BBC News with Marion Marshall

The Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has been dismissed while on an official tour of Africa. A statement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announcing the move gave no reason. Marcus George reports.

The timing of Manouchehr Mottaki's sacking may have been sudden, but there's little doubt about its cause. There's been mutual distrust between the president and Mr Mottaki since the election of 2005, which brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Mr Mottaki was the campaign manager for Ali Larijani, one of the rival candidates. His departure rids President Ahmadinejad of a critic at close quarters, but the move may yet cause problems in a parliament that's increasingly unhappy with its presidency.

Soldiers have been deployed in Ivory Coast around the headquarters in Abidjan of Alassane Ouattara, the man recognised by the United Nations and the African Union as the winner of last month's presidential election. He's inside the building, a hotel protected by UN peacekeepers. Shots were fired when armed supporters of Mr Ouattara tried to chase away soldiers blocking roads to the hotel. The incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, is still rejecting a transfer of power.

A judge in the American state of Virginia has ruled that President Obama's healthcare reforms, brought in earlier this year, are unconstitutional. Paul Adams reports.

In a 42-page ruling, the judge in Virginia concluded that forcing people to buy insurance, in his words, exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power. It's a narrow ruling, but the individual mandate, as it's known, is arguably the most important provision of the reform bill passed in March. Without the money it generates when it comes into effect in 2014, other parts of the bill could fall apart. This is a significant legal shot across the administration's bows, and it won't be the last. The newly-empowered Republicans have vowed to repeal the bill, and it's likely the whole issue could end up in the Supreme Court.