Friday 4 September 2009

( nr 226 ) 1948-1950 Volume VII Keesing's Contemporary Archives (est.1931) :
- "Operation Witchdoctor" by I.C.I. in August 1949 to experiment with "rain-making" in Tees Valley, UK conducted by RAF and Meteorological Office. Cloud 'seeding' was tried in Australia and North America in the preceeding two years.
- Persia: Tudeh Party is outlawed after attempted assasination of the Shah.
- Mr. Howard Bruce's allegation of misuse of Marshall Aid by Britain, Belgium and Holland, was followed by vindication of the three countries in "Scrap Metal" Inquiry. Allegations were made that Marshall Aid Funds were used to buy aluminium and lead and resell it to US firms as scrap metal.
- Hungary: Treason and Sabotage Trials, Death Sentences against M. Csornoky and M.Papp, Trials of Ministry of Agriculture Officials, Sentence against Dr. Varannai for "Slanderous Messages".
- Israel: General Elections on Jan 25, 1949 [corr. from 1948] were contested by seventeen parties, many of them minor groups. The major parties were: Labour Party (Mapai), Socialist Workers' Party (Mapam), United Religious Party, "Freedom Movement" (Heruth), General Zionists, Progressives, Sephardic Party and Communists.
-------------------------------------------------
Today's papers have one headline. The Times "The horror of Edlington": two brothers aged 10 and 12 "pleaded guilty to robbing, sexually abusing and intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to their victims, aged 9 and 11, during a pre-planned attack of extreme and sadistic violence that has drawn parallels with the murder of James Bulger". Edlington is a mining village in South Yorkshire.
-----------------------
14:30