'Comfort women': Japan and South Korea hail agreement

The leaders of Japan and South Korea have welcomed the agreement between their two countries to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two.

Activists for comfort women erected a statue of a girl which they call a "peace monument" outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011

Japan has apologised and will pay 1bn yen ($8.3m; £5.6m) - the amount South Korea asked for - to fund victims.Estimates suggest up to 200,000 women were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WW2, many of them Korean. Other women came from China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.The issue has been the key cause of strained relations between Japan and South Korea.

Only 46 former "comfort women" are still alive in South Korea.

Lee Ok Seon: "I was forced to have sex with many men each day"

The agreement came after Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met his counterpart Yun Byung-se in Seoul, following moves to speed up talks.

Later Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe phoned South Korean President Park Geun-hye to repeat an apology already offered by Mr Kishida.

"Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era," Mr Abe told reporters afterwards. "We should not drag this problem into the next generation."

Ms Park issued a separate statement, saying a deal had been urgently needed - given the advanced age of most of the victims.

"Nine died this year alone," she said. "I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased."

Comfort Women, rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, August 2011

Japan-South Korea 'comfort women' deal

• Japan will give 1bn yen to a fund for the elderly comfort women, which the South Korean government will administer
• The money also comes with an apology by Japan's prime minister and the acceptance of "deep responsibility" for the issue
• South Korea says it will consider the matter resolved "finally and irreversibly" if Japan fulfils its promises
• South Korea will also look into removing a statue symbolising comfort women, which activists erected outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011
• Both sides have agreed to refrain from criticising each other on this issue in the international community

From BBC 

Children and the cost of conflict - Explained in 60 seconds

About 16 million children were born into conflict in 2015, Children in Need says. Children bear much of the brunt of global conflict, particularly in places like Syria. (BBC news)

Children are among the most unprotected people, so they're the most innocent victims of stupidity. In the 21st century and after so many great things achieved by humanity, how can war still be faced as a solution?

Battle of Britain: Flypast for 75th anniversary of 'Hardest Day'

Aircraft including 18 Spitfires and six Hurricanes have flown over south-east England to mark 75 years since the Battle of Britain's "Hardest Day".

The event recalled 18 August 1940, when Bromley's Biggin Hill and other South East military bases came under attack from the German Luftwaffe.

It became known as the "hardest day" as both sides recorded their greatest loss of aircraft during the battle.

The Battle of Britain lasted throughout the summer of 1940.

The special commemoration honoured the pilots engaged in the 1940 battle

The day was marked with three flight formations

Marking the 75th anniversary of the 'Hardest Day'

Live updates

The Luftwaffe flew 850 sorties, involving 2,200 aircrew, while the RAF resisted with 927 sorties, involving 600 aircrew. The RAF and German Air Force lost 136 aircraft in one day.

The special commemoration, staged from the former RAF airfield at Biggin Hill, now a commercial airport, honours the pilots, engineers, armourers, operations staff and ground crews who faced attack that day.

Battle of Britain

July to October 1940

1,023

aircraft lost by RAF

1,887

aircraft lost by Luftwaffe

• 3,000 aircrew served with RAF Fighter Command
• 20% were from the British Dominions and occupied European or neutral countries
• 544 RAF Fighter Command pilots were killed
• 2,500 Luftwaffe aircrew were killed

Source: RAF

More than 3,000 spectators went to Biggin Hill to see the aircraft including squadron leader Tony Pickering who flew on the "Hardest Day".

He said: "I don't think I was ever afraid. You've got to make sure you don't get too enthusiastic. You couldn't take on the German air force by yourself.

"It's lovely to see these aircraft. Beautifully designed aircraft and there's no doubt about it. The people who made them... they did a good job."

