The Italian journalist who was wounded by American troops in Baghdad shortly after she was released by her Iraqi captors denied US allegations that the car she was in was speeding, and described how the agent who had rescued her died protecting her.

An Italian newspaper reporter, held captive in Iraq for a month after being abducted in a Baghdad street, was released today.

Sobbing and clasping her hands together in prayer, kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena appeared on a new video today pleading for her life and calling on US-led troops to pull out of Iraq.

A NEPALESE Gurkha security man and an unidentified Iraqi protester were killed in riot-swept Basra yesterday, and an American soldier died of heatstroke as temperatures crept higher than 120 degrees.