Tehran, Apr. 18 : An American-Iranian journalist has been jailed for eight years in Tehran after being accused of spying for the United States.

Her lawyer and family revealed that 31-year-old Roxana Saberi had been convicted and sentenced. She had been detained in a notorious Tehran prison since January and went on trial behind closed doors last Monday.

Saberi''s lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said: "She has been sentenced to eight years. I will appeal."

Tehran - The Iranian judiciary issued an eight-year prison term for an Iranian-American journalist on charges of spying for the United States, her lawyer told reporters in Tehran Saturday.

The court has not yet issued any official statement and no further details were available.

Roxana Saberi, 31, a reporter for US National Public Radio, has been in custody since January in Tehran's Evin prison.

Tehran - Iran and the European Union (EU) agreed to resume talks over Iran's controversial nuclear programme, state television network IRIB reported Monday. During a telephone conversation between Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saaid Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the two sides agreed to pursue talks between Tehran and the so-called 5+1 group.

The group consists of the five UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany.

Tehran - Iran Friday hanged three people convicted of being involved in a bomb explosion in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in 2008, Iranian media reported. Mohsen Eslamian, Ali-Asghar Pashtar and Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh - all members of Tondar, a previously unknown terror group - had been arrested last year and convicted by a revolutionary court, state-run IRIB television reported.

Fourteen people were killed and about 200 injured in a bomb explosion during a speech by a local cleric in a Shiraz mosque in April last year.

Tehran - An Iranian-American reporter detained in Tehran for illegal press activities has bee charged with espionage, a media report said Wednesday.

Roxana Saberi, the 31-year-old reporter working for US-based National Public Radio, was initially detained for buying alcohol and is under Iranian custody since the end of January in Tehran's Evin prison.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said in early March that Saberi was denied official press accreditation since 2006, and was working illegally.

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday welcomed overtures by US President Barack Obama, but said that Tehran is still waiting for real changes in the new US administration's policies.

Obama, in a message last month on the occasion of the Persian New Year, said he wanted better ties with the Islamic republic and offered a new start in relations after decades of mistrust.