Court frees Pakistan's 'father of nuke bomb'

A Pakistani court declared disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan free on Friday, apparently ending five years of house arrest for the man at the centre of the world's most serious proliferation scandal.

Khan, lionized by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in 2004, but was immediately pardoned by the government, although his movements were restricted to effective house arrest.

"It's a matter of joy. The judgment, by the grace of Allah, is good," Khan told reporters outside his Islamabad house soon after news of the High Court ruling broke.