Houthis in Yemen release ex-Marine
WASHINGTON — A former Marine detained in Yemen for more than a year was released Sunday after diplomatic negotiations, senior U.S. officials said.
The detainee, Wallead Yusuf Pitts Luqman, 37, was abducted in April 2015 as he tried to leave the country after having taught English there for two years. He was then held in secret by the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group.
An official said the Houthis had cleared him of wrongdoing in August before finally acknowledging that they were holding him. He was flown to Oman after negotiations involving Secretary of State John Kerry.
Last month, Luqman’s wife, Jihan Mohamed, went public with her husband’s abduction, hoping the move would help free him. She said members of the Houthi political security organization, one of Yemen’s two security agencies, had been holding her husband.
“They had no reason to take him, and there are no charges,” Mohamed said in a Facebook posting.
Luqman, a U.S. citizen, served in the Marines and the Army, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Pipeline restarted 6 days after blast
HOUSTON — The largest U.S. gasoline pipeline restarted Sunday morning, six days after an explosion and fire in Alabama during planned work on the line.
Crews on Saturday removed the affected portion of the pipeline from the blast and installed a new segment. Colonial Pipeline Co. said Line 1 resumed service at 5:45 a.m. The Oct. 31 explosion that killed one worker and injured several people also shut a sister pipeline that hauls diesel and jet fuel for several hours.
“Subsequent to today’s successful restart, it is expected to take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal,” Colonial said in an online statement.
Colonial anticipated fuel products leaving the pipeline’s Houston origin to arrive in Linden, N.J., where the system ends, within approximately three days, according to a map posted online. Fuel products delivered from Houston to Charlotte and Atlanta, an artery that supplies markets in Georgia and Tennessee, were estimated to take about one day.
Colonial’s shutdown was tied to repair work on portions of the 1.3 million-barrela-day line that sprung a leak Sept. 9. That leak put the pipeline out of service for 12 days and caused fuel shortages in Southeastern states.
Parris Island logs 2nd recruit death
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — A Marine recruit at Parris Island has died just a week after another recruit was injured there, officials said. It’s also the second fatality of a recruit at Parris Island this year.
Capt. Greg Carroll said a recruit died Friday night at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, The Island Packet of Hilton Head reported. Carroll said he would release the victim’s name 24 hours after the family was notified.
The recruit was found unconscious in his bed, according to the quoted statement from Carroll.
Carroll said a recruit who fell two stories inside a building on Oct. 28 remains in critical condition.
Recruit Raheel Siddiqui died March 18 after being injured in a fall.