Mufti operates independently on Baghdad share market

I shouldn't laugh, it's not funny, peoples lives are in danger - but here;

Meet "Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, spiritual leader and would-be rescuer". Sheik Hilaly has been sent to Iraq with a donation to (hopefully?) secure the release of hostage Douglas Wood.

Paul McGeough;

The sheik hopes to make contact with the hostage takers... he said he was treating Baghdad's criminal and insurgent world as a market in which he had to find the right trader.

You really have to read the whole thing.