The family of murdered Iraq hostage Ken Bigley including his mother Lil and his wife Sombat, were in Liverpool today for a memorial the service at the city’s Anglican Cathedral.

THE images coming out of the latest hostage crisis in Iraq - capped by dramatic video of British captive Kenneth Bigley begging for his life - have transfixed Britons, left governments looking helpless and revived a classic dilemma about whether to negotiate with terrorists.

A headless corpse was found in Baghdad today hours after an al-Qaida-linked group boasted it had killed a second American hostage, leaving the Briton they are holding to face execution.