World News from the BBC

Reports from Syria say at least seven protesters have been killed in clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in the cities of Homs and Deir al-Zour. Activists say Syrian security forces attacked opposition demonstrators. Reports suggested a 14-year-old boy was among those killed. Earlier, Syria's state television broadcast images of rallies supporting President Bashar al-Assad.

The Pakistani army has detained a brigadier at army headquarters in Rawalpindi for alleged links with a banned Islamic hard-line group, Hizb ut-Tahrir. An official said Brigadier Ali Khan was facing an internal military investigation. Here's Shahzeb Jillani.

The brigadier comes from a family of soldiers and having served 32 years in the Pakistan army was due to retire in July. His family said that after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in a US raid, Brigadier Khan had criticised the Pakistani top brass in an internal session. The next day, his lawyer says, Brigadier Khan went missing. More than six weeks on, the army has admitted that he's been in their custody, undergoing interrogation for his alleged connections with extremists. His family says they'll go to court to secure his release.

Russia has released secret documents challenging the widely held view that the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in the Second World War took the government in Moscow by surprise. The papers show that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ignored dozens of Soviet intelligence reports warning him about an imminent invasion despite a non-aggression pact between Berlin and Moscow.