The day was marked with three flight formations, which took off from the airport at 13:00 BST:

• Grice flight: Eight aircraft will head south and west to fly over Surrey and West Sussex to the Solent, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and return via Dunsfold
• Mortimer flight: Eight aircraft will head over Eynsford, Chelsfield, Detling, Farningham, Downe and RAF Kenley
• Hamlyn flight: Eight aircraft will fly over Sevenoaks, Yalding, Ashford and the former RAF Hawkinge, with a special salute over the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-Le-Ferne on the white cliffs of Dover

On 10 July, aircraft including Hurricanes and Typhoons took part in a flypast over Buckingham Palace as part of the 75th anniversary. (BBC NEWS)

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Nagasaki atomic bomb marked in Japan 70 years on

Nagasaki

               Before the bomb                After the bomb

Nagasaki survivor: 'Skin like a rag'

A survivor of the Nagasaki bombing has been telling his story at a ceremony to mark its 70th anniversary.

Sumiteru Taniguchi, now 86, was out on his bike working as a postman when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

At least 70,000 people died in the attack, which came three days after another bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Memorial services have been taking place to commemorate the day.

From BBC News

Hiroshima remembered as lanterns light up the night

Residents in the Japanese city of Hiroshima are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped by a US aircraft.

People across the country observed a minute's silence at the exact time an American aircraft dropped the bomb in 1945.

As dusk fell in Hiroshima, the ceremonies culminated with the release of thousands of colourful paper lanterns on the Motoyasu river. (BBC News)

The tram that survived the Hiroshima bomb

One of the few remaining trams which survived the Hiroshima bomb has been restored to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the attack.

It has been repainted its original colours - blue and grey - and has video testimony from survivors on board.

After the blast, the city's tram system was back up and running in only three days. (BBC News)

Tetsushi Yonezawa was one of only 14 people to live after being within 750m of the hypocentre of the explosion that took place nearly 70 years ago

Now in their 70s and 80s, the survivors have given a unique insight into what happened on that day for a new ITV documentary, The Day They Dropped The Bomb, some of them speaking for the first time on British television.

Tetsushi Yonezawa, is one of only 14 people to live after being within 750m of the hypocentre of the explosion, 

Now 80, Tetsushi recalled how he was an 11-year-old, packed on a tram with his mother when the bomb hit.

All other passengers on the tram died but Tetsushi and his mother survived because they were wedged in by other travellers whose bodies protected them from the blast.

He said: 'My mother and I were surrounded by people so we were uninjured. I knocked my head and got shards of glass in my hair but at that time I didn't notice them.' 

Takashi Tanemori, 76,  was a seven-year-old who was running around and playing with his friends

when his life changed forever.

The bomb was the first atomic weapon and wiped out the historic city when it struck Hiroshima on August, 6, 1945, leaving the famous mushroom cloud (pictured)

'The whole of Hiroshima has been annihilated' was how communications operative Yoshie Oka communicated the events to the army. A survivor is pictured surveying remains his home town

From

Bergen-Belsen liberated 70 years ago

British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany - where around 70,000 people died during the Holocaust - 70 years ago.

The 15-year-old Anne Frank - made famous by her diary - was among the thousands to die there from typhus, just a few months before the camp was liberated.

Graham Satchell has been speaking Gena Turgel, one of the few remaining survivors rescued from the camp.

From BBC News

Bergen-Belsen began as a prison camp for captured prisoners of war. It was not like Auschwitz where numerous gas chambers killed thousands everyday. But Bergen-Belsen was no less cruel or horrifying. Most died at Bergen-Belsen from being shot, hung, starved to death, or killed by disease. This camp did not fit the standard organization of a concentration camp. It had several camps that segregated the prisoners. Camp officials even traded important prisoners, including Jews, in exchange for money from different governments. Bergen-Belsen was unique in many ways, but it was still a camp where thousands suffered and died under the harsh hand of Nazi leadership.

In the winter of 1944-1945, the situation at Bergen-Belsen deteriorates. There is little or no food and the sanitary conditions are dreadful. Many of the prisoners become ill.

 . Margot and Anne Frank come down with typhus. They both die just a few weeks before the camp is liberated.

 .Janny Brilleslijper witnesses their deaths: "First Margot had fallen out of bed onto the stone floor. She couldn't get up anymore. Anne died a day later."

From http://isurvived.org/Bergen-Belsen_liberation.html

Islamic State 'destroys ancient statues in Iraq'

How further can this go? How will the future generations face the destruction of such important historic art? Who will they blame?

