A soldier held hostage for more than 12 years was freed by Colombian rebels Tuesday, the International Red Cross said.

The soldier’s father waited on an airport tarmac with his wife and four daughters: “My heart is going a thousand an hour.” The family had been anxiously awaiting Moncayo’s release since the FARC first announced last April that he planned to set him free.

Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo was one of the longest-held hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. He was 19 when taken captive during a rebel attack on an army outpost in the mountains Dec. 21, 1997.

(READ the AP story at NPR.org)

Photo courtesy of Sun Star

This week we featured the report that Houston-area employers added 10,300 jobs from January to February. This piece of good news is not limited to one city. In Vermont, Alabama and New York, unemployment rates are dropping and thousands of new jobs are popping up.

There is encouraging news for Vermont in the state’s department of labor report showing the unemployment rate dropping to just over 6.5 percent. The state says Vermont added about 2,200 jobs in January and February. (WTEN.com)

Encouraging signs may uplift Alabama’s jobless ranks: February employment ended a three month slide in the state and its work force grew by 11,300. The State Department of Industrial Relations says those jobs came from across the board in areas such as professional and business services, manufacturing, hospitality, government and educational and health services. (MyFoxAL.com)

The largest-ever amount of acetic anhydride, which is used to produce heroin from opium, was seized in Pakistan by authorities.

The chemicals, worth $5.5 million and weighing nearly 16 tons, were found in barrels labeled as paint destined for the city of Karachi by authorities at Port Qasim.

Officials from Pakistan’s anti-narcotic force, the Port Control Unit, made the seizure using profiling and intelligence-sharing techniques they had learned from the United Nations anti-drug agency’s Container Control Program.

A new arms control agreement between the United States and Russia was reached yesterday that would reduce the number of nuclear weapons deployed by about one-third.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the treaty the most comprehensive arms control agreement in nearly two decades. “It significantly reduces missiles and launchers and puts in place a strong and effective verification regime. And it maintains the flexibility that we need to protect and advance our national security, and to guarantee our unwavering commitment to the security of our allies.”

The two leaders are to sign the treaty April 8 in Prague, but the agreement must be ratified by the U.S. Senate and the Russian Parliament before it takes effect.