Iranian newspaper editor paroled

The official Iranian news agency says the former editor-in-chief of the reformist English language daily newspaper, Iran News, has been released from prison on parole.

The agency, quoting an informed source, said Morteza Firouzi, had been released after serving four years in solitary confinement.

He was sentenced to five years in jail in 1998 on charges of espionage.

Mr Firouzi, who was detained in 1997, was initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was revoked by the Supreme Court.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service