underway in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur.

‘Tit-for-tat war kills more children

SDEROT, Israel: Two Israeli children were killed at the start of the Jewish holiday of Succot when a Palestinian rocket hit this southern Israeli town, prompting an Israeli government spokesman to vow “necessary measures” to protect the country’s citizens.

USS Cole bomber gets death sentence

SANAA: A Yemeni court has sentenced to death two Al-Qaeda militants for the October 2000 bombing of the US Navy destroyer Cole which claimed the lives of 17 US sailors.

Bush visits hurricane ravaged Florida

MIAMI: President George W Bush, en route to Miami for Thursday’s first presidential debate with Democratic challenger John Kerry, has taken time out to tour parts of Florida devastated by a string of killer storms.

Who wants to be a politician?

BUDAPEST: Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former communist youth leader turned millionaire businessman, has been elected prime minister of Hungary after parliament approved his nomination by a narrow margin.

Nigeria defends state oil

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria: Nigeria’s army has launched an offensive against separatist rebels who have threatened oil installations and workers in the southeast of the country, as the group’s leader claimed to have held talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Martha to serve time in W Virginia

NEW YORK: Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart will do her time farther from home than she had hoped, at a remote West Virginia prison where inmates sleep in bunk beds and rise at 6 am to do menial labor for pennies an hour.

US begins private space travel

MOJAVE, California: A private, manned rocketship blasted through the Earth’s atmosphere into space after a hair-raising corkscrew ascent on a flight aimed at capturing a 10-million-dollar prize.