Released French hostages return home

Two French reporters, freed from four months of captivity in Iraq, arrived home tonight as the government said it negotiated an end to their ordeal without paying a ransom.

Christian Chesnot, of Radio France Internationale, and Georges Malbrunot, of the newspaper Le Figaro, were flown to Villacoublay military airport outside Paris and greeted by their sobbing families and President Jacques Chirac on the tarmac.