Like another commenter mentioned, this style is commonly used in headlines. It's referred to as historical present tense. Here are a few resources for more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present http://www.grammar.net/presentaspast

"Is" combined with "released" does sound odd, but it's not too unusual, like in this sentence: "Heat is released into the atmosphere by cars." (From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/release)