Britain to pardon WW I deserters  Britain's Ministry of Defense
will grant pardons to 306 soldiers executed by the British army
for cowardice or desertion during World War I.  Defense
Secretary Des Browne said emergency legislation would be waiting
for parliament when it resumes in the fall to clear the names of
the Commonwealth soldiers who were executed, The Telegraph
reported.  The government faced several challenges to issue
pardons by the soldiers' survivors. One of the lawyers
representing a family praised the blanket pardon, saying his
client's grandfather "was very obviously suffering from a
condition we now would have no problem in diagnosing as post
traumatic stress disorder, or shell-shock, as it was known in
1916," The Telegraph said.  However, Correlli Barnett, a
military historian, disagreed with the government move, telling
The Telegraph: "It was done in a particular historical setting
and in a particular moral and social climate. It's pointless to
give these pardons. What's the use of a posthu