Historians: Dresden toll greatly exaggerated

The 1945 bombing of Dresden, long held up as an Allied war crime, likely killed far fewer Germans than has often been believed, a group of German scientists have concluded.

Local authorities after the end of the war estimated the number of dead in the Feb. 13-15, 1945, raids by British and American bombers to be around 25,000, but that figure was later inflated by several hundred thousand, to as many as 500,000.

Allied critics have claimed that the Dresden bombing constituted a war crime because it had no strategic aim since Germany was already close to defeat and the targets were civilian rather than military, according to The Telegraph.

US cotton production estimates reduced

Estimated US cotton production for 2010 has been lowered by nearly half a million bales, a move that comes as cotton prices remain at near-record levels.

The US Department of Agriculture has reduced its estimate for US cotton by 455,000 bales, to 18.4 million, due to lower expected yields for Texas, according to Southeast Farm Press. Nationwide, yields are expected to average 821 pounds per acre, up 44 pounds from last year, the publication added.

Cotton prices have skyrocketed this year, with futures prices topping $1.50 a pound. Over the past few days, cotton has backed off some from all-time highs reached earlier this month, but are still above $1.30 a pound.

Britain rejects pardon for Breaker Morant

The British Government has torpedoed an attempt to gain a royal pardon for Harry “Breaker” Morant, the Australian soldier who was shot along with fellow Lieutenant Peter Handcock for the summary execution of several Boer prisoners in 1902.

The death by firing squad of Morant and Handcock at the tail end of the Boer War was one of the most controversial events in Australia’s military history.

A third soldier, Lieutenant George Witton, also from the largely Australian Bushveldt Carbineers, was sentenced to death but that was commuted to life imprisonment and he was freed in 1904. He died in 1942.