A French engineer taken hostage in Iraq last month has been found alive, police said today.

Gunmen kidnapped a female journalist and killed her Iraqi translator yesterday in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

Kidnappers extended a deadline until Saturday in their threat to kill four captive peace activists, including Briton Norman Kember.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today said the government cannot meet the demands of Iraqi kidnappers holding Briton Norman Kember, two Canadians and an American.

US AND Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq yesterday to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs.

FOUR peace activists taken hostage in Iraq were shown in an insurgent video broadcast on Arab television yesterday, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

Four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq were shown in an insurgent video broadcast on Arab television today, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnapping.

BESIDE the prisoner-abuse scandal, there is another problem Iraqis say they suffer at the hands of US troops — theft of money and property during raids.

PHOTO images of American soldiers abusing and humiliating prisoners in Iraq may be just the tip of the iceberg and only a non-military inquiry will expose the full extent of the problem, human rights groups said yesterday.