Afghan officials say 31 Americans and seven local soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan. It's America's biggest loss there in a single incident. The helicopter, carrying US special forces, was involved in an anti-terrorism operation in Wardak province. The Taliban say they shot it down. Nato is investigating the incident.

Local authorities in China are reported to have pulled down a monument to Japanese settlers that provoked attacks by nationalists and outrage on the Internet. The stone memorial was put up near the northeastern city of Harbin last month. Charles Scanlon has more.

Chinese newspapers carried pictures of the monument being daubed with red paint and battered with hammers. The five men who carried out the attack were arrested but then quickly released. They were hailed as heroes on Internet chat sites. The seven-metre-high monument was put up last month as a memorial to 5,000 Japanese settlers who died in the chaotic aftermath of Japan's surrender in 1945. Chinese nationalists said it was an insult to the millions of Chinese people killed during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s and 40s.

World News from the BBC

The ringleader of the US military guards who photographed their abuse of suspected Iraqi insurgents at the Abu Ghraib prison has been freed. A US army spokeswoman said Charles Graner was released from a military jail at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas after serving more than 6.5 years of a 10-year sentence. Mr Graner was convicted of leading his six-member team in the sexual humiliation of naked prisoners.