'Teddy bear' teacher to leave Sudan soon

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- British teacher Gillian Gibbons, jailed for insulting Islam, was released from a Sudanese prison Monday and will soon be on her way home.

Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir pardoned Gibbons after a meeting with two British peers who will accompany Gibbons back to Britain sometime Monday, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Gibbons, 54, had been sentenced to 15 days behind bars for violating Muslim laws by allowing her class of 7-year-olds to name a teddy bear Mohammed. She had originally faced a trip to the whipping post, and even that wasn't harsh enough for many Sudanese fundamentalists who had called for her execution.