Guilty plea spares American Taliban life sentence

John Walker Lindh, the young convert to Islam who left California to fight alongside the Taliban, has pleaded guilty to two charges in a surprise deal that spares him life in prison and ensures his co-operation with US terrorism investigators.

Lindh faces a maximum of 20 years in prison under the agreement, struck just hours before he was to appear in court yesterday for a hearing ahead of what would have been the first major US trial stemming from the war on terrorism.