Breivik: le procès attire des extrémistes
LE FIGARO: Une dizaine d'extrémistes de droite ont été repérés à proximité du tribunal d'Oslo depuis l'ouverture lundi du procès d'Anders Behring Breivik pour le massacre de 77 personnes l'été dernier en Norvège.

Au total, "une dizaine de personnes ont été écartées" de la zone de sécurité entourant le palais de justice de la capitale norvégienne, a déclaré Kjell Jan Kvarme, l'officier de police en charge des opérations, à la télévision publique NRK. Selon lui, ces personnes "ont été écartées avant d'être en position de représenter une menace" éventuelle.

Aujourd'hui, "un ancien néonazi connu" a été vu aux abords immédiats du palais de justice, au coeur d'Oslo. "Il est parti de lui-même", avant d'expliquer plus tard à la police qu'il s'était approché du lieu "par curiosité", selon l'officier. » | AFP | jeudi 19 avril 2012

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Breivik Resumes ‘Gruesome’ Attacks Testimony in Oslo

BBC: Anders Behring Breivik has admitted he "cannot conceive" what it is like for others to consider his "gruesome" acts, as his trial continues in Oslo.

He is on trial for killing 77 people and will be questioned over his gun rampage on Utoeya island, where the majority of his victims died.

Breivik, who admits the killings but denies criminal responsibility, again avoided his previous right-wing salute.

He says his targets were those responsible for "multiculturalism".

So far Breivik has provided a detailed account of the preparation and motivation for the attacks, when he car-bombed government buildings in Oslo, killing eight, and then drove to Utoeya island to shoot participants in a Labour Party youth camp, killing 69.

On Thursday, he horrified watching survivors and relatives of victims when he pledged he would do the same again.

But in his initial questioning on Friday, he said he "absolutely" understood why these were "exacting things for people to hear".

"It's about gruesome, barbaric acts and I cannot even start to conceive what it is like for others," he said.

"And I think I would not be able to carry out the court and police interviews. I have tried to de-emotionalise myself from this. I use a more technical language. If I did not, I do not think I would be able to talk about this at all." » | Friday, April 20, 2012

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Deposed Maldives President Says Coup Has Fueled Radical Islam

THE WASHINGTON POST: NEW DELHI — Saying he was saddened and shocked by the speed with which his friends in Washington had abandoned him, the former president of Maldives warned Thursday that radical Islam has gained ground across the sprawling Indian Ocean archipelago since he was deposed in February.

Mohamed Nasheed won the presidency in Maldives’s first multiparty elections in 2008, after a lifetime advocating democracy and human rights and several long stints in jail.

Less than three years later, he was forced to resign by an angry mob of police officers and soldiers, in what he says was a coup engineered by his autocratic predecessor.

“We have to have an election,” he said in an interview while visiting the Indian capital, New Delhi. “In the absence of that, Islamic radicals are gaining strength in the Maldives.”

The chain of 2,000 islands is best known for its plush resorts, its scuba diving and its reputation as an upmarket honeymoon destination. But away from the tourist atolls, adherence to Islam is compulsory, alcohol is banned, and the conservative Saudi Arabian strand of Islam known as Wahhabism has been expanding its reach for decades. Read on and comment » | Simon Denyer | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Anders Behring Breivik Planned to Film Beheading of Former Prime Minister

THE GUARDIAN: • Gro Harlem Brundtland visited Utøya just before massacre • Anti-Muslim fanatic had planned to set off three car bombs

Anders Behring Breivik has told a court that his "primary target" in last year's terrorist attacks was a former prime minister whom he planned to behead, posting the footage on the internet – and that he anticipated all 564 people on Utøya would die in his "operation".

Giving evidence on the fourth day of his trial, the 33-year-old said he would have preferred to carry out three bomb attacks rather than target Utøya, where the Norwegian Labour party was holding its annual youth summer camp on 22 July last year. In the end, he went on the rampage on the island after planting one bomb in Oslo's government district, killing eight people.

Breivik claimed he was "forced" to carry out the massacre on the island, which left 69 dead, because Norwegian and EU regulations had made it difficult to acquire sufficient bomb-making equipment.

Bombing was much easier on the emotions than pulling a gun trigger, he said. "It's easy to press a button and detonate a bomb. It's very, very difficult to carry out something as barbaric as a firearm-based action."

To do so, he claimed, was not natural. "It is contrary to human nature to execute something like this," he said. "You have to work on yourself for a very long time to make yourself do this ... to hammer away at your emotions."

His original plan for the attack on Utøya was to time his arrival on the island with a visit from Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Labour prime minister of Norway. Breivik told the court he planned to handcuff her, before "decapitating" her using a bayonet on his rifle and then filming the execution on an iPhone.

