The story that those journalists were working on a detailed investigation into a mass execution in a village in eastern myanmar. And weve seen their report. Our reporter, James Clayton, is across the story and is with me now. What has just happened tonight . Reuters have tonight decided to publish a story that it claims is in the International Public interest, why they have published now is they have been working on the story for weeks been in touch with those journalists in myanmar, in a prison there, and they say they have their consent to publish this story now. What were they investigating . Well, reuters say that their investigation is the first to obtain evidence from some of the perpetrators of this horrific violence, so they spoke to Police Officers in myanmar and members of a paramilitary group, and spoke to local villagers in inn din, and what they managed to amass was testimony of really quite nasty crimes and they implicate the military, they found pictures or were given pictures of an execution before and after, and they spoke to a local buddhist man who confessed to the murder in cold blood of a rohingya muslim. Reuter are saying they have the consent of the journalists, but we know the real reason they might have been arrested was the story they were working on. What might the consequences be . We do not know, it has literally just dropped. Clearly, reuters are taking a calculated risk with publishing tonight. On the one hand, i am sure reuters will now say, this is the real reason why our two journalists were arrested. On the other hand, of course, the myanmar government might say, actually, we dont like the story, it might anger them. And the two journalists are being held by the myanmar authorities. We will speak to the editor in chief of reuters but first of all, we have put together some of the claims that reuters are making and a word of warning, some of these images are quite distressing. On the 12th of december last year, two myanmarjournalists working for the reuters news agency, wa lone and kyaw soe oo, travelled to a restaurant in northern yangon to meet two Police Officers. They never came home. They were arrested and later charged under the official secrets act for allegedly obtaining confidential documents. Theyre being held in a jail in yangon. Tonight, reuters have published what they believe was the real reason for their journalists arrests. An investigation that focused on the village of inn din. The violence that took place here in late august and Early September last year was echoed across parts of northern rakhine state. These before and after satellite images show the extent to which the rohingya part of the village was burnt to the ground. Only the buddhist area, to the top left, was spared. But what reuters claimed to have found was even darker. Theirjournalists have been told by a number of sources that ten men had been picked out from a crowd of Rohingya Muslims including fishermen, shopkeepers and students and executed. Reuters claim after a day of interrogation, they were led into a wood. Reuters say these images that the agency has published tonight were given to theirjournalists by a local buddhist. Weve decided to blur parts of this graphic image. It shows the ten men in a shallow mass grave. You can identify many of the men by the clothes they are wearing. Reuters journalists were told by the man who dug the pit that eight of the men were shot by soldiers and two were hacked to death by the villagers. Back in myanmars capital, naypyidaw, at the same time as the journalists arrests, myanmar authorities were themselves looking into the execution. On the 10th of january, the military announced on its Facebook Page that theyd undertaken their own investigation and that soldiers and local buddhists had indeed taken part in the killings. But the military were forced to kill the bengali terrorists, they said, because police stations were being attacked by rohingya militants and it was unsafe for them to transport them. A decision was made to kill them, says the military statement. But reuters say that buddhist villagers their journalists interviewed reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on Security Forces in inn din, or that the ten men had any connection with terrorism. The news Agency Claims theirjournalists also gathered unique evidence of military involvement in attacks on Rohingya Muslims. Speaking to not only local villagers in inn din, but Police Officers and members of the paramilitary. One man who spoke to the two journalists described finding four Rohingya Muslims hiding in a haystack. One of the men had a mobile phone. The soldiers told him to do whatever you want to them. And so i started hacking him with a sword, he said. A soldier shot him when he fell down. Reuters has cross referenced testimony from buddhists on the ground with Rohingya Refugees over the border in bangladesh. Newsnight is unable to verify the claims made by the agency. But reuters claim that their account marks the first time soldiers and Paramilitary Police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves. Its clear incarceration is taking its toll on wa lone and kyaw soe oo and their families. Reuters believe that the evidence the journalists obtained is the real reason for their arrest. But the myanmar authorities are continuing to pursue charges against the two journalists. Will telling this story help wa lone and kyaw soe oo . Well find out in court. Joining me now from new york is stephen adler, editor in chief of reuters. Good evening. Thank you very much forjoining us tonight. You heard James Clayton saying that, in fact, this is taking its toll on both men and i wonder why you decided to publish tonight . We believe this is a story of vast