There has been strong condemnation of the destruction of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq.

Officials say Islamic State fighters have demolished, looted and bulldozed the city, which dates back to the 13th Century BC.

Jihadi militants have previously released videos of themselves destroying artefacts and statues of great archaeological importance in the city of Mosul.
 

IS says ancient shrines and statues are "false idols"

Archaeologists and officials have expressed outrage about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by Islamic State militants in Iraq.

IS began demolishing the site, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, on Thursday, according to Iraqi officials.

The head of the UN's cultural agency condemned the "systematic" destruction in Iraq as a "war crime".

IS, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, says shrines and statues are "false idols" that have to be smashed.

"They are erasing our history," said Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani.

Nimrud (pictured) lies just south-east of Mosul, which IS controls

Remarkable bas-reliefs, ivories and sculptures have been discovered in Nimrud

Some Nimrud artefacts have been moved - such as these statues now housed in Baghdad

Nimrud lies on the Tigris river, about 30km (18 miles) south-east of Mosul, which IS controls.

Many of the artefacts found there have been moved to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but many remain on site.

BBC Middle East correspondent Jim Muir says the attempt to destroy Nimrud is already being compared with the Taliban's demolition of theBamiyan Buddha rock sculptures in Afghanistan in 2001.

As well as destroying artefacts, Islamic State also trades in them - and the trade is one of its key sources of revenue.

'Levelled'

IS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the tourism and antiquities ministry said on Thursday.

It said the militants continued to "defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity", calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss how to protect cultural heritage in Iraq.

Nimrud covers a large area, and it is not yet clear whether it has been totally destroyed, our correspondent says.

But a local tribal source told Reuters news agency: "Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground.

"There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely."

From BBC News

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70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp

On the 27th January 1945, the soviet troops discovered horrific scenes  at one of the many Nazi death camps and one of the most feared - Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland

It was where, in occupied Poland between 1940-45, Nazi Germany murdered one million men, women and children simply for being Jews.

This photograph was taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau by Alexander Vorontsov, a Soviet photographer who accompanied the soldiers of the Red Army when they liberated the camp on 27 January 1945. 

Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I (the original camp), Auschwitz II–Birkenau (a combination concentration/extermination camp),Auschwitz III–Monowitz (a labor camp to staff an IG Farben factory), and 45 satellite camps.Auschwitz I was first constructed to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in May 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, and Auschwitz II–Birkenau went on to become a major site of the Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish question". From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over German-occupied Europe, where they were killed with the pesticide Zyklon B. At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz, around 90 percent of them Jewish; approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in the Holocaust died at the camp. Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses,homosexuals, and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments.

In the course of the war, the camp was staffed by 6,500 to 7,000 members of the German Schutzstaffel (SS), approximately 15 percent of whom were later convicted of war crimes. Some, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. The Allied Powers refused to believe early reports of the atrocities at the camp, and their failure to bomb the camp or its railways remains controversial. One hundred and forty-four prisoners are known to have escaped from Auschwitz successfully, and on October 7, 1944, two Sonderkommando units—prisoners assigned to staff the gas chambers—launched a brief, unsuccessful uprising.

As Soviet troops approached Auschwitz in January 1945, most of its population was evacuated and sent on  a death march. The prisoners remaining at the camp were liberated on January 27, 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the following decades, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded a museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
in Wikipedia

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The History behind the Berlin Wall 25 years after it was knocked down

  What was the Berlin Wall?

The Berlin Wall split Europe in two and divided the German city of Berlin for almost 30 years.

It was constructed over night, much to the surprise of people either side of it, and stopped people moving from one part of the city to the other.

It was eventually knocked down in 1989 and to mark the 25th anniversary of that historic event here's a CBBC newsround guide to what it was, how it was built and the effect it had on people's lives.

Why was the Berlin Wall built?

At the end of World War Two Germany surrendered to the Allies, a group of Western countries including Britain, America, France and the Soviet Union (a collection of Eastern European countries run by Russia).

