Kidnappers of peace activists extend deadline, issue tape

The members of the group were taken hostage two weeks ago.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Kidnappers extended a deadline until Saturday in their threat to kill four captive peace activists and posted a video of two of the hostages wearing robes and shackled with chains.
The original deadline set by the group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness was today. The extension was announced in a statement that accompanied Wednesday's video, according to Al-Jazeera and IntelCenter, a government contractor that does support work for the U.S. intelligence community.
Norman Kember, 74, of London, Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., and the Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were taken hostage in Baghdad two weeks ago.
Members of group
They were working for the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an anti-war group, and are among seven Westerners who have been abducted in Iraq since Nov. 25. The other hostages are an American, a German and a Frenchman.
The other American in captivity was shown Tuesday on a separate insurgent video broadcast on Al-Jazeera. On Wednesday, his brother in the United States identified the captive as Ronald Schulz, 40, an industrial electrician from Alaska.
"I don't want to get my brother killed," Ed Schulz said. "But the fact that he has blond hair and blue eyes might get him killed."
The brief videotape of the Christian peace activists transmitted Wednesday by Al-Jazeera did not show faces of the two robed and shackled figures. However, still photos provided by IntelCenter showed the two were Fox and Kember. The two other hostages were not shown.
Saddam takes a pass
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein, who had vowed not to attend his trial Wednesday, skipped the session after receiving permission from the court, officials said, while witnesses offered grim accounts of brutal punishments meted out to residents of an Iraqi village in July 1982.
Saddam requested a delay Tuesday, complaining that he was exhausted by the court session, and cursed the chief judge when his plea was rejected. But in a session closed to the public Wednesday, Saddam politely asked the five-judge panel to be excused, according to Jaafar Mousawi, the chief prosecutor.
"This was one of his rights, so it was accepted," Mousawi said.
Saddam promised to be in court when the trial resumes Dec. 21 after a two-week break for the Iraqi National Assembly elections, according to the chief investigating judge, Raeed Juhi. Saddam's attorneys and his seven co-defendants attended the session Wednesday.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.