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French top honour for Betancourt
Former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt has been awarded with one of the top French civilian award. She hold dual nationality of Colombia and France.
France has honoured the former hostage Ingrid Betancourt, who was rescued from Colombian rebels earlier this month.
An official announcement said Ms Betancourt has been appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
The decoration, one of France's highest civilian honours, will be formally presented to her by President Nicolas Sarkozy on 14 July, Bastille Day.
Ms Betancourt - who has Colombian and French citizenship - received a hero's welcome in France 10 days ago.
The president will confer the honour on her on France's national holiday at a garden party in the grounds of the Elysee Palace.
Tricked
She was freed on 2 July, after held for six-and-a-half years in the Colombian jungle by left-wing rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
They had been tricked into handing over the hostages by Colombian soldiers posing as rebels.
Ms Betancourt, 46, had been kidnapped by the group in 2002 while she was campaigning to be president.
She has said that France's influence had helped the rescue operation pass off peacefully.
Ms Betancourt was campaigning for the presidency against current incumbent Alvaro Uribe when she was kidnapped by Farc guerrillas.
After her release she thanked Mr Uribe and said she still aspired "to serve Colombia as president".
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July 13, 2008 at 10:45 pm by Sanjay Jha, 144 views, 1 comment
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Sanjay Jha
New Delhi, India





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Comments (1)
at 22:56 on July 13th, 2008
Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's good stuff.
That would be the least!