MI6 agent sent to jail

A former British intelligence officer, Richard Tomlinson, who says he served in Bosnia, the Middle East and Moscow, has been jailed for twelve months by a London court for breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Mr Tomlinson - who was dismissed by the overseas intelligence agency MI6 in 1995 - had pleaded guilty last month to disclosing secret information.

He had approached an Australian publisher to release a book about MI6's training methods, and details of his own postings and operations.

Mr Tomlinson is the first British intelligence officer to be convicted under the Official Secrets Act since the Soviet spy George Blake thirty-six years ago.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service