Harare: A Zimbabwean court released today a US journalist and a British national on bail after charging them with reporting on the March 29 elections without accreditation, their lawyer said.

"They have both been released on 300 million dollars bail," lawyer Harrison Nkomo told journalists outside the court. The bail amount is equivalent to USD 10,000 according to the official exchange rate.

He said the pair had been told to reappear in court on Thursday and ordered to stay in Harare.

New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak, 58,and a 45-year-old British national were arrested at a Harare guest house on Thursday. Bearak has been ordered to stay at the US embassy in the capital and the Briton at a medical clinic after he slipped and injured his back in jail, Nkomo said.

Source : PTI