French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi assistant have been freed after more than five months as hostages in Iraq, the French Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Aubenas, a journalist for the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, was en route home to France, the ministry said. The reporter's Iraqi assistant, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, stayed with his family in Iraq. The two had been missing since Jan. 5. In a brief statement, the Foreign Ministry did not provide details of their release or indicate who had been holding them, according to a report of The Associated Press.
