Hollande believes hostages alive, Paris 'seeking contacts'
French President Francois Hollande said yesterday that he had ``every reason to believe that the hostages are alive'', and that Paris was 'always seeking contacts' to free them.
A ranking Algerian diplomat suspected in the 1987 murder of a dissident in Paris is free to go home, three months after Algeria called him a hostage of France.Mohammed Ziane Hasseni, protocol chief for Algeria's Foreign Ministry, arrested in August, has been under judicial supervision and barred from leaving France.The case has strained ties between France and Algeria, a former colony.