Jail for Jordan 'honour killing'

A Jordanian man has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for killing his married sister in what he said was an act to save the family's honour.

The man strangled the 16-year-old after she refused to explain absences from her marital home, the court heard. It emerged she had seen a female friend.

The sentence had been reduced as her family decided not to press charges.

Jordan has been criticised in the past for giving lenient sentences in so-called honour killing cases.

Such offences have in the past carried sentences as light as just six months.

Around 15 to 20 women are murdered each year in Jordan, often by male relatives in the name of family "honour".