Dying Reggie Kray freed

The British government says it has ordered the release from jail of a notorious London criminal on compassionate grounds.

The man, Reggie Kray, has cancer of the bladder and according to his doctors has only a matter of days to live.

He has served thirty two years in jail.

The Krays -- Reggie and his twin brother, Ronnie, who died in prison in 1995 -- dominated the London underworld in the nineteen fifties and sixties, until they were jailed in 1969 for the murder of criminal rivals, Jack 'The Hat' McVitie and Goerge Cornell.

The judge at the time recommended that the Kray twins should serve a minimum of thirty years.

Their older brother, Charlie Kray, died in jail in April while serving a sentence for drug dealing.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service