Abducted Canadian journalist appears in video

OTTAWA: A Canadian journalist abducted last year in Pakistan has surfaced, telling of her ordeal in a videotape obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the public broadcaster reported Monday.

Beverly Giesbrecht, 52, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was seized at gunpoint in November while travelling in the Bannu district.

She was reportedly gathering materials for a documentary for her website, which offers alternative news on the Islamic world.

In the four-minute-and-43-second video, Giesbrecht says she was kidnapped by the Taliban on her second trip to the region to meet a man with a rare coin collection whom she wished to interview.

"I have been in captivity now for almost three months," she said. "I wake up in the dark and I go to sleep in the dark. There is nothing but a wood furnace and not enough wood.

"I am not sure exactly my location. I am some place in the Afghan border area. There are air raids. This is the war zone."

Canada's foreign affairs department has said it is engaged with Pakistani authorities to try to free her. It has not commented on the video tape.

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India's swine flu death rate is increasing

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