Australia's Weeks says hope helped him survive Taliban captivity

FILE PHOTO: Timothy Weeks speaks to the camera while kept hostage by Taliban insurgents in an unknown location, said to be Afghanistan, in this still image taken from social media video said to be shot January 1, 2017 and shared by pro-Taliban cahnnels. Social media via REUTERS

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Timothy Weeks, the Australian academic released by the Taliban in November after being kept hostage for more than three years, said on Sunday that hope helped him survive the ordeal.

Weeks and U.S. citizen Kevin King were freed by the Taliban in return for the release of three Taliban commanders. The two were kidnapped in August 2016 outside Kabul's American University of Afghanistan where they worked.