As many as 200,000 people were expected to march in Rome Saturday to demand the release of an Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq earlier this month. The rally had already been planned days before a shocked Italy on Wednesday watched a video showing the captive, 56-year-old Giuliana Sgrena, pleading for her life and demanding that Italians pressure their government to withdraw Italy's 3,000-strong military contingent from Iraq. Sgrena was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4. On Wednesday, in a video delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News, she was shown tearful and distraught as she begged for Italians to help obtain her freedom. The march in Rome was organized by Sgrena's paper Il Manifesto, a communist daily, and by her companion, Pier Scolari, and was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT).
