Freed French hostage returns to France

French photographer Pierre Borghi returned to France on Sunday, a week after he was freed in Afghanistan following four months in captivity, officials said. Borghi, 29, arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on a flight from Delhi, an AFP journalist said. His family, who earlier said he appears to be in good health, greeted him in a private room at the airport in the company of a foreign ministry official, officials added. Borghi was freed on April 7, one of two French hostages released in recent days. He worked in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012 for French charity Solidarites International and returned to Kabul last year to take photographs and try to establish himself as a photographer. Shoib Sharifi, director of the Afghan Public Protection Force, had said Borghi had escaped before guards from his company found him near one of their check points in the province of Wardak. French officials have not confirmed how he was freed. He was captured at the end of November but nothing was published in the media. The second released man, who has not been named, was taken captive in Kabul on January 27. He was working for ACTED (the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development), a Paris-based non-government organisation, when he was dragged from a vehicle in Kabul. French officials in Paris announced on Monday he had been freed. Officials in Kabul who declined to be identified said that the two men had been held separately and gave no explanation of why they had been released on the same day. No claim was made for either kidnapping.