Iraq

Britain will talk but won't negotiate

LONDON - Britain's government is willing to talk to the kidnappers of a British engineer, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday, but officials stressed they would not pay a ransom or meet any political demands to secure his release.

"Of course, if they make contact, we are ready to talk to them. That is not the same as negotiating," Blair told ITV News television. "They have made no contact with us and, frankly, I think it is unlikely that they will."

Kenneth Bigley was kidnapped two weeks ago in Baghdad along with two American colleagues who have since been beheaded.

10 MORE HOSTAGES: The Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video Thursday of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants.

Al-Jazeera said the 10 - six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women - were taken by the Islamic Army in Iraq. The group has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists last month.

Gen. Hussein Ali Kamel, the deputy interior minister in charge of intelligence, said two Lebanese were kidnapped, along with "a group of others that included women."

The network said the 10 were employees of the Jib electricity company.

LONDON - Iraq will not allow insurgents to remain in control of their stronghold in Fallujah indefinitely, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Thursday.

The city, believed to be a base for militant networks, will be ready for elections in January, as will most of the rest of Iraq, he insisted.

"We are indeed not going to allow the situation in Fallujah to keep drifting," Allawi said. "We are going to address the situation, we are going to build our security capability around Fallujah and at the same time to use dialogue with them."

American jets, tanks and artillery units have repeatedly targeted Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah in recent weeks. On Thursday, U.S. forces attacked a suspected safe house that they said was used by the group, which is allegedly linked to al-Qaida. Hospital officials said at least four Iraqis were killed and eight were wounded in Thursday's strike.

U.S. ground forces have not entered Fallujah since ending a three-week siege in April that left hundreds dead.

NEWARK, N.J. - The attorney for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal said Thursday the government is trying to intimidate defense lawyers and witnesses by making them sign an agreement that they will not sue if they are injured or killed when they travel to Iraq.

"It's essentially trying to influence us not to appear on behalf of our clients in Baghdad," said Paul W. Bergrin, lawyer for Sgt. Javal S. Davis.

In a letter Bergrin said he received Wednesday, an Army lawyer, Maj. Michael R. Holley, stated: "You will be traveling into a combat zone in a dangerous part of the world.

"Before allowing you to enter Iraq, you must agree to hold the United States harmless, assume the risks set forth above, and affirmatively waive your right to sue the Army or any other governmental agency for injury or death," the letter stated.

"It has a chilling effect," Bergrin said.

Bergrin said the issue surfaced while travel arrangements were being made for an Oct. 20 pretrial hearing in Baghdad, where he plans to argue Davis' court-martial should be held in the United States.

Such agreements "are not uncommon at all," said a military spokesman in Baghdad, Army Lt. Col. Steven A. Boylan. "In fact, they are quite common."

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