• WATCH: Islamic State member 'Beatle' gets life term for U.S. hostage deaths

    WATCH: Islamic State member 'Beatle' gets life term for U.S. hostage deaths

    Aug 19, 2022 06:07 PM EST

    ... played a key role in the hostage negotiations, getting hostages to email their families with demands for payments. They also routinely beat and tortured the hostages, forcing them to fight each other to the point of passing out, threatening them with waterboarding and forcing them view images of slain hostages ...

  • Mother of journalist murdered by ISIS discusses how the U.S. handles hostage situations

    Mother of journalist murdered by ISIS discusses how the U.S. handles hostage situations

    Jul 20, 2022 10:20 PM EST

    President Biden this week signed an executive order to improve efforts to free more than 60 U.S. nationals held hostage or who are wrongfully detained abroad. Diane Foley's son was an American journalist kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS in 2014. She now advocates for the freedom of Americans held abroad with...

  • WATCH: White House condemns Russia's reported hostage-taking at closed Chernobyl nuclear plant

    WATCH: White House condemns Russia's reported hostage-taking at closed Chernobyl nuclear plant

    Feb 24, 2022 07:38 PM EST

    WASHINGTON — The White House is expressing outrage at “credible reports” from Ukrainian officials that the staff at the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear plant have been taken hostage by Russian troops. Watch the briefing in the player above. Press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that “we condemn it and we request their ...

  • Soldiers in Burkina Faso mutiny, take President Kabore hostage

    Soldiers in Burkina Faso mutiny, take President Kabore hostage

    Jan 24, 2022 03:32 PM EST

    Two mutinous soldiers told The Associated Press that Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore is being held by the rebellious soldiers.

  • Jewish leaders call for vigilance and solidarity after Texas hostage case

    Jewish leaders call for vigilance and solidarity after Texas hostage case

    Jan 19, 2022 04:37 PM EST

    ... safer," she said. "I know now I'm a part of this community and this country." Some advocacy groups and lawmakers have cited the Texas hostage situation in calling on the Senate to take up Biden's nomination of Deborah Lipstadt to serve as a special envoy to monitor and ...

  • Texas synagogue hostage-taker had stayed in area homeless shelters prior to attack

    Texas synagogue hostage-taker had stayed in area homeless shelters prior to attack

    Jan 18, 2022 04:20 PM EST

    ... CEO, Bruce Butler, told CNN. According to their records, Akram left there for the last time on Jan. 13 — two days before he took the hostages at the synagogue. Akram used his phone during the course of negotiations to communicate with people other than law enforcement, according to a law ...

  • Texas rabbi recounts dramatic escape by hostages in synagogue standoff

    Texas rabbi recounts dramatic escape by hostages in synagogue standoff

    Jan 17, 2022 06:26 PM EST

    The rabbi of a Texas synagogue says he threw a chair at the gunman and then escaped with two other hostages after a 10-hour standoff.

  • After 10-hour hostage ordeal, Texas synagogue receives outpouring of support

    After 10-hour hostage ordeal, Texas synagogue receives outpouring of support

    Jan 17, 2022 02:24 PM EST

    Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who was among the hostages, credited the security training his congregation had gotten over the years for getting him and the others though the ordeal. He said in a statement they appreciated "all the love, prayers and support from our local community and throughout the world ...

  • British man identified as hostage-taker at Texas synagogue

    British man identified as hostage-taker at Texas synagogue

    Jan 16, 2022 07:09 PM EST

    ... as your can imagine. It was not fun yesterday.” Andrew Marc Paley, a Dallas rabbi who was called to the scene to help families and hostages upon their release, said Cytron-Walker acted as a calm and comforting presence. The first hostage was released shortly after 5 p.m. That ...

  • Man takes hostages at Texas synagogue

    Man takes hostages at Texas synagogue

    Jan 15, 2022 10:43 PM EST

    ... in extremely distress.” Francis, who lives in Rhome, Texas and grew up near Colleyville, tuned in after she read on Facebook that there was a hostage situation at the synagogue. She said it sounded like the man was talking to the police department on the phone, with the rabbi and ...