Two British hostages in Iraq are believed to be dead. _ Security guards Alan McMenemy, from Glasgow, and Alec Maclachlan, from south Wales, were kidnapped in 2007 along with three other Britons. _ The bodies of two of the other men were found last month with gunshot wounds. _ The condition of the fifth man, Peter Moore, is not known. The Foreign Office says all efforts are being made to secure the hostages' release.
Five out of nine detained local staff at the British embassy in Tehran have reportedly been released.
Iranian media said on Sunday that several were being held for their alleged involvement in mass street protests.
Iran was rocked by huge rallies, that led to several deaths, over a disputed presidential election on June 12.
Tehran has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the United States.
But state television said Iran's foreign ministry today announced five staff members had been freed.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki had spoken on Sunday evening, ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said.
"Out of nine people, five of them have been released and the rest are being interrogated," Mr Qashqavi told a news conference.
He said Mr Miliband had stressed in his conversation with Mr Mottaki that Britain's intention was not to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.
"Mottaki said that if they really prove this in practice... this can be considered as a positive step," Mr Qashqavi said.
On Sunday, Mr Miliband demanded the release of all the staff held.
He said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a "strong, collective response" to any such "harassment and intimidation" against EU missions.
But videotape evidence proved that the embassy staff "were distinctly present at the scene of clashes," a senior Iranian official said.
Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi said the detainees - all Iranian nationals - mingled with demonstrators to encourage unrest.
Iran's judiciary, which is tightly controlled by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will decide what happens next, he went on.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide election victory sparked the unrest after opposition parties' claims that the vote had been rigged.
A partial recount of the poll has begun, al Alam state television reported.
Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, had offered to recount a random 10% of the votes.
But defeated opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi has rejected this, saying the whole election should be annulled.
Bank of England boss Mervyn King says he has "genuine concerns" about the course the UK economy is taking.
Speaking before the Treasury Select Committee, Mr King said he was "more uncertain now than ever" about how the economy would play.
He was speaking after a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said the UK economy was expected to constrict by 4.3% this year and then stagnate in 2010.
Mr King and fellow Bank policymakers agreed the worst of the falls were over and said the weak pound was helping bring Britain out of recession.
They added evidence so far was positive from its mammoth £125bn quantitative easing programme to boost money supply.
However, the picture was "very mixed" in spite of green shoots from sectors in the economy, according to Mr King.
He said: "I feel more uncertain now than ever, because it's not a pattern of a recession coming into recovery that we've seen since the 1930s."
Mr King warned that banks were still restricting credit to companies, hampering an recovery.
He added: "There are genuine concerns about how quickly the recovery will pick up - looking at the clear evidence, (firms) are finding it hard to access credit from the banking system.
"A combination of that and real uncertainty over the global economy makes it very difficult to be confident of a rapid recovery."
The UK has expelled two Iranian diplomats after Iran forced two British envoys to leave.
Gordon Brown told MPs: "Iran yesterday took the unjustified step of expelling two British diplomats over allegations which are absolutely without foundation.
"In response to that action, we informed the Iranian ambassador today that we would expel two Iranian diplomats from their embassy in London.
Two British hostages in Iraq are believed to be dead.
