Time journalist avoids Indian legal action

A British journalist in India, who wrote an article questioning the health of the prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, says he's been told that no action will be taken against him for alleged passport irregularities.

The reporter Alex Perry, who works for Time magazine, said he'd feared expulsion after government officals reacted angrily to the article.

In it he referred to Mr Vajpayee's interminable silences and indecipherable ramblings at a time when the country faced a possible nuclear war with Pakistan.

Mr Perry was interviewed by the police over his possession of two British passports, but his lawyer said it had been confirmed that his papers were in order.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service