BBC news 2011-05-29 加文本

BBC news 2011-05-29

BBC News with David Austin

The top police commander in northern Afghanistan has been killed in a bomb attack. The Taliban says it carried out the attack, making him the most senior casualty of the Taliban spring offensive. General Daud Daud was killed along with a provincial police chief, two bodyguards and three German soldiers. Paul Wood reports from Kabul.

The suicide bomber was wearing a police uniform and waiting in a corridor as General Daud and others emerged from a meeting. The explosion sent flames and a column of smoke high into the air over the governor's compound in Takhar. General Daud was the commander of all Afghan interior ministry forces in the north of the country, softly-spoken and charismatic. Nato liked him because he got the job done, wresting swathes of territory from Taliban control and because of his emphasis on human rights and the rule of law. He was seen as an effective leader at a time when Afghan forces are starting to take over the lead role in security from Nato.

A court in Egypt has imposed a fine of $90m on the ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former senior officials for cutting off mobile and Internet services during the anti-government protests in January. It's the first court ruling to be made against Mr Mubarak. Here's Sebastian Usher.

This new charge against Hosni Mubarak is for damaging the economy by trying to cut off Internet and phone networks as the protests gathered momentum. The announcement comes just a day after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians once again took to the streets, demanding that the military authorities, who replace Mr Mubarak, move faster against their former boss. But more serious charges await Mr Mubarak, including ordering the killing of protesters.

Nato says it's destroyed guard towers around a compound used by the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi in two air raids on the centre of Tripoli. Correspondents in the city say the raids, one of them in daylight, caused the collapse of sections of the walls around the Bab al-Azizia military complex.

President Barack Obama has ended his six-day visit to Europe by praising Poland as one of America's closest and strongest allies. Speaking in the Polish capital Warsaw, Mr Obama assured Polish leaders that an improved relationship between the United States and Russia wouldn't come at their expense.

"I am a strong believer that the reset between the United States and Russia has benefited this region as well as the United States and Russia because it's reduced tensions, and it has, I think, facilitated genuine dialogue about how each country can move forward."

A BBC correspondent in Warsaw says the relationship between the US and Poland suffered when Mr Obama halted a plan to build missiles on Polish soil two years ago, but with millions of people of Polish origin in America, Mr Obama may have benefited at home.

World News from the BBC

Police in Russia have arrested more than 40 people after violence broke out at an unauthorised rally of gay rights activists in the capital Moscow. The fighting started when participants of the march were attacked as they were trying to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin. Some of the attackers said they were members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.

Russian gay rights activists were joined by campaigners from America and Europe in what has become an annual event. Each year the authorities have refused the organisers permission, and each year there have been arrests and violence. Some gay rights activists were carrying banners reading "Russia is not Iran". One anti-gay campaigner said that God had burned down Sodom and Gomorrah and would burn down Moscow too if gay rights marches were allowed.

Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated across Germany to demand a speedy end to the use of nuclear energy. Anti-nuclear activists organised rallies in 20 towns and cities, including the capital Berlin. The demonstrations come a day before the centre-right coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to discuss the date when Germany's nuclear reactors will finally be shut down.

As a powerful typhoon approaches Japan, the operator of the crippled nuclear power plant at Fukushima has said it's not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds. The defences around the plant's nuclear reactors were wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami in March. Apologising for the lack of preparedness, an official for the operator Tepco said some of the reactor buildings remained uncovered.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International has urged China to respect freedom of expression and assembly following a security clampdown in the province of Inner Mongolia. Reports from Inner Mongolia say the authorities have shut down Internet chat rooms, used armed police to seal off some schools and universities and put up security cordons near government buildings.

And that's the BBC News.