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by Stanislaw WASZAK Agence France-Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Germany’s president on Wednesday sought pardon for crimes committed by Germans during World War II in comments on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising anniversary in Poland’s capital. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first German president to speak at the commemorations, joined Polish and Israeli heads of state to mark 80 years since a doomed uprising by Jewish insurgents against Nazi German occupiers. “I stand before you today and ask […]
by Bernard Osser with Michael Blum in Jerusalem Agence France-Presse WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Death, terror, hunger… Eighty years after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a couple of civilian survivors speak out about what the Nazi Germans put their community through. The two women were among the 50,000 people still hiding in cellars and bunkers in the Jewish district when the doomed revolt broke out against the occupiers. “I sensed burning all around me,” said Krystyna […]
by Jalees ANDRABI Agence France-Presse MEERUT, India (AFP) — Hindu fundamentalist Ashok Sharma has devoted his life to championing the deeds of an Indian “patriot”: not revered independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, but the man who shot him dead. Sharma is the custodian of a temple dedicated to Nathuram Godse, who 75 years ago this Monday on January 30, 1948, gunned down a figure celebrated the world over as an apostle of non-violent struggle. For generations, […]
by Jan HENNOP Agence France-Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologized for 250 years of the Netherlands’ involvement in slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity”. The apology comes almost 150 years after the end of slavery in the European country’s overseas colonies, which included Suriname in South America, Indonesia in the east and Caribbean islands such as Curacao and Aruba. In the first of the former […]
by Susan NJANJI Agence France-Presse ORANIA, South Africa (AFP) — From a distance, Orania looks like any other small town in rural South Africa. But once inside, the visitor is struck by an obvious difference. Everyone here is white. And in a country where menial work in wealthy areas is typically done by blacks, whites here mop supermarket floors, wield leaf blowers and harvest the nuts on pecan farms. Orania is a whites-only town in […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Nuclear weapons present a “tangible and present crisis” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the mayor of Nagasaki said Tuesday, the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing that destroyed the Japanese city. On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki was flattened in an inferno that killed 74,000 people, three days after the world’s first nuclear bomb attack in Hiroshima. The twin strikes by the United States led to the end of World War II, […]
by Sara Hussein Agence France-Presse SADO, Japan (AFP) — Under a split-top mountain on the Japanese island of Sado lies a network of centuries-old mines that have sparked a new diplomatic row with South Korea. Some of the gold and silver mines of Sado, off Japan’s west coast, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II. Japan believes that lengthy history and the artisanal […]
MANILA , Philippines (AFP) — A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines, making it the world’s deepest shipwreck ever located, an American exploration team said. The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during a battle off the central island of Samar on October 25, 1944 as US forces fought to liberate the Philippines — then a US colony — […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A Rolex watch worn by a British prisoner during the real-life “Great Escape” from the Nazi Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp sold for $189,000 on Thursday in New York. The final sum for the timepiece, sold to an anonymous buyer, was less than the $200,000 and $400,000 expected by Christie’s. The watch was worn by Gerald Imeson on the night of March 24, 1944, when a group of Allied […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The return to Earth of three astronauts on Saturday after six months at China’s new space station marks a landmark step in the country’s space ambitions, ending its longest crewed mission ever. The world’s second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of eventually sending humans to the Moon. China has come a long way in catching up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts […]
by Jordane BERTRAND Agence France-Presse SAN JAVIER, Uruguay (AFP) – Far away from Kyiv and even further from Moscow, residents of the small Uruguayan village of San Javier — an old Russian settlement — look on with dismay at the invasion of Ukraine. At a first glance, the community’s grid plan, low houses and surrounding fields resembles any other rural Uruguayan village — but a scratch below the surface reveals the history of a site […]
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – Leading groups representing Holocaust survivors have condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the “denazification” of Ukraine was one reason he invaded the country. “The signatories of this appeal denounce the use of the words ‘denazification’ and ‘genocide’ to justify the attack on Ukraine,” reads the statement sent to AFP on Wednesday. “We cannot accept that these words are tarnished in this way,” it added. The statement was signed by representatives […]
