BBC news 2010-11-27 加文本

BBC news 2010-11-27

BBC News with Jonathan Izard

Russian politicians have agreed a declaration which blames the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin for personally ordering the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of captured Polish officers were shot by Soviet forces during the Second World War. The speaker of the Polish parliament said the move would help the foreign relations between the countries ahead of a visit to Poland next month by the Russian president. From Moscow, Richard Galpin.

A senior member of the Russian parliament described the resolution as a historic document, not just for relations with Poland, but also for Russia itself as it fights what he called the "falsification of history". For 50 years, Soviet leaders blamed the Nazis for the Katyn massacre. It was only in 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev admitted the Soviet secret police had been responsible.

The United States has begun a diplomatic initiative to warn foreign governments about another potentially embarrassing release of documents by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The organisation is planning to publish thousands of US State Department diplomatic cables. Steve Kingstone reports from Washington.

Wikileaks has not said when it will make these documents public, but the American government clearly believes the release is imminent and is preparing for the worst. Around the world, its embassies have been contacting other governments to give advance warning amid concerns that the diplomatic cables contain frank, private opinions and perhaps details of State Department sources within foreign governments. In London, the prime minister's spokesman said Downing Street had been notified of the likely content but declined to give details. A State Department spokesman warned that the release would prove harmful to US interests and create tension in its relations with other governments.

Saudi Arabia says it's arrested about 150 people this year, most of them Saudi citizens, suspected of working for al-Qaeda. It said the men had planned to attack security officials and journalists. A Saudi official said the suspects belonged to cells with links to al-Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. About $600,000 are said to have been recovered from the men after their arrests.

The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, has accused the Moroccan authorities of beating and abusing people detained after a raid by its forces in the disputed Western Sahara. It called for an immediate end to the reported mistreatment of up to 100 Sahrawis still being held following the raid on a protest camp. An eyewitness, Leila Leili, told what she had seen.

"I was there on 8 November just before dawn when everyone was still sleeping. Bulldozers and trucks started to besiege the camp. They were from the Moroccan army. Bulldozers started to invade the camp and demolish tents without giving the people sleeping inside them a chance to get out. After that, we heard sounds of big bangs - artillery, bullets, tear gas. Everyone was fleeing in all directions."

World News from the BBC

The White House says President Obama has received 12 stitches in his face after being injured while playing basketball. The statement says Mr Obama was inadvertently hit on the lip by an opposing player's elbow. The White House Medical Unit said the number of stitches used was high in order to reduce the size of any scar.

Border police in the US and Mexico have found a drug smugglers' tunnel linking the Mexican city of Tijuana with California. It's just two streets away from where police found a tunnel earlier this month, equipped with a rail system, ventilation and lights. Police said it was used for smuggling marijuana into the US. Local media are speculating the new tunnel could be even more sophisticated.

More has emerged about an impostor who convinced intelligence officers in Afghanistan he was a senior Taliban negotiator and received thousands of dollars. The man claimed to be the top Taliban commander Mullah Mansour. Our security correspondent Frank Gardner reports.

As embarrassing international blunders go, this one is about as bad as it gets. For months, British, US and Afghan intelligence officers were all under the impression they were handling a top-level Taliban negotiator, a man named as Mullah Mansour, second in rank only to Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. It's now emerged that the man is an impostor. He has since disappeared after pocketing large sums of money and being flown around the region by the Royal Air Force. Afghan officials say it's all the fault of MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service who handled him. But British government sources say the man was introduced to British agents by the Afghan security service.

Tickets for a Dutch rock festival next year have been snapped up within hours despite the fact that buyers had no idea who will be playing. Organisers were selling the tickets early to avoid a big tax increase on live performances, which comes into effect on 1 January. Fans who managed to secure one of the 45,000 tickets saved themselves $26 each. Well, let's just hope they'll be as pleased when they find out the festival's line-up.

BBC World Service News