Australian Warren Rodwell emerged Saturday withered from 15 months as a captive of Islamic militants in the lawless southern Philippines, his ribs protruding but able to smile. Rodwell, a former soldier, 54, joked with policemen and a journalist who took exclusive video footage of him for AFP at Pagadian city police station on Mindanao island.
The Philippine military said Rodwell had been released at Pagadian, a port city about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Ipil town where he had been living with his Filipina wife before he was kidnapped on December 5, 2011.