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Norway mourns its dead
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Crash may dash China’s bullet train expansion plan
NATO planes bomb Tripoli
Six dead as man opens fire at birthday party in US
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Norway mourns its dead
Sundvollen, July 24 In his first comment via a lawyer since his arrest, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, said he wanted to explain himself at a court hearing on Monday about extending his custody. “He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary,” lawyer Geir Lippestad told independent TV2 news, adding that Breivik had admitted to Friday’s shootings at a Labour party youth camp and the bombing in Oslo’s government district earlier the same day. Oslo’s acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim confirmed to reporters that Breivik would be able to speak to the court. It was not clear whether the hearing would be closed or in public. “He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he’s not admitting criminal guilt,” Sponheim said, adding that Breivik had said he acted alone. The violenc has profoundly shocked the usually peaceful nation of 4.8 million. King Harald and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg were among mourners at a service in Oslo cathedral, where the premier spoke emotionally about the victims, some of whom he knew. “This represents a national tragedy,” he declared. Tearful people placed flowers and candles outside the cathedral. “We have left flowers today because the tragedy that has hit Norway and the whole world has made a big impression on us and we want to show our deepest sympathy,” said Trude-Mette, 43, who works in Oslo, as she and her children wept. Soldiers with guns and wearing bullet-proof vests blocked streets leading to the government district. The police said Breivik surrendered to armed officers when they arrived on the small island of Utoeya in a lake about 42 km northwest of Oslo after he had methodically shot dead at least 85 people, mostly teenagers and young adults attending a summer camp of the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labour Party. Police chief Sponheim confirmed that Breivik had published a 1,500-page anti-Islamic manifesto on Friday just hours before the attacks. The online tract, written in English, describes how he planned his onslaught and made explosives, as well as outlining his violent philosophy. The killings would draw attention to the manifesto entitled “2083-A European Declaration of Independence”, Breivik wrote. “Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike,” he wrote. He attacked what he called “the Islamic colonisation and Islamisation of Western Europe” and the “rise of cultural Marxism/multiculturalism”.
— Reuters
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Post-war elections in Sri Lanka
Colombo, July 24 The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a party formerly controlled by the separatist Tigers, won 15 of 20 local councils in the old northern war zone and three of six in the east, which was Tiger territory until the military ran them out in 2007. “This means Tamils like freedom from a military regime and protecting their socio-cultural identity with a political solution versus the government’s development plans,” said Kusal Perera, an analyst and frequent government critic at the Centre for Social Democracy. Despite some intimidation and vote-buying, turnout came in above 50 per cent amid scepticism by the mostly Tamil electorate of any kind of post-war political change. Poll monitors said the violence and election malfeasance did not have much effect. Healing after a 25-year war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended in May 2009, Tamils in the north before the polls said they felt there was little to gain from voting. Rajapaksa campaigned aggressively, promising more development to spur post-war economic revival, an attempt to win the hearts and votes of the Tamils who still have deep distrust for his government, which like all others since independence in 1948 is dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic majority. The government, despite the defeat, said it was happy to have brought democracy to the north. “The people had used ballots instead of bullets,” Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena told local radio on Sunday. “That’s a great victory for us.” Devolution of power from the centre was a main demand of LTTE, and although it won a constitutional concession for that in 1989, the changes have never been enacted. Rajapaksa has been slow to meet any Tamil political demands.
— Reuters
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Crash may dash China’s bullet train expansion plan
Beijing, July 24 The Chinese government went all out to ensure massive publicity to the June 30 launch of the Beijing-Shanghai fast train which covered the distance of over 1300 km in less than five hours with five star comforts. The service launched in a hurry to show as a major achievement of the country coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) soon raised hackles as the trains started stopping suddenly mid way often on high rise bridges due to power failures, causing panic and anger among passengers. The breakdowns added immense pressure on tightly controlled state media as coverage was taken over by 197 million strong microblog media with highly damaging posting by passengers narrating the pain and panic which stretched to hours without air-conditioning. Last night’s crash of a bullet train travelling over 300 kmph crashing into another one which stuck on the track due to power failure caused by “lightening” that too on a high rise bridge created perhaps the “worst case scenario” for the future bullet trains at home. Meanwhile, the death toll in China’s first bullet train crash has risen to 43 as the shocked government today sacked three top rail officials holding them responsible for the accident that also left 211 passengers injured. The sacked officials are Long Jing, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, Li Jia, head of the Shanghai railway bureau’s committee of the Communist Party of China, and He Shengli, deputy chief of the bureau. They will also be subject to investigation.
