How One Nazi War Criminal’s Case Could Bring Others to Justice

Ending a trial that had dragged on for almost 18 months, a court in the south German city of Munich on Thursday convicted 91-year-old John Demjanjuk of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews at the Sobibor concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and sentenced him to five years in prison. The presiding judge, Ralph Alt, said the court found that Demjanjuk served as a Nazi guard at the camp in 1943 and, as such, played a crucial role in the “Nazi machinery.” The court sentenced Demjanjuk to five years in prison, and then set him free, saying he would not have to stay in jail pending his appeal — a decision that provoked a furious response from the families of Holocaust victims.

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Official: no survivors in Kaczynski plane crash

Official: no survivors in Kaczynski plane crash The governor of a Russian region where a plane carrying Poland’s president has crashed says there are no survivors. Smolensk governor Sergei Anufriev made the statement to state news channel Rossiya-24 about an hour after the Saturday crash. The Tu-154 plane crashed near the Smolensk airport, about 400 […]

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Bands want to know if their music was used on Gitmo detainees

Rock bands, including REM and Pearl Jam, want to know whether their music was played at the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a hard-hitting, wide-ranging speech Wednesday for a conservative gathering, Cheney targeted the administration’s decision-making process on how to proceed in Afghanistan, saying Obama has failed to give troops on the ground a clear mission or defined goals and appeared “afraid to make a decision.” “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” Cheney said at the Center for Security Policy

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Bolt wins again as Isinbayeva sets new record

Sprint king Usain Bolt overcame a slow start to beat fellow-Jamaican Asafa Powell in the 100 meters at the Golden League meeting in Zurich, while Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva banished her Berlin World Championships blues by setting a new world record of 5.06 metres. Bolt, who set new world records in both the 100m and 200m in the German capital, was trailing Powell with 25 meters to go before switching on the afterburners to ensure victory in a time of 9.81 seconds, with Powell 0.07 seconds behind.

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Semenya given rousing South African reception

New 800 meters world champion Caster Semenya received a rousing welcome after touching down in Johannesburg with her South African team-mates on Tuesday. The 18-year-old, who made global headlines last week after doubts were raised over her gender at the World Championships, was accompanied by the country’s two other medallists from Berlin — men’s 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and long-jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena. Thousands of supporters crammed the OR Tambo International Airport — waving placards, singing, dancing and simply hoping to catch a glimpse of the teenage heroine

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Soros: In revolutionary times the impossible becomes possible

From the mid-1980s, Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist George Soros pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into foundations in Eastern Europe dedicated to promoting the idea of the "open society" and challenging the region’s Soviet-backed regimes. Here, writing exclusively for CNN.com, he describes how the work of his foundations ultimately contributed to the collapse of communism. I set up my first foundation in Hungary in 1984.

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