The student journalist who was accused of blasphemy after distributing anti-Islamic material, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after an Afghan appeal court overturned his death sentence.
Sean Langan, a freelance journalist kidnapped by the Taliban three months ago, has been freed.
Langan, who was working on a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, was taken on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He was released on Saturday night.
Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj has been released from Guantanamo bay, after six years at the US military prison.
Al-Hajj, who has been on hunger strike since January last year, was flown back to his family in Sudan last night, Al Jazeera reports.
The cameraman was detained by US authorities as an ‘enemy combatant’ in 2002, despite holding a working visa for employment with Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel in Afghanistan
“We are concerned about the way the Americans dealt with Sami, and we are concerned about the way they could deal with others as well. Sami will continue with Al Jazeera, he will continue as a professional person who has done great jobs during his work with Al Jazeera,” Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera’s director-general, told Al Jazeera.
Prince Harry is to be withdrawn from his tour of duty in Afghanistan after reports on US blog, Drudge Report, revealed he was serving with British forces there.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued a statement today confirming speculation that the third-in-line to the throne would cease active service and return to the UK.
“Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of Defence Staff, in consultation with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately,” read the statement.
“This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier.”
The media blackout agreed between the Ministry of Defence and UK news outlets about Prince Harry’s secret deployment was broken after popular US blog, The Drudge Report, ran a story about his activities in Afghanistan.
The MoD and the media struck a deal that meant extended access to Prince Harry during his time in Helmand Province in exchange for news of his deployment to be held until after his tour had been completed.
A stipulation of the agreement was that media in the UK would hold its stories unless a foreign news publisher made the news public first.
When Drudge broke the story news groups in the UK were then forced to flood their stories on an unsuspecting public.
The MoD asked the media to refrain from speculating on Prince Harry location and other details of his mission until he returns to the UK.