Iran has proposed to reopen negotiations about its controversial nuclear programme with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. The invitation by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, comes in the wake of new sanctions recently imposed by the UN over Tehran's uranium enrichment programme. The last round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN security council and Germany - held in Istanbul in January - ended in failure

An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be executed by hanging instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 44-year-old mother of two, was convicted of conducting an "illicit relationship outside marriage" in 2006 and has since been kept in Tabriz prison in the west of Iran.