Iraqi militants free kidnapped British journalist

IRAQI militants yesterday released a British journalist they had kidnapped and threatened to kill.

Following intervention by aides to militant Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, James Brandon was taken to al-Sadr’s local office and freed.

The 23-year-old Londoner was snatched from his hotel in the southern city of Basra yesterday and spent a traumatic 24 hours living with the threat of execution.