FRENCH JOURNALIST RELEASED

New York, April 14, 2004—A French journalist abducted on Sunday near Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, has been freed. The TV news agency Capa Television said that its reporter Alexandre Jordanov was released today, the Associated Press reported. No further details were available.

Jordanov and his cameraman, Ivan Cerieix, were abducted on Sunday, April 11, while filming clashes between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents after an attack on U.S. convoy. Ceriex was released the next morning.

The two journalists were in Iraq working on a documentary film for French TV channel Canal Plus and were separated when they took cover during the fighting.

At least four other journalists—Michal Kubal and cameraman Petr Klima, both with the public network Czech Television; Vit Pohanka of the public station Czech Radio; and Soichiro Koriyama, a freelance Japanese photographer on assignment for the Tokyo-based Asahi Weekly—are among the several dozen foreigners reportedly missing or abducted by insurgents in Iraq.