Journalist's Iran arrest worries father

FARGO, N.D., March 2 (UPI) -- The father of a U.S. free-lance radio journalist arrested in Iran says he's keeping in regular contact with his daughter but is worried sleepless.

Roxana Saberi, 31, who grew up in Fargo, N.D., was arrested in Tehran one month ago for allegedly buying a bottle of wine -- an illegal act in Iran -- from a seller who then reported it to authorities, her father Reza Saberi told Monday's Fargo Forum.

"As long as she calls, at least we hear her voice and we know that she's alive," he said at the family's home. "Whenever I get up at night, I think about her and I worry a lot. This uncertainty is very, very bad when you don't know where she is or what they're doing to her or why they're holding her."

Roxana Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota with degrees from both Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Cambridge University, was working in Tehran for National Public Radio.

"Obviously NPR is very concerned about Roxana Saberi's arrest," spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm said Saturday. "We have asked the State Department to inquire into the status of her detention and to take steps to assure her immediate release."