Families want leniency for two U.S. reporters

SEOUL, South Korea — For weeks after North Korean guards seized Laura Ling and Euna Lee near the border with China and spirited the American journalists to Pyongyang on criminal charges, their families waited quietly for news about them.

They watched with mounting fear as an international standoff with North Korea over its rogue nuclear program deepened, with little word about the women’s imprisonment in one of the most isolated countries in the world.

Two months after their arrest, the families received letters relayed by the Swedish ambassador to the reclusive communist nation. Then out of the blue, a phone call last Tuesday — the first since the reporters vanished March 17.

"They were very scared; they’re very, very scared,” said sister Lisa Ling.

Ling’s sister, parents and husband appeared Monday on NBC’s "Today” show alongside Lee’s husband and 4-year-old daughter to plead with North Korea for leniency.

Ling and Lee — reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV — stand trial Thursday in North Korea’s highest court, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts.”

Their trial could land them in one of North Korea’s notoriously grim labor camps.




by the associated press

A Thankful Reporter

TEHRAN, Iran — A joyful Roxana Saberi, shown above, on Tuesday thanked those who helped win her release after four months in a Tehran prison. Her lawyer revealed that the American journalist was convicted of spying for the U.S. in part because she had a copy of a confidential Iranian report on the U.S. war in Iraq. Saberi had copied the report "out of curiosity” while she worked as a translator for a powerful body connected to Iran’s ruling clerics, said the lawyer. A smiling Saberi said she did not have any specific plans but wanted to spend time with her family.



by the associated press

Reporter in Iran may get defense

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that an American journalist convicted of spying for the U.S. should be allowed to offer a full defense during her appeal, a day after she was sentenced to eight years in prison.

The message was a sign that Iran’s leadership does not want the case to derail moves toward a dialogue with the Obama administration to break a 30-year diplomatic deadlock.

The letter came a day after Iran announced the conviction and sentence for Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen. It was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of espionage.

President Barack Obama said Sunday he was "gravely concerned” about Saberi’s safety and was confident she wasn’t involved in espionage. The U.S. has called the charges baseless and said Iran would gain U.S. goodwill if it "responded in a positive way” to the case.

It was unclear how far Iran’s ruling hard-line clerics and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are willing to go to achieve better ties. Some of Iran’s hard-liners don’t want warmer ties with the U.S. and are trying to derail efforts, analysts say.

by the associated press