Freed by Sudan, 'Geographic' Reporter Arrives Home in U. S. After 34 days in a Sudanese jail, National Geographic journalist Paul Salopek, who had been charged with spying, landed in his home state of New Mexico on Sunday morning. At the time of his arrest, Salopek, 44, had been freelance reporting for National Geographic magazine on the Sahel region, which stretches east -west across Africa along the southern edge of the Sahara. Don Belt, Salopek's editor for the Sahel assignment, embraced the reporter upon his arrival and later said he might have lost a little weight, but he looks like he's none the worse for wear. 'We're over the moon about Salopek's return', Belt added. Salopek, who is on a scheduled leave of absence from the Chicago Tribune, arrived in Albuquerque with his wife, his Tribune editor, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Salopek said it feels 'fantastic' to be home. 'It' s great to see my wife, who's been through a lot - in some ways more than myself - in the last 35 days,' he said. After he's spent some time with his family, Salopek says, he plans to 'make rounds in Chicago and Was hington' to thank his friends at the Tribune and the National Geographic Society. 'I can never really repay them,' he said. But, he joked at a press conference Sunday at the Albuquerque international airport, what he can do is 'rack up an enormous beer bill.' On behalf of National Geographic, Belt thanked Richardson, the Tribune, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, and Jimmy Carter. The former U.S. President had written to Sudanese President Omar A1 - Bashir on Salopek's behalf- a gesture that had been kept secret until Sunday. (Both National Geographic News and National Geographic magazine are parts of the National Geographic Society.) Once Salopek is back on the job, he intends to return to Africa, first to Chad to check up on his two assistants, who were arrested and freed alongside him. Then he will complete his National Geographic assignment in Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal. Detained in North Darfur The Pulitzer Prize winner and his Chadian assistants -driver Idriss Abdulraham Anu and interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa- were arrested on August 6 after traveling from Chad to Sudan's troubled Darfur Province without a visa. The border crossing had been a last minute decision, Salopek said at the Sunday press conference. Normally, the three would have been deported. Instead, on August 26 they were charged with espionage, passing information illegally, and disseminating 'false news', in addition to the charge of entering the country unlawfully. The three men were confined to a single cell in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur Province. From the cell, Salopek says, they could see protestors daily inveighing(痛骂) against the United States and the United Nations, which are leading an effort to deploy a UN peacekeeping force to neighboring Darfur Province. Salopek and his cellmates, though, weren't without welcome company. U.S. soldiers - in the region advising an African Union peacekeeping force - discovered that an American was being held in El Fasher and took up his cause. 'They visited us virtually every day,' Salopek said. 'They were like our guardian angels.' The effort to free the reporter and his colleagues, though, wasn't exactly heavenly. It was like a 'carnival ride,' Salopek said, 'up and down, day to day.' The Release Governor Richardson flew to Sudan on Thursday to negotiate the three men's release on humanitarian grounds, Thanks in part to prior dealings with the Sudanese ambassador to the U.S. and with Sudanese President Omar A1 - Bashir, Richardson succee