global importance and we have a responsibility to publish, that is what we do asjournalists, we report stories fairly and honestly and then we publish them and we thought it was important enough and wa lone and kyaw soe oo agreed, and you will see that their bylines are on the story. Anybody can see the story. They fully support our publishing the story. A very brave thing for them and for their families to do so. I am sure you do not do this lightly, what is the next step for them . We certainly do not do this lightly, but we did not take the legal considerations into hand in deciding to publish. We are concerned about security, but we believe that when the story is known by people that it will be helpful to them because it really gives a very careful, well sourced account of what really happened, and i think those facts support the idea that they were reporting, not violating any law. You think you have come upon the real reason for the arrests, that they had this material, and the authorities could go either way, as with that statement, if these investigations prove to be true, they would move along the lines of the law that exists in the country. What do you take them to mean by that . Again, i think the point really is that we have to go forward and report the story and we have to tell the world about it. I think it provides a tremendously valuable service, ourjournalists agree with that and we think that as the facts come out, itll be favourable to our journalists and what were doing, but you do have to consider there are tremendous risks doing journalism anywhere in the world. Reuters journalists take that risk every time, so do bbc journalists and journalists everywhere. I think thats part of the job and we are hopeful and we hope the government will release them shortly. I will also say that its very important for the World Community to care about this and governments all over the world will take an interest, representatives of governments from many countries 52 hfilieerefififiiebfieinifi ef behingge e r and t refills . So while we have no certainty as to how things will proceed, we think it is our responsibility to give reporting. For the first time, you not only have members of the Security Forces but a buddhist villager actually confessing to involvement . Having trouble hearing you. If this is about the sourcing of the story. Its about the significance of the information that has been found from the side of the buddhists . Right. I understand you now. What is important about this story is that we heard from buddhist villagers, Rohingya Muslims and members of the military and police, and what is so compelling about this story is the information that comes together from all these different places, so you are not seeing one or the other side presenting information but this story is being woven together with people acknowledging what happened, and i think it is very important because i think this has often been seen as merely a conflict between two sides, but there are facts here and we have established those facts by talking to many people on the ground using traditional reporting methods, just interviewing people. Thank you so much forjoining us. Im joined now by the labour mp, dr rosena allin khan, who has visited rohingya refugee camps in bangladesh. Good evening to you. What is your response to this tonight . This evidence we have seen mirrors the testimonies i have heard and the injuries i experienced when i went to work in the camps as a doctor. It is deeply upsetting, you have just seen the images. This is not going to be the first such a card that we see, more and more evidence like this is going to unfold and currently we have been bystanders to a genocide. These two reporters here, injail, they want the story out there . Lets be very clear, this evidence marks a turning point, because for the First Time Since this all started to unfold in august, we have heard from the perpetrators themselves. We cannot deny this evidence. What does that tell us about what might move and change and also, what the burmese government said . To the deepest so far has been that it has been turned ethnic cleansing, which is not a crime at all. Nothing short of referral to the International Criminal court will do. But actually from this statement they have made the night, they do not deny that will stop surely that is a step forward. Frankly, i have very little trust in what their government says. They conducted internal investigation yesterday that yielded results that said. Even the fact that for the first time they acknowledged the atrocities that have taken place, that there are problems, that in itself is surely you will press forward on . Absolutely. You are correct, but i think the acknowledgement is important but it has to be followed up and properly investigated and they need to allow external International Investigator to come and look at this because it needs a referral to the International Criminal court. This will not be the only grave found. Even last weekend we heard evidence of genocide. We have heard of mass graves where people have been systematically dehumanised by the use of acid, the very definition of genocide. Over the last few months the International Reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi has altered immeasurably, and if this is the case, this will change it again. What will happen do you think . I want Aung San Suu Kyi to use the position she has to allow for the correct thing to happen, this has to be investigated properly. She has called it a fake news, she has been a bystander, our government also has to apply more pressure. We have a seat at the security council, were not doing enough, the International Community needs to stand together, stand up