Jordan frees opposition-run teachers union leaders

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan on Sunday released 13 leaders of an opposition-run teachers union, judicial sources said, nearly a month after detaining them in a move weakening a group that has become a leading source of dissent. The government on July 25 closed the offices of the 100,000 strong union and suspended its activity for two years, in one of the largest crackdown on a major dissident group in recent years.

Prosecutors who put a gag order on media coverage of the judicial investigation had charged the leader of the union Nasser Nawasrah with incitement and 12 other members of the union's council with financial wrongdoing. The union says the charges are baseless.