PAKISTAN COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE FOR BRITON: OFFICIAL

President Pervez Musharraf has commuted the death sentence for a British man who has been in jail in Pakistan for the past 18 years for a murder he says he didn't commit, Pakistan's interior minister said.
The British government and rights groups had pleaded with Pakistan to grant clemency for Mirza Tahir Hussain, 36, from Leeds in northern England.
"The president has commuted the death sentence to life," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters, adding that his ministry was working out the modalities of his release. Musharraf took the decision on November 15, officials said.
Technically, Hussain has completed a life term, but certain conditions may have to be met before he can be freed, officials said. He was being held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, the city adjacent to Islamabad.
Hussain, a British Muslim of Pakistani descent, was convicted of killing a taxi driver in 1988, during his first visit to his ancestral home.
He said the man had tried to sexually assault him and then threatened him with a gun, which went off when they struggled.