Nurse’s death sparks anger in Britain at royal prank
LONDON: The London hospital that treated Prince William’s wife Catherine has condemned the Australian radio station whose hoax call apparently led to a nurse’s suicide, calling the stunt

“appalling.” Britain has reacted with horror to the death of mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, who is believed to have taken her own life after she was duped by two Australian radio presenters seeking news on Kate’s pregnancy. Saldanha was found dead on Friday, days after answering a call to the hospital from hosts at Sydney’s 2Day FM radio posing as Queen Elizabeth II and William’s father Prince Charles. She had put them through to a colleague who then divulged details of Kate’s recovery from severe morning sickness. Her death has triggered a global wave of anger at the Australian presenters behind the hoax, Mel Greig and Michael Christian. Flowers were placed on Saturday outside the nurses’ accommodation block where Saldanha’s body was discovered.

Troops rescue kidnapped US doctor in Afghanistan
KABUL: US soldiers killed seven Taliban insurgents in a successful pre-dawn raid to rescue a kidnapped American doctor in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) force in the war-torn country said. The mission was launched when intelligence showed that Dr. Dilip Joseph was in “imminent danger of injury or death,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. Joseph was abducted on December 5 by Taliban insurgents in the Surobi district of Kabul province. A security source said that the doctor had been involved in building clinics in Afghanistan but details of his capture were not immediately available. Hazrat Mohammad Haqbeen, the district governor of Surobi said that the man was kidnapped along with an Afghan colleague who was released in return for a ransom earlier in the week.

Mandela spends night in hospital
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s first black president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela spent the night in hospital, where he was admitted to undergo tests, officials said on Sunday. President Jacob Zuma’s spokesman and former Madela prisonmate Mac Maharaj refused to give details on Sunday said he would give an update when doctors issue a report. It was the second time the 94-year-old and increasingly frail Mandela was hospitalized this year. The South African government said that the anti-apartheid icon was doing well on Saturday after he was taken in for tests “consistent with his age” and insisted that there was “no cause for alarm.” Officials have refused to give more details about his condition or say which hospital he was at, although local media speculated he was at 1 Military Hospital on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria.