Four French journalists held captive in Syria released

After nearly a year in captivity in Syria, an unknown group released four French journalists on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

President Francois Hollande's office said he felt "immense relief" and that the four men — Edourard Elias, Didier Francois, Nicolas Henin, and Pierre Torres — were in relatively good health despite "very trying conditions."

A Turkish news agency said soldiers on a routine patrol through the southeast Sanliurfa province discovered the men blindfolded and cuffed there; they had been dropped near the Turkey-Syria border.

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Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, has called Syria "the most dangerous country in the world" for journalists, noted the AP.