Italy Freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena returned home, hours after US troops wounded her in a shooting incident near Baghdad airport in which an Italian secret service agent was killed. Italy Newspapers called for a swift explanation by Washington of the circumstances that led to the shooting. Lebanon Large numbers of Lebanese troops deployed at key spots around the capital as a fresh anti-Syrian demonstration got underway and amid expectations Damascus is to announce a major troop redeployment. US US President George W. Bush said Syria is an obstacle to securing peace across the Middle East and made a new demand that it withdraw its troops from Lebanon. China Premier Wen Jiabao admitted China faced "glaring" social problems and pledged more help for the poor to deal with simmering unrest as he forecast economic growth of eight percent this year. Mideast Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas held talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki. Mulki was later to visit Israel, the first high-level Jordanian visit to the Jewish state in over four years. Iran Iran's top nuclear official warned the United States and Europe of the danger of an oil crisis if Tehran is taken before the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme and rejected outright their demands to halt uranium enrichment. Nepal Nepal Maoist rebels torched government buildings in the country's southwest, an army official said, as the Himalayan kingdom declared it would not waver in its "war against terrorism." Ukraine Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma returned to Kiev, where he is likely to face questioning over the gruesome murder of an opposition reporter that became a symbol of the rampant corruption of his regime. Austria Several dozen European victims of Asia's tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit demanding that Thai authorities, US forecasters and a French hotel chain prove that they reacted adequately. Ireland A large majority of people in the Irish Republic, including most Sinn Fein supporters, want the party to split from its outlawed IRA military wing, according to a new poll.