Medics freed following Libya-EU deal

Six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV were freed yesterday after a "full partnership" deal between Tripoli and the European Union ended their eight-year ordeal.

Their return to Bulgaria ends what Libya's critics called a human rights scandal and could allow the long-isolated north African state to complete a process of normalizing ties with the West.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov pardoned the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor who recently took Bulgarian citizenship after their arrival in Sofia on a French jet. The medics said they were innocent and had been tortured to confess.