Gaunt but smiling, kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston emerged Wednesday from 16 weeks of solitary confinement in a dark room, an experience he said was “like being buried alive”. 

King Abdullah on Wednesday urged greater efforts by France and the EU to help revive the Middle East peace process, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was released early Wednesday after being held for 114 days, ending the longest-ever captivity of a journalist kidnapped in Gaza.