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Sir Martin Gilbert doesn’t rant. He doesn’t pound the table to hammer home this or that perceived parallel between the rise of the Nazis and that of Iran’s fundamentalist regime. He doesn’t raise his voice to suggest frustration at this or that failure to learn the lessons of history. He doesn’t even stridently insist that Iran’s agenda, and its march toward a nuclear capability, constitute a grave and serious threat. for more click here

Solemn ceremonies around Europe marked yesterday’s Holocaust Memorial Day. But 63 years after the liberation of Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, one of the most perfidious forms of contemporary anti-Semitism is Holocaust inversion — the portrayal of Israelis and Jews as modern-day Nazis. The charge is that Israel supposedly behaves toward the Palestinians as Germany did to the Jews in World War II. for more click here

Suicide bombers have traumatized the conscience of our nation. Instead of outright condemnation of the civil society, it is intellectually fashionable to draw moral equivalence holding poor social conditions as catalyst of these acts; it is poor judgment and disregard of history. Heartless assassins removed an icon of democracy and pluralism in Pakistan, however, political expediency took over the better of national conscious, in a sorrowful display of politics over her dead body the nation imploded within. Her killers remain at large in the wilderness. Everyone else is blamed but the heartless ‘extremists’ who extinguish her life in prime. Their congratulatory messages are denied as fabricated, their blood lust is dismissed as response to global aggressions. The vendetta of bloodletting continues as the terrorists cherry pick their choicest victims. Imagine their delight, for killing BB they remain scotfree plus have been able to create enough confusion to get the entire administration in a murky water. Conspiracy theory have finally matured to become part of national psyche. for more click here

Sir Edmund Hillary, who made a historic first ascent of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, has died aged 88.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing. for more click here

It starts like any other young woman’s diary - with a description of hobbies, a first boyfriend, schoolmates and trips to the country - but it ends like few others. The final words are ‘the horror, the horror, the horror’. for more click here

History is what usually happens to somebody else, while you are quietly trying to get on with your own life. War, strife and famine, the rise and fall of nations, the follies and vanities of politicians - these are seldom milestones in our lives; they are more usually bookmarks, the co-ordinates by which we chart our own, less momentous journeys through our first job, marriage, the birth of a child, the passing of parents or friends. for more click here

The Lewis Chessmen, a set of carved pieces made in the 12th century and found hidden on a Scottish beach six centuries later, have become the subject of a cross-border repatriation row.

The Chessmen, fashioned out of walrus ivory and whale teeth, were found near Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the early 19th century. They are deemed to be one of the greatest artefacts ever found in Scotland. for more click here

The “Christmas truce” is a term used to describe several brief unofficial cessations of hostilities that occurred between German and British or French troops in World War I, particularly that with British troops stationed on the Western Front of World War I during Christmas 1914. In 1915 there was a similar Christmas truce between German and French troops, and during Easter 1916 a truce also existed on the Eastern Front. for more click here

BERLIN — Europe edged a step closer to full integration today with the removal of many of the region’s last internal border posts, a move that will entrust the European Union’s nine newest members with policing its eastern frontiers.

With a series of ceremonies across the continent, the nine countries on the EU’s eastern edge that joined the union in 2004 will take primary responsibility for screening many arrivals. European residents will be able to traverse most of the continent by road or sea without showing a passport or national ID card. for more click here

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of a group representing Germans forced out of eastern Europe after World War Two said on Sunday she was determined to go ahead with plans to open a Berlin centre on the expulsions despite objections from Poland.

Erika Steinbach, head of Germany’s League of Expellees and a figure of hate in Poland, said she welcomed a Polish idea to open a World War Two museum in the northern port city of Gdansk but insisted it was not a substitute for Germany’s own plans. for more click here