Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek. He previously was correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years. His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. It was released this week.

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A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and
the Caucasus

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Hamas Says Alan Johnston freed

Both the Associated Press and Reuters reported that kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston has been released after nearly four months in captivity in Gaza. The release was announced by the Islamic militant group's TV and confirmed in a text message from Hamas to The AP. Hamas said Johnston was in the custody of its military wing.

From Steve: As of 7 p.m. Eastern Time, there has been no sign of Alan, who was previously the BBC's Central Asia correspondent. But the indicators are positive that he is out.

Midnight update: Alan is out.

posted by Steve at 8:00 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger Candy Gourlay said...

This is really great news. It's a happy day here in the UK. Our thoughts though are with all the other still to be released hostages and their families, especially in Iraq where people live with the threat of kidnapping from day to day.

July 4, 2007 7:26 AM  
Blogger Steve said...

Absolutely. There are many, many more to work on.

July 4, 2007 10:37 AM  

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