A kidnapped British journalist was released in Iraq less than 24 hours after he was abducted at gunpoint from a hotel, after aides of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr apparently came to his rescue.
Freelance Sunday Telegraph reporter James Brandon, 23, was paraded at Sadr's offices in Basra, where representatives of the militia leader said he had been freed, before they escorted him to Iraqi police.
A top aide to the cleric said earlier he had lodged a "formal" request for Brandon's immediate release.