Iran, US free prisoners as end of international sanctions nears

Iran freed five Americans including a Washington Post reporter on Saturday as the two countries staged a series of goodwill gestures ahead of the expected announcement of the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran under a nuclear deal. US President Barack Obama pardoned three Iranian-Americans charged for sanctions violations, and US officials said four others would be released, in a thaw in relations between the two nations that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's Islamic Revolut...