http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOe5uYFcXzY

Giles MacDonogh is a bon viveur and a historian of wine and gastronomy, but in this book, pursuing his other consuming interest – German history – he serves a dish to turn the strongest of stomachs. It makes particularly uncomfortable reading for those who compare the disastrous occupation of Iraq unfavourably to the post-war settlement of Germany and Austria.

MacDonogh argues that the months that followed May 1945 brought no peace to the shattered skeleton of Hitler’s Reich, but suffering even worse than the destruction wrought by the war. After the atrocities that the Nazis had visited on Europe, some degree of justified vengeance by their victims was inevitable, but the appalling bestialities that MacDonogh documents so soberly went far beyond that. The first 200 pages of his brave book are an almost unbearable chronicle of human suffering.

His best estimate is that some three million Germans died unnecessarily after the official end of hostilities. A million soldiers vanished before they could creep back to the holes that had been their homes. The majority of them died in Soviet captivity (of the 90,000 who surrendered at Stalingrad, only 5,000 eventually came home) but, shamingly, many thousands perished as prisoners of the Anglo-Americans. Herded into cages along the Rhine, with no shelter and very little food, they dropped like flies. Others, more fortunate, toiled as slave labour in a score of Allied countries, often for years. Incredibly, some Germans were still being held in Russia as late as 1979.

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Hundreds of African migrants landed on Spain’s Canary Islands on Monday, bringing to at least 800 the number who have landed there since Thursday.

The Spanish Interior Ministry says the immigrants, mostly young men from Gambia, Guinea and Senegal, arrived in five boats.

Last year, more than 30,000 illegal immigrants landed on the islands.

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[But they cannot go into Darfur?-ed]

Nato is considering deploying sea-borne rapid-reaction forces to help private oil firms such as BP, one of its senior officials has announced.

Jamie Shea, director of policy planning in the office of Nato’s secretary-general, said the proposal may mean sending Nato forces to Africa, Asia and the Middle East to protect oil companies’ facilities.

“In Nato, we are looking very actively at using our maritime resources,” Shea told a conference in London on Monday. He said Nato wanted to “see how we can link up with oil companies”.

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Indian leaders in Brazil have reacted angrily to comments by Pope Benedict that they had been purified by the Roman Catholic church since Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492.

In a speech to bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil on Sunday, Benedict said indigenous people of the Americas had welcomed European priests after conquest.

“It’s arrogant and disrespectful to consider our cultural heritage secondary to theirs,” said Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, chief co-ordinator of Coiab, an Amazon Indian group.

The pope had said the peoples of the Americas had a “silent longing” for Christianity and welcomed European priests’ arrival.

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To get ahead, get an accent. The lilt of Scottish and southern Irish voices are much more attractive than the Queen’s finest English.

In a boost to Gordon Brown and the Scottish and Irish diaspora, new research to find out what accents people like – and dislike – most has found that the English are losers.

English spoken with southern Irish, Scottish and New Zealand accents are the most popular, while English spoken with Black Country, German, Asian and Liverpool accents were the least popular.

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Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of “electronic smog”.

They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools.

Originally promised three years ago, and then shelved, the review follows articles in The Independent on Sunday about possible effects of the radiation on children and bees. The Government will take account of new scientific and medical evidence, and consult experts and campaigners, as part of a wider review of planning guidelines which ministers send to local authorities.

More than 47,000 “base stations”, like masts, have already been erected in Britain to service its 50 million mobile phones, often in defiance of intense local public opposition. Successive governments have made extraordinary concessions to the companies to ensure that coverage was rolled out across the country as quickly as possible.

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In the early hours of 1 January , 17-year-old Andrew Farrugia was waiting near a taxi rank with friends in the NSW rural town of Griffith when he was accosted by two young Aboriginal thugs spoiling for a fight with a white person.

After repeatedly taunting Andrew Farrugia, one of the Aboriginal youths grabbed him by the shirt and head-butted him twice. Then the other brave thug king hit him.

A number of the witnesses described the sound of the punch as making a cracking sound. According to police, Andrew became unsteady on his feet and friends took him to the road where he collapsed. As Andrew lay dying, one of the black thugs boasted, “this is how we roll around here”.

In the extensive media coverage of the brutal murder there was no mention of a racist attack. In fact the media, with exception of an opinion piece by journalist Paul Sheehan ( one of the few Australian journalists not in the grip of political correctness), did not even mention that the perpetrators were Aboriginal.

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The British National Party has experienced a dramatic increase in support, and nationally polled about 14% of the vote in last week’s elections, according to Labour Party MP Jon Cruddas, a deputy leadership candidate for that party.

Speaking at a rally in Trafalgar Square, Cruddas said that “the BNP achieved very significant levels of support in some parts of the country, polling in excess of 27% of the votes cast in the wards they contested in Stoke-on-Trent and close to a quarter of the votes in Rotherham, Burnley, Sandwell and Thurrock. An extra 2,500 votes in North Wales would have seen the BNP gain a seat in the Welsh Assembly.”

The BNP polled an average 14% to 15% of the result nationally after fielding 743 candidates in district and borough council wards and over 130 candidates in Welsh, Scottish and parish council elections.

The Labour Party MP said the results “are especially worrying given evidence that the BNP did not actively campaign in many areas.”

“The BNP stood more candidates in last week’s elections than they had members just a few years ago and despite the fact they actively campaigned in only a handful of wards, they have polled consistently around 15% of the vote.

“We have to accept that something palpable is happening here. The BNP is tapping into people’s latent fears and disillusionment with the mainstream parties. The fact that the BNP achieved these levels of support despite the fact that the vast majority were paper candidates who did not put out a single leaflet or knock on a single door is particularly worrying.”

“There must be no complacency. The BNP are on course to win seats on the Greater London Assembly and several Members of the European Parliament. If they achieve this then they have broken into the mainstream,” he said.

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