— PTI
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NATO planes bomb Tripoli
Tripoli, July 24 "In Tripoli there were two command and control nodes, two surface-to-air missile launchers and one anti-aircraft gun (hit)," a NATO official said from the mission's headquarters in Naples, Italy. An AFP reporter said two blasts occurred in the area housing Gaddafi's residence in the heart of the capital, followed by others in the city's eastern and southeastern suburbs. A column of smoke was seen over Gaddafi's residential complex, which had been targeted by NATO warplanes yesterday, when the transatlantic military alliance confirmed seven strikes and said they hit a military command node. Gaddafi meanwhile late yesterday said in an audio message broadcast on state television that the unrest that has swept his country since a popular uprising erupted mid-February was a "colonial plot." He did not elaborate. — AFP
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Six dead as man opens fire at birthday party in US Houston, July 24 The shooting at Forum Roller World occurred last evening when a family member drew a pistol during what apparently started as a fight between a husband and wife, police Chief Steve Dye was quoted as saying by Dallas News. The police was called to the rink in Grand Prairie, about 32 kilometres west of Dallas, police department spokesman John Brimmer said. “It was an argument. The shooter had gotten into here at a private birthday party,” he said adding that “It escalated to the point where he pulled a gun and started shooting.” The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The ages and identities of the victims were not released till last evening. — PTI
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Rocking the world and dying at 27
There's no point seeking someone to blame - Winehouse’s extraordinary insecurity lay at the heart of her troubles. Sophie Heawood recalls a difficult, funny, gifted and charming woman. It is hard to believe that Amy Winehouse is dead. Yes, it was something people had speculated upon for some time. Yes, you might even suggest that if somebody takes that many hard drugs, drinks that much liquor and punishes their young flimsy body to that extent, death is not so much a tragedy as an inevitability. You can even point out that at 27, Amy’s death puts her in the morbid hall of rock'n'roll deaths about which conspiracy theorists love to ponder. Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all destroyed themselves at the same point in their lives - something that Cobain's mother described, after her son's passing, as “joining that stupid club”. But the death of Amy Winehouse was not inevitable, and it is pretty hard not to think of it as tragic. Keith Richards has lived through such physical self-destruction to tell the tale. And so we hoped, hoped desperately, that Winehouse would too. Surprisingly, the tabloid reports were not unduly sensationalist - she really was that much of a mess. She was sharp; had a way with words, as well as song. And, oh boy, the songs - the accolades, the awards and the artistic attention was all justified too. Back to Black, her second album, with its six Grammy nominations and five wins when she was only 24, changed the music scene for eve. Songs such as “You Know I’m No Good”, and “Love is a Losing Game” provide as good an insight into Amy’s life as any biography could offer. It just isn't true that nobody offered her the help she needed. She just couldn't quite accept it. Her biggest hit, the endlessly catchy song “Rehab”, was not just a bunch of fun rhyming lyrics. When she sang “They tried to make me go to Rehab, and I said no, no, no,, she meant it - and that was written before her biggest successes and her worst excesses had even begun. There were many subsequent attempts to quit herself of drugs and booze for ever. She tried in the UK, she tried overseas. Her stays in these places never lasted long, because Winehouse's real problem was self-belief, an insecurity only compounded by the extraordinary worldwide success of Back to Black, which left her less sure of herself than ever before. — The Independent THE ‘27 CLUB’ Amy Winehouse is the latest member to join a tragic rock institution known as the “27 club” - musicians with a weakness for drink and/or drugs who have died at 27. Robert Johnson (Augt 16, 1938) Brian Jones (July 3, 1969) Jimi Hendrix (Sept 18, 1970) Janis Joplin (Oct 4, 1970) Jim Morrison (July 3, 1971) Kurt Cobai ( April 5, 1994)
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