2 Journalists Freed by Taliban Return to France

Two very lucky guys right here.
usually the Taliban prefers to kill its captures, but after more tan a year these guys were let go.
I say NATO should Bomb some Taliban just for good measure.

The New York Times
PARIS — Two French journalists who had been held hostage in Afghanistan arrived in France on Thursday, after 547 days in captivity.

The reporters, Stéphane Taponier and Hervé Ghesquière, were freed on Wednesday along with their interpreter, Reza Din. All three men appear to be in good health.

“It’s lovely to be back,” Mr. Ghesquière told French television, shortly after he and Mr. Taponier were reunited with their families at the Villacoublay air base near Paris.

After one of France’s longest hostage ordeals, President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking “everyone who participated in freeing the hostages.” He also expressed gratitude to his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, for his help in the situation.

Both seasoned war reporters, Mr. Ghesquière, 47, and Mr. Taponier, his 46-year-old cameraman, were kidnapped by Taliban militants on Dec. 30, 2009, while reporting on a story on reconstruction of a road east of Kabul for France 3 television. Their captors had apparently made several demands in exchange for their release, though it was unclear Wednesday what those demands had been and whether any of them had been met.

News of their release was the first public sign of them since a November 2010 video.