PROSECUTORS have dropped charges against former News of the World editor and another ex-senior executive at the paper relating to the Tommy Sheridan defamation trial

Bob Bird and Douglas Wight were arrested under Operation Rubicon, the investigation set up by Scottish police to look into allegations of phone hacking, data breaches and perjury.
Mr Bird was detained by police in 2012 and faced charges linked to his conduct at the time of Tommy Sheridan's defamation action against his newspaper.
The former editor of the NoW in Scotland was facing charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice in 2006.
Mr Wight, a senior member of Bird's editorial team was facing a charge of perjury. He also initially faced charges of conspiracy to hack phones and breaches of data protection legislation.
A Crown Office spokesman said: "The Procurator Fiscal received reports concerning Douglas Wight and Robert Bird, in connection with alleged offences between February 1995 and November 2010 and July 2006 respectively.
"After an extremely thorough investigation of these allegations, Crown Counsel decided that no criminal proceedings be taken."
The NoW was ordered to pay Sheridan £200,000 following the defamation action, during which it failed to prove allegations about the former MSP's private life were true.
However, Sheridan was later convicted of perjury for lying during the case and jailed for three years in January 2011.
At the time he was charged by police, Mr Bird said he was "sad and disappointed".
He added: "I have always done my best to do the right thing throughout the 30/40 years of my journalistic career and I will be denying the charge against me."
A further two News International executives were arrested as part of the investigation. Charges against Gill Smith, a news editor on the Scottish edition of the Sun, were dropped by the Crown on May 1.
The trial for alleged perjury of a fourth former NoW executive, its former editor Andy Coulson, is continuing at the high court in Edinburgh.