Around the World: Afghanistan

NYT journalist escapes

A New York Times reporter has escaped from his Taliban captors after being held for seven months in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the newspaper reported on its website on Saturday.

David Rohde, together with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, were abducted on Nov 10 outside Kabul. Rhode, 41, had been in Afghanistan working on a book.

The newspaper, quoting Rohde's wife, said Rohde and Ludin late Friday climbed over a wall of the compound where they were being held in North Waziristan in Pakistan. The two men found a Pakistani army scout who took them to an army base and on Saturday they were flown to the US Bagram military base in Afghanistan.

(China Daily 06/22/2009 page8)