Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq nearly two months ago have returned to Bucharest, one day after their release.
A military plane carrying the journalists, reporter Marie-Jeanne Ion, cameraman Sorin Miscoci, and newspaper reporter Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian, returned home Monday from Baghdad.
Iraqi insurgents kidnapped the journalists, along with their Iraqi-American translator Mohammed Monaf, in Baghdad on March 28.
The militants threatened, in a videotape, to kill the hostages by April 27 unless Romania withdrew its troops from Iraq. That deadline passed without word on their fate.
Romanian President Traian Basescu said that the continuing violence in Iraq had made it increasingly difficult to maintain contact with the kidnappers.
The incident sparked protests in Romania, with demonstrators taking to the streets of Bucharest, calling for the withdrawal of Romanian troops from Iraq.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
