Killer snapper is pardoned

Jordan’s King Abdullah today pardoned a Japanese journalist who had been jailed for 18 months for accidentally killing an airport security guard with a cluster bomb in his luggage.

The official Petra news agency said the king had decreed a ”special clemency” for newspaper photographer Hiroki Gomi, 36, who brought the bomb from Iraq as a war souvenir.

Gomi had petitioned the king for a pardon earlier this month. Japan is a major aid donor to Jordan.