AN IRANIAN prosecutor has called for “maximum punishment” of a senior reformer for acting against national security, a crime punishable by death.

British rock singer Sting is calling for the release of political prisoners in Iran in criticism of the country’s human rights violations.

Iran has today released an Iranian-American democracy scholar after spending four months in prison - the third time in recent weeks Tehran has set free holders of dual-citizenship it accuses of trying to stir up a revolution.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that it was "too late" to stop Iran's nuclear programme and warned the US and its allies not to push for new UN sanctions.

Iran says it has uncovered spy rings organised by the United States and its Western allies, claiming on state-run television that the espionage networks were made up of “infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers”.