"The plan was to chop her head off with [the bayonet] while reading a text and then upload the film to the internet," he said. Brundtland was his main target, said Breivik, adding that he nonetheless expected everyone else on the island to die. "The objective was not to kill 69 people on Utøya. The objective was to kill all of them," he said, explaining that he planned to scare the campers into the water. » | Helen Pidd | Oslo | Thursday, April 19, 2012

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Five Men with Alleged Links to EDL Arrested on Suspicion of Racial Hatred
THE INDEPENDENT: Five men believed to be linked to the far-right English Defence League have been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.

Police said that officers working with the North East Counter Terrorism Unit swooped to arrest the men, who are members of the North West Infidels – a splinter group of the EDL. The arrests are in connection to a series of alleged racist comments posted on social networking sites, including Facebook. » | Kevin Rawlinson | Thursday, April 19, 2012

EU Warns Switzerland Over Immigration Restrictions
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The EU has warned Switzerland that its decision to impose new restrictions immigrants from Eastern and Central European countries is in "breach" of a free movement treaty.

Switzerland, which is not an EU country, has a special agreement that allows Swiss people to benefit from Europe's open borders travel zone.

In return, the Swiss are supposed not to discriminate against immigrants from any EU country, with the exception of time-limited restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Tories Heading in the Wrong Direction, Says Lord Ashcroft

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Conservative party “is heading in the wrong direction” and does not know where it is going, party donor Lord Ashcroft has said.

The Tory peer said that the Government had so had its “most difficult month so far, and the voters have noticed”.

In an article on the Conservativehome website, Lord Ashcroft suggested that part of the problem was that the Government had lost its grip on events.

He said that if the drift was allowed to continue then the Tories would be punished at the next general election, expected in 2015.

He said: “The main problem is not so much that people think the Conservative Party is heading in the wrong direction, it is that they are not sure where it is heading. And that includes me.” » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Salafisten-Debatte stellt Islamkonferenz in den Schatten

Verwandt »

Holocaust Survivor on Memorial Day: 'I'm Sad for What We've Lost'
Ros Dayan describes her experience of the Nazis' persecution of Jews in Bulgaria and how she survived the Holocaust. Now living in Israel, she says she doesn't have enough money to buy food or clothes.

Ros is one of a growing proportion of Holocaust survivors in Israel who cannot make ends meet

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Italian Authorities Gagged Immigrants with Duct Tape While Deporting Them
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Italian authorities faced severe criticism on Thursday after it emerged that they gagged two North African immigrants with duct tape while deporting them.

A photograph of the two handcuffed Algerian men with their mouths bound with sticky tape was taken covertly by a passenger on the Alitalia flight from Rome to Tunis.

"In the seats at the back there were two men who were being escorted by four plainclothes police officers," Francesco Sperandeo, a film maker, wrote on his Facebook page, where he posted the photo.

"They had their mouths covered with hospital bandages. When one of the bandages dropped down, we saw that the man's mouth was bound with Scotch tape.

"We got up to protest but the officers said it was normal procedure." He was ordered to return to his seat, he said. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Audio of New Foul[-]mouthed Mel Gibson Rant Released
Mel Gibson has been recorded on tape in the midst of a foul-mouthed tirade as a Hollywood screenwriter who accused him of being anti-Semitic.
Read the article and listen to the rant here | Chris Irvine | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Kim Jong-il Calls for Peace with South Korea in 'Will'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: North Korea’s late leader Kim Jong-il has urged his nation from beyond the grave to aim for a peaceful reconciliation with the south in a document believed to be his will.

However, the leader, who died in December last year, also pressed North Korea to continue building its military and making weapons of mass destruction in order to maintain its power.

Extracts from Mr Kim’s final testament have reportedly been obtained by two think tanks in South Korea, highlighting his requested future legacy for the state as his son Kim Jong-un takes over at the helm.

The late Mr Kim requests North Korea to renounce war with its longstanding opponent South Korea, according to extracts obtained and made public by the Sejong Institute, a South Korean think-tank.

However, the alleged will also urges North Korea to wait in its pursuit of peace until a new leader comes to power in Seoul, with a reunification deemed impossible under the current regime of President Lee Myung-bak.

The document also emphasized Mr Lee’s belief that North Korea should try to avoid war due to the potential devastation it would cause, according to Kyodo News. » | Danielle Demetriou, Tokyo | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Anders Breivik's Trial

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Israel Remembers Holocaust Victims with Siren, Ceremonies
YNET NEWS: Two-minute siren sounds at 10 am in memory of six million Jews who perished in Holocaust; traditional memorial services held across country

A two-minute siren sounded across the country at 10 am Thursday in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

The siren kicked off memorial services nationwide, including a wreath-laying ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Museum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz were among the officials to lay wreaths in memory of the Nazis' victims.

Holocaust survivors lit memorial candles during a subsequent service held at the Knesset, under the title "Unto Every Person There is a Name."

During the service, Peres recounted the manner in which the Nazis dragged the Jews at the Polish village where his family resided into a wooden synagogue: "The gates were locked and they were burned alive. According to one testimony, a woman who remained called on the Jews to run. But they were all shot. No one survived."

