An accident and emergency hospital doctor who called a patient a “motherfucker” and struck him on the face and head has been suspended for three months, with conditions to be attached to his registration following the suspension.

AFGHAN troops fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in an assault to end a stand-off at a notorious prison yesterday after an escape attempt by former al-Qaida suspects left at least six people dead.

Four foreign inmates overpowered their guard and took his AK-47 rifle, starting a shoot-out at Kabul’s main prison today that left at least six dead, the jail’s warden said.

Iran’s hard-line judiciary today abruptly concluded the trial of a secret agent charged with murdering an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, prompting lawyers for the victim’s mother to describe the proceedings as “unacceptable”.

Iran today barred Canadian and European diplomats, as well as journalists representing foreign media, from the trial of a secret agent charged with murdering an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist.