Iran, International Spies | featured news

An Iranian court has canceled the death sentence for an American accused of espionage in Iran, a semi-official news agency there reported Monday.

Iranian state television on Sunday aired what it described as the confession of an Iranian man detained for spying for the CIA. State television broadcast a taped interview with Amir Mirza Hekmati, in which he said he had received training by the U.S. intelligence services. The channel said he had been sent to Iran to provide misinformation to Iranian intelligence.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency says the country's armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along its eastern border.

The two U.S. hikers detained for two grueling years in Iran on spying charges have been sentenced to eight years in prison, state-run TV reported Saturday. Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer each received five years for espionage -- specifically "cooperating with the American intelligence service" -- and three years for illegal entry, the IRINN reported, quoting an "informed" judiciary source.

Iran said Sunday it had shot down what it described as two Western spy planes over the Persian Gulf, according to Iranian media reports.

Iran's official news agency says authorities have hanged an Iranian man convicted of spying for the country's archenemy Israel.

An American woman released from Iran after more than 13 months in custody began her journey back to the United States on Saturday after asking her supporters to "extend your prayers" to her fiance and another American man who remain in Tehran accused of spying.

Iranian nuclear scientist who says he was abducted and tortured by U.S. agents was an informant inside Iran for several years, report says.

A lawyer for an American journalist freed after four months imprisoned in Iran says she obtained a confidential document about the U.S. war in Iraq while working as a translator for a powerful clerical body, which was used against her in her trial.

Iran said on Saturday it would review the eight-year prison sentence handed down to Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi after she was convicted of spying for the United States.