and say, look, we have seen this evidence, the army had admitted itself, what is Aung San Suu Kyi going to do about it . Lets have a transparent process of investigating this and make sure the perpetrators of these he describes are brought to justice. Thank you very much. Us officials have said tonight that two british men believed to be members of the Islamic State groups most infamous cell have been seized by Syrian Kurdish fighters. Alexanda kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were the last two members of the four man cell nicknamed the beatles to remain at large. The alleged ringleader of the group was Mohammed Emwazi also known asjihadi john. Im joined by the bbcs security correspondent, gordon corera. This news broke this evening, british officials are not yet confirmed it but an American National security official i spoke to said that these two men had been captured. They were part of this four man group, slightly unpleasantly called the beatles really pulls the people they were holding hostage could not see them because they wore masks but they could hear the british accents of the men and they were involved terrible mistreatment including the killing of around two dozen hostages including british aid workers alan henning and david heyes. The group were sought by the intelligence agencies and authorities, one, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed, another is in jail in turkey and now these two captured by Kurdish Forces who had their suspicions about the men and approached Us Special Operations command who had access to them and appear to have used biometrics to confirm their identity and that happened in mid january. And taking them alive was important but what happens next and what does it tell us about foreign fighters . What happens next is interesting. There will be people in the us who will be preparing a case to put them on trial, they had been involved in the killing of american hostages Steven Sotloff and james foley amongst others, and it is possible the Trump Administration might want to put them in guantanamo bay. That is less likely but donald trump has talked about it recently. It might not be such an issue for the uk government because it is thought possible that there are citizenship may have been stripped of them, that has not been confirmed but reported in the american media. A significant night. Certainly. Thank you very much. Local councils all over england are using words like severe financial challenges and a grave financialfuture. Such is the squeeze on local finances and most importantly for the government, some of the biggest calamity is in staunchly tory territory. Services at risk are everything from social care to education to refuse collection. Research carried out by the local Government Information Unit and the municipaljournal found that 80 of councils fear for their balance sheets. Council tax will rise in 95 of authorities. The research comes as conservative run Northamptonshire County Council imposed emergency controls on its spending, the first local authority in 20 years to resort to that measure, and there are calls in councils across the country for a fundamental redesign of the financial system. Our political editor, nick watt, has been to another tory heartland facing the squeeze. In one of the leafiest corners of englands pleasant pastures, the troubles of austerity should be a world away. But true blue surrey has run up the deficit to rival the shortfall in the nations books clocked up at the end of the new labour era. I am on the wentworth estate, the millionaires row of surrey. This area was once home to sir eltonjohn and for a period to the late general Augusto Pinochet and it lies in the heart of chancellor Philip Hammonds runnymede and weybridge constituency which is one of the most affluent in britain. And yet the challenges faced across the country of an ageing population and spending cuts are leaving this area with some serious fiscal challenges. Surrey county council is warning of the most difficult financial crisis in its history. As document showed it is running a £105 million deficit. That represent a funding gap of 12. 4 , nearly double the english average. Of course its not but since 2010 when David Cameron became Prime Minister surrey has lost over £500 million of funding and it has meant that most of the police stations in surrey have been closed, apart from four or and now they are starting to close fire stations. One minister complained to me that surrey faced two specific financial challenges. In the first place it spends a lot of money on Public Services which this minister supports but secondly its relative wealth means that surrey has faced what he described as stingy financial settlement from whitehall under a funding formula that target resources at less affluent areas. I worked for the cab and i see all the problems that come on with lack of social care. I dont blame councils. They are being starved for cash by the government. We have both had experience with our mothers in social care, in the midlands and down here, and i must admit the social care was better in the midlands. Surrey might appear to be a very affluent county but it does not mean to say that it has wonderful hospitals. Surrey have been seeking additional government money for quite some time and obviously that is a process of negotiation between surrey and the government but clearly i have some sympathy for them because of their ageing demographics. But there is a large number of other services that Surrey County council provide that have to be looked at very carefully to make sure they are structured in the best way to get the best value for money. Surrey county council said in a statement, we have agreed a three year b