THE family of freed journalist Yvonne Ridley celebrated her release with champagne, her mother said this morning.

Joyce Ridley, 74, said she spoke to Yvonne by telephone last night, after her release by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

"I'm so happy and I think I'm so lucky as well in that she has had so many prayers said for her," Mrs Ridley said.

"I'm sure it is the power of prayer that has brought about this happy ending."

Mrs Ridley said she broke the news of the former Northern Echo reporter's release to her nine-year-old granddaughter Daisy, who is at boarding school in the Lake District, last night.

An elated Mrs Ridley of West Pelton, near Beamish in County Durham, said she hoped to see her daughter as soon as she returned.

She added: "We had a bottle of champagne last night. And I'm sure we will have a magnum when she comes home."

Ms Ridley telephoned her parents from Pakistan last night to say she was well and was treated with respect by the Taliban.

She also told her mother she had written notes about her experiences on scraps of cardboard and bits of matchboxes.

Mrs Ridley joked: "You know, I said she is resourceful."

Ms Ridley revealed she went on hunger strike while held captive by the Taliban - and had eaten only once during her spell in captivity.

"Hunger strike was the only weapon I had. It was the only thing I could do that they couldn't stop me doing."

She took the action from the moment of capture in Afghanistan because she was refused access to a telephone, she said.

She also revealed her fear when the Allied bombardment began on Sunday night. "When the night-time wave of attacks on Kabul started I was lying in bed and it was like fireworks being set off."

She told men who came in to take away a rocket-propelled grenade from under her bed that they might as well use bows and arrows for all the good it would do them.

"I was never physically hurt in any way. They tried to break me mentally by asking the same questions time and time again."

Ms Ridley was seized near the north eastern city of Jalalabad on September 28 after travelling to the region with two local guides.

The fate of the two Afghans remains uncertain.