Taliban frees Canadian held in custody for 6 years

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement on Monday that Colin Rutherford was a tourist in Afghanistan when he was seized by the Taliban in November 2010. The Taliban released a video of Rutherford in 2011 and accused the then 26-year-old of being a spy. 

Rutherford insisted he was not a spy and had travelled to Afghanistan to study historical sites and shrines. He said in the video that he was an auditor from Canada and came as a tourist. It was not immediately clear how his release came about, but Dion thanked the government of Qatar for its assistance.