Journalist freed as rebels talk of peace

FREED French journalist Florence Aubenas, looking thinner but radiant after five months as a captive in Iraq, arrived home to a joyful welcome last night and told of being held in a cellar, tied, blindfolded and given little water.

President Jacques Chirac greeted Aubenas with a kiss on the cheek at an airstrip in Villacoublay, west of Paris, where her plane landed after her trip from Baghdad.

Ms Aubenas' Iraqi assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, also freed, was reunited with his family in the Iraqi capital.