Peres' told the attendees about the family he had lost in the Holocaust, and recalled the last words his grandfather told him: "Wherever you go, stay Jewish, no matter what misfortune befalls." » | Yair Altman, Shahar Chai | Thursday, April 19, 2012

YNET NEWS: Holocaust memory alive: Op-ed: As opposed to common perception, interest in Holocaust keeps growing worldwide » | Eitan Haber | Wednesday, April 18, 2012

THE HUFFINGTON POST: Holocaust Remembrance Day: Israel Honors 6 Million Victims Of Nazi Holocaust – JERUSALEM -- Israelis flocked to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Thursday to read the names of loved ones who perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, a rite that has become a centerpiece of the country's annual commemoration for the 6 million Jews killed in the genocide. ¶ The ceremony, known as "Every Person Has a Name," tries to go beyond the huge numbers to personalize the stories of individuals, families and communities destroyed during the war. » | Aron Heller | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Galloway: Our Politicians Need to Start Listening to the People

YAHOO!: Slowly and reluctantly, more and more commentators have had to acknowledge that the sensational Bradford West by-election result cannot be trivialised or put down to accidental factors.

If more had bothered to visit Bradford during the campaign, they would have been less taken aback by the result and not left floundering for an explanation.

Bradford has revealed the yawning gap between the cast-iron consensus shared by the old three parties over so many fundamental issues on the one hand, and the alienation of millions of people in Britain on the other. The leitmotif of the Bradford Spring was above all the cry for change, rather than the same old, same old. It was for a change in economic policy - not to the Labour frontbench's alternatives of savage cuts for tea rather than for breakfast, but to a strategy for growth, investment and jobs rather than forever putting the interests of the banks and bond markets first. It was for a reversal of over a decade of war and the threat of more war.

Those who claimed that calling for withdrawal from Afghanistan was somehow disreputable in an area where high unemployment has driven many into the armed forces and which has lost all too many in combat over the last few years clearly failed to appreciate the public mood. This war is unpopular - not only among those whose coreligionists are being killed in even greater numbers than British personnel, but among the public as a whole. And the succession of wars - Iraq, Afghanistan, the threat of war with Iran - has come to symbolise something deeper: that the political class, and sitting in the same echo chamber so much of the media, simply do not represent the feelings of most people over most things.

That was the most salient truth revealed in Bradford. No amount of promises to listen (while carrying on in the same old way) will bridge that gulf. It's not just that people want politicians to sound like they actually believe what they are saying - whether the audience fully agrees or not - it's also the message. » | George Galloway MP | Guest writer | Thursday, April 19, 2012

Is Trouble Brewing Between the UAE and Iran?
As Gulf states unite to take on Iran over disputed Gulf islands, we ask what this means for an already volatile region.

Groups Protest Against Bahrain's Formula One Race
Al Jazeera speaks to sources in Bahrain as protests continue to criticise the Gulf state's hosting of this weekend's Formula One race.

Files Reveal Persecution Under British Empire
Long forgotten secret documents from the final days of the British Empire have been made available to the public. The controversial records detail crimes committed during the dying days of the empire, including the persecution of people by the British. It has also emerged that thousands more documents have been destroyed. Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reports from London.

Anders Breivik's Alleged Links to Far-right Network under Scrutiny
Norwegian prosecutors have been pressing Anders Breivik, who has admitted killing 77 people last year, for details of the ultra-nationalist group he says he belongs to. Whether such a group actually exists is expected to be important in determining whether Breivik is sane. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from Oslo, Norway.

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Immigration Boom Under Labour Changed Face Of Britain Faster Than Any Major Country Except Italy, Oxford Experts Reveal

MAIL ONLINE:  Immigrant population soared by 22% during Labour's open door policy  During past two decades number of foreign-born residents has doubled  Only Italy - with rise of 44.6% over same period - recorded bigger rise  Watchdogs say figures show why it will be hard to reduce immigration

The immigration boom under Labour led to the face of Britain changing faster than any major nation except Italy, a study by an Oxford University think tank revealed.

During the five-year peak of the influx, the UK’s migrant population soared by 22 per cent – double the average of G8 countries, figures from the Migration Observatory show.

Over the past two decades, Britain’s foreign-born population has increased from 3.8million – or 7 per cent of the total population - in 1993 to almost 7million, or 12 per cent per cent in 2010.

During the same period, the number of foreign-born residents without British citizenship doubled from just under two million (4 per cent of the population) to over four million (7 per cent).

Net-migration – the number arrivals minus those leaving - increased from 564,000 during the five years from 1996-2000, to 923,000 in 2001-2005 and 1,044,000 during 2006-2010.

In 2010, net-migration reached 252,000, its highest level for a single calendar year on record. Read on and comment » | Julian Gavaghan | Thursday, April 19, 2012

My comment:

So why was the Queen asleep during all of this? Isn't the Queen supposed to offer advice and wise council to the sitting prime minister? – © Mark

This comment also appears here.