Iran sentences ex-official to death over alleged UK spying

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian state-linked news agency says a former senior defense official has been sentenced to death after being convicted of spying for Britain. The judiciary was quoted as saying Ali Reza Akbari, who was deputy defense minister until 2001, was a “key spy” for British intelligence. The report also says he had spied on past nuclear talks between Iran and Western powers. Akbari had served as deputy defense minister under a reformist president who had pushed for improved relations with the West. For several years, Iran has been locked in a shadow war with the U.S. and Israel marked by covert attacks on its disputed nuclear program.