BBC News with David Austin

The United Nations

tribunal

investigating the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 has

deliver

ed a sealed

indictment

to the Lebanese authorities. The suspects have not been named, but Lebanese officials say several of them are members of the Shia organisation Hezbollah. The group has strongly denied any involvement in the attack. A member of Saad Hariri's Future Movement party, Atef Majdalani, welcomed the action taken by the UN tribunal.

"We consider the release of the indictment today is part of our martyrs' rights, and this indictment is the first step towards establishing the truth and achieving justice in order to bring stability to Lebanon."

One of two French hostages set free on Wednesday by the Taliban in Afghanistan has told the BBC he believed that a deal had been arranged

in exchange for

their liberty and that of their Afghan interpreter. The Taliban rebels said earlier that several of their members had been released from jail. The Afghan government in Kabul denied that any prisoner exchange had taken place. France earlier denied that any ransom was paid for its journalists. The former hostage, television reporter Herve Ghesquiere, told the BBC why he'd come to this conclusion.

"I don't have any proof. You know, officially there is no ransom. But of course it's not for chocolates."

"You mean you were freed for a reason."