Kidnapped Canadian Appeals For Help In Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A Canadian journalist abducted by the Taliban in western Pakistan last year has appealed for help, saying she can no longer withstand the ordeal, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan (RFA) reports.

In a video message released to the media by her captors, 55-year-old Khadija Abdul Qahaar asks the Canadian and Pakistani governments to respond to her captors' demands.

"I need someone to help me...Somebody's got to move now because my life is going to be over," Qahaar says in the video.

"I have been in captivity for too long now and I am going to be killed," she says, obviously distressed.

Qahaar, a web developer and publishing entrepreneur formerly known as Beverly Giesbrech, converted to Islam after the 9/11 terror attacks. She runs the controversial website jihadunspun.com.

RFA reports that the Taliban is asking for a $2 million ransom to release Qahaar, who was abducted in November.

She says in the video that she worries that she will be executed like Polish engineer Piotr Stancza, who was kidnapped in September and beheaded in February.