Friends of an American held hostage in Saudi Arabia by a group linked to al-Qaeda awaited word of his fate as a deadline imposed by his captors ticked down.
A candlelight vigil for Paul Johnson was planned for 7pm yesterday behind a firehouse in this rural community about 32km north of Atlantic City.
"We all hope Paul comes back," Dan Pomponio, a neighbor of Johnson's sister in Little Egg Harbor, said on Wednesday. "You can only cross your fingers and hope."
The gathering in Johnson's hometown was to take place within a day of a deadline set by his captors, who threatened on Tuesday to kill him in three days unless Saudi authorities release al-Qaeda prisoners.
The threats were made on a video shown on an Islamic Web site following Johnson's abduction over the weekend; it was not clear exactly when the deadline would be, since it was not clear exactly when the video was made.
Johnson, 49, moved to Florida in the early 1980s to work for Lockheed Martin, and had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade. At the time of his abduction, he had been working on targeting and night vision systems for Apache helicopters.
As friends on Wednesday remembered the clean-cut young man who liked fast cars and motorcycles, officials in Washington said US and Saudi authorities had teamed to find Johnson.
Johnson's son on Wednesday appeared on CNN to implore the Saudi government to find his father.
"Please let him return home safely," Paul Johnson III said. "He will leave your country. You will never see him again. I just plead with them to get him home safely."
But US Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey said he was discouraged after an hour-long meeting at the Capitol with the Saudi government's top foreign policy advisor, Adel al-Jubeir.
"They're at a loss. He says they're using every resource that they have to try to free him," Lautenberg said. "Right now the prospects are gloomy."
Late Wednesday, Saudi security forces and police surrounded a house in Riyadh, but withdrew hours later, witnesses said.
It was unclear whether anyone was detained.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS