An American-Iranian reporter jailed by Tehran for eight years on charges of espionage has gone on hunger strike, her father has said.

A Swiss woman has lost her job after her employers spotted she was using the Facebook website when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer.

Toronto Star public editor Kathy English says while some readers may have been offended by the headline over a piece on Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle, it passes journalistic muster.

The Taliban ordered a pullback from Buner district on Friday, which had them only 110 kilometres from Pakistan's capital of Islamabad.

But distinguished Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid (I've got his most recent book: Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia) warns that Pakistan's government is in complete military and political disarray when it comes to dealing with the Taliban.

Javed Iqbal was accused of using his satellite TV company to distribute the al-Manar channel. The US has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.

He pleaded guilty to the charges, saying he had "made a mistake".

The defence had said Iqbal did not support Hezbollah and the broadcasts were a small part of his business.