 A soldier hoists a Soviet Union flag over Berlin in 1945

The Allies decided to divide control of Germany between themselves and so each took responsibility for a different part of the country. Britain, America and France took over the areas in the west of Germany and the Soviet Union controlled the east.

Berlin was in the Soviet zone but as the capital of Germany it was decided that it would also be divided into four areas, one controlled by each of the four countries.

Tension and division

It soon became clear that the Soviet Union had very different ideas to the others about how their section should be run.

By 1949 Germany had become two separate countries - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), run by Britain, America and France, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), run by the Soviet Union.

Europe was divided after World War Two

West Germany was run in a similar way to how Britain and America is today with people free to move around, listen to whatever music they liked and express their opinions.

East Germany was much stricter with tight rules on how people should behave and a police force that monitored what they did.

As the years went on thousands of people a day were escaping from East Germany to the West and that was the main reason the Berlin Wall was built.

How was it built?

In 1961 the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, ordered that a wall be built between East and West Berlin to stop people leaving.

It was constructed really quickly overnight on the 13 August so many people woke up to find they were trapped on one side, often separated from their friends and family in the West.

High boards hid the work as East German troops built the wall

The wall covered all the land in a line between East and West Berlin so there was nowhere for people to cross.

It was originally a 96 mile barbed wire fence but was later rebuilt because people were able to climb over it.

How big was it?

The finished wall was made up of a 66 mile concrete section that was 3.6 metres high, with a further 41 miles worth of wire fencing and more than 300 look out points along it, manned by guards to stop anyone crossing.

The wall was 12 feet high and 96 miles long

The wall became a symbol of the division in Europe between the west and the east and was called the 'iron curtain'.

Soviet Union leaders said it was a protective shell but Britain, American and France saw it as a prison which stopped people leaving the east.

What was life like?

Around 5,000 people tried to escape over the wall but it was very difficult and dangerous.

It is thought more than 100 people were killed trying to cross the Wall in the 29 years between 1961 and 1989.

Life for people in East Berlin was difficult. People who had previously worked in West Berlin lost their jobs.

They were also separated from friends and family.

What happened to the wall?

In the 1980s revolutions against the way the Soviet Union controlled lots of countries in Eastern Europe started to take place.

People in the east wanted more freedom to go where they wanted, listen to whatever music they liked and voice their opinions freely.

People climbed over the wall when authorities said it would be taken down

As part of these protests people in East Germany began demanding that they be allowed out. After hundreds of East Germans escaped via neighbouring countries like Hungary and Czechoslovakia the government in East Berlin found it increasingly hard to stop the calls for people to be allowed to cross into West Germany.

On 9 November the leader of East Germany gave a TV speech where he said the border between east and west would be opened immediately.

Thousands of people from East Germany went to the wall and demanded the guards open the gates. At about 10.45 at night they did just that and thousands of people crossed over to West Germany for the first time in their lives.

Celebrations

Hundreds of West German people were waiting for them and celebrated the historic moment, some even danced on top of the wall.

The date on which the Wall "fell" is considered to have been 9 November 1989, but the whole wall was not torn down immediately.

Over the following weeks, many people started to smash it down with sledge hammers and took pieces of the Wall to keep because it had become so symbolic.

The government finally destroyed the Wall in 1990 although parts of it have been left for people to see today.

Berlin Wall can still be seen at the memorial site in Bernauer Strasse in Berlin

Discussions between East and West Germany also started in 1990 about reuniting to become one country again and that is the Germany we know today.

From CBBC Newsround

Engineer secretly saved London from World War Two floods

An engineer secretly saved London from drowning more than 100 times during World War Two.

Sir Thomas Pierson Frank secretly fixed flood defences along the Thames which had been damaged by intense bombing raids.

Gustav Milne, an archaeologist from the Museum of London, and Clive Cockerton from the Institution of Civil Engineers describe what he did.

Footage courtesy of Pathe and the Institution of Civil Engineers.

A disused Second World War bunker large enough to accommodate up to 8,000 people is being let by Transport for London.

The deep-level air-raid shelter lies 100 feet below ground in south London, and is one of eight built beneath the capital during the war.

Newsnight's Stephen Smith arranged a viewing.

From BBC News